Time and Miles Fly!

It is amazing to think that I have been driving Miz B for 4 years!  What most amazes me is the fact that I decided to sell my modern car and just drive her everywhere!  I sold my 2004 MB about 18 months ago and haven't regretted a moment since.  I certainly missed the little car while she was in the mechanics garage for a couple of months at the end of last year.

When I bought the car, June, 2009, she had 60,397 miles on the odometer.  Today, she has 82,817 miles showing.  22,420 miles in 4 years, averaging about 5,600 miles a year.  Not exactly an accurate picture of how she has been driven.  Last year, I drove a bit over 8,000 miles!  One two week period, in June, we drove from SC to MI and that was a trip of about 3,000 miles.  

I expect that in the future, the car will be seeing about 7-8,000 miles each year, especially considering that I am not driving a modern car.

This little car certainly has made for some major changes in my daily life.  I have become very active in the local Model A Club, the Palmetto A's and also in one of the national clubs, MAFCA.   I had a wonderful time chairing the MAFCA National Awards Banquet and look forward to new challenges in the future.

But, in the mean time, here is the view from the right hand drive of Miz B...................

Traveling the Blue Ridge Parkway in May, 2013

Tour to Chester

Saturday's tour began with all of us meeting at the Flying J Truck stop on the north side of Columbia.  That meant that we had to leave the house about 45 minutes before our departure time of 8:30.  Not too bad!  When we arrived, there were three other A's already waiting for us.  By our departure time, we had 11 A's in total traveling with us.  Nice group!

We noticed on the drive over to the meeting spot, that the fan belt was making a bit more noise than usual.  It was a high pitched squeal.  It didn't sound good, but we had a spare in the trunk, just in case it was needing a repair.  The squeal was not constant, so we didn't worry too much about it.

Our first stop was one for gas about 2 hours after our start.  This was probably the worst gas stop we had ever made!  The pumps didn't take credit cards, there were only 4 pumps, and it was a busy place.  After about a 30 minute refueling, we were ready to get going again.  

We were headed for the Catawba Fish Camp.  We arrived close to noon and were a bit concerned that there were very few cars in the parking lot.  Not usually a very good sign!

Next time we will know, if there aren't any cars in the parking lot - just keep driving!  Lunch was fair, at best.  Don't think we will be going there again.  We did have a great meeting, not very long, but very productive.  We settled on a club trailer to purchase and that will be done this week.  Yeah!  At long last, the club will have one central place to store all of our picnic and swap meet supplies.

We were soon back on the road and headed for home.  We had a couple of planned stops along the way.  One was a quick break and the other was to Liberty Hill Presbyterian Church in the Wateree Community.  

Just before arrival, the skies opened up and it poured buckets!  Unfortunately, Miz B's side curtains were in the trunk!  We didn't get too wet, but would have stayed a bit dryer if I hadn't been so quick to take them down the day before.  

After a brief tour of the graveyard, some of those graves dated back to the Civil War, we were back on our way home.

It was a fun day of driving the Model A's with good friends.

A day or so later, John decided he had heard the fan belt squeal enough and was going to replace it.  Good thing he did!  It was beginning to shred.  No wonder all the noise.  

We are looking forward to our next tour with the club.  On June 15, we off to Grits & Groceries, Split Creek Goat Farm, and the Happy Cow Creamery.  Yum!

Gatlinburg to Home

Saturday morning dawned with light rain showers.  Seemed a bit like liquid sunshine, because it was warm and the winds were calm.  As we packed the cars, apparently a bear came from the woods to check out the activity - finding nothing too interesting turned around and left.  I never saw it, but that's the story.  

We had breakfast and were rolling out of the parking lot by 9AM.  The rain was coming down hard as we hit the mountain just outside of Gatlinburg.  After a quick pit stop for gas in Cherokee and an application of RainX, we were motoring down US441 South, headed for Clayton, GA.  It seemed that we were mostly going down the mountains, after leaving Cherokee.  After a week of many hard climbs, we were looking forward to the flatter lands of northern GA and SC and the even flatter land of the SC midlands!  In Clayton, we picked up US76 East.

