Photos and Text: Joseph Middleton
After a 1 year delay due to COVID-19, the Fifteenth Annual Texas Mercedes-Benz Owners’ Get Together was held on Saturday, April 17, 2021. They say good things come to those that wait, and we really got something good by way of the weather. Our attendees usually sweat and swelter in the heat, but this year, we actually needed to don jackets as highs were in the 60s with a breeze. Initial clouds and drizzle gave way to blue skies, making for the best weather ever for this event since it was established in 2006! The good weather brought out 38 attendees in 21 cars from across the state. After each group caravanned to Centerville from their respective cities, we met at noon for a delicious lunch at the always welcoming and hospitable Woody’s Smokehouse. After lunch, we headed to Fort Boggy for the Show and Shine. The cool weather as mentioned before was a first, but this year, we also implemented another first: voting with your phone. Attendees followed a link on our website and were able to vote instantly for each car in a category. The categories were Best Vintage (pre-1990), Best 1990s, Best 2000s, and Best 2010-present. Interestingly, every winner this year was a cabriolet. Kenneth Perry’s 1988 560SL won the Best Vintage category. Jim Seaver’s 1997 SL500 won the Best 1990s category. Erroll Hines’s 2005 SL500 won the Best 2000s category, and Larry Williams’ 2017 S63 AMG Cabriolet won the Best 2010-Present category. We skipped a whole year in putting on this event, but it was worthwhile, with some of the best weather and best levels of attendance to date. I’m not sure if we can top it in 2022, but we can certainly try! Special thanks to all of our friends at Woody’s Smokehouse and Fort Boggy State Park for their assistance in making this event great as usual!
