Finger Lakes

The sun is shining today, our first day of Day Light Savings in 2020 and I really want to be out driving with the car top down. Must be spring fever or MBCA Finger Lakes Section fever. It is a time of year when I miss seeing all of you. My fix has been the Syracuse Auto Expo in February to ogle the 2020 models waxed up with no snow piled on top. I know some of you most likely meandered over to the Rochester Auto show in early March. The tease of spring is now here and hearts grow fonder with thoughts of driving unencumbered by the winter nasties. Due to the recent facts of life, a short drive appears all that we may be able to do for the immediate future. So, go ahead and leave winter in your rearview mirror with a short drive.

The quickly evolving Novel Coronavirus pandemic has reached our region and it is imperative that we align our club activities along with recent local and regional practices. The health of all our members and families is paramount. As a result, we are unable to hold our annual opening day garage tour at club member Bill Wayman’s home this spring. Bill is sharing a photograph of his recent work elsewhere in our newsletter, so all is not lost.

As of this writing the Lotus-Mercedes-Benz Driving Education Event at Watkins Glen on June 17th and The Sonnenberg Father’s Day Car Show on June 21st in Canandaigua are still on the schedule of our club events. Our annual Picnic at Red Kozinski’s home is July 12th. This is a good time now to place these dates on your calendar.

By popular demand we have scheduled another Seneca Falls Rotary Jazz Festival and Mercedes Benz Car display on September 13th at del Lago Casino, at the Waterloo exit off the NY State Thru Way. In addition, the 2020 schedule also has another road rally scheduled and to be organized by Doug Archer, long time MBCA FL member for early October. More details on these two events will be in our 3rd Quarter Tri-Star.

Ethan Fogg presented an idea at our annual meeting last November, called ‘Pop-Up’ events. A ‘pop-up’ event is a get-together with minimum advance notice at some very localized event that may be enhanced by a group of Mercedes Benz Club cars on display. Our web master’s Oscar and Peggy are able to send out quickly an advertisement in a special edition of Tri-Star, so communicating the event will be a breeze. Possibly such an event may occur in late May or August.

Happy and safe driving, Section President Don Klug

Greetings to my fellow members of our wonderful Finger Lakes Section of Mercedes Benz Club of America. We have had a Mercedes Benz car and friendship focused fun filled time this past summer with many events, one that just concluded at the Del Lago Casino and Hotel on September 8th. Many members attended, however if you missed this great Jazz Fest, you missed a wonderful sun-drenched fun filled afternoon. We have to thank fellow member Larry Driscoll, also a member of The Seneca Falls Rotary Club who sponsored and Del Lago security for their efforts in organizing this afternoon. Pictures are a great way to share the story, so please take a look at the pages of this newsletter to see the fun we shared at the Seneca Falls Rotary Club Jazz Fest and also our see our club display of a dozen beautiful Mercedes Benz automobiles. We were able to check out models from a 2018 G550, to a 2018 SL 550 and a 1968 280 SE. A Seneca Falls Rotarian also displayed his 2014 E63 AMG. Here is hoping that he will join our club. More than one attendee asked if we could do this again. Well maybe? Next year’s date for Jazz Fest is September 13, 2020.

In the meantime, you do not want to miss our very fun and exciting “Fall Color Tour 2019” driving rally on Saturday September 28th. Check it out in our ‘Up Coming Events Section’ for details and directions. This will be our last driving event of this year and is the first scheduled rally in several years. DON”T MISS THIS!! This will be an EXCEPTIONAL experience organized by Dave Tobin, an expert at organizing such events. His last event, carried in ‘The Star’ magazine on page 82 of the September 2016 issue, was called the 2016 Walleye 1000 Vintage Rally in Minnesota.

Now is the time to attend one of your last 2019 club events!! 2019 is fading. Don’t wait.

We look forward to our annual meeting in Geneva scheduled on Sunday November 17th. Once again, we will gather at historic Belhurst Castle for a lunch, elections and discussions about the possibilities of our 2020 schedule of events. Details may be found in the ‘Up Coming Events Section’ of this Tri-Star issue. Be sure to thank Judy and Bob Handzo for organizing this annual event as well as our picnic each year. This may be our last chance to ‘break bread’ with and share some time with past president Bob and retiring Secretary- Treasurer Judy. This wonderful couple, our leaders for nearly 10 years are retiring to North Carolina. We want to also thank VP Bob Harradine, who has taken on the responsibilities of a new full-time job, for his great efforts this past year as our vice president and membership chair. Bob also filled in nicely as our Liaison with Rochester Mercedes Benz. We now need your help in leadership positions, so if you believe that you can donate a brief amount of time in 2020 to your club, please free to contact me. You will find that a leadership positions is a fulfilling opportunity that requires less time than you may expect. As always, Mercedes Benz owners are a very fun group of people to share time with. Also, thank you for allowing me to be you club president in 2019. I have had fun.

Happy and safe motoring, President Don Klug