Wednesday May 30, 2012

Hello All,

Today we got up and went to the Ryman, the Mother Church of Country Music! It was amazing! Only problem is I forgot the camera! Arrrrrrrrrrggggggggg! So those images will only be in my head!
We are going back tomorrow morning so I can get a few pics, but I have to say I won't forget a moment of it. They have showcases around the building telling stories of the stars with there clothes or guitars...It is very cool... They also have a timeline upstairs and that was crazy interesting. Enrico Carruso, played there? Harry Houdini? Who would have thought it? Gary was reading the timeline and I went up into the balcony and looked down on the stage. I got super emotional just sitting there..Hard to imagine all the big names that played there.
Maybe even Bill Green who played with Johnny Cash in the 1958.... :)

We met some "Woody Folks" for lunch, Steve and Nadia Faria, who were here in Nashville and saw on the blog that we were too. Fun time was had by all...

Oh dear, more car trouble today so after lunch we headed back to the hotel so the "car whisperer" could work on the car... He did and of course, it is fixed and running great!


We got the last two seats at the Bluebird Cafe for a singer/songwriter roundtable tonight that was incredible! How can so many talented people be in one city?? The Bluebird is in a little strip mall about 6 miles from downtown. Not at all what I thought it was going to be.... A lot of famous people have played there and from the outside you would never know it... Surprising!

Tomorrow we are off to Memphis....

See ya on the Road,
Ter :)

"From the driver's seat"...... Nashville, the city of exceeded expectations....we went to the Grand Ole Opry last night and were blown away by the talent and history on that stage. Tonight we went to a 'writers sing' session at the Bluebird Cafe where four song writers sang their creations, every one of them spectacular. Nashville is one place I'd like to visit again...we barely scratched the surface of the local music talent here....

We also visited the Ryman Theater, the site of many different types of performers from the late 1800's to present day...some friends are attending a concert there tonight.

Speaking of those friends, Steve and Nadia went for a ride in the woodie and shared a delicious lunch with us at the Noshville Cafe, kind of a NY deli style restaurant... great food, lots of laughs...we'll see Steve and Nadia again at the end of June at Woodies on the Wharf....thanks for the treat!!!!

Car wise, the plug wires I had so cleverly hid behind the exhaust pipes were quietly baking away and subsequently disintegrating, causing me the latest batch of problems so I just pulled them all out and replaced the whole batch....there were problems on the horizon with a couple others so I'm glad I did it.

Looking forward to relaxing in Memphis at a car show Graceland!!!!! How cool is THAT????

Tuesday May 29, 2012

Hello All,

We are having a blast in Nashville!

Today we went to Fontanel the former mansion of Barbra Mandrel... I LOVE Barbara Mandrel and watched her show every week in the 80's! My old garage band played many Barbara songs and I loved singing them. It was so great for me to go there and see her former home. Two record producers own it now and some of her furniture, pictures and memoribilia is still on display and that was really fun for me. Our tour guide was an amazing young man by the name of Steven, a former pretty well known musician from Gatlinburg where he had his own show. He played the guitar for us and sang "I was country when country wasn't cool" in Barbara's living room... Ok I had to ask him why he was a tour guide and not famous like he should be, as he was Fantastic! We had a little heart to heart while the others on the tour took pictures and he told me that he had it all but he wasn't happy so he moved to Nashville, took the tour job two years ago and loved his life now, giving the tour and playing nightly in Nashville. He said so many people find out too late that it is better to be happy than rich... He said he thought he came to it too late as well...He was 30! I told him, Steven, you are blessed to have found this out at such an early age, some never find their happiness. He hugged me and said "You really think I got it early enough?" Yes I do. Lucky guy that Steven... :)

We drove back to our hotel and Gary worked on the car (He will elaborate I'm sure!). Our show was at 7 so we left about 6 and it started to pour, thunder, lightening, oh we had it all as we headed to the show. We of course have no umbrellas, or rain gear... By the time we parked it had gone from a downpour to a sprinkle! The weather changes so fast here! The show was fantastic! Charlie Daniels Band, Gloriana, Restless Heart, Whispering Bill Anderson and 91 year old Little Jimmy Dickens! It was an amazing show and despite our thinking it was going to be corney, it wasn't and we really enjoyed it.

Tomorrow we are off to the Country Music Hall of Fame, The Ryman (where I'm hoping Gar and I will be able to record a song!) and then a songwriters roundtable at the Blue Bird Cafe, I got the last 2 tickets that were available!

