E.B.

Most of the Southern Caravan will gathered at Christainsburg,Va Wednesday evening. Most have planned to traverse I-81 to Christainsburg. I plan to travel the old tourist route US 221.

I'll take a stab at who meets up in Christiansburg, VA:

1. David "Iron Ass" Stroud and ?
2. John Hallstrand
3. Tom Raymond
3. Nolan and Jan Scott
4. Jack and Alice Crosby
5. Aaron White
6. Me

Joining us in Hagerstown, MD:
7. Kelly Frazer
8. Cory and Teresa Drake
9. Alan Merklin (maybe)

Anyone else?

Just now got into the Hampton Inn at Lenoir City and we're ( Francine and I ) are waiting for Hoss Halstrand and Jack and Alice Crosby. I think Hoss' Son may be joining us here too. The weather's holding out...no rain just cloudy and about 60 deg. See y'all soon.

Just had an idea. If you're going to call me Iron Ass, I'm cool with that...so let's call Francine Cushy Butt. Can we do that ? She'd get a kick out of it. :-)

david, MGM, seems to me that YOU are the one going to get a kick out of that remark, said kick to be delivered by your right seater onto your own Iron Ass. I'm just sayin' . . . Be careful there.

That ain't gonna happen, Kelly. I know her too well but I'm open to suggestions then.

David

"Cushy Butt" it is!

BTW, Lenoir has a good spot in my heart. We attended the T Bucket Nationals there two years ago and stayed in the same hotel you're in. A super time, fond memories.....not quite as good as Carlisle though.

Say hi to the gang and continued good travels! Bring some of that dry weather with you. We'll watch for you folks Thursday.

Go, man, go! I don't know whether this trip is Awesomely Epic or Epically Awesome.

Awesomely Awesome Awesomeness!

Boy! It gets kinda quiet on here during the Carlisle bash, doesn't it??

David:

I sent an email to Ed Bucsewki and Val Stewart (Kit Car Event managers at Carlisle) giving them a heads up about your trip from the West Coast to the Kit Car Show. They should be coming to the tent sometime to meet and visit with you (and look up East Coast Bruce as well).

Both cool folks who have helped out our group a few times in the past and I figured they would want to meet you and your co-pilot.

Gordon

We arrived back home today around 4:30. Man o Man, what a nice trip. I cannot say enough about the hospitality we were given from about every corner. Mapquest says you can get here from Sacramento in
3198 miles. It took us 5,030 including all the diversions. We got interviewed by the Carlisle show people and got asked what were the best parts of the trip. Doing it with Francine was top of the list, the help and hospitality of the Speedster group came second, the spectacular scenery of the various stops came third and doing it on a pretty neat, low budget IM came next. Big thanks to East Coast Bruce and his excellent Wife Norma for organizing a great event. Too many other names to mention but thanks to you all for making this an amazing event for us. Winning a new windshield at the raffle was near devine intervention...thanks for that. We did the final 430 miles home today in our typical "net" 50 mph. Most of the legs of the trip went that way including fuel, food and misc stops. The weather was perfect 95% of the time on the whole trip and we were top down all the way home today. Dense fog near Hazelton, Pa but the weather at home now is the same as Carlisle this morning. Thanks everyone for your help in making our outstanding holiday a reality.

Good on ya! Looking forward to seeing you again at the Run on the Smokies this September.

David,

Very glad the trip went so well for you two. Meeting you and Francine and hearing about your cross country travels were one of the highlights of Carlisle weekend. Your ticket being drawn first in the raffle and winning the much needed windshield just added to the fun. Super folks, we hope to see you at future events - but we'll have to keep you out of the orange go-kart! :>)

Nice job bro - Great to meet you - Russ and
Brenda - keep in touch, rcrosby@bbandt.com
Russ
PS, any trouble with the windshield at the border?

Giday, Russ. Great to meet you people too. We had a smooth border crossing this time. Less than a minute in all and not much more than a "welcome home" type of situation. Fran will return Brenda's call later today. I'll send pics by email...got some good ones.

david,

How about a picture of you and Francine and the windshield all tucked in the Speedy? Is that how it went?? Or will you be having it shipped?

I was delighted to meet and chat w/ you over the weekend. It was great swapping lies and other car stories, and sharing a couple of beers. We're a swell bunch o' folks aren't we? And if you have any doubt of it, just ask us. It was a very fine deal there in Carlisle, eh?

Kelly

Giday, Terry. We didn't take a picture of the windshield tucked away in the back. It was pretty much a non event to transport it. It came with bubble wrap which I duct taped thoroughly and just rested it on top of the baggage and convertible roof in the back seat. It hung out the right side a few inches under the snaps of the rear seat cover and we drove home with the roof down. It was a pleasure meeting you all. I'll get a few pics posted soon. We plan to burn some CDs of the trip which I'll donate to anyone interested. Cheers..

David, it was sure nice to meet you guys and to be a part of what had to be a record-shattering Speedster journey.
What a stroke of luck on the windshield. When we write the weekend up for a magazine article, we'll need a quote about that -- can we excerpt it from that last entry?

Certainly, Cory. Good to meet you as well as the Bride and hey....super job on the shirts, Amigo.

David,
It was great to meet you and Francine. I loved listening to your stories about Las Vegas. Glad you had fun in our crazy country. I hope you enjoyed the cookies and that you shared them with Francine. Hope to see you next year!!


Spydergirl

I was into the cookies ten minutes after you gave them to me. Delicious and thank you very much. I made sure Fran got a chance at them. Nice meeting you both and we love that Spyder.

I find it absolutely amazing that (a.) you had the first raffle ticket drawn and (b.) there just happened to be a brandy-new speedster windhield included in the raffle for some lucky ticket holder.

Soc folks continue to remind me of all the good in the world. After the week I just had, THAT simple truth gives me strength to keep going through a tough time.

You folks are the best.........next year for sure.

Me and Chris both. Kathy and the pups, too. Maybe even Karen and Lucas!!

gn

What Gordon said x2!

Hey ! Wait a Minute!!!!

I see that the Carlisle Speedstah folks had a checkpoint set up for our Canuck friends after they made their historic Coast-to-Coast journey.

Just one more thing I missed this year....... |>(

I wonder what she stamped the "passports" with???

And I notice that Hoss and Nolan were parked right "Up Close and Personal" to the Passport stamper. hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.........

Very pleasant young lady, nice to talk to and definitely not hard on the eyes. I just parked in my usual place, being an early bird. BTW, I decided that if I had the winning ticket early on in the raffle drawing, I was going to grab the windshield and give it to Dave and Francine. I thought it would be a good will gesture for our brother and sister from the great north. I'm was glad how the drawing turned out. I do think that the SOC brotherhood and sisterhood is genuine, my kind of people. It just irks me that we talk about the event for months and it's over in a flash. Good thing I have the Smokies of N.C. to look forward to in September.