Somewhere in the summer of this year, I got wind of several Morgan events being planned within a few weeks of one another. Several Morgan owners from the Dallas area developed a plan to head east, while I pondered joining them. Their plan was to attend an event at Watkins Glen, New York, next Auburn, Indiana, and then have a drive back from there (with a round-trip flight from/back to Cleveland thrown in the middle). As I studied the logistics and cost, I decided to instead head north to attend an event in Fayetteville, Arkansas, then to an event in mid Wisconsin, finally joining up with the other Morgans in Auburn. I would fly the Texas Morgan flag high at both events.

The Fayetteville meet was as perfect as I had been led to believe by Morgan owners who had attend this annual event before. It was an all British event, and the Lotus, Sprite, Bentley, Triumph, and other manqué owners were as gracious as any Morgan meet I can remember. The first evening we were feted with a bar-b-cue dinner outside, where I met another Morgan owner; I became quick buddies with him, as he seemed to know most of the people there, and most knew him. The weather stayed great for the show next day, and even though another Morgan showed, Opus (my 4/4) took 2^{nd place! Not bad considering that I was in awe of the amount of Armor All, polish, wax, and Q-tips I saw being used to clean the bodies – and you wouldn’t believe what I saw being used on the cars! But I digress.}

The meet wound up and Opus and I headed north to Wisconsin. It had been raining off and on, but being an optimist I never thought it would rain on me while I was driving. So there I was on I44 headed east when I saw this huge wall of water about a mile or two away. Still thinking that the rain would magically go around me, I drove faster (although I have no idea why, now that I think back). The water hit – hard. I saw a rest area looming ahead where I could pull off and put up the top. Usually a top can be put up within a few minutes, but all I can say is that I have a modification to Einstein’s formula for relativity. E = MC2*R (where R = rain). It seems the colder and heavier the rain, the slower the top can actually get in place while the driver is getting completely drenched. Still, the top did get on, and I continued onward. Of course, within another 10 miles the rain stopped, never to appear again for me the remainder of the drive. I had an absolutely beautiful drive north through the middle of Missouri and into Iowa. I had planned to drive a little further that evening, but I was slowed down by (drum roll please) bugs. As I approached the Mississippi and low bottom cornfields, I had no idea that every bug in North America was meeting for their annual mating rally. I literally had to stop twice just to clean the bugs from my windscreen and headlamps – it was like a soup – a horrible, horrible soup. Some of the bugs hit so hard that they chipped the paint off of Opus – now THOSE are bugs.

I found a hotel in Keokuk, Iowa, and tried contacting the Wisconsin hostess one more time - as I still wasn’t clear on the daily events at the Wisconsin rally. She responded to my email about 8:30 that evening that read something about like this: “Didn’t you get the word? We changed the date. We thought we had contacted each club, and I thought they would in turn pass it along to their members. Sorry – the event was last weekend.” Nothing I could do at this point, so I decided to take in the sights of Keokuk the next day while pondering my options. If you have never been to Keokuk, go. It turned out to be a gem on my trip. It sits on a bluff overlooking the Mississippi, and has 30 or so magnificent grand homes that watch over the river. The people were great, and as I was crawling along with Opus’ top down taking photos of these homes, people would walk over and strike up conversations. One guy actually knew what a Morgan is, and we talked about the oilers and such. He was all excited about seeing a Morgan, he called his buddies; and we all met in the evening for a beer and wine and talked cars. Keokuk is one nice town.

Since my plans were thwarted by the Wisconsin date being moved, relatives in Illinois awaited – it just turned out to be longer with them than originally planned. Which now brings me to another modification to previous Einstein formula: E = MC2-RT (where RT = Relative Time, which makes the clock drag on and on and . . .). But, eventually it was onward to Auburn to meet up with the other Dallas crowd. Slowly all arrived, and it was fun seeing everyone. On the Sunday of the departure, I decided to head south to visit a relative in Louisville, but I won’t bore you with those details. The fun started to really happen outside of Little Rock on my last leg to home. Driving about 75 on either I40 or I30 (sorry, it is all a blur), I had a blow-out on my left rear. I got the car pulled over, and assessed the damage. What a mess. The tire was completely shredded, and my side lamp was totally knocked off, along with the support strip that connected the wing to the body. But, I got the tire changed, and even found the side lamp parts scattered about on the shoulder about 100 yards back, which I retrieved. Life wasn’t too bad at this point.

The day wore on, and I was within 15 miles of home on 121 in north Plano when boom! – the right rear tire blew and shredded while I was going 75 mph. I got the car pulled over, and assessed the damage once again. It was just like the previous one. Morgans are consistent if nothing else. Not having another spare, and knowing that no Morgan owner would get out of their warm bed at 10:30 to bring me a spare, I called a tow truck and got carried the rest of the way. The next day I looked at the damage. It wasn’t that bad, but it would take some new side lamps (thanks to eBay, I found the exact pair I needed for only $40!), and I took this opportunity to send my wire wheels AND 5 new tires to Bill Hendrickson in NC. He promptly mounted them, balanced them, and sent them back to me with 5 days.

Opus is now humming along quite nicely, and I figure I can go another 25 years now until I buy another set of tires. Life is good.