First of all, I wish to thank HOTMOG for a wonderful weekend. The food, local, tour and friendship was wonderful. Heart of Texas Morgan owners Group, which prides itself as the most libertarian of the Texas clubs, was well organized and most hospitable.

Barbara and I met on Friday with the Siegal’s at their house and were on the road by Ten AM. Bernard was in the 53 Flat Rad and took us on a lot of back streets, to avoid heavy Dallas traffic. It was sort of a neat tour before hitting highway 67 heading southwest. We did a brief stop in Glen Rose to coffee up with the idea of stopping in Hico for lunch, which we did not do, since we had all snacked in Glen Rose. Bernard, with Denise and Barbara in compliance, thought that because of the age of his tires, that we would tour at about fifty to fifty five and this worked out very well on a beautiful Texas fall day. We reached Lampasas at about Two and met up with Ronnie and Blake Flener. Shortly after this Ken Lindsey arrived and pre-registration with instruction packets was set up in a meeting room at the Inn of Lampasas. The schedule of events had a picture of Roy Murphy crossing a low water bridge and was a remembrance of him. After unpacking, etc., toward five, we headed over to Mimi and John Cole’s lovely home, where they hosted a knock out of a dinner on their terrace. The setting is amazing. We were joined by four deer, which were spotted by Frank McClain. I couldn’t really get Linda, Barbara or Denise interested in viewing the critters. I did notice that Lee Charlton and many of the women were discussing domestic critters, their care and challenges. Great comradery on a velvety Texas Hill Country evening.

The next morning we met for breakfast in the Inn and prepared for the tour through the countryside. It was a marvelous tour. Duncan had arranged for us to have lunch at the Oakalla Fire House. Those firemen must have had an executive chef. I have made it abundantly clear that at my age I have divided everything into edible or non edible and this was superior eating.

When we got back to the Inn we noticed that Bernard had been correct about his tires as the right rear, a vintage Pirelli, was going flat. For all the world it looked as if a bunch of staples were poking through the rubber. He changed it from one of the two spares with an even more vintage cross bias tire.

A silent auction was taking place in the meeting room and it was to continue that evening in the Historic Hostess house along with door prizes and a live auction conducted by Bob Chamberlin. That one comes close to a blood sport and is great fun. Many of the items were generously donated by Len and Mary Nelsen. Tony Frederick won a beautiful pair of Brookland’s aero screens and Frank McClain cornered the market in Plus 8 valve covers.

On Sunday morning Ronnie and Blake had left by the time most of us were awake. After farewells and breakfast we left with our traveling companions the Siegals. We had a bit of a problem with the Flat Rad as it was bouncing a tad all over the road. Bernard adjusted the tire pressure and other than a bit of harsh ride, there were no more problems. We stopped in downtown Hico and were approached by the woman who runs the Billy the Kid museum in which we had a good time and she wished we would attend their car show in April.

I want to sincerely thank our friends in HotMog for their hospitality and friendship and our good friends the Siegals for a wonderful weekend and a pleasant convoy to and from the Hill country.

Matilda’s keeper