Going home!

October 9, 2016

We had breakfast with Kyle, who stayed over last night, at a local bagel place.  After saying our goodbyes, we were off to Atlanta.  We traveled down Hwy. 41 through Murfreesboro where we passed Todd's Auto Service where we had stopped about 5 years ago when we had a problem.  We waved to Todd, but being Sunday, he wasn't there.  We continued through Manchester, TN, home of the Bonaroo Music Festival.  Here we passed the car wash where we pulled into one of the bays 5 years ago to work on the car.  Luckily, this time we drove right on by.  Must have been the blessing we recently received!  We then continued on to Mont Eagle where we got into some real twisty roads, first going up the mountain then down the other side.  Coming down the other side into Chattanooga, we could see the Interstate, which paralleled the road we were on, and it was a parking lot!  As far as we could see, the traffic was stopped, while we motored right along.  We were afraid that the road we were on would get jammed up with people getting off the Interstate, but we never encountered any traffic and were able to get through Chattanooga with no problems.

We passed one of our favorite landmarks - a uniform company with a gate in the rear with a sign that reads, "Caution:  automobiles will not fit through gate".  I guess this is to cut down on cut through traffic, but our car fit though with no problems!

We were looking forward to going through the tunnel in East Ridge, but I took a wrong turn and we went a different way.  We started looking for a local establishment to eat lunch but found out that on Sunday, the only thing open is fast food chains.  So, we continued on through Rossville, Ringgold and on to Dalton.  We finally found Marisco's Puerto Vallarta restaurant which was open.  This was a cool little place, a Mexican seafood restaurant.  Even though it was about 3:00 pm, it was busy.  I think we were the only non-Spanish speakers in the place!  Very authentic and popular.  We had shrimp tostados and a cerviche cocktail and they were very good.

We continued on through Chatsworth, Talking Rock and stopped at the QT in Jasper for gas and coffee.  It was getting late in the afternoon, and we remembered that we have a club meeting tonight. We decided to just go to the meeting and we would arrive just a little late.  So, we reset our GPS and the traffic was light and we finally made it to the Harp Irish Pub in Roswell about 6:00 pm.  We enjoyed the meeting and then we out to eat with several other people to Emidio's, a very good Portugese restaurant.  We left dinner about 9:00 and finally got home about 10:00!  

So, after 11 days, 3 car shows, 4 states, 5 hotels, a Mardi Gras parade, our car getting blessed, a hole in the exhaust pipe from bumpy roads, meeting new friends and seeing old ones and travelling 1778 miles, we had a blast, but are glad to be back home...until we go on the road again!

Nashville British Car Show

October 8, 2016

This morning, we drove about 10 miles to Centennial Park, the site of the Nashville British Car Show.  We parked the car in our designated spot, cleaned it up and then went to eat breakfast at Rotier's Restaurant.  This was a little hole in the wall place that was nothing special, but was filling and cheap.  We then spent the rest of the day looking at cars and talking to people at the show.  It was beautiful weather, but a smaller turnout than I expected.  (In fact, there were only 11 MGBs).  Also, our son drove down from Ft. Campbell, KY and spent the day with us.

Why not just place a sign that says, "Please don't sit in my car"?

Range Rover Evoque convertible - it was even uglier with the top down.

The Good Humor man was there in his 1953 Chevy truck selling ice cream

A nice Lotus Elan and MG-TC brought over from the Lane Motor Museum

A very nice Marcos GT -won its class and Best of Show

An MGA Twin Cam

View of part of the show field with the Parthenon in the background

Tomorrow we will head home!!

On to Franklin and Nashville

Oct. 7, 2016

We left Tupelo this morning and drove up the Natchez Trace toward Franklin, TN.  This section  of the trace is in very good condition, and it was a very nice drive - cool, clear and very little traffic.
We eventually had to exit the Trace and continued on through the town of Summertown, TN where the entire town was participating in a yard sale.  For miles, all along the street, people had piled their junk to try to sell.  We even saw some Amish shopping,  driving up in their horse and buggy.  We were doing well until we hit Spring Hill.  Here the highway is also main street and goes right through town.  So, you have local traffic, highway traffic, and lights that are not synchronized, resulting in a crawl from light to light.  Was very slow, but we finally made it out of town and to Franklin.  We stopped and walked around the historic downtown and ate lunch at the Franklin Mercantile Deli. Good, fresh, homemade sandwiches.

