Greetings GIAT Participants –

Your Tour Committee has been planning some exciting things for you on the GIAT this year in the Fort Wayne area.  We hope you already have the dates on your calendar and are planning to come and experience our friendly city.  Below are some important things you need to know. 

Hotel Information:

As we noted at last year’s tour, our host hotel is the Sleep Inn, 2881 E. Dupont Road in Fort Wayne.  You need to call them directly at 1-260-490-8989 to make your reservation.  Tell them you’re with the Grand Indiana Auto Tour and want reservations for August 1, 2 and 3; checkout will be on Saturday, August 4.  They have rooms available with a single queen bed, double queen beds or one king bed for $59 plus tax per night.  They also have 8 suites with one king bed available for $69 plus tax.  Rooms are available for smoking or non-smoking.  All rooms have coffeemakers, mini fridges, microwaves and hair dryers.  They also have a complimentary hot breakfast buffet.  Their check-in time is 4 p.m.

The hotel has a total of 60 rooms.  They have blocked 40 rooms for our tour and will hold them only until April 1, so if you are planning on coming to this year’s tour, we urge you to make your reservation now.  If the 40 rooms are taken, they will open more rooms if available.  Also, if you call after April 1, they will honor the GIAT rate if they have a room available.  One important thing you need to know also is, if you need to cancel your reservation, in order not to be charged, you must cancel by July 10.

If you do not make your motel reservation before the deadline and cannot secure one afterwards at Sleep Inn, we recommend you contact Comfort Suites, 3302 E. Dupont Road, Fort Wayne, at 260-480-7030.  Their rooms start at $109.95 a night.  

Since cars will not be departing the motel as a group this year, it is not necessary for participants in the local area to make motel reservations since they can depart from their homes in the morning for our day’s first destination.  Of course, they may make reservations if they wish.

Registration Form

Click here for a registration form (PDF format) that you can print for yourself or others you may know who would like to join us this year.

Mailings

We are sending information about this year’s tour to everyone who has been on a tour in the last three years.  If you are aware of someone who may like to join us this year, please let us know and we’ll add them to our mailing list.  Or, you can direct them to the VMCCA website where they can download this information. 

Special Memento:

A special license plate will be made for participants of this year’s tour as a memento of the Fort Wayne area.  The background will be the city skyline with a picture of your car in the front.  In order to do this, we of course need a picture of your car.  We need you to e-mail a digital picture of your car to Mary Richhart at bobandmaryr@verizon.net.  Most everyone has or knows someone who has a digital camera.  Just take a picture of your car with a frontal side view showing the front and passenger side of the car.  Make sure there is nothing blocking the picture of the car (no people in it or standing in front of it).  Then, just attach that picture to an e-mail, giving me your name and address and the year of your car, and send.  We need to receive these as quickly as possible so we can start working on them.  Absolute deadline for the pictures is June 1.  If we do not receive your picture by then, we will use a generic car for your plate.  Any questions about this, just let us know.

What’s on the Agenda?

So far, we have some great tours lined up.  As with anything though, things can change.  So, tentatively, we’ll be touring a high performance speedboat factory, visiting the historical downtown area, touring a well-known orthopedic supplier and a race car shop, visiting beautiful Winona Lake and the Billy Sunday museum, visiting Fort Wayne’s newest shopping center Jefferson Pointe while enjoying an outdoor concert on Friday night,  touring a windmill museum and a World War II Museum which also has a private car collection and other memorabilia.  Four meals and admission fees to all museums are included in this year’s registration fee.

Special Things You Need To Know:

    1.     As the registration form states, in order to participate in this tour, you must be a current member of the VMCCA.  If you have not renewed your membership, please do so now.

    2.     We are asking that all people attending be listed on the registration form.

3.     Also on the registration form, in order to make the tour more enjoyable for handicapped or people needing assistance and vegetarians, we ask that you let us know about your special needs.

4.     Our shirts this year will be maroon knit Jerzees embroidered with our logo.

5.     Make sure to bring a pair of closed toe shoes in case one of our tours requires it.

6.     For our outdoor concert on Friday night, please bring your own folding chairs.       

If you have any questions, please let us know.  We hope to see you in August!              

            Registrars:                                                        Your Tour Committee:

            Bob and Mary Richhart                                    Bill and Liz Heidenreich

            Phone:  260-749-1443                                     Jack and Luci Laughlin

            E-mail:  bobandmaryr@verizon.net                   Tom and Sharon Laupp

                                                                                    Gary and Sara Mattax