About to embark on a "Tour de USA"

[rick8928]

Bucket list item time. I’m about to do a 3 month circumnavigation of America in my Mk 4 roadster, visiting friends, family, and places. Have tent and credit card, will travel. My intent with this thread is to seek out fellow FFR (and other cobra) owners who might offer assistance if I'm in need, and suggestions about what to see, local cruise-ins, other hang outs, and who knows-a place to stay and/or eat one night as I make my way around the country.
To provide some context, here’s my planned itinerary and notional timeline (both subject to change for 1001 reasons):
• June 15: Wareham, Mass. for the Factory Five open house
• Albany, Syracuse, Rochester NY visiting family and friends
• June 20-23: London Ohio cobra event
• Tour de Michigan perimeter, including Upper Peninsula, plus Detroit
• June 29: Roadster Build School in Howell Michigan at noon
• July 2 ish: Philo, Illinois at Tom Payne’s Garage (see “Restored 1930’s Auto Shop” awesome thread on “Garage Journal” website).
• July 3-10: Lawrence, Kansas (in-laws)
• July 12-29: Wisconsin; with my brother in Madison, Elkhart Lake for Road America vintage races, a week in the Dells, and Oshkosh for the EAA Airventure
• August 1-4: the Dakotas; Hatton ND, Sturgis, Mt. Rushmore and SR87
• August 5-7: Wyoming and Montana (Yellowstone and Missoula)
• August 8-12: Washington and Oregon (Everett to Portland); aviation and car museums, plus visiting a former boss
• August 17-18 Laguna Seca/Pebble Beach vintage races and Concours d’Elegance
• August 18-22+ Southern California (friends and former roommate, the site of the original Shelby shop at 1042 Princeton in Venice, Riverside Raceway museum, Planes of Fame at Chino airport, Lyon Air Museum, Art Cuesta at WireDiet)
• August 23-30: Phoenix (friend, AMP Performance, the auction houses, Penske Racing museum, Falcon Field Commemorative Air Force)
• Sept 1-5: Colorado (drive up Pike’s Peak and Boulder Shelby Museum)
• Sept 6-10: Texas (Terlingua, Chaparral Cars museum in Midland, Circuit of the Americas in Austin)
• Sept 11-16+: The South (Barber Motor Sports Park in Birmingham, Road Atlanta in Braselton, family in Augusta, the Smokies in Tennessee, friends in Charlotte and Cornelius NC)
• Sept 17: BACK HOME IN BALTIMORE
As I look at the above, at spots it sure feels like trying to fit 10lbs. in a 5 lb. bag. If in the event it seems like I’m too busy rushing around to enjoy the experience, the schedule will be modified accordingly.
So, any and all input is welcomed. Hope to see you somewhere!

[David Hodgkins]

Wow, what a killer trip! I'll make sure to keep an eye on this thread. I assume you will be updating from the road?

I hope we can meet up in So-Cal!

:)

[jkrueger]

cool trip. Sounds like a blast!

[flynntuna]

Very nice, this is on my list too. While in Montana you should check out Glacier National park, beautiful. If you come thru San Diego, on Friday evenings the town of Escondido has a good cruise night called Cruising Grand.

[Mark Dougherty]

Rick
best of luck to you Keep me on speed dial. I will be following this thread also.
Later
Mark D

[Gumball]

Not sure which way you're passing through Illinois on your way to Philo, but if you come through Chicago or the northeastern portion of the state, try to hook-up with Rt.66 for the cruise downstate. There are still great stretches of the mother road here in Illinois and lots of cool places to stop for photos and/or chow. Pick-up any Rt.66 planning guide and you'll have all the info you need.

If you're going to do that, please PM me and I'll join you for that part of the ride. Although my FFR isn't ready, I can probably talk my wife into driving her '67 Camaro or, if not, I'll bring my '50 Chevy pickup.

[Randy Jones]

How many days will you be in Rochester? (and when)?

R :D

[Mike N]

Sat Sept 14th would be our local Cobra breakfast in Mooresville, about 30 min north of Charlotte, even closer to Cornelius. Stop by if you get chance would love to meet you. We meet here at around 8:30 and are done by 10-ish.

Grilles Sports Cafe
167 Pinnacle Lane
Mooresville, NC 28117
http://www.grillessportscafelkn.com/

I know you posted that you have friends in Charlotte and Cornelius but if you need access to tools, a lift, or a welder when you are in the area send me a PM and I'll give you my address and cell number. If you really get stuck I have a trailer too.

[riptide motorsport]

Too cool!!!!! keep us posted.

[wallace18]

Have a safe and fun trip.