See ya on the Road!
Ter :)

"From the driver's seat"..... What a fun couple of days!! Yesterday we wandered around the Grove Arcade, a very early (1920's) shopping center. It was meant to be the base of a fourteen story building but the designer/owner died before it was finished so it's just the three story store/office building but beautiful architecture. Lots of gorgeous artwork and sculpture.

Today we visitede the Nashville store of the 'American Pickers' show....lots of cool, expensive stuff locted in an old automobile manufacturing plant....Marathon cars...never heard of them.
Looking forward to another fun day tomorrow.....

We've travelled 7,000 miles, mostly 'real' problem free...nothing catastrophic, able to be fixed in motel or part store parking lots. I picked Nashville to do some repair and maintenance work. and fortunately the hotel had some nice shade trees to work under. I had two main fixes to do....the electric fans I installed just wouldn't do the job of keeping the car temperature down and the carb has begun leaking fuel while it's parked. I found a nice aluminum fan to install and it bolted right in...instantly brought the temp down, so much so that I need to put a thermostat back in to get it up to temp. I also swapped a 600 cfm economy tuned Edelbrock carb for the 750 cfm performance tuned version I had on it. I though one of the floats had a leak but all was good inside the carb so I chose to replace it and deal with the leaking problem later. It needs a little tuning and it'll be good to go.

Ian that is for you, it says: Chuck Norris! he visited Barbara Mandrels house...



Mr. Charlie Daniels



Sunday May 27, 2012

Hello All,Whew! We have been on the go! We left Ralph and Maree and headed to "96" South Carolina, yes that's the name of the town..."96"... We visited the president of the National Woody Club and his wife, Mike & Roni Grajcar. They were kind enough to cook us a delicious early dinner, and we had a lovely visit with them. Roni made the most delicious London Broil with mashed potatoes and gravy and a salad...Yumm-O! We so appreciate a home cooked meal after 30 some odd days on the road! Thanks you guys for a great dinner and a fun visit! Had a bit of car trouble there, but the car whisperer got it fixed with an assist from Mike while Roni and I sat on the poarch talking kids and looking pretty!

We were on our way to Greenville South Carolina where we spent the night.. This morning we hopped in the car and went to my brother Scott's Mom's (long involved story of my and Scott's lineage which I won't go into here!) house in South Carolina. Nancy is a lovely woman who we always enjoy seeing and I was so happy she was able to spend some time with us today. We picked up her 93 year old friend Dot and went to a late lunch/early dinner at the Grove Park Inn. It was an amazing hotel, more like a resort and we ate out on this great patio overlooking the beautiful grounds and mountains of South Carolina! Dot told us so many great stories from her life and her and Nancy's traveling adventures. My face hurt from laughing and smiling! Dot is an amazing woman and I'm so happy that Nancy asked her to go with us! Nancy and I talked about my brother and his family and how we all get along so well and what an amazing adventure it was that we all found each other in the first place! So many good times!
We got to the Grove Park Inn at about 3 and didn't leave until 7:30! So it was a great visit!

Gary and I drove to our hotel in Ashville and tomorrow we will be doing a bit of sightseeing here. The arcade mall, the river district and a great place to eat called Tupilo Honey Cafe.

Then we are on to Nashville!

See ya on the Road,
Ter :)

'From the driver's seat'......it wasn't too good. Terry covered the fun parts of the last few days...saying goodbye to Ralph and Maree, hello to Mike and Roni Grajcar and hello to Nancy and Dot. Wonderful memories made and delicious meals consumed! Thank you to everyone for your hospitality and making us feel so loved. We are so blessed...

For those of you not inclined to care about things automotive, ya might want to ignore the next paragraph....when we tried to leave the Grajcars, the car truned over a bit and then stopped...the starter tried to turn it over but it was stuck. I had this situation about 12 years ago and I thought it might be the same thing... it was. The carb drained into the engine and 'hydrauliced' a cylinder, meaning there was gasoline in a cylinder and a liquid doesn't compress so the engine wouldn't turn over. It was just a few minutes and when I pulled the #1cylinder's sprark plug gas drained out. I replaced the plug and the car started right up. We had a dead cylinder for today's drive but one of the plugs I pulled out didn't get tightened...snugged it up tonight and we're back on all eight. I'm going to pull the top of the carb off in Nashville and check the float levels because it seems to be running rich and floods easily. Also, when the carb drained all those years ago, one of the floats was actually a 'sink'...it had filled with gas so I'm thinking I may have the same problem here. Hopefully, I can find a speed shop with Edelbrock carb parts or drain the float. If not I'll drain it and patch it with JB Weld. I'm also going to pull the electric fans and replace them with the solid drive version to assure we stay cool as we head into the 'real' heat.

