Greetings! Sorry for the delay of this update...my laptop's harddrive crashed
as I attempted to start it up the first day in St.Louis!
Jean and I departed for St.Louis about noon on Tuesday (the 17th). It was a
fairly uneventful drive of a little over 3 hours...however, the differential
began humming (not growling) about 100 miles into the drive and by the time I
got to I-270 near the hotel, I could hear a bearing squeal when driving next to
a semi trailer. We checked into the RedRoof Inn where we stayed on tuesday
nite, along with my rallye-mate Rick Verhey of Grand Rapids, Michigan.
I called John Mangles of HiTech Collision in St.Louis on Wednesday morning;
he generously offered to check out the MGC that day! We got her over to the
shoppe and diagnosed before 10am. Parts were ordered for next day delivery;
Rick
and I headed back to the hotel where we would depart on the Endurance Rallye
about noon in his 1974 MGB/GT.
WEDNESDAY: The Endurance Rallye:
We joined 5 other MGs in the rallye's calibration run of about 10
miles....then we were given our destinations and we were off! First to
St.Charles, MO and
the first State Capital of Missouri; then a deja vu to Daniel Boone's
gravesite. Off to Hannibal, MO to visit Huck Finn territory before visiting a
100
year ole and very unique covered bridge in Paris, MO. We then headed sout down
the middle of the state to Fulton where we visited a staue of Winston Churchill
(standing near a 20 foot section of the Berlin wall!) ... Then off to Rolla,
MO and a 1/2 scale replica of Stonehenge. We had not seen another MG until this
point (about sunset)...and we saw the green MGB/GT V8 of Robert Milner from
California. From Rolla we headed southeast towards a civil war
battlefield...but alas....tragedy struck about midnite. We were driving a very
crvy and hilly
SR 32 ...when the temp needle pegged on HOT. We pulled over about 20 miles
away from our checkpoint..and, after allowing the radiator to cool a bit,
opened
it to find absolutely NO coolant. No visible leaks...no coolant! We had
travelled this rallye wiouth back-up coolant...and were fortunate to find some
mud
puddles (complete with pollywogs) to fill the radiator with Coke bottles
(filtering what crud and pollywogs we could through paper towels). One car
stopped
to offer what assistance they could...which was a phone call to my wife in
St.Louis to advise her that we would be later than expected! (Niether of our
cell
phones worked out in the boonies.)We decided to take a DNF in the ralley
(although we only had 3 checkpoints remaining) and started our way back to
St.Louis
in the most populated route we could find...I-44. We made it about 20 miles
before overheating once again...riight across the street from a closed
convience store and a volunteer fire department (complete with water pump
outside of
the building, thank you very much!) We repeated the SR32 process (sans
pollywogs) and made it another 15 or 20 miles before starting to overheat once
again.
We exited I-44 and found a (closed) Harley Davidson dealer...we pulled over
and were soon visited by the local sheriff representatives. They advised us
about a short cut to a truck stop just 5 miles up the road, where we purchased
coolant, a gallon of water, and filled up our 8 empty coke bottles with cool,
clean water. We made it to St.Louis with no more problems, arriving at the
hotel
portico about 3am, greated by a verry sleepy-eyed Robert Rushing and Mike
Pentecost, rallyemasters. Had a quick Boddingtons, then off to bed.
THURSDAY:
Slept in until about 10am...then off to the parking lot. Mr.Verhey joined us
later in the morning where we started diagnosing our cooling problem. Stuck
thermostat? Head gasket? BOTH? Yep...both...A faulty thermostat lead to the
demise of the head gasket, diagnosed by the frothing of coolant in the radiator
at
idle. Gary Hayes, of the St.Louis MG Club, had a spare head gasket and
delivered it to us in the parking lot. There was plenty of help
available...NAMGBR
Chairman David Deustch got his hads dirty; Spuriite George Carasquillos loaned
us his torque wrench; offers of replacement oil came in from around the
parking lot....MG camaradarie at its finest! The car was repaired and test
driven;
Verhey grabbed some supper at Lewellyn's and headed off to Grand Rapids, MI
about 6pm. Jean and I (along with Jai and Sue Deagan) joined Kelvin Dodd for
supper at Dierdorf and Hart, a GREAT steak place at Westport plaza. Then it was
down to the parking lot for some more Boddington's. (Oh, yeah...my leg started
to hurt...very much!)
FRIDAY:
Got a call from HiTech...my MGC was done! John delivered the car to the
hotel; I delivered him back to the shoppe, then stopped by a car wash before
returning to the hotel. Visited the vendors inside the hotel (found a 1/18th
scale
MGB/GT V8 that just HAD to join my collection at the Triple C booth). Also
vending was Jeff Zorn of the Little British Car Company, Larry Rupp (who
donated
embroidered ball caps to all registrants) of the LedermanRupp Company; Carl
Heidemann, a jeweler, and I'm sure more! I missed the tech sessions both
Thursday
and Friday (damn) as well as the Route 66 tour on Friday (on which nearly 70
MGs participated!) Friday evening, we drove out to Love Park for the BBQ and
valve cover races. (We retired early...my leg REALLY hurt!) But not before
visiting the hospitality suite sponsored by the Kansas City MG Club!
SATURDAY:
Show day! We got to the show field at Creve Couer Park about 9am, parked the
MGC, then started chasing down Concours participants. Photo, model, and craft
competition was held under the shade of a pavillion, as was the silent
auction (where some really neat stuff went very inexpensively!) I had five MGBs
participate in concours, ranging from a 1964 MGB to a 1978 MGB. Winners were
announced at the banquet that evening. We stayed on the showfield until about
2pm
before departing for the hotel where I tallied the concours judging sheets
before phoning Mike Fishman of the St.Louis Club with the results. (All
trophies
were engraved with the winner's name!) Before the banquet, Kevin, Jean, Kim
Tonry, and I visited the plaza for a cool one (or two). The banquet ran very
smooth....words from Ken Smith, humour from Ken Costello, good food, no
rambling....it was GREAT! I received a plaque for my participation in the
Endurance
Rallye, and my MGC place second in its class. Concours was won by Paul Handley
with his freshly restored 1964 Iris Blue MGB.
We called it an early evening (my leg REAALY HUURT!) and went to bed. (But
not before briefly visiting the hospitality suite sponsored by the Chicagoland
MGb Club!
SUNDAY - The Departure
Got up late, enjoyed some coffee and a Krispy Kreme donut courtesy of the
Prairie Octagon MG Club (my home club!) We headed for home about noon and had a
flawless drive home, arriving about 4pm. (We stopped for about an hour in
Charleston, Illinois at Cody's Roadhouse for some BBQ).
MG 2003 was smooth and enjoyable. If there were problems, they were not
visible to me, the "common" registrant. My thanks to the St.Louis MG Car Club,
to
the officers and members of the North American MGB Register, to Moss Motors, to
Ledermann Rupp, and all other sponsors of the 12th annual NAMGBR convention!
See you next year in New Jersey!
Regards...
rick ingram
1969 MGC
1978 MGB
1974.5 MGB/GT V8
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