[Garry Bopp]

Rick,

Best of luck, buddy, and hope to see you in ND as well as Atlanta.

Garry

[Oppenheimer]

Suggestion, your car is gonna get dirty. Nothing wrong with that, but I'm thinking you are gonna want to plan for a few car-wash stops. With cargo space tight, and the DIY car-washes in unfamiliar areas being a big unknown, what better resource could there be than fellow FFR owners to have available for car wash stop-overs?

Even if there isn't time for a real welcome stop (due to your schedule or theirs), if you just have addresses and phone numbers you can arrange for them to leave a couple of buckets and supplies out for you so you can stop by and wash while they are at work. You might not know what day you will be in that area until right before, but all you need to coordinate is what day they should leave the bucket, soap, hose and stuff out.

I'm thinking you could just put the call out on here that you need a car-wash stop over somewhere along Route whatever in State whatever around Date-Range whatever.

[rick8928]

Interesting idea, but being lazy I may go the other way and treat the road grime as a badge of honor. I'm keeping the windshield clean, however.

[Bradyman]

Put me down as a remote repair station in Newberg OR which is on the way to the Evergreen air museum in McMinnville.
I have a 4 post lift, welders, and tools that you are welcome to if you should need to make any repairs or do maintenance.
My coupe project will be in its first week of assembly, so you might also give me a few pointers.

[Mad Dog]

Here's a quick video of Rick during last weekend's Open House event. Have fun on the rest of your trip!


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ld8G-GqXKCQ

[Presto51]

Hey where is this guy :confused: Starts a trip and leaves us hanging WTF

Putting out a APB for all forum members be on the look out for a very over packed Mark IV Roadster. Dark Blue with White Racing stripes. Last seen at the FFR Open House. This is the last picture of driver Rick If you encounter him tell him to get on the stick and keep us posted on his where in the USA is he.

That is all

18576

[Randy Jones]

Rick was in Rochester yesterday at the Log Cabin Cruise night. I wasn't able to make it as there was a work emergency but I asked a friend of mine to head out there and look for him. I understand they met up. His plan was to leave for Ohio at about 8am this morning. Sounds like things were going well so far!

Rick, apologies again for work getting in the way of our beer. Good luck with the trip and post here often!

R :D

[Garry Bopp]

I ran into Rick at the London Cobra Show. He looked healthy and not too demented! HaHa! Seriously, though, he looked like he was having the time of his life. Way to go Rick!

Garry

[carlewms]

Folks,

I met Rick at the CACC join up at the Holiday Inn. He gave me my first ever ride in a roadster.

He has a great trip planned and was ready to head out to Detroit on Sunday. Car

[DARKPT]

Rick is posting more regularly in his thread on FFCARS. Sounds like he's really enjoying the trip.

http://www.ffcars.com/forums/17-factory-five-roadsters/333913-about-embark-tour-de-usa.html


Dan

[Presto51]

Rick is posting more regularly in his thread on FFCARS. Sounds like he's really enjoying the trip.

http://www.ffcars.com/forums/17-factory-five-roadsters/333913-about-embark-tour-de-usa.html


Dan

Thanks Dan just read Ricks posts sounds like he's having a blast

Ron

[rick8928]

Sorry to leave you hanging guys. As noted above, I'm periodically updating on ffcars. More relevant here, is that Dave Lindsay (Mad Dog) set me up with a dropbox so I can dump photos, videos, and text to him. He then cleans it up if needed and posts it on FFR's facebook page. I'm at a hotel in Howell MI as I write this, in preparation for a visit to the build school tomorrow at noon, and am preparing to update ffcars and the drop box tonight. Reader's Digest summary: am truly having a blast, am lucking out with the weather, and having no problems with the car whatsoever (over 3000 miles so far). TTFN

[rick8928]

Ok, am catching this forum up with the text of my "reports". As stated within, see ffcars.com thread for pics and FFR Facebook for pics and hopefully vids:

Trip Summary:
So far, having a blast. Drove up from Baltimore to Fairhaven Mass. on Friday June 14, by way of West Chester Pa (lunch with my friend John, lovely little town) and NYC. Made the mistake of following my iPhone map directions which took me over the George Washington Bridge at 4PM on a Friday. Then directed me to bypass route 95 for a bit (good) up on to several parkways. Problem was, both had accidents on them and with only two lanes, traffic was stop and go. During the second 8 mile, 1 hour stop-and-go, found that it was 3 New Yorkers ‘discussing’ a fender bender-unfortunately they deemed it necessary to park in the fast lane and "chat", rather than move off the parkway. To compound the misery, it started drizzling during this lovely time and I had no speed with which to drive under the rain. All in all it took 4 hours to get past the greater NYC area. Ran into someone down the road who said 95 had a 25 mile traffic backup so either way we were screwed. Other than that section, the drive was beautiful.
Score: rain 1; Rick 0.

