GRM Meetup in West Michigan in February?

I mentioned this in my 1932 Ford Pickup build thread and people seemed interested, so here goes: How about a GRM Meet Up hosted at Eclectic Motorworks (Holland, MI) on a Saturday in February? Here's how I think we'd structure it:

• Start around 1:00
• Free roam and/or nickle tours of our two buildings (shop with about 20 projects under way and storage with about 70 cars).
• Set up a few tables/chairs for people to hang and bench race, maybe a little slot car racing if there is interest.
• We're trying to clean the shop of surplus things to make room for our own chassis dyno, so:
  • Door prizes including used car covers, rusty scissors jacks, and car junk that could be wall art
  • If anyone is looking for used British parts (especially MG), used Miata parts (NA/NB), or a few surplus tools, we can talk deals

Holland is 2.5-3 hours from Detroit and Chicago and 3.5 from Indy. Downtown Holland is very nice, with heated sidewalks, shopping, lots of good restaurants/brew pubs, so maybe spouses/partners would want to come along.

If you're interested, please reply and name date(s) in February that work well from you. When the date preferences are clear, we'll lock in on one (or just let Angry decide what works best for him). How about if we try to pick a date by January 15 (one week from today)?

Looking forward to seeing some of you in person!
Carl

My son went to Hope College in Holland - my wife loves the downtown area and might be interested in us heading up. There's a sweet fireplace on one corner you can warm up at.  

There's a gas station near campus that has a Chinese restaurant inside - I think of it occasionally.  Sounds scary, right?

I'm interested.  I think I couldn't make Feb 1, but otherwise open.

Not the 1st.. Have to work the 1st.

This could be fun.  I'm in the Grand Rapids region.  

Coming in from GR, I vote for the 8th or 22nd.  Or what ever works for Angry.

In for whatever day works for the people who still work. 🤘🏻🤣

I'm interested. The 22nd is bad for me.

Any thoughts on a east to west carpool?

Weather permitting, I'd drive over from the east side. No date preference from me. My son would probably come along,too.

Gearheadotaku (Forum Supporter) said:

I'm interested. The 22nd is bad for me.

Any thoughts on a east to west carpool?

I'm sure we could figure that out.

I'm in depending on final date.  I've also got a Yukon XL and I'd be happy to do a carpool with the eastside gang.  

Interested. The later in Feb the better for me.

"NO" Votes by date so far:

2/1 two NO

2/8

2/15

2/22 one NO

one generic "Later is better"

question for Carl Heideman: is 3/1 in play?

I'll be in Georgia the 7th through the 16th so I can say yes to 1st or 22nd

For the adventurous you can take the Amtrak train from Chicago's Union Station to Holland, Michigan.  My son took it quite often when going back to Holland. 

The down side is it only runs 1X a day so you'd have to arrive in Holland on the train at 10:30pm on Friday and depart Sunday morning at 6:52am.......

AngryCorvair (Forum Supporter) said:

"NO" Votes by date so far:

2/1 two NO

2/8

2/15

2/22 one NO

one generic "Later is better"

question for Carl Heideman: is 3/1 in play?

As the results continue to roll in, here are some thoughts

1. Some of you may be worried about snow. I have been teaching my seminars in February for almost 20 years now and we've never canceled or been messed up by snow...but it could happen I guess. My thinking is we'll pick a backup weekend if we have to cancel due to weather. West Michigan is used to snow and deals with it well, plus our winters have been pretty mild for awhile.
2. 3/1 doesn't work as my wife found us cheap tickets to Copenhagen the first week of March.
3. I picked February because:
   1. It's a slower time at the shop
   2. Car people need car time in the winter too
4. After February it gets harder as vintage racers want their cars done and classic car owners want their cars done and despite our best efforts, we start thrashing after February.
5. We're going to add disassembled MGB 18V short block engines to the door prize list--I bet I have 20 and that's probably 17 too many. We could also add beat up MGA grilles for wall art if people want them.

Looking forward to seeing you!

Carl

Thanks, Carl, for hosting. 

Just got the next 6weeks schedule... add another no to the 22nd. 😕

Im totally in for this! I'm just off 96 so I'd happily join any E>W tour passing through or I could meet it at 94 in Jaskson. 
 

2/1 is out for me. 

I'm keeping a tally of YES and NO votes according to the following rules:

• If you said YES to a specific date or dates, I record you as YES for those dates and NO for all others.
• If you said NO to a specific date or dates, I record you as NO for those dates and YES for all others.
• If you said you are IN and did not express YES or NO to any specific dates, I record you as a YES to ALL.
• If you are Datsun240ZGuy, I didn't count you yet because you sound pretty non-commital. No offense intended. Please clarify.

By these rules, with eleven counted respondents, here are the results by date AS OF 5:03 PM Eastern on Friday 10-JAN-2025:

Date          YES-NO

2/1               6-5

2/8               8-3

2/15              8-3

2/22              9-2

Me: want to go Holland on a Saturday? Car event - we can shop.....

Wife: it's winter, snow, roads are bad. NO.

Bunch of days pass......

Wife: that guy say anything more about that thing in Holland?

Me: ...............WT.....F

(Go ahead and go with your date - I'll end up deciding a few days before.  I have two Monday-Friday business trips plus my wedding anniversary so I might not go......) 

I would love to go, as would my middle son, its only about 5.5 hours away.  Put us down for 90% showing up and any of the Saturdays will work.

AngryCorvair (Forum Supporter) said:

I'm keeping a tally of YES and NO votes according to the following rules:

• If you said YES to a specific date or dates, I record you as YES for those dates and NO for all others.
• If you said NO to a specific date or dates, I record you as NO for those dates and YES for all others.
• If you said you are IN and did not express YES or NO to any specific dates, I record you as a YES to ALL.
• If you are Datsun240ZGuy, I didn't count you yet because you sound pretty non-commital. No offense intended. Please clarify.

By these rules, with eleven counted respondents, here are the results by date AS OF 5:03 PM Eastern on Friday 10-JAN-2025:

Date          YES-NO

2/1               6-5

2/8               8-3

2/15              8-3

2/22              9-2

I was kidding when I said we'll just let Angry decide in the first post, but he pretty much has done all the work to decide, so thanks Angry!

How about if we plan on 2/15 with 2/22 as a backup date if we have bad weather on the 15th?

This will be fun!

Carl

In for 2/15.  I'll likely bring my 16 year old son along as well.  

I live in Holland so this would be super easy.
 

15/22 would be my preference but we'd stop by regardless.