“I saw Celina’s Lake Festival on Grand Lake St. Marys, and a friend and I drove up to see the lake,” he said.
They found that the Celina Eagles on the north side of the lake had a large parking lot and ramp, which would allow space to gather and easy access for the Amphicars to move from land to water. After meeting with the Eagles president and Lake Festival organizers he had a deal
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Parsons, who works as a contractor for Allion Group, owns nine Amphicars.
Amphicars are amphibian cars made in Germany from 1962-67. Parsons’ fascination with them began when he saw three on Spring Valley Road.
“They had been in a woman’s barn and she wanted to get rid of them, so I bought all three and had a friend from Sandy’s Towing take them to my place,” he said.
His wife, Phyllis, owner of Kay’s Shoppe in Lebanon, shares his interest and also joined Amphicar International, which has 400 members. Parsons estimates there are 275 surviving Amphicars of the 4,500 produced.
This year’s July 27-29 Lake Festival attracted approximately 35, with owners coming from as far as Florida, California, Wisconsin, Georgia and Canada to participate and compare notes on their cars, parts and repairs.
At home, Parsons often drives his Amphicars at Caesar’s Creek.
“At night, people see headlights on the road at night, then see them going into the water – we’ve had people call police, thinking a car’s had an accident and gone into the water,” he said.
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