Dallas in My Rearview Mirror, or Where’s Nawlin’s?

We few adventuresome travelers met at the Crandall Cotton Gin Restaurant at 9am on Thursday, the 17^th for a speedy departure for New Orleans, Louisiana.  Well, the Boyles and Mike (who drove out to have breakfast and wish us well, and then head back to Lubbock) got there at 8am, and had a meal and waited while the others dribbled in.  Chuck and Barbara and Bob arrived, and then we saw Dick drive by on 175, missing us completely.  Luckily we were still waiting for Traci and Roy, so Dick had time to find the next exit and return to us. Five Morgans and 8 travelers finally got a sluggish start sometime after 10am.  Could this have been an “OMEN”?

We cruised down 175 admiring the redbud trees blooming, the massive collection of scrapped vehicles along East Texas highways, the decomposing carcass of a once red Austin-Healey in a field, the white bridal wreath bushes, emerging irises, dogwoods bursting with white blooms from the pine forests  and little towns sometimes not fit for their lessened speed limits. It was sometimes a zig and a zag off course and on to Jacksonville where we picked up 69 to Zavalla.  Somehow we had thought to lunch at Jasper, a ways down the road, but we ended up in Lufkin at Mom’s Café.  Fate was all that could have been leading us there.  One group toured Lufkin following the suggestions of the GPS (making a left turn where a right was required to get there). The car that couldn’t make the traffic light with the others ended up asking a native Lufkinian in a Suburban coming out of the Post Office where Mom’s was and got succinct instructions which ended with the direction “It’s across from the CVS!”.  Guess who made it to Mom’s first?

After lunch a sort of strange discussion began with “How do we get back to the highway?”  Once again we started out in the same direction, but a left turn intervened and two parties split to find highway 69. One went again through town, the other found the loop about a mile straight on and weirdly all met at the same intersection on the other side of town. We pressed on to Zavalla and 63 to Jasper.  Somewhere along the way we detoured on 62, which was a charming loop. Going through Jasper was a blur, but thankfully we did end up on 190 on the way to Deridder. The towns raced by, the slightly odd off course routes appeared and were conquered, the gas stops were welcome relief.  190 turned into 171, then 26 and into Oberlin, and as night was falling 165 led us to Kinder and the Day’s Inn motel.  We had wanted to stay at the local casino but it was totally booked. The beds were very comfortable, in fact, Chuck and Barbara wanted to go back and check on the brand of mattresses. 

Unfortunately, we did have dinner at the Waffle Shoppe. Only 2 workers were at the job, and the food and service suffered.  Those of us with the omelets were satisfied.

Oh my, Friday the 18^th dawned and we had decided we didn’t have to leave really early; it was but 4 hours to New Orleans.  Who said that?  Continental breakfasts at the Inn, and a happy good-bye to the Patel’s, our hosts, and we set out for Baton Rouge and the turn south on 61. We wandered out of Kinder, looking for 190 to Baton Rouge, and after a few miscues as to its direction, headed east.  We had lost Traci leaving the motel, and thought she would catch up when we hit, you guessed it, road repaving. No such luck, but finally she was reached by cell and met us at Bayou Catering of LA in Baton Rouge.  This was after we gassed up with “no ethanol gas”.  I guess you could say we gassed up with some good Cajun food at the Bayou Catering. We sped out of town, once again losing a group member or two getting back on 190. Connected again by cell, the hapless, or maybe clueless, group pressed on to our last highway change, 61 to Metairie.

 WOW, it looked good on the map. Just a lovely highway parallel to I-10 going through a few small towns was all we had left on our route.  Well, imagine what seemed like 200 Planos, Friscos, Allens, Irvings, and Arlingtons between you and your travel weary heart’s desire – Metairie and the Hampton Inn.  Traffic signals every 100 yards, strangely merging roads from the right, and left turn exits a block long toward which the natives drove with reckless abandon frizzled our minds, fried the GPS, and caused some overheating of engines and tempers.  Several times escape routes to I-10 tempted us, but we tried not to be lured.  The resolve of the group broke finally and some sought the fresh air of the interstate.  We all did make it to the hotel.  Strangely, our 6^th Morgan from Mississippi, Joe Speetjens and his wife Cynthia arrived with a similar story of crazy traffic on I-55.

