Steve and Tara's Power Tour Adventures: HRPT 2018- Day 3: June 11- Chattanooga, TN to Hoover, AL (200.0 miles + a detour)

We left Chattanooga bright and early at 7 am eastern for Hoover (Birmingham). Our group initially consisted of 10 cars: us, Tim and Lori (1980s Monte Carlo), Tim and Timmy (1957 Chevy), Scott (1962 Nova Convertible) [Janice flew home to go to work], my parents (2014 Corvette), Ted and Lori (2000s GTO), and Jake (1960s pickup) . Scott with the G8 met us at a gas stop. [Yes, I know we have a lot of duplicates- there's usually another Scott too, but he couldn't make it this year]. Somehow, we left Ken, Bryson and Nancy at the hotel. What can I say, we are not the Marine Corps.

The morning weather was nice and cool again which is a plus compared to the last few years of heat all day, every day. Today's route was another really nice one and somewhat on the shorter side. We also gained an hour traveling back into the central time zone, so we were most of the way through the route by 10 am.

First we went through the Chickamagua military park, which was a few mile stretch of 2 lane road with cannons and civil war markers and statues. There were clear fields and wooded areas. It wasn't hard to imagine the cannons firing and troops charging each other's lines.

The rest of the route was through hilly country of Georgia and Alabama. We crossed some rivers and lakes and skirted along the Talladega National Forest. During the trip, Ted and Lori broke an axle in the GTO. Amazingly, Ken had a buddy in Huntsville who had a replacement rear end for the car, so they transported it there and spent the day fixing the GTO and it's good to go. Tour on!

At a fork 3/4 of the way through the route, we, my parents and Scott with the G8 peeled off to head to the Wellborn Muscle Car Museum. It's normally closed on Mondays. Even though our friend Ron called and confirmed that they would open, Tara called too. "Trust but verify."

This slice of Mopar Heaven used to be a Chevrolet dealership.

"How are we the only ones here?"

The Wellborn was incredible, even for non-Mopar people. Still, we figured it would be a 45 minute- "look at the cars and go" stop. Boy were we wrong. Alton, the caretaker/mechanic of this most impressive collection of high end, rare Plymouth, Dodge, and even a Chevy and Pontiac, met us, locked the door and gave us and 3 other guys a private tour. He took us through the history and significance of most of the cars in the museum. He then took us through their parts rooms stocked floor to ceiling with NOS (New Old Stock) parts, most were in their original boxes. It's hard to describe the collection as there were many extremely desirable cars. There are 3 1971 Hemi 'Cudas worth well over $1M each, a 100 point perfectly restored 1968 Hemi Charger and original Mopar dealer neon signs. One of the most interesting things was a 1970 'Cuda that they dubbed the "paint chip 'Cuda. Half of the car was wrapped in white and then strips were painted of each color that was available for 1970. The other half was left the original green. We were there close to an hour and a half.

Alton giving the Tour.

The Paint Chip 'Cuda

A NASCAR 1969 Dodge Daytona and the "consumer version"

$5M worth of 1971 'Cudas.

Once we finished feasting on the Mopar magnificence, we asked Alton for a lunch recommendation and hit Big Bs BBQ. In the parking lot, there was an AMC Pacer that was, for lack of a better word, adorable. It was also for sale, but I think it'd be kind of like those novelty T-shirts in Key West that seem like a good idea in the store window, but you know you'll likely never really wear it. The couple who owned it were Mopar fanatics from Eastern Alabama and we talked with them a bit about a show that Tara has been dying to go up this way.

It's sooo cute.

After lunch, we zipped back up 280 to the Hoover Metropolitan Stadium. As we got there it looked like it was going to pour and the temperature dropped, but the clouds broke up and it ended up being really nice. We got there around 3:30. On our way in, we saw many cars leaving, but there were plenty still at the venue and more coming in on a fairly steady basis.

Aerial view of only part of the venue. Courtesy of someone on Facebook

We got parked and while my dad, Scott and I got clocked in and picked up the day's magnets, Tara headed over to the GM Motor Medics to have the ball joint in the Acadian looked at. The Motor Medics are GM engineers from Milford who take the week to travel with the Power Tour and help diagnose and fix cars that otherwise might be sidelined. All you need to do is bring them the car and the parts and they'll install them for free. It's really cool. They helped us with a brake shoe issue back in Madison on the 2015 Power Tour and one of the guys remembered the car. We had hoped it would just be a ball joint needing grease, but it looks like a lower ball joint is bad and putting stress on the upper ball joint. They offered to fix it tomorrow. All we need are the parts.

Once we had a diagnosis, we spent some more time checking out the cars, talking to people and wiping the Alabama clay dust off the cars. Before we knew it, it was time to head to the hotel for the free wine and beer happy hour. We got a great spot for the Acadian at the hotel, so we hopped in my Corvette and it was off to Advance Auto Parts to buy two ball joints to take with us to the Medics. For dinner, Tara and I met up with Ron and Dustin with the 1969 RoadRunner.

Two Pesos, the Mexican restaurant they picked for dinner, was conveniently located literally around the corner from the parts store. The food was good and we talked cars until well into the evening. Then it was time to head back to the hotel and gear up for tomorrow's run. We snagged the last parking space in the hotel lot.

Here are some other interesting pictures from the day: