HOAVC's HAVOC 2011

HOAVC's HAVOC is the final camping event of the season for our council. It was held at the Jasper County Fairgrounds in Colfax, IA. The attendance has shrunk some over the years but it's just as much fun as ever!

 We got there late Friday night and after we set up camp we headed up to the building for the party.   The party was in full swing when we arrived so we had some catching up to do! Face First was rockin' and everyone was dancing. HIVE ran the shot bar Friday night until the drinks ran out.

Saturday a lot of us slept in recuperating from Friday night's fun. Kids games & Adult games started. Big Dogs was serving food all weekend long for those of us with the munchies or who just didn't feel like cooking. I think everyone at the truck-in played at least one of the games. Every club that is a member of the council usually runs one adult and one kids game. There is also a phantom show n shine so you never know what you might win an award for. We held our HOAVC meeting and officers were voted on as well as 2011 Vanner & Vannerette (I'll post minutes from the meeting at the end) after the games. Later that afternoon the kids hit the campground in their costumes to do some trick or treating and have their costumes judged.

Trophy presentation and pumpkin carving judging followed dinner.  Once again - some very inventive costumes. Congrats to Dale & Bonnie of CIV for being voted Vanner & Vannerette for 2011! CIV did a hayride through town again for everyone. Cold out but a lot of fun going past all the homes and having people check out the crazy people on the hay wagon LOL.

Vanner & Vannerette 2011

Waving so long to the hayride

 2012 will be the last year we have HOAVC at this fairgrounds on October 19-21. Not sure where we'll be yet in 2013 but we'll keep you updated! Hope to see you there!

E-Z Life Vanners

3 Trails Vans - Totally Trashed Vanners

Best Couples Costume - Dale & Bonnie Ritz

 For more pics check out our website and Facebook page. The 2012 flyer should be posted soon.

Minutes from the October Meeting:

October 15, 2011

• Discussed HOAVC location and dates for 2012
  • Approved to have a week between Hy-Rollin & HOAVC. Hopefully it will allow more vanners to attend the event by having a break between the two events.
  • Next year’s dates will be October 19, 20, 21, 2012
  • Would still like to move the event back to a campground. Paying a set price for the fairgrounds rather than a per van price is making HOAVC lose money. The campground would allow vanners to socialize more. The buildings while warmer and keeping us out of bad weather don’t allow us to socialize as much.
  • Keith to look into Shoemaker’s again. He hasn’t been able to contact the owner but it was voted that we would still like to try to move the event there.
    

New Business:

• Don & Becky Noon have been checking into Event Insurance for HOAVC members to use for all member events. Would have to raise club dues for all clubs. Are we interested? Becky is getting a rate.
• HOAVC is losing money. Cost of fairgrounds is $1000 flat fee and only 40 vans in attendance this year. Do we want to consider doing 50/50 drawings to raise money.
• Dairyland Vanners (Nationals Hosts 2012) is selling can coolers. 2/$5 or $3 each.
• Voted for Vanner / Vannerette
• 2012 HOAVC Dues are due: $35/club, $25/individual. (Club price could rise if we approve event insurance.
• Upcoming Events:
  • Three Trails Vans Christmas Party: Party is in same location in Pleasant Valley, MO. Looking into a shuttle to/from hotels in area.
  • EZ Life: looking at a new campground in Lamar, IA
  • Donnie went to Wyandotte County Fairgrounds meeting. Still a possibility to move Spring Fever and hold a Nationals at the new grounds if they put in a campground. Nothing much on the new grounds yet.
    Vantasia Vans is looking at bands on October 28th at Argosy Casino if anyone would like to go with.
    Vantasia Vans has all lady officers. They will be having another dog parade at Spring Fever
  • MASVA: Has taken over Fast Lane Vans weekend. They have a new campground for 2012.
  • CIV: Looking into a tour of the NASCAR Track in Newton for their Caravan in 2012.
• Elections:
  President: Keith Wiese
  Vice President: Gary Sholders
  Secretary: Becky Roth
  Treasurer: Patti Weber
  Webmaster: Tammy Kenney
  
• No schnapps bar on Saturday night – no one volunteered
  
• Dues paid at meeting: Vantasia $35, Fast Lane $35, Keith & Joyce Wiese $25, Pikes Peak Vans $35, Hy-Rollin Vans $35
  
• Meeting adjourned

Tammy Kenney

HOAVC Webmaster

Howling Van-Pir-Te hosted by Hy-Rollin Vans

Hy-Rollin Vans holds their event at the same grounds that the Nationals will be held at in 2012 in Elkhorn, WI.  In October we're never sure what the weather will be like but this year the weather was great - warm ... no snow!! On a good note, our event has a heated building we use for the party and run a kitchen out of it, serving breakfast, lunch, dinner & late night munchies to make ends meet.

Every year more & more vanners show up on Thursday night to camp and help decorate the building with us. Thursday night & Friday morning is spent decorating, making jello shots & setting up our kitchen. Once the clubs start arriving they start decorating their sites & carving pumpkins.

