And When to Drive - Roadtrip and Convention!!!

Lex Post 2

A few more of the trip out and arrival. Lincoln's birth cabin and the shrine it is in (a repro cabin). He moved to a bigger one-room cabin at 2 years old.

The car ran superbly. We (thanks Jim) did a lot of work to get her tuned and some deferred maintenance done to make her more reliable. But you just can't do everything AND - say it aloud - "These are old cars", so anything can happen. All I experienced was the well documented stutter upon takeoff in first, probably a carb issue. I kept her under 130kph (80mph), usually 65-75, in deference to not knowing the exact status of the engine. The shoulder belt B-pillar bolt fell off this morning and I heard the captive nut fall down the B-pillar, so now it's a lap belt. Anyone know how to fetch and reattach it??


See you later!!

Covered Bridges and Heat Stroke

Day 1 of the pre-tour went very well. No mileage tally but it felt like a few hundred. As seems usual for recent conventions, a nice heat wave has moved in. Fortunately those form the south, notably Central Texas, and the Gobi desert are acclimatized to this. Pity those poor souls in convertibles from the cooler climates. About 1/3rd on highways and the rest on small fun roads,. Stephen Hawkins, our overall Tour Director has done a superb job laying out an interesting route. After the usual driver's meeting and route guide review this morning, we were off! One Giulia convertible was a DNS with a clutch pedal problem (coming tonight), one SS blew a tire on the highway but was undamaged and some other small assorted bugs, not fatal to any cars yet. So far so good for the little 65 Giulia. About 1150 miles out in the heat and a brutal I40 interstate much of the way.

We saw three famous covered bridges today and lots of very green countryside. And was it HOT and HUMID. Lots of red faces. Folks wandered in from 5 PM to well past 7 PM. The lodge is something out of a Chevy Chase Summer Vacation movie (or should have been), very nice and nostalgic. Shawnee State Park

Would post some shots but the dang connection won't let me for now. So someday . . .

Heat and Humidity

While the locals and NW visitors are complaining about the heat, it is just starting to feel comfortable for us Texans. So the 96 deg and 99.999% humidity here is no problem after training for this in Texas's current hot summer. Add in a 3500 mile drive in Europe that finished a few weeks ago, without A/C and some hot temps, and this little jaunt at a couple hundred miles a day is a piece of cake. We go that far for a good BBQ lunch! Thank goodness for Texas summers, as by comparison everything else is easy. I invited a bunch of folks down for a few weeks before the next convention to train as it seems every convention for the past many years has been unreasonably hot.

So today we did a jaunt up NW from Shawnee State Park in Ohio through Lebanon where we had lunch in the state's oldest Inn (The Golden Lamb) and then to Hueston Woods State Resort in Ohio. Very similar genre resort. Several interesting stops planned. We skipped some of the optional sights on today's route to get in earlier as we all left late deciding on the day's plans and chatting.

No new car problems that I've heard of. The Giulia Spider is back with us after freeing a seized floor mounted clutch pedal (time to clean those floor mounted pedal boxes . . .).

We all have a different angle on Alfas. For those of us who think they were meant for driving, and driving hard, I'd have to say that this event IS the heart of the Convention. Alfisti brethren and even "sistahs" driving under trying conditions and soldiering on with camaraderie, poise and mutual support. In fact, the heart and soul of Alfas. "Just get out there and drive." But it takes all kinds and we will be back in civilization to hobnob and circulate the day after tomorrow. In the meantime we are out here driving. This is a great event for sure.