Chrysler 300 Club International
Lafayette, Louisiana
April 30 - May 4, 2025

Emails from the meet
Kudos to Meet hosts Kelly LeBlanc and Mark Artell for conducting a fabulous meet in Louisiana! The garden tours, cuisine, Ted the Turbine Man visit, car show venue, host hotel amenities and welcoming meet packet introducing us to Louisiana lifestyle was above and beyond expectations! The attention to detail rendered was amazing! I will never unwrap a Hershey's Kiss with a Gaugin C picture fitted on the base again! Quality is attention to detail and in every aspect of this meet this was knocked out of the park! Thank you Kelly and Mark for a swell time and fond memories! BZ (Well Done) in Navy parlance!
Rob Kern, George Hagerty and Tony Layton

I failed to mention that this was probably the spiciest meet we experienced traveling to Avery Island and touring the Tabasco operation! A Tootsie Roll Pop saved my oral mucosa after tasting the Mash! Just fabulous! 300’ly, Rob Kern
I just wanted to express my thanks and gratitude to Kelly LeBlanc and Mark Artall, and everyone involved in organizing this very fine meet in Louisiana (our first one in this beautiful state!). They took such great care of us.
We started with a visit to Avery Island where we toured the Jungle Gardens and Tabasco Brand facility. Some hardy souls sampled the work in process right from the oak barrels. The Sweet and Spicy was my favorite. For dinner, Kelly showed us the proper way of peeling crawfish after very generously bringing them to us freshly boiled. Very tasty and worth the effort.
Friday saw the group visit an incredibly fascinating gentleman nicknamed Turbine Ted for all the groundbreaking work he does powering vehicles of all types with turbine augmented power. The car collection was eclectic with modern and classic, but all with significant power available at the rear wheels. Following this was a tour of the Joseph Jefferson Mansion and surrounding Rip Van WInkle Gardens, a serene and picturesque place with a very interesting history.
While the weather forecast looked challenging, the rain and storms amazingly held off most of the meet during our activities and the Saturday car show weather was excellent. Our Beautiful Brutes drew much public attention and Mark's dad brought his beloved Buick to the show. The nearby farmer's market gave me the opportunity to buy some fresh local pecans to take home to roast.
The Awards Banquet was a lot of fun too, with some excellent prizes for some lucky Club members. While I had to leave too early to sign up for the swamp tour, many did and I'm looking forward to hearing the report on how many alligators and different bird species were spotted.
Again, a big thank you to Kelly and Mark. What a treat it was to spend such quality time with our Chrysler 300 family and especially to meet and make some new friends as well. What a great club we have!
Mark Obermann
Adding my THANKS! also to Kelly and Mark for orchestrating and hosting a marvelous Meet! Their attention to the smallest of details put smiles on all our faces, and each of us fully enjoyed our Lafayette experience.
Kelly and Mark had all the boxes were checked and the days of the Meet passed quickly -
A full schedule of events with a variety of interesting attractions. We experienced Jungle Gardens' beauty with its native and imported flora, leading to Tabasco's iconic facility Our Club member, Dr. Frank Bacque', arranged for an intimate Tabasco tour led by his son-in-law Duncan, who's in the McIlhenny Family (Tabasco owners), complete with tasting of various Tabasco products. I never knew Tabasco also made ice cream - certainly has a unique taste! Frank brought his immaculate '63 Pacesetter convertible.
Touring the Joseph Jefferson Mansion led by its eclectic tour guide, who looked like she could have come from the
Addams Family, was fun. And what's a Meet without visiting at least one car collection, especially one that's not open to the public? Turbine Ted and his wife opened up their collection - (a) not only of modern and classic (think '60s) cars, but also (b) the turbine MTT 420RR motorcycle (designed and built by Marine Turbine Technologies) - 420 hp and weighs less than a Harley, that Ted has ridden to 220 mph. Ted ran it for us while propped on his motorcycle stand. Jay Leno purchased one of these bikes from Ted and loves how it performs. And (c) Ted's turbine powered speed boat, that he said he's run up to 240 mph on the water! Ted told us story after story in rapid fire succession. He also admired our Letter Car motors.
I was a little leery of Sunday morning's Swamp Tour, but it was great! A little tough understanding the Cajun dialect of our tour guide, but the Spanish Moss-covered Cypress trees and the gators swimming by and sunning themselves were a sight unique to this Louisiana swamp.
Sure, Lafayette was a bit of a drive from northern Illinois, but my F ticked off its 2,078 mile trip just fine. Only hit 3 fairly heavy rains, but Rain-X did its thing, and I never turned on my wipers.
Look on our Club's website for Kelly's and Mark's Meet Report, along with photos and a few videos - to be posted soon!
Noel Hastalis