Had a FANTASTIC time at the MCA's 40th birthday bash for the Mustang!. I left
Kansas City and headed to Mustang, OK to meet the Mustangs Across America (MAA)
group, and cruised with them to Nashville. Met a LOT of friends from
Vintage-Mustang.com (VMF) along the way. The car did EVERYTHING I had ever hoped for or asked. We traveled 1965 miles(!),
got over 21 mpg, won a show award, and even flogged it a bit. It was a
pretty complete week!
Old friends and new friends all proved what this is all about. Thanks
everybody, for making my vacation the "time of a life" deal!
Here's a couple videos of the open track session.
Click on the picture to
see the entire video.
If you want to see more pictures from the event, check out:
My
Pictures * Bluefinger's
Pictures * Epperstang's
Pictures * Fastlane's
Pictures
My Daily Log follows -
Tuesday 4/13 - Left Kansas City in the clone.
Transmission had 10 miles on it since the rebuild, so the first few hours were
spent playing "What's that smell" and "What's that noise".
The Flint
Hills of Kansas made for some nice driving. Quickly learned that 5th gear
was useless below 60 mph. 70mph is just a tick over 2000 rpm with the 3.25
gears. As I reached the end of the KS turnpike 200 miles later, I found my first
traveling partner - a black late-model convertible. Some quick hand signals
confirmed we were both headed for Mustang, OK. Rolled into Mustang, OK about 2
PM - no other Mustangs in sight. A few cars trickled in over the next 2 hours,
and we all began to socialize, and gather lawn chairs and coolers, awaiting the
main group's arrival. Met "IspySVO" (from Mass.) from the Mustangs
Across America message board.
The main group rolled in, and the party was on. Mustangs EVERYWHERE. The Super 8
had ONE person working the desk, so the line was 1-1/2 HOURS to get a room. A
couple hours later, we gathered in the supermarket parking lot, and caravanned
200+ Mustangs a few miles to the park, with a full-blown police escort.
Dignitaries spoke, and the local club feed us all a taco dinner. Met some more
internet friends from Texas and Utah at the park. Headed back to the hotel after
dark, and tried to sleep, which was difficult with semi's rolling by the front
door all night...
Wednesday 4/14 - Gave up on sleeping at 4:45 AM,
and got up and showered. Headed to the lobby at 5:30 for a free continental
breakfast. Good thing too, as those awaking after 5 AM had COLD water showers,
and missed out on the 2 dozen or so donuts that the hotel generously provided
for our group of 200.... Doc
showed up at the driver's meeting with his 65 Clone, wearing a Michael Andretti
driver's suit, complete with gloves. We thought he still had his Pajama's on.
Morning drive was uneventful - was usually in the first 50 cars, moving up &
down in line to shoot pictures of the vintage cars rolling down the highway.
The lunch stop was in Sallisaw, OK. Ended up parked with Ron
Bramlett's (Mustangs Plus) black Mustang coupe, and chatted with him for a
while - nice guy!
As we left the parking lot, I ducked out the back entrance. As I traveled down
the access road, the MAA
pace car (Mustang One) was waiting to turn out. Being the nice guy, I
stopped and waved him on, then tucked RIGHT behind him. Spent the next 200 miles
running #2 in the MAA line up, until we rolled to a stop in North Little Rock,
AR. Road construction in Little Rock was a headache! MUCH nicer hotel (La Quinta).
The local club and North Point Ford fed us a GREAT BBQ dinner, and got to chat
some more with the Texas guys. That dealership is HUGE, with over 40 Roush,
Saleen, and Cobra Mustang just in the front parking area! Several were
"playing' a little as we pulled out, and I did as well... Retired early to
watch "The OC", and SLEEP!
Thursday 4/15 - Up a little early to make sure I
got some free breakfast. We again received a nice police escort out of town. I
hung back a little bit, as the car had developed a strange "rattle"
thru the floorboard. Spent the lunch stop in Memphis with the car up checking
things out. Apparently, the spirited 1-2 shift the previous night had moved
something in the exhaust/ trans x-member just a tad, causing the exhaust to
contact the x-member. Annoying, but not worth worrying about. Back on the road
again, we fought thru more construction, so-so directions, and Nashville traffic
until finally arriving at the Marriott. Checked in and scored the BEST room -
ground level with a patio that walked out to the parking area, 25 feet from the
car. Spent the next hour, unloading and unwinding.
