The alarm went off at 4:15! We had to leave the house by 5:30 to pick up Liz and Jacob and travel to Lexington to meet up with the group touring from the Columbia area to Greenwood. In Greenwood, we met up with 5 more A's from the Old 96 District Model A Club. We were headed for Sky Top Orchard in Zirconia, NC, then over to Flat Rock for lunch at Hubba Hubba BBQ.
The drive began with the little car skipping a bit until she warmed up, then ran beautifully all the way to Greenwood. Then it seemed that every time we stopped, the skipping on start up lasted a bit longer each time. I was also experiencing difficulty starting the car. But, we carried on and arrived at the orchard about noon. The place was packed with folks! Amazingly, we ran into John's two sisters, nephew and their girlfriends in the orchard! It was a beautiful day on the mountain top. Jacob even got Poppy to go way off into the orchard to find some apples to pick. I, on the other hand, went into the market to buy apples - already picked and cider. Liz stood in a very long line to purchase donuts. Unfortunately, the donuts weren't worth the price, but we were so excited to find cider cake donuts, we had to try them.
We all met back up at 1:30 to travel about 2 miles to get to the barbecue place. The trip down the mountain was a bit hairy for most. I decided going up, that I was going to go down in 1st gear. I'm sure the folks behind me weren't too happy to creep down at 5 mph, but I was determined not to burn out my new brakes! John Cockerill thought his car was overheating, but realized his brakes were billowing smoking! John, my husband, found that by the time he got to the bottom of the mountain, had no brakes left! Another fellow had to use his emergency brake to stop his car! Tough grade! No accidents and we were off to Flat Rock and a great lunch.
We were just sitting down to lunch, when my cousin, Jeannette and her family arrived to say hello. It was wonderful to be able to see them. The girls are growing up so fast!
After letting Miz B sit for about 2 hours, she was very difficult to start and she didn't want to climb out of the parking lot. It was straight up and she was skipping terribly! We left Flat Rock about 4 pm for the drive back home. We made a couple of stops for fuel and to say good bye to our friends and we arrived home at 8:30. It had been a very long day in the Model A's. We traveled about 300 miles, total, and were gone 15 hours.
This morning, John decided to change out the condenser to see if the skipping issue is in the distributor. He reset the points and I took her for a test drive. Nothing different. Tomorrow, we call the mechanic for an appointment on Tuesday, to take off the head. We are thinking it's a blown head gasket. This is a very big job and requires two people to get the head off.
More to come later . . . . .
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