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Submitted by MTI on Wed, 2021-04-28 08:04
Saturday, Mar 27, 2021 - 04:00am
Phoenix
Arizona

2021 Poker Run Recap

On Saturday, March 27, 25 Desert Stars members in 13 shined up Benzes, many with two Covid-19 shots in their arms, ventured out into the virus-crazed society and into a perfect cool sunny day searching for a poker hand that might win them a fabulous prize!  Three winners came out of the pool of contestants!!

In almost caravan form, we toured the South, East and North Valley visiting several of our Desert Stars advertisers finding out what they can do for us as well as other points of interest.

We started the tour in Mesa at Rhodium45, a vehicle storage facility where Larry Read treated us to coffee and pastries then took us through his classic car collection telling us a bit about the history of each of his cars.  The first classic was a 1920’s Duesenberg that he is preparing to take to Auburn, IN this fall for a race against Jay Leno in one of Leno’s own Duesenberg collector cars.  Other classics in his collection are a 1950’s T-Bird, 1953 and 1954 Nash-Healy sports cars, a 1931 Hudson that once belonged to President Hoover, an Amelia Earhart Terraplane (Hudson) convertible (she was Hudson’s celebrity spokesperson) and a host of other fully restored examples of the 20’s, 30’s, 40’s and 50’s, all drivable!  The 1950’s Cadillac Convertible (shocking Pink) has starred in a number of parades and even in one or two Victoria Secret TV advertisements.

That stop was followed by visits to Mercedes-Benz of Gilbert, the Rose Garden located at Mesa Community College, the Scottsdale Forensic Lab, a piece of public art called The Sunburst at SkySong,  the USS Arizona Memorial at Salt River Fields, the Scottsdale Water Campus Advanced Water Treatment Plant in North Scottsdale, the Airpark Collision Center facility and finally the Frank Lloyd Wright Commemorative Park where his design The Spire is located at The Promenade Shopping Center on the Southeast corner of Scottsdale Road and FLW Blvd.  If you had been on the trip, you would have learned a bit about each of these historic spots in this side of the Valley of the Sun!!  Don’t hesitate to join us on our 2022 Poker Run.

At the end of the tour, we gathered at the O.H.S.O. Eatery & Distillery for refreshments and dinner. While decompressing from the competitive road event, each participant reviewed their poker hand and decided whether they needed additional cards to enhance their hand, assuming they had enough “challenge question” points to justify drawing replacement cards.  After dinner, the showdown revealed three participants with high enough hands to win prizes and one with a perfect low hand!!

Winners of the 2021 Poker run were:  Arnie Brown with a full house; new member Susan Mellinger with a Flush and Rich Schulte with a slightly lower-class Flush!!  The absolute lowest hand was held by one of last year’s winners, our Section President, Debbie Ichiyama.  Each of the “winners” were saluted with Mercedes-Benz Logo prizes including a set of four wine glasses, a Picnic Basket complete with utensils, glasses and plates and a briefcase full of barbecue tools!! For her “perfect” lowest hand, Ace, 2, 3, 4 and 6 Flush, Debbie received a book on how to win at Poker for use in next year’s Poker Run.

Thanks to all our participants and to Airpark Collision Center for their presentation and goodie-bag handout and to Mercedes-Benz Gilbert for giving us a great deal on the prizes.  We hope our Desert Stars members are looking forward to and will be able to participate in next year’s Poker Run!!