A friend (Tschmidt) flew in to Nashville from Idaho, picked up his rental, and
we hooked up to go on the evening cruise, where we met up with our friends
Emberglow and L-Man. The staging area was a huge church across from the Opryland.
They had prepared for 400 cars - 2100 showed up. We quickly realized that this
might be a big mistake, and headed back to the Marriott. The toasting began, and
we all relaxed on the patio, and quenched our thirst for several hours, while
waiting for our buddy bob
to make his (promised) appearance. I realized that I hadn't had lunch or
dinner, and ordered up a couple pizzas from room service. STR8SIX and Huey
showed up. Huey did his part to help consume pizza. He IS 18....
Friday 4/16 - Up EARLY to find the racetrack. Tom
followed along, and we jacked the car up again to double-check the rattle. All
is fine. Managed to be 5th in line to get in, and snagged a GREAT parking spot
on the end of the aisle next to the grandstand. The dust and gravel was a pain,
but "Oh, well". Two hours later, a guy pulls up, his buddy gets out,
and they move the trash can that defined the end of the aisle so he could park
THERE, instead of one of the hundreds of open spaces that were available. We
gave him some &*%$^ about it, but he said "it's OK, I'm with the host
club". Loser!
Went down to the garage area, and woke bob up from his lawn chair nap. A BUNCH
of us hung out together and walked around, seeing the sights, and checking
vendors and cars out. Ended up with bob, Art, Myself, Ember, and L man having a
quiet lunch at their camper. Don't recall much of the afternoon, other than
trying to avoid becoming more sun burnt. Friday night, Tschmidt and I went for a
nice quiet Shoney's dinner. Tom went to the Saleen party, and did his best to
get me to go, but I was beat from the heat, and wanted to call it a night. Back
at the hotel, I was buttoning the car up for the night, when Sam Haymart (MAA
organizer) came thru. We chatted a bit, and I offered up some digital pictures
for the website. Went to his "penthouse suite" to upload them, and met
some of the "Roush guys". Ended up having several beverages, and NOT
turning in as early as hoped...
Saturday 4/17 - Got out halfway early again, and
started to get serious about car-cleaning. Got a GREAT end-spot on a different
aisle. Of course THREE people decided to extend that aisle, in spite of lawn chairs,
coolers, and anything else I could find to put in the way. Met a BUNCH of new
VMF folks. The judges did their thing, and I was determined to spend the
afternoon in the shade of the garage, so we headed that way. All of a sudden,
Emberglow buys some track time, and starts giving me crap about not running.
Even accused me of being a closet concours guy ("no hair on my arse").
Well, we modified guys DO have hair. Finally, everybody joined in harassing me,
and even bought the track time. Then threats were made concerning internet
harassment if I didn't go out. Easy for THEM to say, as I was the one 600 miles
from home without a trailer or any other means of transportation.....
Went up and got the car. Passed tech with the floor mats needing removed being
the only concern. Got a quick orientation session. Checked tire pressure, and
fluids. Ember took off to run, and came screaming back quickly.....They won't
let us run, since we were both in shorts. Everybody looked at each other,
visually compared sizes, and took off running for the men's room, Ember and
Coupe traded shorts and pants, and bob
and I traded. Good thing I had been dieting - 45 lbs ago, I wouldn't have
fit! Art rode with me, giving a few pointers. That car did well, and we were in
open track most of the time. Passed one car, and was not passed by anyone. It
was fun. Came back, ready to call it a day. Except...... Mber & bob were now
pushing me to run again in the 5:30 group. Checked the car, and noted a few
drops of 90W on the rear wheels. A quick check confirmed it wasn't a big deal. I
didn't want to run again, but the harassment was getting more intense.