About 1PM, we stopped in the tiny crossroads of Townville, SC, in Anderson County, for lunch.  It was the Townville Cafe.  We all had great hamburgers and were ready to get going in about 45 minutes.  

Our weather was relatively pleasant for the remainder of the drive - just a few light showers.  We were watching a large thunderstorm off to our left, which was moving north.  We were fortunate, we seemed to be driving at the back of it and never ran into it.

About 2PM, we received word that Buster had made it home.  They had stopped in Clinton, SC about 9PM the night before - just too tired to drive any further.  Buster was behaving very well.  Seemed that he had a case of altitude sickness in the mountains of the Blue Ridge.  Once down in the flats, all was well and he ran perfectly!

We got separated from the others when the car behind me decided it was time for fuel.  Our walkie talkie had gone dead and we never heard they were going to stop.  Not a problem.  We kept going to the next filling station, filled up and waited for the rest to catch up with us.  Soon two of them came along; the Crabtrees had split off for a road that went through Orangeburg.  They live in the SC Lowcountry, near Charleston and didn't want to go through Columbia.  Not exactly sure what time they got home, but received an email from them about 8:15PM, saying they had made it.

The last two hours were completely uneventful.  We had driven this highway for many years and were all very familiar with each turn and pothole!  In Ballentine, the Princes and we took SC 6 West and parted ways with the Cockerills as they headed on into Columbia on US 76.  Another 2 miles down the road, we were on our street and almost home.  We arrived at 5:57PM.

We had had a grand tour of the Blue Ridge Parkway.  We were gone 8 days and drove 1,492 miles in Miz B.  We used  1 quart of oil and 84.6 gallons of fuel, averaging 17.63 MPG.  Considering we were climbing mountains and were very loaded down with luggage and miscellaneous tools, water, and oil, we feel that the gas mileage was pretty good!

Miz B will get a much needed clean up today and be ready for the next tour - only 6 days away!  We are headed out with our local club for Chester, SC.

For those of you reading this blog via the link on the MAFCA website, please know that I write about my adventures in Miz B, be they national or local club.  Feel free to look any time for new posts.......

Asheville to Gatlinburg, TN

Today was a big day!  We were to be in our cars and lined up on the road leaving the hotel at 7 AM. We were released in groups of 20 cars to make the short drive to the Biltmore Estate. We were to have a group photo made in front of the grand old home.   I decided if Miz B was invited to make an appearance before such a grand lady as the Biltmore, then I needed to get out the McGuiars and clean the road grime off as best as I could. Unfortunately, the wheels and tires were just going have wait, and wow are those cream colored wheels and wide white walls filthy!!

Here is a bit of the statistics on the place:

Biltmore Estate is a large private estate and tourist attraction in Asheville, North Carolina. Biltmore House, the main house on the estate, is a Châteauesque-styled mansion built by George Washington Vanderbilt II between 1889 and 1895 and is the largest privately owned house in the United States, at 178,926 square feet (16,622.8 m²)^[2] and featuring 250 rooms. Still owned by one of Vanderbilt'sdescendants, it stands today as one of the most prominent remaining examples of the Gilded Age, and of significant gardens in the jardin à la française and English Landscape garden styles in the United States. In 2007, it was ranked eighth inAmerica's Favorite Architecture by the American Institute of Architects.

We definitely weren't the first cars to roll out of the parking lot this morning, nor were we the last!  But, it turned out that we really had a great parking place for the photo. We drove up and were directed to park with our front end facing away from the house and our tires backed up to the front lawn. I thought that possibly we might be in the front row, but the A's kept coming!  We ended up with three rows across the front and a line of A's down each side. My count of cars came to 106!  That's a lot of Model A's!!!  I did notice the only other right hand drive on the tour, a yellow and black A400 was parked in the row in front of me and a bit to the left (as you look at the house).  

