Greetings from Nashville,Tennessee,
No, it's not bad news, except that it's the last leg of the trip. We did
get to stop in for a visit with Carl Fritz <CFritz7001@aol.com> in
Gainseville, Florida, before blowing out of the state on Friday. Then in
the evening were were camped near Savanna, Georgia, but not close enough
to get a local dial up number for Juno. Bummer. Real nice sleeping
weather though.
Today (Saturday) we skittered up through the rest of Georgia and into
Tennessee. The car finally had a little hiccup, so to speak, started to
crackle with an intermittent misfire and losing power. Small matter of
neglect, as I hadn't changed the ignition points in four years since just
after the Alaska trip, and probably hadn't adjusted them since I swapped
the dizzy to the new engine 18 months ago. Five or six minutes to R&R
the dizzy and adjust the points put that right, and all is well again (as
usual).
We hit steady rain just north of Atlanta, but no reason to stop. Just
before hitting Tennessee Elliot reminded me that if I didn't put the top
up it would never stop raining, and we were headed for a few stops at
some outdoor fun, so I conceeded and hit a rest stop for a few minutes to
do the evil deed. Didn't help anyway, as it continued to rain for the
rest of the day.
We got to Racoon Mountain in Chattanooga just to find that the Grand Prix
race cars (big fast carts) and the Alpine slide and hang glider and go
kart consessions were removed a few years ago. Appearantly someone
bought up some of the land there to build a golf course (what a waste),
and thought that the really fun stuff would make too much noise and
bother the golfers, so the toys had to go. Bummer again.
But at least we took the MG for a run up Lookout Mountain (nice set of
switchbacks for a few miles) to hide in the clouds for a while. No sense
taking the Inclined Railroad, as we couldn't see anything much beyond
arms length in the heavy fog, but we did take a short tour of Rock City
while we were up there. Then we took the shorter route down the (little)
mountain and stopped for a visit to Ruby Falls cave tour. We were
happily surprised to NOT be dissappointed there. It isn't just another
cave. Took an elevator 260 feet down to get to the cave, then about 2200
feet of hiking through narrow chasms (lots of nifty rock formations) to
get to the namesake, Ruby Falls, a 145 foot waterfall about 1200 feet
below the crest of the mountain. By the time we hiked out the tour was a
full hour, and well worth the time and effort.
Then there was this little two hour sprint on the winding interstate
through the hills over to Nashville (still in the rain). The MGA with
the 1600 engine, 18 head and mild cam upgrade is happy to pull the
trailer up the hills at a steady speed in top gear. Pretty much whatever
speed we started with at the foot of the hill we still had at the top, 70
or 80 mph was all the same without a downshift. This is a pleasant
change from the last trip this way when I was buzzing the same hills at
60 in 3rd gear with the nearly stock 1500 engine. I think I'll keep it.
((8^))--V------/ Step on it.
Short travel day tomorrow, only about nine hours from Nashville to
Chicago. Have to think of something else to do to fill the spare time.
Country music, anyone?
Barney Gaylord
1958 MGA with an attitude
http://www.ntsource.com
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