We're also looking forward to attending a car show at Graceland on Friday and Saturday. It'll be nice to kick back for a day and a half, cleaning the car and bringing it back to it's former glory....from a month and 6500 miles ago.

Nancy, Me and Dot in the pink!

View from the patio!

Friday May 25, 2012

Hello All,

First of all we left Savannah and had a tire start to go down, so we went to have it repaired and it had a HUGE bulge in it..Oy! That could have been bad, luckily we bought a new tire and were on our way pretty fast! Thanks Derek for remembering us each night, I credit us still being here and not wrecked on the road when that tire could have blown to you and your sweet thoughts for us each night!

We got to Atlanta and headed to Gallery 63 to enjoy the auction and see the people from the TV show Auction Kings. We got our number and headed in to the auction where we found our seats on the bleachers and settled in for the auction. It was fun, fast paced and no we were not filmed nor did we buy anything... :)

We found our friends house (only three miles from the auction house!) and it was so great to see our friends Ralph and Maree! They traveled with us 3 years ago on the DC to Santa Cruz roadtrip and we have kept in touch. We were welcomed with open arms and given a beautiful room in their lovely home.

The next morning we went to CNN for the tour and then to the World of Coca Cola (In case you don't know Coke was invented here in Atlanta! They are all about it!). Both were alot of fun and I learned alot at CNN about how they keep up that steady stream of news! I saw my all time favorite CNN personality Anderson Cooper and gave him a little kiss, he was so serious though! At the World of Coke I gave my man a little smooch too, didn't want him to be jealous of me and Anderson! Oh then I saw Ryan Seacrest he was there and well, ya know I had to give him a little peck too!

Maree made us fresh peach daqui's and a delicious steak dinner last night.

Today Maree and I hit an amazing store that had jewlery, purses, hats, scarves and all things girl! That was a welcome respite, I haven't shopped in a month! We all went to the Jimmy Carter library and museum this afternoon and that was so inspirational. No matter what you think about him as a President, he is an amazing humanitarian! We went to a place for dinner called Six Feet Under across from a famous cemetary (Hence the name!) and it was fantastic food! I had 4 small crabcakes, Gary had a chicken sandwhich with homemade potato chips! Delish! Karen M that part about the food was for you Sister!

Tomorrow morning we will experience the Atlanta Farmers Market and then we are off! On to Ashville, or Nashville? I'm just the passenger! I hear them talking about a car show at Graceland so maybe I'm going to Memphis?

See ya on the Road!
Ter :)
　
'From the driver's seat'.... We left lovely Savannah and headed west for what we assumed would be an easy drive. We stopped for lunch and I again checked what I thought looked like a low tire. After lunch it was definitely low! I asked a local for a tire repair shop and he pointed to a tire outlet on the other side of the parking lot! Once again, the car it's little problem in very convenient lovcations.

I rolled over there, thinking that they'd pull out a nail or something and we'd be on our way.....not so fast...when they removed the tire there was a huge bulge on the inside, literally about to blow. Frankly, I don't know why it hadn't already.....someone watching over us, for sure. The guys got us a new tire and we were on our way in probably less than a half hour.

As Terry said the CNN and Coke tours were great fun...we spent the evening sitting around Ralph and Maree's laughing, talking and solving the world's problems. Ralph BBQ'd some staeks and Maree made a very tasty Ceasar salad...first home cooked meal sinced Maryland. Today started out going to Ralph's friend Bruce's shop to look at his lovely '70 Nova SS and look through his project book....the guy has done some great work including getting Ralph's '50 Plymouth cooled off. I learned a couple cool tricks from him that I can incorporate into my everyday car workings.

I have been a huge fan of Jimmy Carter ever since I went to see him in Ghirardelli Square in San Francisco in 1976. His museum is a testament to his peace keeping efforts...a wonderful man.

Dinner was at a very cool grille, I had a delicious chicken sandwich....it must have been good because I ate the whole thing!!!! Then we all strolled through an old cemetery with hundreds of Civil War grave stones....the huge waste of life....a very sad place.

