Knights Photo Gallery of Events
Various Themes
2019
Memory Lane!
Historical Photos from
1997-2004
These photos are from the previous KN website in order to preserve the history and comments of each page.
1998 - 1999 Photos
2002 Trip to the TOC- submitted by Steve Shippy
Members in attendance were:
Rick McQuerrey–Current President Gary Himes–Current Treasurer
Randy Cameron–Webmaster Bob Cameron–Past Treasurer
Jim Stocker–Corporation Chairman Danny Williamson–Past President
This story begins on Wed Oct 9 @ 4:30pm. Jim has been in Vegas for a week now with his wife and relatives, who left this morning. Bob & Randy drove out and are already there. Rick’s wife takes him to the airport, while Dan goes to Gary’s so his wife can drive them to the airport. Being a nice day the top is down on the convertible. It started to be a nice drive but quickly got cool. Dan was in the back seat and lost both hairs off his head.
Rick, Dan & Gary land in Vegas and proceed to pick up their luggage. We are impressed with all the limo drivers standing there in suits and uniforms and name cards. Then reality hits, we see Stocker dressed in shorts and a club tee shirt waiting for us. We pick up our luggage and start to the parking lot finding out the Valet tickets got mixed up and our ride is Bob’s Grasshopper.
After getting checked in at the time share, we decide we are all hungry and go to Lindy,s restaurant for a bite of supper. After placing our order several of us play Keno. Gary hits a 3-spot for $84. From the reaction of the others at the table you would have thought Gary won a million bucks. Gary is too cheap to pay for everyone’s dinner so we pay our individual tabs and hit the hot tub for a while. Gary & Jim share a room, with Bob & Randy sharing the adjoining room. Dan & Rick each have their own room. There is a hallway door which leads to a foyer to the doors for 2 adjoining rooms. Dan & Rick are on the 6th floor, while the rest are on the 8th floor. Everyone agrees on a time in the morning to meet at Jim & Gary’s room and goes off to bed.
Thursday morning Rick goes by Dan’s room and finds him standing in the hallway only in his undershorts locked out of his room. This is where we find out Rick is too nice; instead of getting a camera and taking a picture, Rick goes and gets a duplicate key so Dan can get back in the room. Rick is laughing so hard he can hardly tell the girl at the desk what he needs. She refuses to take the key to the room, so Rick to the rescue again.
After everyone is finally ready, we head to the Peppermill for breakfast. After breakfast we go to the flying field for the day. Upon arriving at the field, we find that Dwayne Thomas and wife, Steve Shippy and wife, Charlie Reed and wife, plus Adam, Gary & Steve from Springfield (Randys Friends) are already there. We watch the days flying and when it’s over, head to Arizona Charlies for supper. What a feast and we had a great waitress who told us the joke of the day (not repeatable in this article). With bellies full, we go back to the time share. Hot tub sounding good, we all decided to go. Dan didn’t bring swim trunks, so Jim loaned him a spare pair. Walkin down the hall to loan Dan the trunks, what do we find? That’s right; Dan has locked himself out of the room again, only this time with clothes on.
Friday morning finds us back at the Peppermill for breakfast. Once a trip is tradition, but twice is pure heaven as the food & waitress are very good. Bob apparently can’t handle Bloody Marys for breakfast two days in a row, as he ended up spilling part of his. After breakfast its off to the flying field for the day. After the days flying, we are back to Arizona Charlies for supper. Are we in a rut or what? There is a short line to get into the restaurant, so Gary, Jim & Dan play the nickel slots to pass the time. When we got our table, Gary cashed out 450 nickels & Jim cashed out 150 nickels while Dan just set there holding his wallet and crying. Some of Randy’s family also joined us for dinner. It was funny to watch Gary & Jim fondle their winnings while Dan just sat there crying. After dinner guess what we did? You got it, back to the hot tub.
Saturday morning finds us at Lindy’s restaurant for breakfast. Next, the flying field for the day. The TOC is 21 pilots flying by invitation only, the best of the best. Today 7 pilots have been cut and only the remaining 14 will fly today. After watching the day’s events, we go to meet Gary’s aunt & uncle at the Sun Coast for supper. Oh-no! Gary leaves the directions in the room and can’t remember the name of the streets, but can recognize them when he sees them. Somehow we find the Sun Coast inspite of Gary. Now Dan is in trouble again, this place has cocktail waitresses dressed like 25 yrs ago, and not leaving much to the imagination. Poor Dan’s tongue is dragging the floor. The third time he stepped on his tongue we literally put blinders on him and found aunt & uncle. We ate at the buffet; Dan’s kind of place. Uncle made Dan speechless when after Dan’s 12th plate full he was gone an extra amount of time. Uncle asked Dan if he had run them out of roast beef. (Apparently he had, as was quiet after that) We decided to tell aunt about Dan’s first lock-out experience, she laughed so hard we almost had to call the paramedics. After dinner we gambled a little and Dan won $20, he was finally in heaven buffet and won $20 bucks. Back to the hot tub we go.
Sunday morning we have one more TOC tradition to take care of, breakfast at the Pink Pony in Circus Circus. After breakfast, back to the flying field for the finals. Today, 7 more pilots are cut, leaving only 7 pilots. All points’ today start at 0, so what you did yesterday doesn’t count. About 2pm, Bob & Randy decide to start the long drive home. The rest of us stuck it out to the end. We got to see something I have only seen of video before. Jason Shulman, during the last free style, was doing an inverted flat spin, lost it and crashed. The plane caught fire and burned; a total loss, as only the pilot figure was saved when it was knocked out during the crash. After the awards, the four of us go to Lindy’s for dinner. After dinner, we hit the hot tub for the last time. We were looking forward to relaxing and reflecting on the trip, however, there was a guy in the hot tub who was a lot past his drinking limit. So we relax a little while, and then go back to the room to pack for an early morning departure flight.
The only problem with this trip was time flew too fast! Hey, I didn’t mention much about the flying. Just talk to the participants and they will be glad to tell you all about the flying. Gary even has a CD disk with tons of pictures on it. So till 2004 bye for now!!!!!
