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Wednesday was a more relaxed day for John’s group. Some prepped the cars for the show on Thursday. Others visited some of the many tech sessions at the hotel. John & Ann drove back into Louisville for dinner at the Bluegrass Brewing Company. After having another very good dinner, they headed back to the Blue Horse Lounge and calling it a day.

For Barney, Wednesday evening, one of the highlights being able to attend a brief get-together with the MG Experience BBS enthusiasts, getting at least 35 friends in a photo-op. This was followed by a NAMGAR local chapter contacts meeting, officially two hours but extended another hour by a few of us die-hards with specific questions and suggestions. Barney will have to get heads together with Russ Mehaffey for follow-up.

Thursday was the CAR SHOW! There were over 800 MG’s on the field. It was a very nice venue at Louisville’s Waterfront Park. There were a lot of Chicagoland MG cars on the field. The temperatures were in the upper 90’s, but there was a nice breeze coming off the river. There were a few special cars on display, including a few "modern" MGs like MG F-TF brought in from Canada, the MG 6R4 rally car (410 bhp all-wheel drive), and one MG XPower SV-S (430-hp). The restored MG EX-186 made another appearance here, as well as a 1961 MGA 1600-MK-II police car which took Best-Of-Show, register Chairman's choice. Five MGs from Australia traveling the continent west to east stopped long enough for this show.

In the evening there were four separate MG register annual meetings and awards (2 hours) followed by a joint awards banquet with nearly 1000 people and guest speaker Dennis Gage (3 hours). The awards banquet was the final event of the convention. I think Derby Pie is the national dessert of Kentucky -- Okay, the state dessert -- It is delicious. There were a lot of awards for Chicagoland members. John’s ’67 MGB roadster was recognized. The end of the banquet was a group birthday sing to Oscar Gonzales for his birthday. He and Diana have been with John & Ann for many of these trips dating back to the first in Parsippany, NJ in 2004, and the second to Olympia, WA in 2005

For Barney, he had a late night meeting with an MGA 1600-MK-II "Deluxe" that I have touched a few times before. First time was in 1989, getting it out of an old workshop in Chicago as it was changing owners. Then again in early 2014, dragging it out of long term storage to get some restoration work started. A bit later it changed to another new owner, now fully restored. MG 2016 was a jolly good time, but requiring a few days afterward to get caught up on photos and notes and sleep – then back on the road!
Editor’s Note: Thanks to Barney Gaylord, Reinout Vogt and John Schroeder for providing a narrative and pictures to commemorate the event.