The long weekend started early for a number of our members as they decided to head off towards Renmark on Friday morning. Unfortunately any chance of having a traffic free run to the Riverland were soon dashed as the usual myriad of cars towing caravans, boats, camper trailers etc converged on the Sturt Highway in search of some rest and relaxation. Lunch time soon arrived and a stop in Waikerie was a welcome break from the building volume of traffic. We headed off again towards our final destination for the day..…the Renmark Golf and Country Club. After checking in and making ourselves at home we spent a few hours relaxing and telling a few yarns. Tony and Fay made a fashionably late entrance having wanted to take time to try out their newly acquired battery booster…..yes that little power pack will turn over a 454 no problems! Friday night's dinner was held at the Golf Club which put on a great spread for us.
On Saturday we awoke to perfect weather. With no formal plans for the day it was a chance for everyone to kick back and relax. The calm didn't last all day though as a golfing challenge was soon conceived. It was the Mick's vs Kevin and Tim, the competition was intense and despite some successful attempts at cheating by Kevin he and Tim were unable to defeat the superior skills of the Mick's on the day. Saturday night saw us all head into Renmark to have dinner on the riverfront at the local pub. It was satisfying to see Tony follow club protocol and intentionally force us to all perform a u-turn on the way to the pub rather than going the most direct route. After a filling meal a number of us sat outside to enjoy the warm spring evening. The local bugs also decided it was a nice night to be out but little did they know that their lifespan would be decided by how quick either Karen or Mick's reactions were (Mick was trying to squash them, Karen was trying to save them).
Sunday morning saw yet another beautiful day greet us. Tony was our cruise captain for the day and led us off towards Moorook. A total of 14 Corvettes rumbled out of the golf club including the cars of Jim & Catherine and Goof & Mel who had decided to join us for the day. We were also escorted by Shaun and Kirsty in their Nissan X-Trail (they didn't want to tempt fate by taking the C4 back to the Riverland where it had suffered engine troubles 2 years earlier!). As we pulled into Moorook the usual crowd of onlookers began to gravitate around the cars and after a short break we headed on towards Loxton our lunch destination..…yes more eating and drinking required. Following lunch we had a leisurely cruise back to Renmark with a number of us stopping at the 2nd hand dealers in Paringa along the way. Back at the golf club our members began their usual ritual of congregating in the nearest car park and talking, we also had time to play Kevin's favourite party game "The BBQ Game". This was soon followed by our actual BBQ, thanks to all those involved in organising this in particular Rob and Kevin who demonstrated their culinary skills at the hotplate. The rest of the evening was spent sharing stories and having a few drinks with Rob having a particularly interesting story about the side effects of certain herbal remedies. We must have been making too much noise at one stage as a nearby kookaburra let out it's distinctive cry, perhaps it thought that its territory was been invaded by Karen who was also cackling quite well by that stage.
The final morning saw most people on the road before 10:00am to join the migration back towards Adelaide. A big thank you must go to everyone who helped organise the weekend, a great time was had by all!