We toured Atlanta, seeing some spectacular houses and lovely school campuses. It looks to be a beautiful to live....but I'm not moving! We'll be heading for Greenville to have dinner with Mike and Roni Grajcar at their home, then Ashville to visit a relative, Nashville and then Memphis for a car show at Graceland...how cool is that!! Thanks for finding that Maree!!!!!

It was a wonderful few days with our good friends, reliving some moments from our previous trip and making new ones....my face hurts from laughing so much! Thank you very much for your wonderful hospitality...

It's late, I'm tired, will write more tomorrow......

　
　



Bad Tire! 

 　

Tuesday May 22, 2012

Hello All,

A somewhat relaxing day today...


Gary explained it all below so I will just add that Savannah was an amazing city, hot, humid and full of history. Enjoyed the food and the shopping here as well.

We really enjoyed it here and are looking forward to Atlanta tomorrow.

See ya on the Road,
Ter :)
　
'From the driver's seat'....Not a lot of driving today...went to town for a tour of the Savannah Museum and a railroad museum on the same grounds. The Savannah museum is in the old train station while the railroad museum is in the roundhouse and associated work buildings. It's being brough back to life by many volunteers and dedicated staff. Both were very interesting and well presented. They also had a lot of information on the Revolutionary War, with a key battlefield being located in the lawn area immediately adjacent to the museum. There were battles all over the city with archeologists finding musket balls and other material in the strangest of places.

After that we visited the First African Baptist Church...literally, the FIRST!....built by slaves in 1778. although the building on the site is the fifth, it's been there since the 1830's, built entirely by slaves with their own money and after-hours labor. Slavery in Georgia was diferent than other states with slaves having time to themselves and working six days a week...I am not saying it was okay, they just had more time than others. The church served as a stop over along the Underground Railroad, helping slaves escape to the north. In the basement, the floors have drill holes in religious shapes in the floor which, while providing air to the escaping slaves under the floor, provided enough reason for their existence to not cause slave hunters to go any further. There was a tunnel they could traverse all the way to the Savannah River after they had rested a couple days....it was an uncomfortable story to listen to but it was encouraging to listen to the clever ways oppressed people found ways to get around that oppression.

After that, we wandered around the City Market and shared a Cuban chicken sandwich at a cafe. We then re-visited a craft shop a couple blocks away so Terry could pick up a couple more gifts for friends before leaving. Heading east, we travelled to Tybee Island, a Santa Cruz-like town we drove through before heading back to relax the rest of the afternoon.

A quick thunderstorm and downpour doused the car and cover in moments as it sat in the motel parking lot. While I tried to get things dried out, I noticed a scooter and sidecar in the lot. Closer inspection revealed they had ridden it to Savannah from Washington, the state, not DC!!!!!! Makes our air conditioned trek seem kinda lame! In our defense, we did go to Maine while they drove in a fairly straight line to Georgia....yeah, I know, a pretty weak defense!

Tomorrow, we start heading west toward home. First Atlanta, then Charlotte, Nashville and points in between. Looking forward to these next legs.....

Monday May 21, 2012

Hello All,
Today was a fun touristy day. We took a tour of Savannah on the"Old Savannah Tours" line. They are open air trolley cars with a narrating driver. Learned alot about Savannah that I didn't know, saw where Forrest Gump sat in the Square waiting for the bus to take him to Jen-ney's house..     Saw the restaurant where Jen-ney worked when she saw Forrest running across the US...Actually, Forrest came on our trolley looking for Jen-ney, with his suitcase and box of chocolates... It was a fun surprise when he ran onto the trolley and had a conversation with our driver... :)
Saw the statue from "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil" and the house that Kevin Spacer's character lived in... Alot of movies were filmed in Savannah!
Saw the founder of the Girl Scouts house and learned that she founded the girl scouts 9 years before women even had the right to vote! That is impressive....

We had lunch at "The Lady & Sons" restaurant, which if you don't know, is Paula Deen's restaurant. The food was amazing! When you sit down a lady comes over with a basket of Ho-cakes and Cheddar biscuits and gives you one of each just to get you started! Then you can have the buffet or order from the menu...Well our tiny tummies could not have that delicious buffet of fried chicken, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, greens, green beans, fried okra, macaroni and cheese,apple pie, pecan pie, key lime pie and some kind of berry cobbler! I have to say today may have been the first time I wished for my bigger stomach back! HA! Gary and I shared a magnificent pulled pork sandwich which came with fried circles of mashed potatoes that were coated in either panko bread crumbs or corn flakes...Either way they were amazing! That meal is another thing I am able to cross off my bucket.

