We woke up this morning to 50 degree temperatures, heavy clouds and strong winds. It's hard to believe it's the middle of June when we are experiencing what is clearly Florida winter. Regardless of the weather, as Robert Frost so eloquently put it: we've got miles to go and promises to keep.
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| Fort Rain, Indiana |
Given the grim forecast, which was absolutely dead on point, Tara and I, my parents and Ken and Kathy decided to leave a bit later than the rest of our group. Traffic was heavy on the Interstate, so Tara found a back route that kept us moving, except for when a flock of geese decided to jaywalk single file across the street.
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| Geese |
Once on the highway, a 1960s Thunderbird had a tire come apart on him. We saw some of the tread come away and honked at him (as if he didn't realize something happened). We held back so he could change lanes in front of us and get onto the shoulder. We started to pull over to help, when 2 other cars he was traveling with stopped.
It was a rough morning for cars. On the way out of town, Russ called and told us he felt a vibration in the Grand Prix round 60 mph and it seemed to be getting worse. Tara directed him to a repair shop in Pendleton, the first town we were heading through on the route. Too bad, that shop was full and told Russ they couldn't even look at his car until Tuesday. But, time and Power Tour wait for no man, so we found another shop: Falls River Tire and Auto in Falls River, the next town up, who bumped him to the front of the line. We stuck around until we were certain he wouldn't be stranded. It wasn't a waste, there was a cool 1969 Mach 1 in the shop so we gawked at it for a bit. They diagnosed the problem as a bad U-joint as we had suspected. With the Grand Prix being sorted out, the rest of us headed back to the route.
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| Car down! |
Pendleton was a cool old town with lots of old houses. A lot of today's route took us through towns like that. It was much different than the routes of the first 5 days. This was predominantly straight roads.
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| A collector along the route |
We passed a "bowstring" suspension bridge that was built in the early 1900s. As we drove, the temperature kept dropping and the clouds became more ominous. The rain held off for the first few hours.
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| Photobombing a bridge |
Our lunch stop was a place called Trusty Woods in Fort Recovery, Ohio. It was one of the best lunches of the trip. We got a laugh when the waiter told us that they didn't have any chicken because the delivery truck was delayed by "some car thing going on."
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| We weren't the only ones to stop in Fort Recovery |
After lunch, we got back on the road and the rain really hit. To add to the weather, there was road construction which required an extra 20 minute detour. We slogged our way through the rain and, worse, the high winds that blew the cars all over the road. But, we saw some cool towns like Celina, Ohio on the Grand Lake and St. Henry's. For memorial day (I think), St. Henry's hung banners from each light post with the name, picture and service dates for the veterans from the town.
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| If you squint, the raindrops go away |
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| Lighthouse for a lake |
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| Great tribute to the men who fought for the country |
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| Rolling down Main Street |
After being on the road for 8 hours (including stops), and getting caught in plenty of traffic, we finally arrived at the venue, the War Memorial Coliseum. The weather was even worse. When we arrived, the vendor midway was virtually completely shut down and there were maybe 40 cars arriving to punch in. No one stuck around. The staff didn't even bother parking the cars in the designated lots. Instead, we practically drove right up to the stage, jumped out, punched our tickets and bought the daily shirt. To our amazement, Clarence and the other MC, Jeff, were still doing their thing on the stage. There was one lunatic sitting in his chair with an umbrella and garbage bags looking completely miserable. I went to say hi to Clarence and realized that the lunatic was , Harry, a friend of a friend. He must have been determined to win some of the giveaways. Clarence tried to convince Tara and I to play "Clarence Says" for tires, but with the weather we opted for the comfort of the hotel bar instead.
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| Drive thru and punch in. You can see Harry's umbrella behind the golf cart. |
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| View of an empty venue from the comfort of our hotel. |
For dinner, we went to Hideout125, a speakeasy themed steakhouse that claimed to have been in existence since 1933. I was over driving for the day, so we took an Uber. Ken and Bryson met us there. This was definitely the best meal we've had on the whole trip.
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| Ending the day on a positive note |
Finally, once we had finished dinner, the sun came out (it's 9:30 and only now beginning to get dark). Tomorrow is our shortest run and the forecast is for perfect weather. The only cool car picture I got today was of an awesome blue hot rod in our hotel parking lot and a really bad attempt at a panoramic of a 1970 GTX next to me at the light (it was too close to take a normal picture).
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| Custom paint and copper fuel lines |
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This might have worked if I didn't have to rush the shot because the light went green.
Instead, I present the stretch GTX limo
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