Issue link: http://digital.nexsitepublishing.com/i/100968
OCTober Tech Notes Savannah Parade Allan Caldwell This year���s Savannah Parade was held from July 31st to August 6th and certainly lived up to the expected 90 and 100 degree temperature days and high humidity conditions. However, all the buildings, including the Concours prep area were well air-conditioned. And a grand thunderstorm on the evening before the Concours kept the temperatures a little cooler for the long display day out on the grass. There were also numerous new historical landmarks and Parade experiences to explore around Savannah with a large turnout of 745 entrants, including over 200 first time Parade attendees. PNWR had one of the smallest ever registered attendee lists with only six car numbers (Wendy and Leeds Gulick, Paul Risinger and Pam Risinger-Hurte, Allan Caldwell, Joe and Barbara Heltzel, Ralph and Robin Holliday, and Ralph and Sondra Richter). my window and still be below the bridge level of the ships going by. A large percentage of the departing ships were European and Asian. Most had their decks filled with 10 or more levels of containers as they proceeded down the river channel that was less than �� th mile wide between the city and Hutchinson Island. Concours d���Elegance The city of Savannah is located on the Savannah River which separates the states of Georgia and South Carolina near the point where the river flows into the Atlantic Ocean. Parade Headquarters included a large civic center and Westin hotel located side by side on Hutchinson Island in the river. Opposite Parade Headquarters on the city side of the river there is a line up of various hotels, restaurants and pleasure boat docks, including continuous foot passenger ferry service between the Convention Center and the main city hotels. For drivers, there is a large high rise bridge that clears ocean freighters and connects the city with the Convention Center and Westin hotel, but it is several miles to drive across. The main Parade event locations included use of all of a downtown city park for the Concours and an Autocross site that was located on an old race course located about 0.8 of a mile from the hotel on the island. One of the main attractions from any of the hotels, and most had multiple stories facing the river, was the periodic flow of large container ships each day. From my 8th floor hotel room, I could look out 36 October 2011 Preparation space for the judged Concours cars was conveniently provided in the air-conditioned Convention Center prior to the early Monday morning staging of the main event. This provided a comfortable work area for the entrants to complete their preparations before the drive over the bridge to the downtown display. This year���s Parade Concours display was located at the large Forsythe city park in the center of town which provided enough room for both the judged cars, special factory race cars and historical cars, and the entrants��� paddock display cars. The Savannah newspaper indicated there were 500 Porsches on display. The total