We strolled up and down the streets window and real shopping and then headed down to River St. to finish up our shopping, hopped back on the trolley and headed back to our car. A fun day that came to an end to fast! :) We have one more day here and plan to go to the Railroad Museum tomorrow and maybe out to the coast....

Wednesday we are off to Atlanta to Gallery 63 for an auction (we love that show and can't wait to enjoy the auction!). We will also visit our friends Ralph and Maree who traveled with us in '09 as they live in Atlanta. Looking forward to spending time with them again.

See ya on the Road,
Ter :)
　
　
"From the driver's seat...' Nice easy day, I let someone else do the driving today. We took a trolley tour of Savannah, so happy we did that. The first driver we had was so enthused about the town and had a lot to say about a lot of the city. We were able to have lunch at Paula Deen's restaurant, had a very nice window table on the ground floor and shared a pulled pork sandwich with what appeared to be deep fried mashed potatoes (what's not to like about that???) and tasty cole slaw.

We finished the tour day by walking back to River Street and did some shopping, picking up a couple gifts and a couple chocolates for later tonight for ourselves.....yum!

I did a little car maintenance tonight since it's running a little warm, even at 70 mph when it should be running cool with all that air going though the radiator. I think the thermostat is the culprit so I removed the moving parts and re-installed it. I also plugged a couple holes in the front bulkhead to force more air where it should be. A quick drive tonight showed dramatic improvement. It's not going to be getting any cooler so good cooling is imperative to my bride's comfort and my well being. It'll be interesting to see how it works in the heat of the day tomorrow.

One more day in Savannah, then heading off to Atlanta for an auction and to visit our dear friends, Ralph and Maree Williams who were travelmates on our woodie tour in 2009. Anxious to see them and the sights of Atlanta.......

Hey is that Forrest Gump??

My friend Paula and I......

Sunday May 20, 2012

Hello All,
We made it to Savannah today, but we are feeling the stress of constant driving... We are Tired! The car too! It was like, oh more driving today...Great! HA!
We went to the Hunley Submarine restoration project today and that was pretty cool, but sad as well... I can't imagine being the men that said they would go down in a hand cranked sub for the first time...How scary was that...It was an amazing piece of imagination and a great feat of enginering. Gar gives the website address below and it is worth a look.
We are staying at hotel about 3 miles from downtown Savannah, Brad, let me say again, you wouldn't have gotten out of the car! But it is a lovely hotel inside, the staff is so friendly and they have a shuttle to downtown.... Glad I got out! :)
We went down to River Street to have dinner and had a fun evening down there window shopping and trying to decide where to eat. We settled on "Dockside" and shared a delicious chicken salad sandwhich with pinapple and pecans. Yummo! Also we decided to try Hush Puppies...Ok that is deep fried dough with minced onions grated into the dough.. Hello? What's not to love about that... They were tasty, but I could only eat 2 of them!

Tomorrow we will try to get a reservation for "The Lady & Sons", Paula Deen's place... You have to get in line at 9am to get a reservation so we will see if we make it!
We are going to take a tour of Savannah tomorrow to start our day so that should be fun...
I'll post some Savannah pics tomorrow...
See ya on the Road,
Ter :)
　
'From the driver's seat'.....man, this driver is tiiiired. We're spending a couple days in Savannah, GA, before starting the trek west. We visited the Hunley today, the first 'successful' submarine, sinking a ship but sinking itself and taking everyone in it in the process. The next successful submarine attack wasn't until World War I, 50 years later. The restoration crew has been very respectful of the remains that were found in the sub and they were all buried with military honors, more than 100 years after they died. Because the sub was quickly covered in silt, it, and it's crew, were well preserved to the point that forensic detectives were able to reconstruct the faces of all of the crew....kinda creepy but very cool. You can follow the ongoing progress on line at http://www.hunley.org/

The car is just as tired as it's builder. It's running a little hot so I'm going to experiment with some ducting to see if that helps. I have some minor maintenance to do over the next couple days although it's still very happy running at 70-75 all day long, fortunately with the AC on.
We drove downtown for dinner along River Street, very reminiscent of Fisherman's Wharf in SF. We shared a delicious chicken salad sandwich and did a little window shopping, but the trinkets were also of the same 'high' quality as those in SF.

Good to put my feet up for a couple days.....

Saturday, May 19, 2012

Hello All,

We have been driving alot and seeing things on the way...Today we went to Kitty Hawk which was awesome... and WINDY! I can see why they chose that spot, good lord it was windy, and again, you know how much I love wind! I braved it though to be at the spot the the world changed! It was pretty cool to see that...

