Chrysler 300 Club International
Spring Meet in Bentonville, Arkansas

  April 22-25, 2015


The modern architecture of
Crystal Bridges Museum

The 2015 spring meet was held in picturesque Bentonville, Arkansas. The April spring had arrived and good spirits abounded. Members came from far and wide to enjoy the relief from the wicked winter of 2014. And the weather couldn't have been better.

Bentonville is known as the home base for Walmart, but is also rich with rivers, valleys, mountains.

One can't visit Bentonville without feeling the presence of Walmart. The vast office headquarters is located there, a large Walmart store is there, a smaller convenience store is there, and a convenience store/gas station with the canopy showing large Walmart Spark emblems on its ceiling. The original store which was Walton's 5 & 10 is located in the middle of the downtown shopping area and is now a museum telling the story of Sam Walton and his enterprises. Sam's trusty Ford pickup was on display. He was quoted as saying, "I don't need a Rolls Royce to carry my dogs and guns" (paraphrased) Sam was a avid hunter. The meet activities were enjoyed by all, and of course the meeting with long time friends is what makes a 300 Meet so special.




The DoubleTree Hotel with a 1955 300 parked at just the right spot.


The front of the Simple Pleasures Museum and Restaurant


The Bentonville Meet
Cars People Scenes Events

Photo credits: Carl Bilter, Jack Boyle, Noel Hastalis, Ray Jones, Bill Miller,
Gloria Moon, Mark Obermann, Carlton Schroeder, Don Warnaar.


Meet Host Ray Jones felt right at home.

Some of the emails from people attending the meet:
Hi Jo Ann and Ray,
Thanks for putting on a very good meet and thanks for all of your hard work planning and managing all of that.
The hotel and accommodations and their breakfasts were just great. We especially enjoyed all the events and seeing NW Arkansas. Crystal Bridges and the Indian History museum were especially good. I wish a few more 300’s had made the show but that surprise tour of a wonderful car and truck collection more than made up for the shortage of member’s 300’s. Nice too that the owner is joining the Club.
For me our Club meets are always a good opportunity to meet new folks and I enjoyed that with your meet. I even learned a little bit about wheat and cotton farming from Marshall’s cousin John Goodknight.
I didn’t connect with any former Club members who told me they might visit, so I was a little disappointed with that.
It is still cool here and we still see snow pile remnants in the shade, so your warm AR weather was much appreciated.
Thanks again,
Barb and Carlton Schroeder
Eagle River, WI

I’ll second that. For me it was a great meet. Ray was correct when he said the hotel was better than we are used to. It was top notch! The breakfasts were a huge step up from typical hotel breakfast buffets.
The surprise and spontaneous visit to a world-class private collection was beyond description.
We didn’t have a lot of 300s but we had 300s that have not been seen before which is always a super treat, including an original “survivor” ram K convertible from first meet attendee Francis Barnes. The weather for the show was also picture perfect all day long (somewhat unusual at club meets).
Thanks Ray and Jo Ann!
Carl Bilter
Cedar Rapids, IA
Spring in full bloom here

Thanks to JoAnn and Ray! We loved the accommodations, the breakfasts, the tours and seeing and meeting folks from the club. We were a bit red-faced that we decided to go touring the day of the business meeting and missed the unplanned tour of a wonderful car collection. Hopefully some pictures will be shared at some point. Also, we had never been to Arkansas before and we saw some beautiful country.
Sad to hear of the accident with the Hurst on the way home. It sounded like their trip down to Arkansas was not so great either.
See you in Macungie,
Steve and Sandy Beard

A big thanks to Ray and Jo Ann for hosting a wonderful Meet. Another great excuse to get the F out of the big city and onto the open road - especially running tandem with John Begian and his G, and with Mark Obermann keeping us company along the way. My first trip to Arkansas, and enjoyed the beautiful countryside, and the warm hospitality of all the folks we met in and around Bentonville.
Noel Hastalis
Burr Ridge, IL
300F Coupe


Our meet hosts Ray and Jo Ann Jones
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