May 1-3 Northland Chapter Spring Fling Meet

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Tony Karsnia - Deceased - 1971-2020

September 12, 1971 - November 2, 2020
Get those professional cars out of winter storage and start off the “car enjoyment season” with the Northlanders! The PCS Northland Chapter is hosting our annual

SPRING FLING MEET

May 1-3 in the Minneapolis / St. Paul, Minnesota area.

Our host hotel will be the same as last year:
AmericInn-Ham Lake
13440 Highway 65
Ham Lake, MN 55304
(763) 755-2100


Please make reservations directly with the hotel. We have a block of rooms reserved at a special rate of $89.99 (plus tax) per night. Mention Northland Chapter to receive group rate. This hotel has all the usual amenities, including heated indoor pool. It is conveniently located to the places we will be visiting during the meet.

Here is an overview of the agenda:

Thursday, April 30
Arrival day. For those who are here, we will meet for dinner and evening social.

Friday, May 1
The Meet officially begins with “Twin Cities Tour Day.” Hopefully, Mother Nature will cooperate this year as we set out to see some of the locations that formerly housed livery, ambulance service, and professional car sales businesses. We’ve got a lunch stop planned as well as a visit to Baines Professional Cars – Minnesota. www.4hearse.com

If the weather is nice, we may take an evening cruise down to Porky’s Drive-In on St. Paul’s University Avenue.

Saturday, May 2“Out In The Country Day.” Back by popular request! An easy trip through beautiful Minnesota country to French Lake Auto Parts, located about 60 miles west of the Twin Cities. This place is a haven of old cars and trucks, many from the 1920s through 1960s. French Lake is a family owned operation where their “Part ‘em, don’t crush ‘em” attitude truly caters to the automotive hobbyist. See their website at www.frenchlakeautoparts.com

On the way back to the Twin Cities, we’ll make a stop at Ellingson Car Museum in Rogers and hopefully throw in a couple of our famous “surprises.”

We’ll plan to have a group dinner and social on Saturday evening near the hotel.

Sunday, May 3
We rise early and motor down to the Minnesota State fairgrounds for the annual Spring Extravaganza Car Show & Swap Meet, sponsored by the Gopher State Buick Club. These folks have treated us very well, with a professional vehicle judging class and a prime display location. For a show flyer and registration information (pre-registration is strongly suggested) see www.gopherstatebuick.org

The Meet officially concludes after the Spring Extravaganza award ceremony on Sunday afternoon.

If you have questions or need more information, please contact Tony Karsnia at (612) 325-2344 or kars971@aol.com.

We look forward to your acceptance of our invitation to enjoy a fun, relaxing, and non-political weekend with us!
 
Spring FLING is in full SWING

The Spring FLING is in full SWING!!!

Please forgive me for this silly punn.

Sounds like the crew had a good day yesterday. I think they met around noon and had a tour at some time of the Baines hearse dealership. I was very jealous because they were sporting very nice black baseball hats with gold Eagle embroidery!

My daughter Sarah and I left home at 5:00 PM yesterday due to a late afternoon funeral for our funeral home. I need the business and was thankful for the opportunity to serve this family, especially since they did not live in my community, but had grown up there. I was very disapointed when they said they wanted the funeral on Friday, because Sarah and I were going to leave in the wee hours of Friday AM! We had a difficult drive, starting with getting behind a huge motor home on the curvy country roads. the motorhome was driving 40-50 MPH, and there was no way to get around them for about 1/2 hour! We stopped for gas and dinner at 8:00 PM, but couldn't find a station that sold gas with no Ethanol, so we wasted a lot of time there. We ended up not getting to the hotel until 11:30 PM!

Today the others are going to the French Lake Auto Salvage to scour the area for parts and great sights. Sarah and I are taking the AM off, and meeting the group at the Ellingson Auto Museum around 1:00 PM.

wish you all were here!

Paul Saether (& Sarah!)
 
I wish I was, too!!!

I had a great time at that French Lake place with the group last time. Unfortunately building this house and more importantly, garage, has kept me close to home. Maybe next year.
 
Spring Fling '09

Well, we had several people (and cars) on the scene here in the Twin Cities this weekend. As much as we attempted to roll out the red carpet for everyone, I'm really not sure what they'll have to say about this year's Spring Fling.

We began thw weekend by boring Nick Bliss and Larry Wilson to death with endless car talk, starving them over light snacks and diet soda (the entire weekend.) We then took them over to a hearse dealership and added some visuals to our endless car talk. Check the photos and you'll see Nick Bliss caving in to some serious peer pressure by taking a hearse for a test-drive. This wasn't just any hearse; it was an ADRIATIC BLUE S&S...a perfect mate for his limousine!