On the way there, we drove by the garage for the Monster Truck Grave Digger.... When our son Mikey was little (about 3 or 4) he drove the Grave Digger radio control car. It was all geared down so he could control it and the crowd would chant "Grave Digger, Grave Digger" as he went around the track... Our nephew Dominic has carried on that tradition and when he started racing with his "Uncle Gagee" he too drove the Grave Digger .... It brought back memories to see that car and it's race garage.... :) Speaking of Dominic, yesterday was his Birthday..Happy Birthday my little friend, we wish we were there to celebrate with you tonight for your family party... I know you will love your gifts since you picked them out! HA!

I wanted to talk a little about a few things that I have learned on this trip....

I was commenting to Chris and Gina Polizzi that the majority of Woody owners were "Older".... You know like more experienced, more disposable income ...but when I said older they looked at me like..You mean like you? They didn't say it, but I saw it on their faces and thought, "OMG! I am older to them! I keep thinking that I am the same age as them, but they are probably in their 30's! Me.... not so much! It's funny how we still see ourselves as younger than we are. I mean I don't feel like someone who is 54, I don't dress like someone who is 54 (or 24 for that matter) I think about how my Mom and aunts dressed when they were my age and I'm waaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyy hipper than that...At least I think I am!
We were coming out of Target the other morning and this guy is yelling "Ma'm! Ma'm!" I'm sure he isn't talking to me, but I turn around anyway and sure enough he is calling me! Me? Ma'm? Oh that hurt! Ma'm is ...well, my mom, my mother in law, not ME!
He's like"Do you own that Woody in the parking lot?" What? Now I look like an old aging surfer chick in capri pants and flip flops? This trip is not so good for my ego! HA!
The best one was today, we had pulled into a gas station to get something to drink from the little store and Gar went in to get his diet coke and this truck pulled in next to me... The Dad gets out and gives me the "Thumbs Up" and I think "Oh my hair must look good today!" HA! Just kidding, I know it's for the car, and then his kid who is about 10 rolls out and screams to his Dad as he goes behind our car "Hey Dad! They are gen-u-ine Californians"!!!!!!! I don't know what to say about that, except the universe is really giving it to me this week!

Off to the Hunley submarine tomorrow and then to Savannah and Hello Paula Deen!

See ya on the Road,
Ter :)



'From the driver's seat'.....Today was 'National Drive Your Woodie Day' and for us it was just another day, driving from Virginia Beach to Fayetteville, NC via Kitty Hawk and Raleigh. Fortunately, it was pretty uneventful, driving mostly two lane highways. Much of the route followed the coast and was very windy.

We visited the Wright Brothers Memorial for another 'it happened right here' moment, to be in the spot where the world changed forever...very cool.

Off to Charleston, SC tomorrow to visit the Hunley, the first submarine used in battle, during the Civil War! It's presently undergoing preservation....



This is how I entertain my husband on long drives, Pringles make great duck bills!  :)



Friday May 18, 2012

Hello All,

We had a couple of easy days, we went to Philly and saw the Liberty Bell, State House (Independence Hall) and split a cheese steak sandwich from "Sonny's". Oh so many people and soooo much traffic and construction. It is awesome to see the "Car Whisperer" wield that giant Woody Car thru the small streets of Philly! He is an amazing driver!

We headed to Chris and Gina Polizzi's house for a home cooked meal. Oh what a treat! They have kids the same age as our nephews Dominic and Derek and Chris was like "We are the loudest family, sorry" HA! No one is a loud as our nephews and we enjoy every minute with them so we felt right at home! Thank you so much Polizzi family for a fun time and a fantastic meal! We enjoyed our time with you guys!

Today we had a short drive to Virginia Beach across a cool bridge, unfortunately I have had a migraine (No not from the Polizzi kids!) today and wasn't up to hanging out at the beach, plus it is sooooooooooooo windy here, and I know you all know how I love the W I N D ! !

Off to Kitty Hawk tomorrow, I am super excited to go there and see where flying began....
See ya on the Road,
Ter :)
　
　
'From the driver's seat...' (yesterday) Easy peasy day....got up and going, heading out of Atlantic City when we came upon a toll road and realized we were out of cash!!! We managed to scrape together enough for two tolls before we found an ATM.

Off to Philly for another 'freedom' day, visiting the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall Park. Didn't stay too long, had another Philly stand-by, a cheese steak sandwich. We split it between us and we were still full! A quick jump on the freeway and we were headed west to Elkton, MD.

