2011 – Road Trip Three   (where’s Dick Hawkins?)

9:00 AM Thursday, September 22 and the adventurers are Judi Boyles 4/4 (Sophie), Bill Boyles +4 SS (The Blue Max), Blake and Ronnie Flener +4, and Chuck Harris/Chuck Small 4/4 (Matilda). For this trip, we had some welcome interlopers, George Boley (TR 3), Tony Martin (TR 6) and Steven and Paula Ward (Mark VIII Jaguar Saloon). The ultimate destination? The 10^th annual Brits in the Ozarks event in Fayetteville, AR.

So we left relatively on time. Early morning rain was forecast, but all looked well up through Commerce, Paris and into Oklahoma. But as we stopped north of Broken Bow for lunch, at the Stevens Gap Restaurant*, the skies opened up. So, casually we just closed up our weather gear and waited it out for a couple of hours at the restaurant. Prior to our departure, many had coffee and pie, the alternative to afternoon tea and crumpets in Blighty. The caravan had picked up Darrel Van Dyke and wife Carolyn in Paris, so now we were seven stranded vehicles. Soon the rain moved on and we proceeded up sinuous highway US 259 to the Queen Wilhelmina Lodge in Arkansas. (The Van Dykes bailed out a little earlier as they were to stay at the Mount Magazine Resort further north.)

An interesting happening at the Lodge was a gathering of the Tin Lizzie and Model T Club from Tulsa, which had 10 – 15 cars on display from the 10s and 20s. And they took off on a morning drive the next day! What a complement to our sports car group. When we awoke on Friday, we found that we were above the cloudline. It looked like a blanket of snow covering the valley below.

Since we were in Mena, Steven arranged a visit and tour of the Street & Performance Shop, where he gets all his specialty parts. It has a foundry, a chrome plating shop, a body shop, wiring harness fabrication facility, exhaust fabrication, the works. A large two building operation located at 1 Hot Rod Lane. A great experience.

Moving on, we followed the undulating, twists and turns, up and downs of highway 23 into Booneville, AR and Lucy’s Diner* for lunch.

From Booneville, we continued on 23 into the Ozarks and its exceptional turns, cutbacks, climbs and descents; 20 mph to 10 mph up and down and around the mountain. What sports car roads! Perhaps due to the superior driving skills, the Triumphs and the Jaguar were able to keep up with the Morgans, even with their admittedly inferior equipment.

Finally into Springdale at the hotel about 5:00. After unpacking and greeting new and old friends, we immersed ourselves into the traditional parking lot party, feed and drink fest, which continued into the night. An outstanding welcoming event; always well executed.

The next morning, it was off to the showplace. It was cool and threatening rain (which resulted in only a few sprinkles). Some 170 entrants were in attendance and the ALS Foundation received some $14,900 as a result. So that makes it a success in itself. Darrel had bought a new tent for our shelter, from which we hung the Club banners.  On display were some eight Morgans. Besides the five Texas Morgans, there were the +8 and Aero 8 of MMCC member Jim Peckham from Arkansas, as well as the Aero Super Sport of Jim Woestman of Carthage, MO. (It was often misidentified as an Aeromax.) In visiting with Jim, he advised he had taken a 2010 car instead of the long wait for a new car, as he was approaching Boyles’ age. So again, the Morgans were the hit of the show. As usual, there was a selection of multiple door prizes, give-aways, a silent auction and inexpensive food and drink available.

Saturday night was the presentation banquet, with Al Moss, founder of Moss Motors, as speaker. It was good food and good enthusiasm as the awards were presented. Apparently, touring with the elite Morgans rubbed off. Both George and Steven won first place in their respective categories. Do we need to drag up some MGs, Austin Healeys and others to win off the reflection of Morgan. The Last Sports Car. All awards were presented except for the Morgan Class. Those results were missing. Although our President expressed her displeasure, no results came forth. At this writing, there is no clarification.

Sunday. finally, due to a scheduled late start (9:00), Tony headed home. The rest of us trekked across the street in order to introduce Steven to a Waffle House.

Then it was down an alternate route (which had never been used before) until we settled down at the Corner Café* in Wilburton, OK. When you have so many hitting a place at once, especially on Sunday, service was slow, but efficient and friendly.

Now it starts to come apart. At Wilburton, George took off early in his TR 3, but got where he wanted to go. Soon the Ward Jaguar went its way, as was foreseen. The remaining Morgan group got disoriented in Hugo, OK, but retracted back on course. However, that meant Bill was on fumes, so he bailed out for gasoline prior to Paris. He overlooked the typo error in the instructions (he had written) and proceeded on the intended course for home.

The other three, after searching for Bill (after not following the route) gave up and proceeded to their respective homes.

Remember, we are never lost or off course, we just often redirect our route.

*We have to note our lunch stops by name and location, as we may soon do a ROAD TRIP CAFÉ review from our various travels across the continent.