Thank you HCEA! Great Show!

[Joe Black]

The Sunshine State Chapter managed to represent itself rather well with all officers and a few members in attendance and we were duly impressed! Wow, what a show! :) Looking forward to attending more and meeting more wonderful people as we did at Bowling Green. Thanks to everyone for making the visit so enjoyable!

Here's a link to our photos from the show for those who care to take a peek: Joe Black's 2009 HCEA Show Gallery (http://jblack.smugmug.com/HCEA/HCEA-2009-Equipment-Exposition/9710561_4gwpV/1/656615331_cGzJC)

[digger]

Great show and great pictures, I drove down from Ann Arbor Michigan as always enjoyed the show. digger

[whodom]

Joe,

Thanks much for posting the link to the photos. WOW! I'm sorry I missed it.

Any idea who owns the Koehring 305 dragline? Lots of nice shots of that machine. I spent many an hour in the cab of one of those when I was a kid standing behind my Dad as he operated. I spent a few hours in the seat myself when I got older.

Hugh

[Joe Black]

If I'm not mistaken that Koehring belongs to Mr. Jim Carter himself. ;)

[SprueOne]

Thanks for the picture link posting. Someday, I'll make it to one of the shows.

[chucks]

Yes it was a great show. The real highlight was the digging of the pond. This brought
out real action. The pond went down about 12 feet deep. There were scrapers of all sizes
included in the action. Our hats go off to those who ran their machines for the enjoyment
of all. Just getting the machines to the show is quite a job! Some of these moves had to
involve overweight and oversize permits. These permits do cost real money and take
valuable time in the application. In particular the D8 with the Bucyrus Erie scraper was
a real load! Folks, this scraper was HUGE!
Jim Gangle made six trips all the way across the state of Ohio to bring equipment to the
show. 4 trips for his own equipment and he made two trips for a friend.
On top of bringing equipment to the show there were some mechanical breakdowns also.
What a shame after all of the work getting something to the show and it breaks!
Dave Gies brought his Cat DW10 scraper and got a flat tire. A real job to repair, but many
stepped up to help. On Saturday afternoon Dave's scraper got an oil leak in the engine area. It looked like it might have been the air compressor. Hopefully Dave will read this and
tell us what happened. Jim Gangle brought an old cable pull scraper and the cable snapped
on the first load. What a dissappointment for all. There was another cable snap on another pull scraper also. Jim Gangle also brought two Allis Chalmers dozers and one on
them will need a steering clutch or more when it gets home. The blade was so wide on the
Allis Chalmers that I am sure that it had to be removed to get it back home.

We are all so fortunate that the Association has members who are willing to put forth all of
this effort.

The only disappointment was that I went to purchase a ticket for the banquet on noon
Friday and I was told that they were all sold out! This was the first banquet I have missed
in over seven years. I understand that there were only about 200 seats available.
Normally the banquet tickets run out late Saturday afternoon.

I would have liked to meet Joe Black and thank him for his great work on the web site.
It seems like I saw a lot of people at the show but did not get a chance to have a converstation with them.
Chuck

[Tom Berry]

Thanks for your kind remarks! We had to limit banquet ticket sales, because the caterer needed a firm count of seats before the show started. That will probably be the case from here on, so for future shows order your tickets ahead of time.

[chucks]

Hey Tom, how much water is in the pond? You will have to keep us updated on its
progress to filling.
Thanks
Chuck