We were invited to the beautiful home of National Woodie Club members Chris and Gina Polizzi for a homecooked meal, our first in three weeks! We enjoyed being invited into the family for the evening with their children, seven year old Bella and three year old Anthony. Made us feel right at home, reminding us of when our kids were small. Chris is working on a '49 Ford woodie and has all of the 'ugly' work done with a gorgeous Cobra Ford engine installed (he started it!) along with a Fatman front clip. He's presently working on his wood and doing a fabulous job on his brightwork. It'll be a lovely car when it's finished.

A short jaunt down the freeway and we arrived in Dover DE for the night. Tomorrow is another easy day down the coast to Virginia Beach to relaaaaaax......

(Today) We drove south on US 13 through Delaware and Maryland, finishing the drive in Virginia Beach. US 13 is a four lane highway with lots of character along the way....my favorite kind of road. The coolest part of the drive was the Chesapeake Bridge/Tunnel. It's a low bridge crossing the bay for 20+ miles, but near the Virginia side the bridge turns into a tunnel in two places! The military and commercial ships need a place to pass the bridge so rather than building a high structure the road dives under the water...way cool! It was a very nice road with light traffic but it cost $12 to cross....much quicker than a ferry so it's a bargain!

Tomorrow we'll travel along the coast to the Outer Banks to visit Kitty Hawk, where the world changed one morning....it's awesome to stand there and realize 'this is where it happened'...and end up in Raleigh, NC.

Wednesday May 16, 2012

Hello All,

Today we walked the boardwalk and enjoyed the sun, humidity and fun of Atlantic City! To stop ourselves from gambling we went to the movies and saw "Dark Shadows". It had some good laughs and I always enjoy a Tim Burton / Johnny Depp movie... :)

On to Philly tomorrow to check out the Liberty Bell and all things Philly...

See ya on the Road,
Ter :)
　
　
　
'From the driver's seat'....gave the car the day off to relax under the cover in the garage... we donated to the casino owners' retirement funds instead. Took a stroll down the boardwalk and had a Nathan's hot dog for lunch. Tomorrow we're off to Philadelphia to see the Liberty Bell, dinner with new friends in Maryland and an overnight stay in Dover Delaware. A relaxing day driving the 'two lanes' of New England...how far south is it still considered New England?

I'm posting a couple pics of Bruce's fire engine club's collection....you can get lost in there!

Tuesday May 15, 2012

Hello All,

Today it was......can you guess??? Raining! Oh what a surprise!! Getting kinda sick of this rain... The car has developed a few more leaks as the trip goes on, there are a few that drip down to our feet, then today there was a new one that came from the roof and was strategically placed so it dripped onto my lap. Just part of the fun of owning an old car. We just keep driving and laughing.. I mean without all of the leaks what would we have to talk about? :)

Today we went to Orange County Choppers and it was way cool. We have been watching the show since like 2003 and it was fun to go there and see it in person. The shop is full of "merch" and also has the motorcycles from the show all around the shop.They also have like a viewing room where you can see into the shop and see everyone working.. Paul Sr. was there working on something as well as Rick. If you watch the show you will know who they are, if you don't watch, just know it was cool...

After that we drove to Atlantic City and it has stopped raining so that is good.. The car is in covered parking, and will be toasty warm and dry. We are staying at the Tropicana Hotel and it is about 3 short blocks from the ocean and boardwalk. Tomorrow we will dip our toes in the Atlantic Ocean and walk the boardwalk.

Leaving on Thursday to go to Philly (Hello Liberty Bell!) and then Maryland to meet some people from the National Woody Club who we missed on our last trip. Looking forward to leaving a little of my money here at the "Wheel of Fortune" machines and enjoying the Atlantic ocean.

See ya on the Road,
Ter :)

P.S. Hey Laurie, that little statue I look like I was holding was the real thing, the actual Statue of Liberty, Gary made it look like I was holding it in the palm of my hand...Pretty cool huh?  Also so many comments on the hats, I thought they were so cool I bought one for everyone! HA!  Just kidding, just Dominic and Derek, I don't think they will mind if we borrowed them for a picture!
　
　
'From the driver's seat'..... We woke to a damp parking lot but no rain. Actually, we woke to the moron in the next room starting his car at 'dark o'clock', letting it warm up with the car door open and the radio on so he and all the rest of the guests could listen. We headed north, passing through a million toll roads and arrived at the Orange County Choppers shop. We wandered through their store, looking at several motorcycles we watched being built on TV. The also have an observation room where you can watch the people work on bikes but you're behind a glass wall with a shade so they can't tell you're watching. We saw Paul Sr. and Rick being taped for an upcoming show.....pretty cool.

