Day 1

Day 1 started out with Ray & Teri 1 1/2 hours late because their car would not start. After a lot of trouble shooting, Ray figured it out and we were on the way. We met with Tom & Betty and Jim & Mike Wingo. We only went a couple of miles when Tom’s car stopped.  We drifted into a parking lot and found a loos screw in the distributor that caused a short.  He took out the screw and all is well.  Tom also had trouble with the timing.  In the rush to get going, he did not set the timing correctly and so he adjusted the timing, added water and we were back on the road.  We travelled 300 miles today and are now in  Starkville, MS.  We had lunch at the Generals in New Site, AL. Had some of those yummy cheese balls.  It was a hot afternoon of driving but a good day.

Day 37. Home at last

We left Lebanon, TN this morning in misty rain. It rained hard last night and the saturated ground can't handle any more water. Water is standing everywhere and there is localized flooding. We drove up to Mont Eagle where it was pretty foggy. The weather got better after that. In fact the sun came out later. We stayed on I-24 until Chattanooga where we took US 27 to Carrolton and GA 16 to Newnan and then home to Peachtree City. I honestly say that the ride home was uneventful. We did not have any breakdowns the entire 37 days. Jim lost 2 fan belts, one the first day out and the other one yesterday, the second to last day of our adventure. But they were caught before the broke completely so no damage was done. We were in 15 states. (Our Model A has been in 35 states now.) The rest of the group made it to 14 states. We drove through Ohio when we left the group to attend our niece's wedding. We were in 2 Canadian Provinces. We made lots of memories. As for favorites. Maine and Vermont were the most scenic. The Bay of Fundy was amazing. The power of Niagara Falls is aweing. The areas close to the falls are overpriced and full of tourists. We went to many great museums. Jim was happy to have finally been to Saratoga Battlefield. Teri can now say that she has been in all five of the Great Lakes but didn't get to go to Nova Scotia. Ray & Teri ate lobster at least once a day while in Maine. Betty didn't care because she ate steak. Our total miles for the trip was 6,177.6 miles. Cost was about $8,700.00.The group agreed that the worst roads overall were in Pennsylvania. However, I-24 in Chattanooga had one terrible pothole. We saw Jim's car jump to the right as it went over it. Would we make the same trip again? That would be a qualified yes. We loved Williamsburg area, Gettysburg, Maine, Vermont, New Brunswick, parts of Michigan but the beauty of Niagara Falls is cheapened by the tourist attractions around it. We were there 30+ years ago and it was so much nicer then.

Last night on the road

We left central Indiana today about 8:30AM. We drove through many miles of corn fields with an occasional farm house and barns. We crossed over the Ohio River into Kentucky. The scenery changed from flat fields to rolling hills. We meandered through Kentucky, enjoying the change in scenery. We passed a unique place to stay, in tepee-shaped little cabins. Just before we arrived at the hotel, we stopped for gas. We left because there wasn't anything but 87 octane gas & the neighborhood was questionable. Jim forgot his gas cap and went back to get it. He was able to find it and stopped and took some pictures of the local Lebanon, Tennessee court square area. We will continue towards home tomorrow and barring any unforeseen problems, we will be at home tomorrow night. Today we drove over 400 miles. Tomorrow will be about 270 miles. Our total trip mileage will be over 6000 miles. As you can see, we celebrated a little last night.

Auburn, Cord, Duesenburg Museum

We arrived at the Early V8 Museum about 9:30. The lights were on, the sign said open but no one was home. We checked at a building next door and and no one knew where they were. We toured their facility. It was like a flea market with prices as high as the American Pickers. We gave up on the V-8 Museum and went to the Auburn Cord Duesenburg Museum. What a classy group of cars! What makes it better is that the museum is in the original showroom for dealers when the cars were new. Jim had never been there and he felt that it was one of the best automobile museums he had ever seen. After lunch, we drove about 100 miles. We are spending the night in Anderson, IN. Tomorrow we will start the trek south towards home.

We've Been to Hell & Back

Well it's official. All of us can say that we've been to hell & back. In fact, we got our exit visa! Hell.Michigan is unincorporated but they do have their own post office. The person running the gift store has a great sense of humor. From there, we went to a Hudson Museum in Shipshewana, IN. where the 91~year-old museum owner was there to greet us. We are in Amish country where the farms are pretty and horse and buggies are everywhere, The evening was spent at a cruise night close by where there are over 400 cars. we are staying at a nice modern Amish motel. They have wifi they don't have a business office. So that's why the pictures are a day late.

Lake Michigan's East Coast & Last Full Day in Michigan

We left Acme, Michigan this morning a little after 8AM. We had hoped for better weather but it continued to be cool and rainy. Ray & Jim climbed up 113 steps to a lookout over Lake Michigan. (I would have too but was fighting a bug that I picked up over night.) The weather didn't allow us the views we had hoped for. We continued along Lake Michigan's eastern coast, following a scenic highway that wasn't very scenic. Then we went east, around Grand Rapids. We passed through lots of pretty farmland, including seeing 2 spotted fawns in the road before stopping for the night in Charlotte(pronounced Char-lot). Tomorrow we are going to a small town called Hell, Michigan. That way we can say that we've been to hell and back. The pictures of our cars in front of a caboose was an ice cream stop. Please ignore the broken links. Again I can't delete them without starting over. :( /VZSDUdtoLuI/AAAAAAAAAx4/dEIDFb74iaM/s320/deer.jpg" /> blogspot.com/-vfDHkpnnJhc/VZSDdcQXdJI/AAAAAAAAAyA/3pAtnp_9pLs/s320/Farms.JPG" />

Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore

We left Hastings, Michigan a little after 8 this morning. It was cloudy and drizzled on & off all day. We stopped for lunch in Kingsley at the Kingsley Cafe. Wow! What great prices! We ordered our food, hamburger, grilled cheese, fries and two drinks for $11.00. We sat down when some ladies from the Red Hat Society came in. One of the feisty ones told us to move because they wanted our table. Needless to say we were surprised. She told us to go sit in a booth. (It wasn't big enough for 5 people). They wanted our table for their group. The management apologized for their behavior and said that they did not reserve tables. After lunch, we went to Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore. We've heard that it is absolutely beautiful but we couldn't see much. From the top of a huge sand dune, there was a sign warning people not to go down to the bottom because it is costly to get help to get back up to the top and very time consuming to climb back up to the top. It took us longer than we thought to get there because of slow speed limits and foggy conditions. We left there and drove through through the countryside through Traverse City to Acme where we are spending the night. Tomorrow we plan to head south, following the Lake Michigan shore. The weather is supposed to be much better. Today's high was in the low sixties. I apologize for the duplicate picture.