Miz B is in third row with white top                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         

As it turned out, those of us parked in the row backed up to the front lawn, we were allowed to leave our cars right where they were while we toured the house and grounds. That was wonderful, because time was slipping away from us - we had tickets to enter the house at 9 and the photo shoot didn't conclude until 8:50!

This home is positively magnificent!  The Vanderbilt's must have had a love for orchids, as every room had at least one blooming orchid on display. If you have never visited, it is definitely worth the travel time to do so. Words could never do justice to the grandeur of this home. Not one luxury of the day was overlooked, from the central conservatory, the magnificent pipe organ to the beautifully decorated personal rooms of the family, all is lovely!

We left Biltmore about 11 and headed toward the parkway and Gatlinburg. After a quick local barbecue lunch, we were on US 25 N for a few short miles to pickup the parkway. We only had 80 miles to go before completing the 469 miles of the entire parkway from Charlottesville, VA to the Great Smokey Mountain National Park. About the last 20 miles, one of our group began experiencing difficulties with "Buster," he is a 1930 Model A Pickup out of West Columbia, SC. Buster was having a great deal of difficulty climbing the mountains. Plus, he was going through a LOT of gas!

As we exited the parkway, it was imperative we find gas for Buster. The O in the gas gauge was right smack in the middle!  We think he was running on fumes, his 10 gallon tank took 10 gallons!  We found gas and Buster's owners decided it was time to part ways and make their way back home instead of going on to Gatlinburg. We said our goodbyes and Buster headed south and the rest of us headed west for Gatlinburg.

We arrived - along with at least 150 other Model A's at the resort in Gatlinburg. That made for chaos at the registration desk - again!  But in time, we were all registered and getting ready for the farewell banquet.

We feasted on delicious fried chicken, mashed potatoes  gravey, beef tips, Mac and cheese, corn, salad, and yummy desserts. No one left hungry!

Tomorrow, we will make our way back to Columbia, but we will have another A traveling with us. Jack and Mary Crabtree out of Charleston will be with us. We are always thrilled to have other cars join us in our travels.

I will blog again tomorrow evening of our days adventure. Not sure we will go the entire distance - no real deadline to make, so we might take it easy!

Here is a link to my Facebook page where I have posted photos all week. 

http://m.facebook.com/#!/happybegg?ref=m_notif&notif_t=feed_comment&__user=1320983774

I will update blog with photos after I return home. 

Boone to Asheville

Our morning dawned bright and sunny. We loaded up Miz B and headed for the parkway. It was so nice to see the sun!

Our first stop was to Grandfather  Mt. We already had our tickets, so we just rolled through the guard post. It was a very steep climb to the top. We wanted to walk the swinging bridge and cross over the point of 1 mile altitude. It was blowing hard and was very cold. The thermometer in the gift shop said that the wind chill was 5 degrees. We bundled up in several layers and off we went across the bridge.

The view was spectacular, you could see for miles!  After making a video and taking several photos, we were on our way back down the mountain.

Miz B at the Visitors Center on Grandfather Mountain

View from the Swinging Bridge at Grandfather Mountain

Swinging Bridge

Fay Prince after crossing Swinging Bridge

Miz B with her friends on Grandfather Mountain

Our next destination was to Linville Falls and lunch at the Famous Louise Rock House. Lunch was delicious. I had fresh fried flounder and John had the homemade vegetable soup and grilled cheese sandwich.  It was so nice to have Linda and Walt Kritemeyer join us. Afterward, we dug through the picnic basket for the cookies - we needed dessert!

Soon we were back on the parkway headed for Asheville. We took our exit and made our way across town in 5:00 traffic.  We made a stop at Biltmore for a tour of the gardens.

Miz B in front of Biltmore House

We arrived at the hotel about 5:30 and went for supper. It was a miserable experience to say the least. It took over 2 and 1/2 hours to be served and eat. I don't think the hotel was very well prepared for 400 hunger folks!