So far, we made it to New Orleans and only one mechanical mishap occurred.  Chuck Harris’ Matilda (4/4) seemed to have a sticking accelerator.  Boyles, having suffered this with Sophie (4/4) and Swan (+4+), offered it might be the need of a new spring instead of a cable and he just happened to have a few along.  This fixed the problem at the overnight stay in Kinder and thankfully Chuck and Barbara didn’t have to put up with that on the HIGHWAY 61 TRAIL OF TERRORS.

That evening the hosting car club, British Motoring Club New Orleans, had prepared a welcoming party for all coming in from out of town.  We were served delicious home-made Cajun and other southern fare provided by the club members.  A slide show of the last year’s event gave us a preview of the next day.  Door prizes were given; in fact, I got the first one called that evening. We all had a fine time and retired early to get ready for Saturday. I almost forgot, there was a goody bag when we checked in too.

Saturday, the 19^th,  dawned cool, fresh and foggy (?).  It seems a common occurrence in that region.  Fasting was broken in the hotel food area and those leaving that afternoon for Dallas went to pack cars before going to the car show. Such luggage was stowed in Traci’s truck during the show I guess. The Boyles and the Speetjens were not leaving until Sunday.  I think Cynthia was intent on some shopping while we others showed the cars.

We arrived at the Delgado Community College campus (of course by various ways) and were ushered in to have the official photo taken (free for all entries). Having never had more than one Morgan at the previous 20 years of this car show, they had to move some cars around for 6 extras. Our second Morgan mishap occurred in the picture queue when Joe’s +8’s cooling fan quit and it was over heating. A trip to the auto parts store got him a new switch and a rather unconventional mounting of it on the front bumper. The other Morgan, which had been shown the 2 years previous as an “other” was a spiffy 1951 Flat Rad, right hand drive. The car was used in its past life for “Trials” in England. It still had the handle bar for the co-driver to hold on to whilst he stood on the back of the car and bounced it up the hill.

Some of the other 150+ cars in attendance included MGB’s of all sorts, MGA’s, Triumphs, a few Austin Healeys, Rolls Royce, and the others including 2 Deloreans. My favorite was the Austin 7. Interestingly, a number of the attending cars had been restored at the college and some were at that time in the restoration process there.  Tours were held of the facility where the cars were worked on.  Wouldn’t it be nice to have a similar place in our area? Proceeds from the show went for scholarships for the automotive school.

Everything seemed to go on schedule at this event and promptly at 4pm (a little before actually) the awards were given out. The Flat Rad won 1^st of the Morgans, but Joe (+8+) got 2^nd and Traci (+4) 3^rd, so we did okay. People gathered around the cars during the show like they were some sort of rare birds, and really exclaimed in surprise when they realized we had driven from Dallas, Texas. They loved the windshield signs made up for the cars also. I even overheard one gentleman telling his wife about how extraordinarily rare Morgans were. I am really jaded; I see them all the time.

The amenities were great, plenty of shade for our chairs, the student union cafeteria open to sell food, door prizes given out regularly.  Art got one even though he didn’t attend. Bob, Chuck, Barbara, and Joe also were in the drawings. Oh yes, we also got a goodie bag tote full of things at the event.

The show over, Traci’s car was loaded on the trailer and that group, Bob, Chuck and Barbara, and Dick Hawkins, left town for an early start home.

The Boyles and the Speetjens returned to the hotel to while away the rest of the evening, pack the un-necessaries into the car, eat dinner, and wonder how the exploratory group was faring and where they would spend the night.

Sunday morning we got going about 8:20am on I-10 past Baton Rouge, skirting LaFayette, and turning north at Jennings on 26. I-10 had been a breeze, even with occasional patches of fog.  Highway 26 was a smooth go through the country to DeRidder where we picked up the route we had taken going south and began to backtrack. At Jasper we stopped for lunch at the Lone Star Buffet and fortified, cruised on home to arrive at 6:30pm. All in all a nice days drive, the only other stops being 2 for gas.  I even managed to navigate us around the loops at Lufkin and Athens. We gave the early leavers 15 hours head start, and arrived home 1 hour later then they on Sunday.

JEB