A Tale of Fog, Sun and Impromptu Fun

"Crap! I drove all the way back from Baltimore in the wee hours for this," was my first thought as I peered, bleary-eyed, from the kitchen window. The post-St Paddy's Sunday dawn was breaking foggy and cold. And I was a little disappointed. Please allow me to explain.

The previous evening I attended my great niece's Sweet Sixteen birthday party in Baltimore. Ainsley Grace is a wonder of a child, born on St. Patrick's Day -- let me think -- yes, sixteen years ago. Clearly, public schools have honed my math skills to a needle-like point.

After the party, I decided to drive back home rather than staying with relatives in Maryland. This would allow me to participate in an impromptu "Breakfast Run" that was planned for Sunday morning. The weather forecast indicated that it was going to be very sunny and warm. Perfect!

Getting out of Baltimore was like a surreal slalom course. Picture an autocross course, except instead of pylons, the Canton streets were filled with drunken St. Paddy's Day revelers. I had luck (and sobriety) on my side as I dodged drunken pedestrians and roving bands of frat "Bros". I think they may have been speaking Gaelic. Nah, it was just slurred English. Too bad I was leaving town...it looked like a lot of fun! Travel tip: If you ever plan to party on Boston Street in Baltimore on St Patrick's Day wear your Wellingtons.

But I digress...this is about the Breakfast Run. Where was I? Oh, yes. Sunday morning looked bleak. Nothing like the promised "sunny and warm". Oh, well, the MGB needed a brisk "test thrashing" since I'd finished rebuilding the front-end and some other bits and bobs over the winter so I was going, weather-be-da**ed!

At the meeting point, the group took shape. Four MGA's, me in my MGB, and one club member in a "normal" car. Though I had a B, the MGA drivers decided to let me go along anyway. Very generous of you guys, I appreciated it.

Breakfast included a hilarious session of "Here's a Stupid Thing I've Done," which involves sharing dumb things you've done while repairing your vehicle. Out of respect for the other participants, I will not share details. Nor will I share mine!


A Rose Between Four Thorns at Breakfast

After breakfast in Wind Gap, it was still cold and foggy. Three of the MGA's and I decided to take a quick ride up over Blue Mountain to a winery a few miles away on the north side of the ridge. As we crested the ridge I saw the driver in the lead car point skyward. Sun! The north side of the ridge was completely devoid of fog. It was like another world. Awesome! The temperature seemed to rise about 20 degrees in one minute. Moral of the story: Always go to the winery. That's where the sun is.


On The Sunny Side -- The Group Says "Hi" to Marybeth


Even El Presidente' Gets Carded


Wildlife on The Banks of The Winery Pond

We had a quick wine tasting and enjoyed the sun a bit. The group split up and I drove home the long way, twisting through the wooded back roads on the sunny side of the Blue Mountain ridge. It was a great way to open the "driving season" with good camaraderie and an opportunity for me to throw the B around for the first time since my major suspension refurb.

Repeat after me...C'mon Spring!

Marty's MGB Pumpkin Carving

Had some family pumpkin carvin' last weekend in Maryland...here's my attempt...

The Official MG "Smiley"

Background:
The MG "Smiley" is a magnetic smiley face that is awarded to any Keystone Region MG Club member who has a mechanical problem with their MG that requires remediation either to continue the drive or for safety purposes...while driving with the current holder of the "Smiley".

When "Smiley" is passed to the next person, a small star-shaped punch-out is taken from the smiley and left with the previous holder. The star may be stuck somewhere on the vehicle (inside the boot lid, for example) of the person passing on the "Smiley". Marty Chamberlain should be notified of any passing of the "Smiley" and the star punch so that he may keep this log up-to-date. The holder of "Smiley" is responsible to keep "Smiley" with his/her vehicle as well as to hold the star punch with the "Smiley".



Smiley's Holders To-Date:

8/21/2009 - Holder: Marty Chamberlain (at home)
This was the origin of the MG "Smiley". After his front brakes failed, Marty finished replacing most of the MGB's hydraulics, front bearings, rotors, calipers, etc. to be ready for Triathlon VIII.

8/28/2009 - Holder: Mike Jones (British Marque Car Club News' Triathlon VIII, Jiminy Peak, Hancock, MA)
Mike’s MGB GT stopped running in the town of Kingston, N.Y., on Route 9W, a very busy commercial thoroughfare. Imagine Route 309 in Quakertown! A roadside repair was accomplished in a bank parking lot by replacing his dead fuel pump with one from Ed Haas' boot! "The Brotherhood of The Travelling Fuel Pump" was born.