The rest was good and in the morning we headed to Gatlinburg, TN .......

On the road to Boone

This morning brought another cloudy cool day. All of us are ready to see a bit more of the sun!  We decided to go to the main dining room for a hearty breakfast, before getting on the road. We pulled out of the hotel parking lot about 7:30, much earlier than the previous day. We really wanted to finish out day much earlier than yesterday. Dinner at 9PM is a bit too late for us.

We gassed up before getting on the interstate for our 10 mile drive back to the parkway. As we were pulling out, the rain got started!  While John put in the gas, I had been busy putting a new coating of RainX on the windshield.  That was a good decision!

Soon, we were back on the parkway. I saw large areas of Trillium, most of it wasn't blooming. We saw another wild turkey and a small herd of deer were observed grazing along the roadside. This morning, the fog and mist was very thick, so we crawled along for about 8 miles. We stopped at the Mabry Mill and enjoyed a cup of coffee or hot chocolate.  The mill still produces grits and buckwheat flour. It is now run by the National Parks Service. The mill was able to saw lumber, grind meal or flour, or operate woodworking equipment.

Mabry Mill - on the Parkway

We continued our drive in the light rain, driving in and out of the low clouds. In some places, there was zero visibility. This has probably been the worst weather we've driven Miz B in - ever!  As we climbed in altitude, we again saw snow along the roadway. Amazing how much colder it is up on the parkway as opposed to down on the valley floors.

We got off the parkway near Mt. Airy - Home of Andy Griffith. The town is what the Andy Griffith Show was modeled after. We enjoyed a great lunch at the Snappy Lunch. It definitely was snappy!  Almost no wait time and very cheap!  A fun place to have lunch. Then it was next door to Floyd's Barber Shop.

John Cockerill waiting for his haircut at Floyd's.

Gentleman in the tie is the character Griffith based Floyd on!  He is still cutting hair!

John at Floyd's Barber Shop

Fay and Bill Prince pose with Barney in Mayberry.

Soon it was time for us to continue our journey on the parkway. We gassed up and made our way back. The weather down off the parkway had been much less rainy, but we soon discovered that it was still foggy and rainy on the parkway.   Our group of 4 doubled for the next 30 miles, as 4 other Model A's joined us.   But, once we pulled over for a quick stop the others went on down the parkway.

The sun made a welcomed, yet brief appearance about mid afternoon. It made for much faster travel.

We arrived at our mile post to exit for the city of Boone. We were only 10 miles from our hotel and we all were ready to quit for the day.

After checking in, we drove the few short blocks to the historic Dan'l Boone Inn for a family style supper of fried chicken.  It was delicious!

We decided to meet at 7:30 in the morning for breakfast then to get back on the Blue Ridge Parkway to head for Asheville in the morning.

Arrival in Roanoke

I had a bit of trouble near the end of the previous entry, so here is the rest of yesterday's story .....

We observed a bit of snow at elevations above 3700 feet. Also, the trees had not leafed out, yet. The views of the valleys between the ridges was a spectacular sight to behold. So lush and green. We drove past rushing waterfalls and very swollen creeks, streams, and rivers, most had spilled over their banks.

Not much wildlife was seen, but, there have been a lot of cars going through their habitat. Several wild turkeys and squirrels were seen. Everyone is hoping to spot a bear, but that remains to have happened.

Just about the end of yesterday's ride down the parkway, we encountered a thunderstorm. The rain came down pretty hard. We arrived in Roanoke just a bit after 6, but had to make our way completely across town from the east side to the west side. Our destination was the Sheraton near the airport. Fortunately, the traffic was light, because it was raining pretty hard and we were to get on Interstate 581.

Upon arrival at the hotel, we were met by a huge crowd of Model A'ers. Not sure if they were just standing around waiting for the last few of us to arrive or watching to see if Elvis was able to repair the head gasket on his car!

