Day 2 - Hayti, Missouri....should be Hades, Mo.

The day started off great...temp. was great...good breakfast...left Cookeville and had a wonderful start to a beautiful day...After 180 miles on this tank of gas, we started looking for a service station...there were none to be found...we were in a very rural area...Alan kept saying we can go 240 at least...(I was skeptical)...after 39 years you would think I would learn to trust him.  Well, we finally found a gas station...and began to think, if gas stations are this few and far between I bet restaurants are too...and we were beginning to think about lunch. 

 Bad Bob's  BBQ in Tennessee

So I put food in the GPS and it said we could eat at Bad Bob's BBQ.  We found it and it was wonderful pulled pork that we all enjoyed.  I had to think of Hank Haskins, when they had bologna steaks on the buffet. 

When we finished eating Wright and Pat Bagby texted me and said they were crossing the Mississippi.  We were 30 miles from our destination and about 15 miles from Wright and Pat.  Piece of cake the day will be uneventful....not so..time to go to dinner...will finish later..the saga continues.  We put the hotel in the GPS...no problem...we would go straight to the hotel....NOT SO...we were

directed down gravel roads...in very remote countryside.  After turning around about 3 times...David decided his MAP was better than our GPS... After making 3 calls to the hotel...we were told donot use the gps...get on I-55 and take exit 19...and low and behold there the hotel was....needless to say I will be sending a comment to GARMIN....they definitely need to fix this.  By this time Alan and I had used up all our nice words and all of our deodorant. 
I tried to take a picture when we crossed the Mighty Mississippi...but the Healey is so low all you get is the railing....But I did get a picture of the Missouri sign.    More to come tomorrow...

Day 1 - Cookeville, Tenn.

We left home before 7:00, ate breakfast in Shelby at our favorite Pancake House.  We were an hour earlier than we intended..."I was so excited to be on our way".  We totally forgot that we were going to gain an hour before we got to Cookeville. "This was the days funny story"  We got to Cookeville before noon...checked out the town and had ice cream for lunch in honor of John Davidson and Carl Brown that were not with us on this trip.  Around 5:00 Tennessee Time Jan and Davie Burgdorf, Springfield, SC joined us.  We had a great dinner and made our plans to leave in the morning at 8:00...we will travel to Hayti, Mo. where we will meet Wright and Pat Bagby. 

Pancake House Shelby, NC

Jan & Davie after dinner

Alan has the car ready for tomorrow.

Today was an uneventful day, weather was great, humidity was low...We will see about tomorrow.

Check list

Plants watered-check
fridge  emptied-check
mail on hold-check
sign off with friends and family-check
camera & charger-check
snack bag-check
I think it is all done and we are ready to roll bright and early in the morning...

Preparation for the trip

Alan has gone over the car from top to bottom and stocked up on the various parts that may be needed.
I am organizing our luggage for the 24 day trip.  We will drive approx. 300-350 miles per day, leaving from Gastonia, NC on  June 29 arriving in Colorado Springs on July 3.  I will post pictures along the way.  I hope you will enjoy following us.

First, I would like to thank Hank Haskins for setting up our blog and our wonderful neighbor Chuck White for house sitting for us.

Off we go...

Alan and I have attended and helped plan "bunches" of car shows over the last fifteen years,  we are getting excited about our July Conclave at Colorado Springs.  There will be lots of neat Austin Healeys  and friends, which we value greatly, but the venue is cause for the excitement.  We are going to the home of the fighting falcons.

That's right, we are making a road to trip to Colorado Springs and beyond!  Our host for our July car show is the U.S. Air Force Academy.  So many sights to see on and off base we will be pressed to work them all in before we head westward for more big adventures. 

F-16 Fighting Falcon