We then drove to the hotel and checked in, and then freshened up for the get together for car event participants at JD's British Car Service.  This was a very nice event, with food donated by the  Nashville British Car Club.  J.D.'s shop is like British car nirvana, with many different examples, in various states of repair.  We got there a little early and JD was nice enough to provide me a jack, jackstands and a creeper and I was able to temporarily repair the exhaust pipe with a patch I picked up at an auto parts store.  Took about 5 minutes with the proper tools!  Car sounds normal now and this will hold until I can get home and get a proper fix.

Workshop at JD's British Car Service

We also got to see my nephew's business, Greener Roots Farm, which is right down the street from JDs.  Here, he grows various leafy greens and herbs indoors, hydroponically, year round and supplies them to local establishments.  The whole process is quite interesting.  If they ever legalize pot in TN, he will be ready!!

Growing veggies and herbs hydroponically at Greener Roots Farm

We then returned to the hotel, enjoying the cool Nashville night.

(Pictures coming)

Travel day

Oct. 7, 2016


We left Biloxi this morning on our way to Tupelo, MS, which is just a stop on the way to Nashville, TN.  It was a long day, crashing along Hwy . 49 south of Jackson, then we stopped at the High Noon Cafe in the Rainbow grocery co-op in Jackson for lunch.  The GM of the co-op is a fellow Midget owner!  This is a healthy food place and lunch was good, considereing it contained no meat.  After lunch, we made our way to the Natchez Trace which would take us to Tupelo for the night.  Since this is a federal highway, I was expecting it to be in great shape.  Its a beautiful drive, but the roadway in places was almost as bad as the terrible roadway in Jackson.  Very disappointing.

We   finally arrived in Tupelo, checked in and then went to eat at the Blue Canoe, a popular pub - loud conversation, loud live music and good food and drink.  After dinner, we went back to the hotel, washed some clothes and got ready for tomorrow.  We'll stop in Franklin, TN, a cute, touristy town before getting to Nashville.

"Blue Mother Tupelo" live at the Blue Canoe

For dessert, we had Connie's Blueberry Doughnut Bread Pudding!

Biloxi Block Party

Oct. 5, 2016

Today is the Biloxi Block Party.  Almost all the streets and parking lots in downtown Biloxi are closed to the public and used for car parking.   Cars starting parking about 6:00 am!  There were hundreds and hundreds of cars of all variety on display.  It took hours and miles of walking to see just some of them!  Here, and throughout the coast, there is a huge variety of vehicles - including restored classic American cars, lots of nice, older Corvettes and older pickup trucks, lots of very nice Tri-5 Chevys (almost seems like there are more here than they every produced!), muscle cars and of course, a huge variety of beautiful and creative custom hot rods.  

View of cars beginning to arrive at the Biloxi block party

A few of the sights in Biloxi

A very neat and well done vehicle in the bed of a very neat and well done pickup truck.  The sign reads, "The spare tire"

Check out the underhood mural!

This is a new one for me - a guy riding his Rascal scooter pulling a trailer with his wife in it!

An authentic Cadillac ambulance from the 60's.  Medical technology has certainly changed in 50 years!

A row of very nice T-Buckets

We left the event about 1:00 and went to a recommended repair shop to see about getting the exhaust pipe fixed.  When we got there, they said they couldn't get to it then, but they would call us.  So, we went to eat lunch.  After lunch, we never heard back, so we left to go to  Diamondhead, MS for the Blessing of the Classics.  Not knowing exactly what this was, we decided to check it out.  We got to Diamondhead just fine, but then we got into another 1 MPH parade.  There were lots of people along the routes enjoying the cars.  We finally came to a roundabout where an Irish Catholic priest stopped each car and gave a blessing.  We received a gift of a pair of fuzzy dice and a nice certificate with the prayer on it.  It was fun, but I hope the blessing is for life as its not something we would go back for!