We turned the car south along the Garden State Parkway to Atlantic City...... it poured for much of the trip and Terry had a few towels strategically placed to catch the drips from the windshield leaks. It eventually quit, turning to an overcast sky.

Apparently New Jersey has an abundance of money because they have two complete freeways, going the same direction, for MILES!!!!!! There is a southbound two lane freeway separated by a guardrail from a southbound three lane freeway.....I don't really get the difference between this and a five lane freeway except it doubles the cost. Must be a 'Jersey' thing.....

Tomorrow we're going to walk the board walk and donate some money to the casinos!

Monday May 14, 2012

Hello All,

On Mothers Day we met Gary's friend Bruce and were supposed to have lunch with him... Well, he really wanted to show us his fire truck warehouse with like 500 fire trucks in it, so we drove about an hour out to that and spent a couple of hours looking at fire trucks...Just how every mother wants to spend her mother's day... HA! Really it was very cool, and he did take us for a ride in one of the fire trucks! I have to say I felt like a little kid that gets to climb up on a fire truck, except I got to go for a ride! We went around the town blew the air horn and rang the bell...Yes, we are still children at heart!

We said goodbye to Bruce and headed to Nyack our home for a few days....

Today was quite a day! WOW! The "Car Whisperer" is a genius with a map.. He figured out our whole trip from Nyack, New York to NYC without a car!

We caught the bus at 8:03 right by our hotel, it took us to the Tarrytown train station cost $3.00.... Then the train to Grand Central Station Cost: $12.00 for a round trip ticket during "Peak" hours.. Then a subway ride to the 9/11 Memeorial cost $2.50.. Total Cost for the day$17.50... Memories for the rest of our lives...Priceless. :)

After some quality time at the memorial (a very moving experience) we headed to Battery Park to catch the ferry to the Statue of Liberty. That was way cool...

Hard to imagine people coming in after a long journey and seeing that big lady with her hand held high. They must have breathed a sigh of relief that they were finally at their new home. It brought a tear to my eye, it was pretty amazing! We took lots of photos and I'll try to post a few of the good ones...

Tomorrow we may stop at OCC (Orange County Choppers) as we are really close and Gar and I love the Teutle's even if they all can't get along... Then off to Atlantic City to walk the boardwalk (another thing on my bucket list!) and to check out the hotels and casinos.

See ya on the Road,
Ter :)
　
'From the driver's seat'.....A couple of crazy days...yesterday we met with my buddy Bruce to make my repairs to the electrical system 'permanent'. I'm kinda diggin' the starter button! On the way to his house I scraped a high curb with the right rocker panel....gonna need a little paint and body work...=-(.... Once our repairs were made we headed over to his fire truck collection. He started a 'club' with nine other people to have a place to put their trucks....they ended up with a multi-hundred thousand square foot building with 400 plus pieces of fire equipment!!!!!! He owns 40 of them himself! They have everything from an early 1920's ladder truck to a MASSIVE airport pumper!!! Bruce then opened the back door and fired up a ladder truck to take us for a ride around town!!

We were supposed to go to dinner but the time slipped away before he had to get ready for that nights band show. We said our good bys and headed for our next nights stay in Nyack, just north of NYC.

Today we braved public transportation and headed for the heart of New York City. Our plans were to visit to World Trade Center Memorial and the Statue of Liberty. I got some info from Bruce and some from the front counter at our motel and studied the subway routes on line. The bus picked us up right in front of our hotel and dropped us off right at the train station to Grand Central Station. The train ride was about 30 minutes and then we asked for help at an information booth and they put us on a subway that stopped a block from the Memorial! We spent some time at the Memorial and then walked a few blocks to the dock for the ferry to the Statue of Liberty Island. We got some great pics while we cruised the bay and had lunch in the shadow of the statue.

We wandered to the other side of Battery Park and happened upon the very subway station we were looking for, got on the right subway, got on the right train back to Nyack and the right bus to our motel. I was a bit stressed cuz I wasn't confident we could navigate the buses and trains, but driving the woodie to the city...in that traffic.... and looking for a place to park it, would have been MUCH more stressful.

We're both beat... tomorrow we leave for Atlantic City!




Fun Day, oh so tired!