I am just back from the Heidrick's small show that is held each year and there is certainly a buzz about the BIG SHOW next year. The members of the steering committee who were at the show held a meeting yesterday afternoon after a visit to the site with Dan Best. Boy are we going to have fun!

We have a site that is about 151 acres to carve up. We will have a large (25-30 acres) site that will be planted with grain for the harvesters and binders. We will have a big area for playing in the dirt for graders, dozers, scrapers, shovels etc that will be about 20 acres. We will have a large RV parking area for exhibitors, plenty of parking, truck parking area and about 50 acres for tractor, gas engine, steam, draft horses, exhibits, tents for venders, food, shade, childrens area, displays and parade area.

Several new to show collections were represented at the small show this year. Many collectors committed to bringing 10 or more tractors for next years show. I think it is now safe to say that we will have many more than 50 Best and Holt tractors, and if everything that people hope to bring is out of restoration and running we will have many more than 50. The collections of Cats and other crawlers will also be well represented with Cats alone far surpassing what we had at Tulare in 2004 which I recall was about 132 +/-.

I also spoke to several gas engine collectors who estimate that we will have more than 100 gas engines (potentially many more), including many rare California engines.

Check back in a week or two as I will have posted lodging information for the hotels in close proximity to Woodland and the Sacramento airport. I stopped at 5 different hotels today that are between 8 and 22 miles from the show site and got all of the contact information to post here. We are currently working on price discounts for attendees and will post that when available. If you are coming, get your reservations asap as the number of rooms that are close is limited. There are lots of rooms in the Sacramento area but it would be nice to be a short drive from the show and the Heidrick Museum. We are also working on shuttle busses to and from the local hotels (Woodland only), the show grounds and the Heidrick Museum.

More later.

The following is the first listing of information for Hotels in close proximity to the Heidrick Museum and the Dan Best Ranch in and around Woodland, CA. I HAVE NOT PERSONALLY STAYED AT MOST OF THESE PROPERTIES BUT BASED UPON INFORMATION RECEIVED FROM FELLOW COLLECTORS, THESE HOTELS ARE OK. HOWEVER, YOU NEED TO BE THE FINAL JUDGE OF THE PROPERTY YOU WISH TO STAY AT.

Hampton Inn and Suites, 2060 Freeway Drive, Woodland, CA 95776 Phone (530) 662-9100. This will be the headquarters for the ACMOC Board of Directors and a special rate has been negotiated. Mention ACMOC when you make the call. This is a brand new property that is within walking distance to the Heidrick Museum and is a short drive to the Dan Best Ranch. We hope to have shuttle busses running from here to the Museum and the show.

Holiday Inn Express, 2070 Freeway Drive, Woodland, CA 95776 Phone (530) 662-7750. Another fairly new Hotel that is also within walking distance to the Heidrick Museum. We are working on a deal with them. Same goes for the shuttle bus.

Best Western Shadow Inn, 584 North East Street, Woodland, CA 95776 Phone (530) 666-1251. Located a couple of offramps west of the Heidrick Museum and a short drive to the Dan Best Ranch. This is where the out of town committee members will primarily be staying. Mention ACMOC and if any issues ask for Sandy the manager.

Motel 6, 1564 E. Main St., Woodland, CA 95776 Phone (530) 666-6777

Quality Inn and Suites, 1562 E. Main St, Woodland, CA Phone (530) 666-3050

Days Inn, 1524 E. Main St., Woodland, CA 95776 Phone (530) 666-3800

Valley Oaks Inn, 600 N. East St., Woodland, CA 95776 Phone (530) 666-5511 This looks like a nice property that is right by the Best Western and close to the show.

Budget Inn, 1021 Main St., Woodland, CA 95695 Phone (530) 662-8215

If you cannot find a room please contact me or the Heidrick Museum at www.aghistory.org and we will see what we can do to assist you. As the show gets closer, these Hotels will all book up and we will be forced to move show guests farther away to Hotels North and South.

I recommend booking a room NOW if you plan to attend.

Tom , Thanks for the information on motels..... you mention in your post of 5-20-07 that RV parking will be availible for exhibitors.... will there also be overnight RV parking for visitors ??? Thank You

I do not think there will be enough room for visitors RV parking as well. As the show approaches, we will have a better idea of space but right now it does not look good. If I were you I would try to get a space in a park somewhere near the show. Send an email to the email listed in the above post at the museum and they should be able to direct you to a close park.

We now have a link for the 2008 National Show on the website for the Heidrick Museum. Go to www.aghistory.org and hit the link on the left side of the page for the 2008 Summer Show Hosting ACMOC. We will be rotating pictures etc in the coming months. We have a link for the Hotel Information and we will be adding other contact info soon. Most of the future detailed postings will be on the Heidrick site and I will put much briefer updates here.

Great information Tom. Keep it coming. Question on the engine clubs and setup. Do you plan to set things up like they do at Tulare. That is each engine club or group sets up within their own area. They typically bring their own rope and stantions and set up their own safety barriers.

Craig Maxwell

Craig:

We are thinking more along with how they do it in Brooks so we have all of the gas engines together, all of the Holt and Best tractors together, the steamers together etc. To a certain extent we are still up in the air but this is how we are leaning.

Tom

Tom;

I agree that you want to keep the engines "together" in one area. Within that engine "area" will there be different groups, or just individuals? No bigge just something to think about.

On another topic, talked with Don Hunter down at the Vista show on Saturday, and like you stated in your earlier post he is hoping to have his steamer ready by next year. Let hope all goes well for him, this will be a great event for him to operate it at!

Craig M

Craig:

I don't know at this point. My guess is that groups will want to be together within a certain area. Any help is appreciated.

Tom

Just thought I'd pop in a quick note here...

I called the Hampton and they can't seem to make a reservation for that time frame yet. The desk person mentioned that it had to be less than 6 months? I was using dates that were less than a year and they still couldn't seem to schedule it. A couple of the other hotel reservation systems wouldn't let me reserve a room either.

If someone else has had a different experience let me know.

Thanks,
Brian