Friday evening found us...you guessed it...around more cars; this time at a dinky little lifeliess drive-in. Heck, we had to get Kevin Kocur down there to liven things up and keep our guests from yawning their way through the evening...

On Saturday, we took Nick and Larry, along with Patrick Martin and his friend Mark, out into the Minnesota countryside. We promised a short ride, but detours turned it into an "are we there yet??" ordeal, causing Patrick to become so angry he took his frustrations out on some unsuspecting vehicles inside French Lake Auto Parts. By the time he was through, French Lake had to close and the back end of that Bayliff was so loaded with parts it's a wonder the rear door closed.

By the time we returned to the hotel, Larry Wilson had about enough of all this and was ready to just relax with a cigar and couple of beers. That was not to be, as we commandeered his limo to take the group down to Northeast Minneapolis for a measly little steak fry. You can imagine my sheer amazement, when finally back at the hotel, he offered me a cigar from his stash!

And then today. After a crazy weekend of escapades, we ordered everyone to the parking lot at 0730 for the trip down to the Spring Extravaganza Car Show & Swap Meet. More endless car talk! Oh there were a few things to scrounge for lunch, more cigars smoked to pass the time, and some awards doled out in the afternoon, but we knew what was really going through the minds of our long-distance guests: "Are they really going to invite us back for THIS again next year??"

YOU BET WE ARE! Thanks for coming! :cool:

Here are a few photos... We did start each day off with a salute to Ed Renstrom, who unfortunately, was not able to make it to the meet.
 

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Great to hear that everyone had a great time. If you were closer, I would have attended myself.
I wish that you had mentioned beforehand that you were headed to French Lake Auto Parts. I would have given you my shopping list of a few pieces that I need for my Pinner. :(
 
thanks guys but next time please use all your fingers.. it just not to be this year yet. they tell me retirement is gong to be fun. I can't Wait for it to start. :rolleyes:
 
'Twas a great time, indeed. Tony forgot to mention the incident at Porky's on Friday night. Seeing the coaches, a couple of passerbys had mentioned "oh, there's one of those a couple of blocks from here." When hearing of this, I confirmed that there was, indeed, a 70's Miller-Meteor in the area. I was bribed with root beer (hey-where were the cigars, fellas? Where's the love!?) to do a little recon and did so.
I returned to confirm location of said coach. I led the mini caravan to a clandestine location and revealed the mystery coach--a 1972 Miller-Meteor Duplex that was in surprisingly decent condition and still sporting the removeable panels. It turned out to be one of John Wurm's former cars. What hasn't that guy owned?!
-K
 
I knew I would miss a great time!:( This is the first spring fling I missed since my first one in 2005. I just was unable to make it this time.
How many pro-cars were at the Sunday show at the fairgrounds?
 
A pretty decent turnout, including the white "phantom" '59 limo (yes, he got first place) and the primered, customized '39 Superior Pontiac. Joe and Trudy Klein were the hit of the show with their "his and hers" pair of Miller-Meteor Volunteers :cool:

As for the '72 M-M combination Kevin mentioned; they always used to say I knew where all the "finds" were hidden around here, but Kevin actually sniffed this one out. Guess he's got the big nose now... :p
 

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And one for Paul:

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Here's the rest. Enjoy.

-K
 
Out of all the cars pictured, I would pick this as the one that I would most want.
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The Northland Chapter sure does put on a fine meet.

This was my third visit to the Northland Chapter and their fine hospitality - my 2nd Spring Fling plus one day where they put something together just because I was there.

Tony Karsnia knows how to treat PCS members right. My thank to him, and Gene Rafferty too - they took good care of us Hoosiers.

I can't even describe what a good time I had. Northland does the Spring Fling every year - 1st weekend in May. It is well worth the trip - no matter how far it is for you to travel. Pencil it in now and plan to be there next year - Chapter meets do not get any better than this.

Thanks guys, I will be back.......

Nick
 
A fun weekend!

Dittos to all that everyone said. Thanks to Tony Karsnia, Kevin Kocur, and Gene Rafferty for their hospitality. Dinner Saturday night was fantastic! Except Sarah didn't really like her $50 hamburger. The car show Sunday was great despite my feeling under the weather with a cold coming on.

Thanks to all. Sarah and I will be back!

Paul Saether
 
more pictures

a couple more pictures

Paul Saether
 

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a couple more pictures

Paul Saether

Wow. Do I look angry or what? And bad hair! That just ain't right...

Glad that all of you could make it. It's always a pleasure to see out of town folk come to our events. Hopefully, I'll return the favor soon (you've been warned.)

And I can't take any credit for this event. Kudos should really go to Tony and Gene.

Looking forward to next year. In the meantime, I need to get Sofie polished up and hit the road. Where to go, where to go.....
-K
 
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