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!