Upon check in we made reservations for supper in the dining room. It would be late, but no one seemed to mind.

It was agreed that we needed to get an earlier start in the morning, because we have closer to 200 miles to go on Wednesday to get to our hotel in Boone.

I'm not able to post photos on this blog with my phone or iPad, so I will add the photos upon completion of the trip at home. Or if you want to see them sooner, just visit my Facebook page.

More tonight .......

Charlottesville to Roanoke

Today began dark, rainy and foggy!  What better way to start out on a Model A adventure!  Before breakfast, we decided to get the tarp off the car and load up our gear. So, out we went at 7:30AM. I think everyone else had the same idea!  There was a great deal of bustle under the portico. Elvis was trying to get his car in good working order, along with about 10 other Model A'ers trying to load their gear under cover. We proceeded to the parking lot and just dealt with the rain.

After loading up the car, we went upstairs for breakfast and to connect with our group. We enjoyed seeing several other friends, as well.  Soon, it was time to make our way to the Blue Ridge Parkway. So, we said our goodbyes and said we would see each other soon..

We had directions to the parkway, but decided that we didn't want to use them, as they would put us on the Interstate highway for 18 miles.  That was just too much high speed traffic to deal with in the rain and fog during rush hour traffic this morning!  So, we put in the coordinates for mile marker 0 of the Parkway and off we went.

We actually backtracked the exact route we had taken into Charlottesville on Sunday afternoon. We got to the beginning of the parkway and decided that we best stop for a potty break - as there is nothing commercial on the road, at all.  It was pouring cats and dogs by that time!  We were very thankful the visitors center was open.  After a quick 15 minute stop, we off.  We did make a wrong turn, but Model A's are great at making U Turns and that was exactly what we did!

Very foggy on the Parkway

Above the clouds on the Parkway

We drove the beautiful parkway in heavy fog for the first 30 miles. Honestly, it was uncomfortable to drive above 30 mph. I couldn't see more than 15-20 feet in front of the headlights!  The bright spots in the woods were the beautiful dogwoods heavily in full white bloom.

At mile marker 46, we got off the parkway for lunch and possibly gas. We chose the Subway in the little town of Buena Vista. After consulting the route and the availability of gas, it was decided that we should gas up, as well. It was an interesting journey getting back up to the parkway. You literally must go down the mountain to get off and you must climb the mountain to get back on!

It was nice that the rain stopped just as we left for lunch.  We took a break of about 45 minutes, but then we were back on making our way to mile marker 86. We were headed for the National D Day Memorial in Bedford, VA.

We arrived about 3:15. They have a beautiful, fully restored 1927 Seagrave Fire Truck on display in the Visitors Center, and we really enjoyed looking it over.  Soon, it was time to go over to the Memorial area for our guided tour.

This memorial is really well thought through and extremely symbolic of the exact happenings of that triumphant, yet tragic day.  Per capita, Bedford, VA lost more young men than any other city of the US on that fateful day than any other.  Therefore, the memorial was built in this tiny little mountain town.   Here is the link for the site.  http://www.dday.org/

We spent two hours here listening to a very knowledgable gentleman. He explain all of the symbolism of the memorial.  It is a wonderful tribute to all who were there on that fateful day in 1944.

After making a few purchases in the gift shop, we decided that we needed to make our way back up to the parkway for our final leg of the day's journey. It was a very steep climb, which we made in second gear!  The rest of the days journey was a bit uneventful, although, the scenery was spectacular.  There aren't as many flowers blooming as I had anticipated, but we were treated to trillium, dogwood redbud trees.rees.  

Red Trillium

Charlottesville and Monticello

It has been a great day for ducks here in Charlottesville!  It has been very chilly and misty most of the day.  After breakfast, we decided that the best plan of action was to head up to Monticello, home of Thomas Jefferson-our third President. It wasn't really raining, just a heavy mist. We wanted to be able to walk through the gardens before the heavy stuff came down. 

