Good evening from the Chattanooga Choo Choo,
Slow day on the driving scene today, only about 75 miles for the day,
some of it in town.
Joined the caravan this morning for a short historical cruise south
across the state line into Georgia. First stop was the Gordon Lee
Mansion for a light southern breakfast, ham on biscuit, fruits, juice and
rolls. There was one slightly ambiguous line in the route instructions,
causing a little diversion for some of the MGAs, and not the first time
I've seen a group of LBCs turn into lemmings. I was at the end of a line
of about 20 MGAs when the first one took a wrong turn and all the rest
fell into line and followed. Took about a mile to run up and wave down
the few cars just ahead, point the way back and hang a U-turn. Some of
the other cars took notice and followed suit, while others were busy
scanning maps and ultimately made a tough time of it. Most of the
balance of the route ran for several miles through the Chickamauga Battle
Field historic site with old artilery pieces and monuments seen in all
directions. The last of the stragglers finally arived at the mansion
about 20 minutes late, but that just gave us early birds a little head
start on breakfast.
After the snack (generous translation) we all had a nice tour of the
mansion with a little dose of civil war history mixed in, and were then
free to invent our own return tour. A casual count in the car park on
the way out showed aproximately 68 MGAs with a few other MGs mixed in,
and a few mini vans on the side. Not everyone had taken the breakfast
tour. The A and I returned via the same route, not having any area map
handy, but did take some side roads for a few miles here and there
through the battlefield(s). It all covers several square miles of space
with lots of good historic stuff here, so you could spend days checking
out the debris and reading all the monuments and information signs. We
spent just a short time and headed back to the Choo Choo.
Having a couple hours before the afternoon tech sessions, I elected to
try tomorrow's run up Signal Mountain a day early, without the caravan to
get in the way. A few blocks to get away from the hotel, then several
miles down the expressway with a bit of unfounded threat of rain (just a
little humidity in the face here), then several miles up the mountain
with 25 mph traffic. Not a big deal but the general area is nice with
these big rolling hills they like to call mountains. After a few miles
of back tracking and searching to ferret out another error in the route
instructions, I finally found the intended route back down the hill.
This steeper road is a bit more to talk about, requiring both second gear
_AND_ stand on the brakes to stay off of the guardrails and pitfalls at
the edge of the pavement. Fortunately there was only a couple of miles
of this, so the brakes didn't even have time to fade. One more mile back
to the expressway and return to the Choo Choo in a southern rush, which
is about like a northern funeral procession.
A quick count in the car park at 2:00 pm turned up 70 MGAs and a small
mixed batch of other MGs and one 427 Cobra. Others were coming and going
at random intervals, some out on the town at any given time, so still
not a good count of who all is here. But as a clue, I have registration
number 95, and I registered a month before the gig, so for sure well over
100 A's would be here. Final tally tomorrow.
Just as the John Twist rolling tech session was getting under way the sky
closed in and dumped a shallow lake on the parking lot. The tech session
moved inside, one car at a time, until the "little drizzle" subsided,
only a half hour or so, then got back out in the sun again. Typical
stuff covered by the Twist magicin today, mostly tune up and a few Lucas
bugs, then ample time for a few cool ones and more parking lot tech.
One interresting side note for the day. Lou Spradlin is here, the chap
from New York state who did a 12,000 mile trip around the USA last year
in his MGA, and a few other things for a total of about 15,000 miles for
the year. Also present is John Murdock and his wife Jackie who did
11,000 miles in their MGA on Brit Run to the Sun - Alaska '97, and also a
trip from Florida to Texas for GT-22, and other things for a total of
about 17,000 miles for the year. And yours truly, Barney Gaylord, who
put in 19,000 miles in the MGA last year on Brit Run to the Sun, and lots
of other things for a total of 27,000 miles for the year. Someone caught
us all together for a picture, representing 55,000 miles of mostly
trouble free MGA driving in one year. Well, okay, so my side swiping the
guard rail was just another rally trick, "but I'm feeling much better
now"!
In the cool of the evening, when everything is gettin' kinda groovy, ....
Oh, pardon me. We got a huge caravan of MGs together to storm the river
boat landing just a mile or two from the hotel. As we had the entire
capacity of the cruise boat reserved, and we were ariving one or two at a
time in these little cars, we pretty much overran the parking lot. After
parking them three deep in several places the lot looked suspiciously
like a late 50's MG dealership, and the camera jocks were having a field
day. The cruise ran about 2-1/2 hours up and back on the Tennessee
river, great dinner, quiet and restful time to relax and chat, and nice
views of the surrounding mountains. Then once again the MGs took over
down town Chattanooga streets for a while as they were jockying back to
the Choo Choo.
Looks like most people are turning in early tonight in preparation for an
early awakening and a morning car wash and detailing before tomorrow's
car show. Good time to sign off and catch some Z's.
G'night all,
Barney Gaylord
1958 MGA wih an attitude
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