I attended my first BerettaFest June 29th - July 1st 2001 in Louiville, Kentucky. It was only about a 5 hour drive from my home in IL, but
unfortunately I got lost in Louiville and it took me over 4 hours to find the hotel. I must say my only complaint for the whole trip was the
boned highway system in Louisville; it totally sucked royal haggis...
Anyway, I was suprised to find that some people had arrived before me (Gor, Sunny, and Matt C) because it was actually the day
before. We wound up talking quite a bit, and it so happened they were rooming next to met. There were a few others there too, but I
really don't remember who they were. Later that night the Colorado and MIssouri (basically Rex) crews pulled in... actually it was about
2 am on Friday. It was quite a kick to actually meet the people you talk to on the message board and read about on the site.
When I got up the next day there were a ton of people and cars there, with more and more arriving by the minute. Later that day we went
to the park where the official meeting was held and the official attendence was taken. There were some kickass Berettas there, and one
Toyota... heh heh heh. It was quite an impressive sight, just all of those Berettas lined up together. Anyway, after that we headed back to
the hotel and bummed around the parking lot till the small hours (some people were wasted), I think the cops had quite a bit to do with
the parking lot clearing out ;-)
The next day we headed down to the Mammoth Caves, they were quite impressive, but dangerous for tall people (especially Choate,
who was the only person there who made me feel short) and terrifying for poor Gor (who will probably never see this page). When we
exited the caves we were met by Erich, who was fashionably late, and we headed off toward the Corvette Museum in Bowling Green.
Unfortunately it started raining when we arrived, so we were in doubt about the drag strip for that night. Anyway, the museum was
awesome, tons of Vettes and prototypes, it was great, and I'm not a very big Vette fan.
After the Vette museum tour we headed to Beech Bend drag strip, but it had been raining, so we were delayed. Fortunately the track was
opened after they got it dried and we got in lots of runs. I set a new record for myself there 16.2 (which since has been cut down to 15.4)
and I saw some very impressive times layed down by fellow BNetters. Rex's car was awesome, Jack's, Choate's, and Norm's (fastest
Beretta run of the night at 14.8) were also very impressive.
That night was interesting... I have to mention caravaning with these guys is an experience... you either fly or get left. I got left behind
while getting gas and to make a long story short I didn't get back to the hotel until 5am. Needless to say I was tired on Sunday.
Sunday morning was the cookout, cake cutting, and final goodbye meeting. Some people had already left by then, so we weren't in full
force. Still, quite an impressive array of Berettas showed up. Gor and Doug whipped up some beef and afterward we had
BerettaFest2k1 cake. Then it was time for the group photo and collective car photos. After that we headed off one by one for home, or
the hotel. I headed home, seeing as I had already checked out of the hotel earlier. Five hours later I was home, and back into the daily
grind the next day.
I recommend this trip to any Beretta nut... it was an incredible amount of fun. So much that I went back for BFest 2002 in Memphis.