SEMers Relax in the North Country at Harbor Springs

Text and Photos by Dave Hinz

One of the biggest benefits of the Porsche club is the opportunity to meet new and
interesting people that soon become good friends. We were delighted that our party
in Harbor Springs was no exception. 

Several weeks ago while gassing up the Cayenne at the Harbor Springs BP station a
gentleman at the adjacent pump struck up a conversation with me about Porsches.
As it turns out Scott Cavell lives in Harbor Springs and is an avid Porsche nut like the
rest of us. In fact he has the other GT3 in town and was getting ready to take it to
Watkins Glen for DE weekend with another region. I told him that we were having a
get together during the Bay Harbor Concours weekend and he was more than
welcome to attend. We were delighted when Scott pulled up in his beautiful red
GT3. Unfortunately Susan, Scott’s wife was not able to make it but it seems he is
more into cars than the average Harbor Springs resident. Who should be sitting shot
gun but Bill Mainwaring who has a summer home not too far from Harbor Springs.
When Bill walked in it was like old home week. Bill currently has a Turbo, his 17th
Porsche and he was very active in the club when he spent more time in Ann Arbor.
The ironical thing is that the night before the party Dennis Denyer asked me if I had
ever run into Bill since he knew that he had a place up here and I had never met him
before the party.

It is always fun to see someone’s Porsche for the first time especially if it is a
beautiful new red turbo with really neat custom wheels. This beauty belongs to
Everett and Susan DeHut that coincidentally have a summer home on Walloon Lake
not too far from here. I suggested that Everett donate the turbo as a prize for the
bingo game we had after dinner but he didn’t pick up on the idea and Susan was not
on a winning streak so the idea went nowhere.

Everett and Susan love to drive their cars – yes Susan has a Porsche too. I am sure
that they will be joining us along with Craig and Joanne Widmaier in their silver 996
Cabriolet who have a summer home at Boyne Highlands. The six of us can enjoy the
wonderful country roads while driving to a restaurant that is not too close to any of
our places. 

Talking about cars that we have not seen before, Ed Gaspar brought his dark green
Boxter to the event. This is the first time I have seen one in this color and I like it. This was also Ed’s first Porsche event. He just recently joined the club. Ed and some
of the other people at his table like Bob and Peggy Bogart, Pat and Susan Widmer
and Fred Young were not doing well at bingo so they devised a system of side bets
for the person who covered their card with the most chips. I am not sure how that
worked out but Fred was still smiling when the games were over.

We can always count on Bill and Shirley Hallandal to bring a neat and different car to
any event. Last year it was a Ferrari. This year a beautiful Austin Healey that they
shipped to Europe a couple of years ago for a driving vacation any car person would
die for. Bill is another local car guy who moved up from the big city. Dick and Diane
Beecher were close behind with Dick’s new Mini Cooper S. Dick had every intention of
driving his beautiful 356 Roadster up to the party but Diane refused to come with
him unless he put the doors back on. 

Talking about Mini Cooper’s, Bill Lovett, another local Porsche guy brought his new
Mini that he won at an auction. He needs to write an article on it because I
understand it is quite a story. Just to give you a hint I don’t think he had any
intention of buying this car. Bill has a couple of pristine real low mileage vintage
Porsches that will never go to auction and if they do I hope that I am the only one to
know about it. 

Last year, Brian Chiara, a regular at the Neil Goldberg Breakfast Club intended to join
us but if you have been here you know that the “Hideout” is not easy to find. After
about a half hour of driving in circles he gave up as I would have too. This year I
made sure that he had a map. We were delighted to see him and he brought Dale,
his brother who has a place at Bay Harbor and is definitely a car guy. Another new
friend!

Around 5:00 PM before the party I heard a sound that I thought I recognized and yes
my ears are still in tact, Keith and Jean Blake pulled into the drive way. If my
memory serves me, last year they had to push the trusty white Porsche several times
to get here but troopers as they are they made it. This year Keith forgot to bring the
map and directions so they wanted to do some scouting to make sure they could find
the place. They had a good excuse for forgetting the map. Leaving teenagers at
home for the first time (or any time) can be a real drain on your capacity to think of
anything else. Once they were here I suspect that all that was behind them. Jean
looked like she just had won the million dollar lottery when she filled her bingo card. 

A big thanks to Gary Buchanan for being the official bingo announcer. Judi, Gary’s
wife, and Peggy Bogart were sitting together with three cards in front of them while
Gary was hard at work. I assumed that Judi was playing for Gary until I noticed that
there were no chips on the third board. Judi said “No – Gary is on his own.” Guess
that would have changed if Everett had donated the Turbo.

For some time before the party I had been feeling a little guilty.  Dennis Denyer, Dick
McLaughlin and Phil Kubik had tickets for the Grand Prix which happens to be on the
same weekend as the party. I know they were really looking forward to the big
event. They have a great time pontificating about driver skills, rules, regulations,
displacements, tires and such. However, I suspected that something was up when
one by one they said that they were going to give up their tickets and attend the
Harbor Springs Porsche Party. I am not saying that I wasn’t flattered that they
changed their plans because we really had a great time last year when Sue Denyer
and Barb McLaughlin (Grand Prix Widows) came up for the party. Those of you who
know Barb and Sue know that they don’t just attend a party they help make it
happen as they did this year too. Now with the addition of Patricia Kubik you really
have a dynamic trio. Anyway back to my guilt trip. Saturday during the day of the
party Mary and I were with the Denyers, McLaughlins, and the Kubiks. We had just
finished a relaxing and interesting boat tour of Harbor Point and Bay Harbor. On the
way back to the dock someone asked, “Wasn’t this a lot more fun than going to a car
race?”  No one responded! I immediately started fooling with the radar like I had a
problem and didn’t hear a thing. I figured it was a good thing that there are car guys
in this area because I may be persona non grata at Neil Goldberg’s Breakfast Club
from now on.

You can imagine my relief when I saw all the F1 drivers go into the pits and boycott
the race because of unsafe tires. If ever you are going to miss a world class event this
would be it. I don’t expect to find any banners hanging from Neil’s building
proclaiming me Oracle of the Century but I do think I will be able to go back in the
fall and only get the normal amount of ridicule that any of us expect on a Saturday
with the guys.

If you are ever in the Harbor Springs area you need to seek out a little market called
Cornichons, next door to the post office. Diana and her crew (for the second year in a
row) did a great job and the food they serve will tantalize your taste buds in ways
you never thought possible. However you don’t have to wait for a party to enjoy their
magic, you can stop in and choose from an array of lunch options or if you really want
a treat have them make supper for you and take it on a picnic, back to your B&B or
call us and we can sit on our balcony and enjoy the company, food and the view. 

A special round of applause goes to Mary, my dear wife, who put the whole show
together. Everything fell into place seamlessly so we were able to enjoy the party as
if we were guests. 

From the above it may appear that all we did was get a group together to have
dinner and play bingo. That was just the finale to a lot of interesting conversations
and some great food. If you have been counting as I have we now have 6 new friends
and discovered that within a fairly close driving distance to the Hideout there are 6
car guys (7 if you count Bob Bogart in Traverse City) that may enjoy getting together
on a regular basis.   I don’t know of a better reason to have a party!