Road Trip to Palestine March 21, 2015

The Biggest Little Parade in Texas – and 30^th Annual Car Show

                              By Karen Harrington

                                                                    

The annual SCAT and NTMC Spring Cruise to the Dogwood Trails Festival in Palestine, Texas is coming up soon.   The SCAT Club and NTMC Club have made this cruise together for many years and we always have an interesting trip!  There have been around 50 cars the last several years that made the road trip.

Details:     This is an all day event, a cruise to Palestine, participate in the Parade, hosted by the Chamber of                     Commerce and the Annual Car Show hosted by the Cars of Palestine Car Club, enjoy the Dogwood                   Festival, stage our panoramic photo and cruise home. 

When:      Saturday March 21, 2015

Where:     We meet in the Wal-Mart parking lot located at US Highway 80 and Belt Line Road in Mesquite no                     later than 6:45 am to leave 7:00 am sharp.  Please sign in with Karen when you get there. 

Some members gather at Edd Road which is an exit off of highway 175 a little East of the I-20 intersection.  This is a little more convenient for members who live South of the metro-plex.  If you choose to do this please let Karen know so we will not be looking for you at the Wal-Mart shopping center lot.  These members will join the group as we travel down highway 175.

Pit Stop:    We stop in Eustace about an hour into our trip for fuel and a break.  We will take the bypass, Loop 7                   around Athens.

Arrive:       Anderson County Courthouse at 9:30, Parade begins at 10:00 am.

Bring:      Two Way Personal Radios are a great way to communicate and they add fun to the trip.  Bring                           something to detail your pony  prior to the parade to remove any road dust.   We generally have                         20 minutes after we arrive prior to the parade start.

RSVP:     972-867-6861 Karen Harrington (so we will know to look for), Cell phone contact for Saturday:                            214-392-4930, or 214-335-9928.

This year is the 77^th annual Parade.  The Chamber of Commerce has selected a  theme for the festival which is “Decades of Dogwoods”.  Parade entries are encouraged to decorate their cars with the theme as a focus.   We have some dogwoods silk flowers that we distribute among the cars, but feel free to jazz up your own pony with dogwoods.

 The parade spectators are enthusiastic and seem to look forward to our Mustangs and Cobras every year. Following the parade we will drive to the car show and an interesting festival downtown.  The car show is close enough to the festival we generally park at the car show and roam the festival and the shops.  

 Karen registers our clubs for the parade, and we won 2^nd Place last year in this parade.    Each member will have to register individually for the car show.  You can register online at www.CarsofPalestine.com.  Early registration is $20.00; it is $25.00 the day of the show.  Paper registration forms can be printed from this website and there will be forms at the NTMC General meetings in February and March.  The car show is in a different location this year, it is about a block East of the prior location.  We cruise directly there after the car show.

 There will be a food vendor at the car show and we will publish several other locations that you can enjoy for lunch.

 Awards are usually around 2:30 to 3pm.  After the car show we regroup at the Kroger shopping center across the road West of the car show, to refuel and prepare for a cruise as a group through the Davey Dogwood Park.   We plan to take our Annual Panoramic Photo with everyone and our cars at the Dogwood Park, a classic tradition capturing memories of our special cruise and friendships.  In 2014 we had 31 cars in the Gary Neirynck panoramic photo. 

 As we cruise to and from Palestine, we communicate using personal radios, for example the Motorola Personal Radios.  If you have one, please bring them, they add to the fun and help keep a group this size in touch with each other.  We tune into channel 7.4.  You will need the “multi channel” radio with the additional security channels to pick up channel 7.4.

 Mark your Calendars for March 21^st  and plan to spend a great day cruising to Palestine, a picturesque 2+ hour drive south of Dallas on Highway 175 to Athens, then Highway 19 to Palestine, then the Parade, the Car Show, the Festival, the Dogwoods at the Davey Dogwood Park, a FUN DAY together!  Almost 40 cars have already signed up for 2015 road trip.   Photos from prior years can be found on the NTMC website in Photo Gallery.

 We generally arrive back in the Dallas area between 7:30 and 8 pm.  In past years some of us have stopped at the Cotton Gin in Crandall for dinner. However the Cotton Gin had a fire and has not reopened.  Another option is “The Shed” in Edom, some of the group ate at this restaurant last year.

 There are maps of the route to Palestine, the parade route, restaurant locations, and the route to the Davey Dogwood Park at the below this article.  There are also photos of prior year’s trips in the photo gallery of this website.