Prosit!
Corvette Caravan helps celebrate Oktoberfest
Saturday’s PortOberfest in Port St. Joe may have paid homage to the German festival, but it was an array of gleaming American cars that stole the show.
Thirty-five Chevrolet Corvettes, an iconic American sports car once made in Detroit, Michigan and now in Bowling Green, Kentucky, lined the streets as the 2024 Circle City Corvettes Beach Caravan motored down to Gulf County from Dothan, Alabama for their annual road trip.
Begun in 1978 at Dothan’s Solomon Chevrolet, and now held at the Peanut Festival Fairgrounds, the caravan left last week with a police escort south on U.S. 231, to State Route 20, then down State Route 73 to 71 down into Port St. Joe, where everyone stayed at the Mainstay Suites, the host hotel.
The drivers celebrated at the country club with a silent auction Saturday evening, full of all sorts of prized racing memorabilia, including a photograph, worth over $6,500, of the Corvette racing teams signed by Zora Arkus-Duntov, considered the “Father of the Corvette.”
All proceeds from the auction went to the National Corvette Museum in Bowling Green, Kentucky.
For 42 years, the caravan had made Panama City their destination, but no longer, as they now plan to make Port St. Joe their port of call for their annual venture into Florida, including next year trying out a Halloween costume party as part of the festivities..
“Panama City is too busy,” said Ricky Early, a member of the Circle City Corvettes board. “They don’t care if we come or not. You have to appreciate us.”
Organized by the Gulf County Chamber of Commerce and presented by the BeMAJOR team, eXp Realty, the free PortOberfest bills itself as the “Wurst Fest in The Joe!” and featured live music from the lederhosen-clad The Europa Band, and German food and beverages provided by Ralf’s Arts & Brats from Panama City.
Meet the Editor
David Adlerstein, The Apalachicola Times’ digital editor, started with the news outlet in January 2002 as a reporter.
Prior to then, David Adlerstein began as a newspaperman with a small Boston weekly, after graduating magna cum laude from Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts. He later edited the weekly Bellville Times, and as business reporter for the daily Marion Star, both not far from his hometown of Columbus, Ohio.
In 1995, he moved to South Florida, and worked as a business reporter and editor of Medical Business newspaper. In Jan. 2002, he began with the Apalachicola Times, first as reporter and later as editor, and in Oct. 2020, also began editing the Port St. Joe Star.