Friday night's band was Bounty Hunter, a band we've had play before and everyone seems to like. Adult games on Friday nights are always a challenge. Rick & Keith spend quite awhile every year before this event trying to figure out how to make the game cheat proof ... never happens LOL. Someone always figures out how to get the edge but it makes for a fun time!

Saturday morning we're up early and in the kitchen getting ready to serve breakfast. The activities are non-stop all day between kids games, show n shine, adult games, trick or treating and the hayride for kids. Hy-Rollin did get a break in the afternoon. A big THANK YOU to the Ace of Spade Van Club for inviting us to share dinner with them in their campsite. If you're coming to Nats this year, I recommend making sure you don't miss Vanner's Nite In hosted by them. The food they made was delish and something you won't want to miss!!!

Jill's dad made the trophies again this year. I hope he knows how much we appreciate what he does for us. They looked awesome as usual. As soon as trophy presentation was over the party started. There were some pretty creative costumes this year making it hard to choose the winners once again. Hope everyone had fun!!  The dates for 2012 are October 5-7 - hope you can make it!

Look for more pics from our events on HOAVC.org and hyrollinvans.com 

Tammy Kenney

Hy-Rollin Vans

Last Verse hosted by Fast Lane Vans

Rick & I left early for Fast Lane and got there via Wakarusa, IN. We started in Kansas City and made it to Indiana in time to get our camper repaired. Spent a couple days sightseeing which included a car show, the RV Museum in Elkhart, Standard Oil Gas Station museum in Lafayette and the Battle of Tippecanoe. From there it was off the the truck-in.

2011 was the last year for Fast Lane Vans to hold their annual truck-in. It was held in memory of Rick Duvall at Rolling Hills Campground in Penfield, IL and Fast Lane made sure it was memorable.

Don Noone was the DJ for Friday night and from the looks of the picture below everyone had fun! Blue Jay and Sandy were there serving food for those of us that didn't feel like cooking.

Saturday was a day filled with fun & trying to recover from Friday night LOL. Show n Shine, Vanner Bingo and other adult and kids games took place during the day. There were also a couple of vanners celebrating birthdays with drinks like "Birthday Cake" & Vanatics now famous lemonade bar along with real birthday cake.

What would a truck-in be without a few glitches and vanners coming through for their friends and helping out?? Not sure what happened but the band was a no-show on Saturday night. A big thank you to Don Noone for offering to DJ again on Saturday night!

It was another great event put on by Fast Lane Vans and we're sorry it had to end. Thank you Fast Lane Vans for another great event!! Always a fun time!!

You can check out more pics on our Facebook page and website.

In 2012 MASVA will be taking over this weekend and hosting an event on August 24-26 at Lazy Day Campground, Montgomery City, MO.

Hope you can make it!

Tammy & Rick Kenney
Three Trails Vans of Kansas City

GoodGuys - Columbus, OH

We don't usually get the opportunity to attend this event since it's usually the same weekend as Nats so this was the 1st time Rick & I went to this GoodGuys event & it was big with over 5,000 vehicles.  It was the weekend before Nats so we just made it part of our vacation. I know we didn't see all of this event. We had a hard enough time just finding our friends on the grounds. Ken Hopcraft & Tim Brogan & his wife met us there.

We had a perfect spot (we thought) for setting up camp right on the corner by registration so vehicles had to come buy our site before they headed into the fairgrounds. We failed to notice however the HUGE light over our camper. Needless to say you could get up at 2am and it was like daylight inside hehe. I can't say I cared for the grounds at this event as much as I enjoy the Des Moines grounds but I would go again. I think I just didn't like being right in the city and if I thought we did a lot of walking at the Des Moines event you did even more here. I did like the open sided barns that you could park in and there was quite a bit of shade and a few buildings with a/c but a lot of parking lot areas you had to walk if you wanted to see all the cars. Rick loved their trophy presentation on Sunday. It was a drive through presentation into a big building with a/c and lots of seating which came in handy after all this walking.

This event is also where we first ran into John Jackson of NotStock Photography. Apparently a LOT of vanners had been sending and putting flyers in his Corvair van to try to get him to the Nationals LOL. Saturday we parked in the Ya Gotta Drive 'Em special parking section and we ended up actually parking by John with Ken Hopcraft.  If you haven't checked out John's website and Facebook page you should really take the time. He does an awesome job!

Someone that works with my son also made this his 1st GoodGuys event with a 57 Nomad he'd been building. It took 2 days to find him but we finally caught up to him. Gorgeous car!
We also ran into several other vanners there including Headstone taking a run around the grounds - can't miss the sound of that van plus it's one of my favorites!! Overall a great time and a nice way to start our trip to the Van Nationals.

Be sure to check the HOAVC website & Facebook page for more pictures!