8/29/2009 Holder: Marty Chamberlain (British Marque Car Club News' Triathlon VIII)
Marty couldn't find his cell phone and finally found it clipped right where he left it...on one of the hood supports. Technically not a reasonable "Smiley" transfer, but he took it anyway. It wasn't going to stay with him for long.

8/30/2009 Holder: Mike Jones (British Marque Car Club News' Triathlon VIII)
Leaving the Jiminy Peak resort, Mike smelled raw fuel. He had a loose clamp on his fuel filter. Luckily caught before a "carbeque" happened. Clamp fixed.

6/23/2010 Holder: Bill Webb (MG 2010, Belleville, Ontario, The Great While North)
Bill had a flat on his MGB as the group headed north on Interstate 81 in New York State. Fortunately, it happened just as the group was making a scheduled lunch stop at a rest stop, so the flat was fixed in relative comfort.

6/23/2010 Holder: Kim de Bourbon (MG 2010, Belleville, Ontario, The Great While North)
Kim’s MGB stalled as the group pulled into line at the Canadian border. It wouldn’t restart. Luckily, there were a lot of cars waiting to cross and everyone was at a stop — club members hopped out to give Kim a push start. Turned out to be a loose connector on the voltage regulator.

8/25/2011 Holder: Dick Horn (British Marque Car Club News' Triathlon IX, Northport, ME)
Dick’s MGA would not start after the group stopped in a parking lot outside of Bar Harbor, Maine. Some parking lot diagnostics/under-dash gymnastics and Dick was able to find the loose wire under his dash to get going again.

8/28/2011 Holder: Marty Chamberlain (British Marque Car Club News' Triathlon IX, Northport, ME)
Driving home through Hurricane Irene with Dick Horn and others, one of Marty's wiper blades slid off the arm. Had to stop and replace it.

Who will be the next proud holder of "Smiley?"

"British Invasion" Exhibit at America on Wheels (a.k.a. MGB Gets A Warm Spot for a While)

The Keystone Region MG Club is well represented at the The America on Wheels Museum's "British Invasion" exhibit. I'm happy to say that all of the MG's in the exhibit are owned by current KRMGC members -- Mike Jones' MG TD, Tom Brobst's MGA and our MGB.

I'm lucky enough to have a next-door neighbor who is a Brit Car guy. Fred, who has owned MG's in the past, now owns two Sunbeam Tigers. He asked me one day in the fall if I was interested in being part of the exhibit being planned at the museum. He took a couple of photos of the MGB. Next thing I know, the MG has a warm spot for the winter!

Fred and I brought our cars over to the museum for "induction" on January 6th, leaving Nazareth with the temperature right about 20-degrees F. It was a bit brisk, but I went top-down! As the Swedish say, "There's no such thing as bad weather, only bad clothing." Or something like that. I got some interesting looks from pedestrians and other drivers on the drive over.

We ran into Tom when we got there as his MGA was being "inducted" also that morning.

I hope you enjoy some of these photos of the "induction" and the completed exhibit.

The museum described the exhibit:

"One may wonder why are the British invading America On Wheels. Simply stated there is an American love affair with the British sports car that dates back to the days of WWII. Many American GI's were stationed in Britain during the war and fell in love with their cars. As the war was ending, Britain was the only European country that had the capability to produce cars and they took advantage of that by importing their products to the US. The American GI was excited by this and purchased these products in droves.

All of the vehicles in this exhibit not only represent the vast variety of cars that were produced in Britain just after the war but also represent the true craftsmanship and engineering that the manufacturers were able to quickly bring to the table in an attempt to revitalize their manufacturing transition from the war effort to that of a civilian based one. In reality, it was this effort that kept the British economy alive after the war and the American GI gave them a ready made market in the USA."

The exhibit runs through January and is composed of 15 British cars representing a nice spectrum of styles and vintages. In addition to the three MG's the lineup was filled out by Sunbeam, Jaguar, Mini, Austin Healy, Triumph, and Morgan.

I hope you enjoy some of these photos of the "induction" and the completed exhibit.

KRMGC Drive-In Movie Nite

Some members of the Keystone Region MG Club took in a Drive-In movie at Becky's Drive-In on Sunday night. Thanks Bob and Penny for organizing!

Click on photo to enlarge

Saturday, May 1, 2010

Some members of the Keystone Region MG Club and the British Car Club of The Lehigh Valley participated in the first Famous Smoke Shop car show.

