We left the hotel about 8 am this morning, which is a later start than usual. We were joined by a Kendra of the "Cruisin with Kendra" blog and her photographer. They rode with our friends Scott and Janice in Scott's custom 1962 convertible Nova. It didn't take but 5 minutes for us to miss our first turn. We left the hotel without really doing a radio check and many of our group's 2 way radios were on sub-channels which meant some of us could hear, but not communicate with each other. We got that resolved pretty quick and were on the route.
Today's route was a great one. At first we wound through 2 lane farm roads with some wide curves and small hills. The weather was cool and the views were nice. Some of the trees formed a canopy tunnel covering both sides of the road.
As always, people were along the route on the side of the road just watching the cars and waving. A Hot Rod magazine guy walked across our path with his camera. Maybe we made the magazine or at least the website.
We hit our first Power Tour induced traffic snarl about an hour into the route. We all had to make a left turn at a 4 way stop in Scottsville (Home of Dollar General...for real).
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| Unusual? These things are everywhere |
With hundreds of cars coming through, a 4 way stop can, and did, lead to at least a 45 minute snarl. We watched as Lori and Janice made a beverage exchange by Lori putting drinks on the side of the road and Janice picking them up as traffic slowly rolled by. Pretty entertaining, and convenient too.
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| The drop off |
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| The pickup |
After getting through Scottsville, we began snaking through the mountains. There was a small rain shower that dropped the temperatures even more and it seemed like it was in the 60s most of the way. I love the mountain roads and all of the curves. Even at normal speeds, they're a lot of fun in a blue box with 50 year old suspension technology.
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| Wet mountain roads are slightly less than fun. |
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| The "rear view mirror shot" is a Power Tour staple and Tara's getting pretty good at it |
Our lunch stop was in Baxter, TN at the All American Diner. It was a restaurant in a steel warehouse. It didn't offer much for décor, but the food was excellent. There were several locals eating there and assured us we couldn't go wrong with whatever we ordered. Since we passed a catfish farm, Tara decided to get catfish. She said it was excellent and, unlike the place we stopped at a few years ago, it was already filleted.
After lunch, it was back on the road. We had to make a detour because the road ahead was closed due to a regular truck rear-ending an Orange 1973 Camaro and pushing it into a gold Dodge Dart. The car was smashed up pretty good. From news reports, it sounds like none of the Power Tour folks were hurt. They were both at the gas station with us a few miles down the way. If it hadn't been for a long bathroom line, we could have been in the thick of it.
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| Gas stop. The orange '73 Camaro is on the right. Tara was standing next to the Dart. |
Once we were back on the route, we had some more mountains to climb.
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| Going Up! |
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| Going Down! |
We pulled off at a really cool scenic overlook that was chock full of Power Tour cars. Tara saw it at the last minute and we, and most the group were able to slow down enough to get in. My parents were in the left lane, so we just met them a little farther down the road.
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| Adding Power Tour scenery to a scenic overlook |
It was a really nice trip, right until we got to the off-ramp and turn into our venue: Chattanooga State Community College. Traffic was stacked up and it was not moving. We also lost an hour by re-entering the eastern time zone and it was nearly 4:30. After sitting for 20 minutes in a left turn lane, we skirted back onto the road, went right, hung a U-ey and went straight across the street into the venue and even more traffic. They were trying to merge 4 lanes of show cars into a single meandering lane with nowhere to go. Cars (and people) were overheating like crazy. The 1970's Corvette in front of us stalled out and wouldn't restart, so I switched seats with Tara and got out to push. The Acadian engine temp began to climb to worrisome levels, but I popped open the hood a decent amount and it cooled down a lot.
Traffic into the venue was so bad that after another half hour, I ended up jumping out grabbing our and my parents' credentials and running down the hill to make sure we got punched in and get our magnets. This year they have done away with the punch clocks and instead are using different shape hole punchers each day. They are trying to cut down on "cheaters", but it's ridiculous and I'm certain there are going to be some pissed off Long Haulers if they got so stuck in traffic getting into the venue that they missed a punch. There are already plenty of frustrated people who had trouble getting into both venues so far.
I missed the Holley tent to pick up my magnet because I was so distracted by the gorgeous B5 Blue and white 1969 Charger Daytona, a super rare and amazing car. I don't know if it's making the long haul, but we saw it going down the road in Bowling Green.
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| Richard Petty drove for Ford 1 year because Plymouth didn't have one of these. |
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| It's a lot like my GTX, but rarer and wilder. |
Tara and my dad finally worked their way into the venue and found guerilla parallel parking along the river and with shade and picnic tables. When they pulled up, the place was wide open, but once the parked, everyone else jumped on the bandwagon and it filled up fast.
This venue wasn't a great one to walk around and see cars since they were scattered over many different parking lots throughout campus. Instead, we looked a the cars near us and then sat and watched the cars slowly roll by. You can actually see a lot of the Power Tour by sitting along the entrance or exit and where we were parked was basically in the middle of both.
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| 1969 Z/28 Camaro |
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| 1956 Chevy drive by |
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| The Magnuson Camaro that was ripping up the track yesterday. |
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| This guy must be from Texas! |
We left the venue around 7 and headed to our hotel in Downtown Chattanooga. It's a Sunday, so not much was going on, but we had a great dinner at Hi Fi Clyde's, a big bar and music venue. While we were there, we ran into Ron and Dustin with the 1969 RoadRunner that we met in Bowling Green and also some guys with a 1967 Nova that saw us back in 2012 and recognized the Acadian. Their Nova didn't make the trip (hole in the radiator), but they were there.
After dinner, we parked at the hotel and jacked up the Acadian to see if we couldn't address a squeaking ball joint. We couldn't do much in the parking lot, but are going to run it by the Motor Medics and see if we can't get it off the ground a little more and squeeze some more grease in. It's not a big issue, but the creaking is bugging the hell out of Tara.
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| Posing in front of Honest Charley Garage in Chattanooga |
It's an early night tonight since we lost an hour and are planning to leave by 7 am for Birmingham. We are going to detour off the route at Gadsden City and head a bit out of the way and check out the Wellborn Muscle Car Museum in Alexander City, AL. It's a Mopar Fanatic's heaven and since we are this far, what the heck. Ron even called and made sure they'd be open since they are usually closed on Mondays (We'll double check on the way).
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