This time, Ember was in front of me, with a Focus(!) and a late model Cobra
between us. The Focus was easy pickings, but the Cobra gave me some fits.
Starting closing on Ember, when I noted a puff of smoke from the rear. Didn't
matter, as Ember was going to get passed one way or another! I waited until the
front straight, and held 3rd gear until we were side-by-side, then pulled fourth
and checked out. Finished the lap, and pulled to the garage, as my mission was
complete. Had a pretty good coating of 90W on the rear discs. Art & I did
some looking and found the vent tube was kinked. Fixed that and called it a day.
While the car is "street-tuned", not "track-optimized", it was certainly more than
capable. The vent-tube was SUCH a fluke deal - anybody checked THEIRS
lately???
Now, in fairness to Emberglow, I do need to point it that the "clone vs
coppertone" (5.0 vs 289-2V) was like the high-school bully beating up the
prom queen. But "the prom queen" kicked me in the shin first!
The VMF Corn Squeeze was held at the camper along the back straight. Finally met
up with Charles Turner, enjoyed some GREAT BBQ, and good friends. Midlife even
called and was suitably harassed. Mark and L-Man were great hosts! Since we were
40 miles from the hotel, we called it an early night. Tschmidt and bob had me
take them to the rental car located way out in the middle of nowhere. I heard
later that they even had me drop them off at the wrong car, and they hadn't even
started drinking hard yet! The car ran GREAT getting back to the hotel, and the open track
session had helped the exhaust "clearance itself". No more leakage
from the rear either.
The PARTY really got rolling on my patio. I won't go into ALL the gory details,
as I'm reserving some for later blackmailing. We had folks from Massachusetts,
Idaho, Texas, Kansas, Missouri, New Zealand, and who-knows-where else. We shared
"the Mustang Experience" until 2:30 AM. What a hoot! Bob & Tom
both had early flights, and I'm sure they didn't sleep enough to be properly
hungover.
Sunday 4/18 - Awoke to find people video-taping my
patio, as 2 chairs had turned into 12, and there was a rather large pile of
empties. The MAA group had a 7 AM "last caravan" to the racetrack. I
couldn't answer the bell for that, but headed out about 8. Just parked the car,
didn't open the hood or anything. Made a couple purchases from vendors,
including a nice 40th anniversary watch for the wife. Hooked up with Ember &
L-man, and went searching for the awards tent. Was VERY surprised to find an
"Award of Excellence" with my car # on it. So excited that I left the
wife's new watch on table. Halfway across the parking lot, I figured it out.
Ember & L offered to hold my stuff while I ran back and retrieved the watch.
Mustang folks are GOOD PEOPLE, as the watch was still there! When I got back to
the car, my plaque was "missing". Found one on Ember's dash, but he
wasn't around. Left the show at 1 PM, and went to Ember's camper to find him
packing up to leave with MY plaque.... He gave me some static, but I got it
back. Too bad, because coppertone really deserved one too.
Got back to the hotel to find the maid cleaning my room. She commented how my
friends must be a bad influence, as I'd left her only Diet Coke and Lemonade
cans before... She finished, and I turned on the NASCAR race for a nice nap.
Started packing the car back up, gassed up, and checked everything over. The rear end
was down 4-6 ounces of lube, so I topped that off. Headed to the MAA banquet,
and sat with the Texas guys, and my newfound SVO buddy. Art Hyde was a GREAT
guest-speaker - Had a NICE evening, and said our good-byes.
Monday 4/19 - Left at 5:53 AM, with drinks and food
in the cooler. Outside Paducah, KY, another car decided to kick up a rock, breaking
the clone's original Carlite windshield. Southern Illinois brought the first
rain of the trip, lasting about 30 miles. After 320+ miles, I stopped in St
Louis for gas, more food, and a much-needed pee! Right back in the car, and
headed for home. Was waiting in front of the school when my wife & oldest
daughter got out at 3:05PM - 610 miles in 9 hours. They were shocked to see
me!
Rolled into the driveway exhausted. Of course the grass needed mowed. The car is
dusty, bug-splattered, and rain spotted. Still the BEST time both I and the car
have ever had!!!!
