Final chapter -Monday, July 25, 2011

Back home.  The car will need a deep cleaning in the next day or two.

Well, we made it home safely tonight about 7:15 PM, after 12 days, about 2101 miles, and about 54 gallons of gas.  The day started in Murfreesboro, TN at the Hampton Inn.  Paul was having some drivability issues that started yesterday.  Very rough running.  After some discussions via phone, we decided to make our way to Todd's Complete Auto Care, which is only a few miles away.  This is the same place we stopped at on the way up, when Todd was nice enough to allow us to use an empty bay so we wouldn't have to work in the sun.  He and Amy were just as accommodating today. The mechanic, Cliff, helped track down the problem, which looked like it was the wire from the coil to the distributor cap.  After replacing that, and a few other items, including a rotor that we had just gotten from Jeff Schlemmer at a tech session, and some minor adjustments, the car was running fine and we headed home.   We drove to Chattanooga, and both cars did fine climbing up and over Mont Eagle.  Once in Chattanooga, we pulled into the Mt. Vernon Restaurant for lunch.  It looked decent from the outside, but was even nicer on the inside.  It looked like we may not have been exactly dressed for the place, but since it was a late lunch, they weren't very crowded.   They just put us in a back room by ourselves where no one could see us!  We just got salads, vegetables and fruit and plenty of liquids to rehydrate.  After eating, we proceed on home, and back through the East Ridge Tunnel, where we blasted our horns through the single lane tube!  On through Ringgold, Adairsville, and Canton, where we stopped for dessert (frozen custard at Bobby's Hamburgers!) before going our separate ways home.  Even with the problems we had, it was a wonderful trip.  We had a great time, saw a lot of interesting things and met a lot of nice people. We hope you enjoyed following us on our trip. We'd like to thank all those involved with organizing the Midget 50th get-together.  You did a great job and we're looking forward to the next one, whenever and wherever it will be.  .  Now it's time to clean and check the car to see what it needs before the next trip.  One thing I know is that we won't be going anywhere until it gets a little cooler!

If you need car help in Murfreesboro, TN, this is the place to go.

Cliff and Paul checking out the car.

Lunch in Chattanooga, in the back room!  This is a very nice restaurant.

The end of the trail, we go our separate ways home after 12 days.

Jack and Kathy