More of my 2 cents: Heard all kinds of horror stories about judging and trophy presentation. Rumor last year was that in 05 they had like 1 or 2 judges total (for 400 + cars in the show)and trophies were presented at like 9:00pm that night. And I can attest that the trophies last year were the plastic type that you buy for about $2 in a trophy shop. I haven't figured this show out yet but apparently it is the locals that put this thing on for charity and they know absolutely nothing about VWs. What I really can't figure out is how they attract all of the cars that they do. If the Cal Classic were organized this poorly they wouldn't have 100 cars there, and in So Cal yet. If Steve and Sharon had organized the TX Classic this poorly they never would have had a second one cause there would have been no one there. Will Wood <evilscientistboo@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: body{font-family: Geneva,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:9pt;background-color: #ffffff;color: black;} Back in 2004 I trekked to the Bulli/Bug Jam weekend. It was great although a lot of driving in 5 days. When Tony and I made it to the Bug Jam we had to wait for 2 hours in line to enter. We waited till 4PM that day and still nobody had come by to judge the vehicles. It was a great swap meet but I think that it overwhelms the staff there. Remember they don't call it Floriduh for nothing. -----Original Message----- From: Denis Dodson Sent: Nov 19, 2007 11:27 AM To: tcb@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Cc: "Chad E. Johnson" Subject: [tcb] OK OK The Kupkake Chronicles Ok, here is more trip report with the ejection tale as told to me by the Kupkake and Christie ( they may have embellished and there are some unexplained holes here and there ). Sunday was the "go to the Bug Jam and get the hell out of Florida day". Chuck and I went back to the site of Kip's party and retrieved the trailer with my truck, then went and put Murray on. We then retrieved Jan and took her to the airport. It looked funny dropping someone off at the airport with a VW bus on a trailer, but nobody even looked at us. Jan flew home and we went to the Pasco County Fairgrounds in Dade City for the Bug Jam. Right away we had problems because the parking people took our $2 and pretty much insisted that we had to park in the aisles with all the other cars. Well, we really didn't want to do that because we were, what, 40 feet long? We explained that we needed lots of room to turn and soon figured that, if the person we were talking to couldn't understand this, we would just drive away and discuss it with the next person in an orange vest. Eventually, I saw another parked truck and trailer rig and insisted that I would park next to it, out on the edge of the lot. With people grumbling we did just that. As we were walking to the entrance, we heard Kim the Kupkake and Christie calling to us in the parking lot. They were in chairs with drinks, looking something like the Howells from Gilligan's Island. And with lots of arm waving and indignation, they told this story, or something like this story; Chad and Kim arrived in the KONG bus with Terry and Christie in their bus. It was 9:30 and registration was closing at 10. They were told that it was full. And they were told that it was too late. the Kupkake explained that it was 9:30 and that they had traveled 1100 plus miles and great hardship to get here, and they wanted to register and get in. NO. They had to pay the $2 and park with the ordinary spectators. They did so and went in to explain that they wanted their busses in the show. At the entrance they were again told that they were too late and the show was full and all the show people had radios and were broadcasting not to let these troublemakers register. Then they were told that they had to pay their $5 each to get in at all. This is the problem in the nutshell. They were not allowed to enter their busses into the show because the show was full. FALSE. It is a friggin' Fairgrounds. There was lots of room. They were told that they were too late. FALSE. All 4 will testify that they were there at 9:30 and that 10:00 came as they were trying to get in. No consideration was given to the fact that they had traveled over 1100 miles to be at this show. IMPORTANT NOTE: Terry and Chad had walked away and were checking out the swap by now. Back to the escalation. As they were arguing with the people at the entrance, one of the show women said that if they kept arguing that she "would get somebody over here you will REALLY be mean to you". Wave a red cape, why don't you. Of course, this was seen as a threat, and soon a man came in a golf cart. He started pointing and shaking his finger at the Kupkake and, more or less accused her of lying to him about being there at 9:30. "YOU WERE NOT!" Kupkake had begun video taping all this by now and claims to have him shouting and shaking his finger. I have seen a still pic, and there he is. I have demanded that this be put on Youtube immediately, and I think that it is in the works. Now, somehow Christie and Kim had become separated and were having confrontations at two different locations and, at some point, the show people had demanded that Christie leave. She said that she was not going without her friend. They come back with, "ARE YOU TAKING ABOUT THE REDHEAD WITH THE LIPSTICK?" There was, apparently, no other woman in the hundreds of people inside, who had red hair AND LIPSTICK! At some point Christie displayed an obscene finger gesture we all know and love, and now the real fireworks began. State Troopers were summoned, and, even though the troopers actually were sympathetic, Christie and the KupKake were forcibly ejected to their parking lot exile. We were asked not to reveal to the show people that they were in the lot, as they were sure they would be attacked again. Steve and Sharon, apparently, had some trouble as well. Something about they were too early and they had to have a friend inside come to the gate instead of the show people simply believing that they were invited. Overall, of the whole 4 or 5 day weekend, the Bug Jam is the weakest event. The "cruise" at the Sonic was way more fun than the Bug Jam. Kip and Brian's Bash is the high point, and the Bulli Brigade and cruise was great fun. The Bug Jam has good vendors and a great swap area (more than an acre, I'd say), and there are loads of cars there, but I just have no affection for it. Other than the swap, I could miss it. I got a sway bar kit with two bars, front and rear, with four small boxes of hardware with instructions. the seller said that it was new old stock and was sold as an add-on. I don't know about all that, but I have been looking at putting on a sway bar (I didn't even know there was a rear one). I got it all for $100, and think I did all right, if it all fits. I say a new old stock T-handle for a rear cargo hatch, with keys for $200 and a VDO clock, for a Ghia dash, I believe, and it broke my all time experience for overpriced swap at $650. Next up: Do we go two days out of our way to pick up the broken Coke Bus from the Mississippi/Louisiana border, even though it lost the coin toss?