It was an absolutely beautiful day! Sunny and near 90 degrees -- sunscreen was in effect! Four cars converged on our place for some coffee and a back-roads drive to the car show. Joe D. joined us at the event later to round out the group to 5 British cars. We pretty much *were* the car show. Bill Paige also stopped by to say hi.

This was the first time Famous Smoke Shop did a car show, so the word didn't get out as well as you'd expect...it was basically a "cruise". The folks who run the Smoke Shop were a very friendly bunch who seemed genuinely happy to have us participate. Featured at the event:

Comraderie, of course
Free beverages (adult and otherwise)
Free food (hamburgers, hot dogs, sausage, soft pretzels, etc..)
20% off all cigars and other items in the retail store

There were two other classic cars that showed up...a well done '66 289 Mustang and a really nice 1947 Dodge Sedan with original interior that some of the 'fellas drove over from Brooklyn.

We lounged around in the sun listening to tunes and conversing, occasionally taking refuge in the shade of some of the well-placed trees. Tom tried out his new "King Dick" jack and Dennis did some parking lot tuning of his TR6 with some fine adjustments to the timing.

After the event a couple of the participants took a back-roads drive over to the Blue Mouuntain Drive-In for some ice cream. We had to detour (on Tittle Road) due to a MASSIVE tree that had recently...like minutes before we got there...fallen across Mountain Road.

All-in-all a great day...of doing nothing. As it should be!

I'd highly encourage you to consider it next year if Famous Smoke Shop does it again!

(Click on photos for larger view)


Morning caravan group -- Photo by Tom Brobst


Dennis in the TR6 -- Photo by Tom Brobst


Heading to the Smoke Shop -- Photo by Marybeth Chamberlain


Still heading to the Smoke Shop -- Photo by Marybeth Chamberlain


Most of the British Car Group at the Smoke Shop...Joe D.'s not there yet -- Photo by Marty Chamberlain


Parking Lot Tuning, Dennis sets his TR6's timing -- Photo by Marty Chamberlain


Tom Tries Out His King Dick Jack, and it works -- photo by Marty Chamberlain


The "full" 5-car lineup once Joe D. showed -- photo by Marty Chamberlain


Tom's definitely a rear end man -- photo by Tom Brobst


MGA in Hot Sauce on Paper Plate at Cigar Shop, a transient foodstuff artwork by Tom Brobst -- Photo by Tom Brobst


Stopping for Ice Cream -- photo by Tom Brobst

Jim Thorpe Classic Run IV

Saturday, September 19, 2009

It was our second time participating in this very cool outing. The weather was great and the event, people -- and of course refreshments in Jim Thorpe after the run were right up there as well!

While the classic Mini lost a front wheel (no injuries, thankfully...and a roadside repair) and one of the Volvos lost an exhaust hanger, there were no other mechanical issues during the run (that I know of)!

Several members from the Keystone Region MG Club and the British Car Club of The Lehigh Valley participated in the run this year and rounded out the field of TWENTY vehicles.

To top it off, we even ran into a couple of other KRMGC club members in Jim Thorpe and had dinner with them. Good day! If you've never done it, I'd highly encourage you to consider it next year!

(Click on photos for larger view)

Fraternal Twins, maybe?


Typical of the roads on the Jim Thorpe Run


The twenty participants (click photos to see entire width)




A quick scenic stop at Flagstaff Ballroom




Sometimes, you need a third hand!

Spitfire Painted Spitfire

Absolutely the BEST paint scheme for a Triumph Spitfire...painted like an RAF Spitfire fighter from WWII. Brilliant! (Captured at the Lord Of The Manor British Car Show in Pocono Manor PA 2009)

MGB Anti-Gravity Lift

The Anti-Gravity LBC Lift...The easiest way to work under your MGB if you don't have room in your garage for a traditional lift. (Patent Pending)

Terry and Pat Allen's MG Run and Sunday Brunch

Keystone Region MG Club Event, July 19th, 2009. All I can say is...great day!

Click on image to enlarge


Turning a corner on the MG run route. (photo by Marybeth Chamberlain)



Our fearless leader, Terry Allen. (photo by Marybeth Chamberlain)



Penny, Bob and Vixie Pilat in high-speed pursuit! (photo by Marybeth Chamberlain)



Terry taking a corner like a bat out of hell...wonder why everything's blurry? (photo by Marybeth Chamberlain)



The participants literally in the corral at the Allen's place. More horsepower than usually in the corral, but not by much!



Voted official mascot of the Allen MG run and brunch...Bob and Penny Pilat's new addition Vixie. She rode along. I think she may have even driven a bit. :)