Residents watching the cars!  This is also the scene along Hwy. 90 as thousands of people line the route,  with their canopies, chairs and coolers as they  watch all the cars cruise by.

Golf carts lined up watching cars!

Our car was blessed!

After getting blessed, we headed back to the hotel and parked the car after another long and hot day.  We walked to the Adventure Pub and Spirits in downtown Biloxi for dinner.  It is a popular pub with really good food.  Tomorrow we will head out, our destination will be Tupelo, MS. on the way to Nashville.

Adventure Pub and Spirits

Ocean Springs, and more...

Oct. 4, 2016

Today started off great.  We got a coupon for one free breakfast buffet at the hotel, which has a huge assortment of food for breakfast.  So, we're standing in line waiting to get a table and this guy in front of us says he has this prepaid card with $60 on it and it is a one time use card.  So, he says, "I'll be glad to buy you breakfast, and you don't have to sit with me.  I just hate to waste the money on the card for one meal."  So, we said OK, we'll use our coupon tomorrow.  We shared a table with the guy, who is from Picayune, MS and had a nice conversation.  I asked if he was a car guy, and he said no, he was there for a Blackjack tournament.  We finished breakfast and told him I hope his good deed brought him luck.  We then continued on the Ocean Springs.

Downtown Ocean Springs, MS

 Rat rod seen in Ocean Springs

Nice rod seen in Ocean Springs

Ocean Springs in about the eastern most Cruisn' the Coast venue.  It's downtown is lined with huge oak trees and many shops and restaurants.  We parked and walked around and ended up making a contribution to the local economy!  One of the local artists makes sculpture out of junk and in one store there was a large sculpture of a rat rod,  It was very detailed and very well done.  If it wasn't so big, and didn't cost $7500, I would have gotten it!

Yesterday, and on the drive over this morning, I thought the car sounded funny.  Its running fine, but sounds "different".  So, before leaving Ocean Springs, I checked out under the car to see if anything obvious was amiss.  That's when I noticed that the front tailpipe support had broken loose leaving a small hole in the pipe and the bracket rattling against the pipe.  Thus, the different sound!  I feel certain that this is due to the trip through Jackson.  I'll see if I can find a muffler shop for a quick repair, or just drive it like that to Nashville.  It should run fine, the only problem would be if the only other support breaks!

We returned to the hotel, then walked to Mary Mahoney's in downtown Biloxi for lunch.  This is in a very old building, that was built 30 years before the birth of America.  It has been a restaurant since 1964 and is still run by the same family.  And, it is the home of The Patriarch,  the largest oak tree on the coast, or in the southeast, or something like that.  It is reportedly 2000 years old!  The restaurant is very elegant, and many celebrities have eaten here (and they have plaques and pictures on the walls to prove it).   This is also home to the second weird urinal I've seen on the trip.  It looks like a stainless steel trough filled with ice!  I wasn't sure if I was supposed to pee in it or get ice for my glass from it, so I used the toilet instead!

Mary Mahoney's  (with The Patriarch)

Weird urinal #2

After lunch we walked around Biloxi then went back to the hotel to rest before tonight's attraction - a flame throwing competition!  We figured we'd see what kind of insanity this entailed - we will be watching, not participating!

This afternoon we drive over to  Gulfport to witness something new to us - a flame throwing competition!  The premise is simple - guys start their engines and get as much raw gas as they can into the exhaust  pipe and then ignite it, sending flames out of the exhaust pipe.   They are judged and the "best"  flame thrower wins a prize!  This is automotive insanity, but some of them were pretty good!  And, yes. there was a firetruck on hand!  After that excitement, we cruised back down the coast highway on a beautiful night and stopped at Ajax for dinner.  This is a nice seafood bar where we ate on their nice deck and watched cars cruising down the road.  Then a nice drive back to the hotel.  The Biloxi Block Party is  tomorrow.

Waiting for the competition to start.

Lightin' up the night!

A nice dinner at Ajax