Rick & Tammy Kenney
Three Trails Vans/Hy-Rollin Vans

GoodGuys in Des Moines, IA

This is one of our favorite car shows to go to.  Rick & I have been going to this event since 2005. It's limited to vehicles 1972 & older and it's a lot of fun. It takes place in at the State Fair Park in Des Moines, IA over the 4th of July weekend. It's kind of like a mini truck-in with vanners from CIV & Three Trails Vans camping together every year at the campground attached to the fairgrounds.  The car enthusiasts at this event are very dedicated & it seems like they line up earlier every year trying to get in and grab a spot on main street. We hadn't even gone to bed Friday night and they already had a long line up to the gate. We prefer to stay up late enjoying the company of our friends but still manage to get a good spot when we head down for the show. Lots of shade, a building with a/c, fireworks show & plenty of vendors & good food.


It's a 3 day event and even then we don't usually see everything that is here with usually over 3,000 vehicles to check out, a swap meet and several buildings with vendors. We thought Keith surprised us and showed up after-all at the event (see orange panel truck above) but it was a look-alike.  The early Econo belongs to a guy out of Des Moines and we run into him every year at this event.  Haven't talked him into a van event...yet! Before this van he owned a very kewl VW bus with a tie-dyed interior.
Leaving the event on Sunday Rick and I took a detour to John Wayne's birthplace to check out the Legend and get some pics. It was donated to the museum when it went up for sale at the Barrett Jackson auction in Scottsdale, AZ. They have someone that comes over every week to maintain it and it's driven regularly in parades. Rick went in and talked to the ladies running the museum store and gave them some history on it. Turns out some Vans Am ladies were there earlier in the year also.  The ladies told Rick they were so excited to see it they practically hugged the van LOL

Tammy & Rick Kenney
Hy-Rollin Vans, Three Trails Vans

For more pictures check out the HOAVC Facebook page & HOAVC.org

38th National Truck-in - July 2010 - Greenwich NY

Starved Rock State Park Campground in IL

Rick and I took off from GoodGuys in Des Moines and started our trip out to the Nationals in NY in our '64 Ford Econoline pulling our pop-up camper.  We did a little sightseeing along the way.  Our first night we spent in IL at Starved Rock State Park. Had a great breakfast at the Lodge and headed out. Breezed thru Indiana and when we got to Ohio we decided to take some back roads along the lake. Planned to go to the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame but it was closed by the time we got close. We stopped on our 2nd night at Geneva State Park in Ohio. Really pretty scenery on these backroads. Wish we had more time to look around. Would have loved to go through the Carousel Museum.

Rest Area we stopped at in NY overlooking lake

Tuesday we were off into NY and closing in on the Nationals. We decided to take the scenic interstate along the south part of NY. Very scenic - not a wise decision! One of the bumpiest, under construction interstates I've ever been on.  Does not make for a fun ride, especially in an early Ford! We were also fighting warmer than normal temps in NY. In fact record breaking heat which caused the van to overheat and could not use the A/C most of the time. We had planned to spend another night in a state park but by then all we wanted to do was set up camp and relax so we pushed on to the Nats. 

Howard, Ken and some of the others we usually park with saved us a nice spot with everyone. No shade, other than ez ups but a nice spot close to everything going on. Last time we were in NY for a Nats I remembered colder than normal weather. Not this year! Record breaking heat!! Ed & JoAnn were life savers with the misters they had set up under Tim & Suzanne's canopy. Mr. Bill's pool & blender seemed pretty busy too.   I spent my time by the mister while Rick sat in Nats Board meetings. There was a caravan into town one night. Pretty good turnout and the town definitely took notice.
Show n Shine classifying took place Thursday & Friday so both days busy for us. Quite a few people stepped up to help with judging the vans on Friday. It would have been a long day without their help.  Virtual promoted vannin.com and they had a meet n greet up by the band building along with the Nats board one night that was fun. Doc was serving hot dogs and they had beer in memory of Wacko for everyone. Drop Jaw magazine was there covering the event. This is the first time Rick and I had the opportunity to meet them. Very impressed with their coverage and how much they participated and enjoyed the event. Saw several vans we'd never seen before.

 

Best of Show 2010

Saturday afternoon we spent watching the burnout contest followed by trophy presentation later that day. Best of Show went to Alpine Express owned by Gary Larson.
We left after trophies for the long drive home stopping somewhere in NY at a rest area to sleep in the van for awhile before continuing on our way home.  Made it as far as Crawfordsville, IN and decided to spoil ourselves with a hotel room for our last night on the road.
Overall it was a great time although very hot. I don't know though that I would do this long a trip again in our early.  By the time we got back we had put over 3200 miles on the early Ford and we were worn out!! 

Grilled Cheese Sandwich Night - Yummy!

Be sure to check out the coverage from:
Drop Jaw Magazine Article  Pictures
Truck-In Magazine Article and Pictures
More pictures out on our website. Click here.

Rick & Tammy Kenney / 3 Trails Vans / Hy-Rollin Vans