The trip begins!

We left early to avoid the Atlanta rush hour and the heat, at least for a little while.  About 13 miles from home, the car sputtered and died!  I coasted to a stop in the dark, then pushed it about 10 feet so it would be under a streetlight.  Nothing seemed amiss under the hood, I got back in and it cranked right up?  So we continued on to breakfast on the other side of Atlanta, then on to Canton, GA to meet Paul and Barbara.  We met and left about 7:15AM.  It was very pleasant driving early with little traffic.  We went through the East Ridge tunnel, which is a narrow, one lane, tile-lined tunnel into Chattanooga.  It's a tradition, (at least for me) to honk your horn in the tunnel, and try to get everyone else to, also.  It echos like crazy in the narrow tunnel.  After a stop for gas in Manchester, TN., we pulled out and shortly after, the car sputtered to a stop again.  I was coasting down the street and spotted a carwash and pulled into one of the bays.  It was dry and in the shade!  Pulling the hose off the carb, no fuel came out, so Paul and I put a spare electric pump inline in the engine bay and wired it up.  (Or so I thought).  We got to Murfreesboro and it continued to run intermittently.  Our sightseeing in Murfreesboro consisted of auto parts stores and garages.  I had plenty of wire, but forgot any connectors, so I bought a crimp tool set and wired the pump up.  There was a garage next to the parts store that we were told was very good.  So, we drove over to Todd's Complete Auto Care.  Todd let me pull in an open bay out of the sun and I checked all wiring and the original pump while the women waited in the air conditioned lobby.  Turns out that the pump wasn't getting a good ground so that was corrected.  Todd has a nice shop and works on street rods, 'Vettes as well as routine stuff and was super nice.  Amy, his service advisor even called a British car shop in Nashville to see if we could get in for a check up.  I just wanted to get everything checked and the pump replaced if necessary.  With the replacement pump pumping along, we drove on the Nashville to JD's British Cars.  This may be Nashville's only exclusively British car garage.  They work on only classic British cars and new Aston Martins and Rolls/Bentley.  And, there were some nice samples of all in the shop.  JD took time to check both pumps, which turned out to both be working!  The intermittent workings of the old pump may indicate impending failure, but it was working fine at the moment.  So, we left it hooked up and left the spare pump mounted and ready to hook back up.  We drove on to Goodlettsville which is outside Nashville, where we stopped at a Hampton Inn.  We walked across the street and ate at Quiznos subs and had frozen yogurt for desert.  So, a disappointing first day.  I'm sure I left out some details and got some mixed up, but I'm tired and still trying to figure out how to get stuff where I want it in this blog.  On to Cave-in-Rock, IL tomorrow!