The drive up the mountain was rather uneventful. We were prepared for a very steep incline, but that wasn't the case. The countryside was absolutely beautiful!  Dogwoods, rhododendrons, and squill were blooming.  The road was very curvey. 

We arrived at the new Visitors Center about 11. We had some time to kill, so what better way than a bit of retail therapy!  We enjoyed perusing the many books about Jefferson and his magnificent gardens.  I bought a few gifts and a pin for my Model A vest.  We enjoyed the video presentation about Thomas Jefferson and Monticello, then it was time for our tailgate picnic.  I mean literally - we had a picnic lunch from the tailgate of Buster, the Austin's 1930 Model A Pickup in the parking lot of Monticello.  We enjoyed barbecue sandwiches, chips, okra pickles, homemade cookies, fresh fruit, poundcake and sodas.

Soon it was time to tour the house. We went in through the front door, not the facade which is so photographed - the same image which is on the US nickel.  Once inside, we were in a two story foyer with many Indian artifacts, clothing pieces, antlers from several different game animals. We progressed into the private rooms of the Jefferson family. Jefferson's library consisted of hundreds of books in the 7 different languages he was fluent in. Jefferson's home was a beautiful example of his architectural genius. There were dumb waiters for transporting wine bottles to and from the wine cellar beneath the main floor and to transport food from the kitchens to the dining room.

Once we finished touring the home, we went out into the formal gardens. There were beautiful paths lined with peonys, various spring bulbs, French Lavendar, and many other species of Spring perennials. 

We further wandered down to the household garden. There were vegetables and herbs of just about anything imaginable.  Below were the vineyards and orchards, all perched on the mountainside.

Our last visiting place was to Jefferson's grave. It is set at the edge of the woods in a quiet and peaceful spot.

Our visit concluded back at the Visitors Center. 

We left Monticello intending to follow the directions - but got turned around, so we decided to follow Garmin's directions and took the scenic route through a beautiful old neighborhood. There were many turns, but we enjoyed not driving on the Interstate in the rain!

Upon return to the hotel, we joined many other Model A'ers in the Executive Lounge before going to supper in the main ballroom of the hotel. We enjoyed a great cookout spread of hotdogs and hamburgers. Then we were enlightened to the history and sights we would encounter on our drive this week.  After a few Longevity Awards and closing remarks, we decided to call it a night and will meet up in the morning. 

Tomorrow we are bound for Roanoke. Lets hope the rain lets up a bit, because right now it is pouring cats and dogs!

Reidsville, NC to Charlottesville. VA

Yesterday morning dawned cooler, cloudy and very windy. We met for a quick breakfast in the lobby, checked our cars over, loaded up and were off by 8:30 headed for Charlottesville, VA. 

Garmin was our guide as we travelled the back roads of northern NC. and southern VA. The azaleas were blooming and the dogwoods scattered through the woods were so beautiful!  We decided to grab an early lunch to beat the church crowd. So, about 11:15 we pulled into a Cracker Barrel for lunch. It seemed that everyone else had the same idea. It was packed!  We were in no hurry, so the 35 minute wait was no problem. 

After a great Sunday dinner, we were back in the cars headed up the road for our destination. We arrived at the Doubletree Hotel about 4 and quickly found many friends from all over the country. The parking lot was full of Model A's!  A right hand drive was spotted by another in our group. I'll have to find the owner and meet him/her sometime this week. You just don't see very many of these.

Below are a few snapshots of cars in the parking lot:

We enjoyed the Executive Lounge before heading out to check out the parking lot and button up the cars for the night. So many beautiful A's!  

We decided we were just too tired to go anywhere, so we opted for the hotel dining room and John and I split a salad. We discussed having a picnic at Monticello, but are concerned that the rain maybe upon us in the midday. Well prepare for the picnic, but have a backup plan if there is no covered picnic area. 

It was off to bed by 9. We are looking forward to our adventure beginning this morning!