As others have noted, the FFR open house was great, held under perfect skies. Amazing artistry shown by many builders. Luv the 818. Great drive that afternoon to the Albany NY area to visit my sister. I could see that the sun is going to be a problem during this trip, and so far it's only gotten into the 80s. The goofy hat works great though (there's a pic of me and it on the FFR forum site somewhere in a Mad Dog thread post).

Nice drive on Sunday 6/16 to Syracuse for visiting my two college roommates. For those who aren't familiar with New York State, other than NYC and a few medium sized cities strung along the Thruway, it's all small towns and trees and farms and grass. See pic below of typical scene along the Thruway. On this drive, got caught in some sprinkle and then 20 minutes of a gully washer. Wore my rain suit jacket but failed to put on my rain suit pants. Was kept dry and comfortable, except for my hands and the top left thigh where the rain came off the upper left windshield corner.
Score: rain 1; rick 0; tie 1

Monday noon packed up the car and joined former roommate Bill (with his Miata) at a local restaurant before taking off to Rochester. While sitting in the restaurant the sky turned black. Ran out to put my tarp over the cockpit and his top up. 15 minute thunderstorm with horizontal wind and rain. Then the sky cleared up and turned blue. Stowed the tarp and headed North to the rural route on the Lake Ontario Southern shore, in blue sky the entire way. All along, was bordered on the driver's side by a huge rain front. Had I gone by way of the Thruway, would have been totally soaked. Yeah baby!

Score: rain 1; rick 1; tie 1
Spent several days in my hometown (Rochester NY) under fantastic weather. Parked with a beautiful ’59 Corvette up on the Cobb’s Hill Reservoir and had a nice chat with the owner. Enjoyed a large turnout of cars at the weekly cruise-in at the Log Cabin restaurant out in the boonies (20 minutes from the city) in Macedon NY. Several of my grade school/high school buddies joined me.
On Thursday 6/20, made the 450 mile drive to London Ohio for the annual Cobra show. Again, perfect weather in the morning, turning slightly on the warm side as the afternoon progressed. When stopped at a rest area, a friendly trucker advised me that there was an overturned tractor trailer down the road causing a 20 mile traffic jam. Headed off the interstate onto the back roads (Ohio 42) and enjoyed the last 100 miles of the trip on country roads. If you like cobras, you’ve got to experience the London show. The 4 or 5 hotels in the Hilliard area were festooned with roadsters and coupes. Their parking lots were overrun with them. Ran into forum god Jeff Kleiner and thanked him for all the help he had provided me (threads and PMs) during my build. There was a two day track day at Mid-Ohio on the Wednesday and Thursday preceding the show, and attendees (including Gary Bopp, my co-customer representative in the Carlisle show FFR booth with his coupe) said it was a magnificent experience. The Capital Area Cobra Club (Washington DC region) was headquartered at the Hilliard Holiday Inn Express parking lot with a huge trailer and beach chairs, plus cooler after cooler filled with libations. These guys (and gals) are Pro drinkers! On Friday 6/21 we participated in an organized tour out in the Ohio countryside, ending up at lunch at a mill with a functioning water wheel and covered bridge. On the way back, a group of four ended up on the interstate traveling at a sustained high rate of speed for an extended period. This came to an end when a highway patrolman entered the highway. We slowed down but he had us dead to rights. But instead of hassling us, he merely came up to us over in the left lane and assumed a 65 mph pace, which we matched of course. Comically, the traffic was instantly backed up behind the 5 of us (No one travels the speed limit on the interstate). Still, this type of friendly police accommodation was characteristic of the whole weekend-hassle free.
This morning, prior to the show, several hundred cobras lined up in the staging area outside of London. We were then escorted into the city by the Sheriffs, parade style, at a not slow rate of speed, perfectly orchestrated right into the center of town, with townsfolk and show goers waving and cheering all along the route. Several square blocks had been closed off to everything but cobras and vendors (cobra oriented and the strawberry festival). Throughout the day, paying customers donated $10 to charity for a ride in cobras doing short drag races, chaperoned by the police. The entire London show is for the benefit of the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, to the tune of about $1 million per year.
At this point, am 9 days and about 1500 miles into the trip. No issues whatsoever yet. Sunday 6/23 am off to Detroit for a day visiting a friend, then will be venturing further into the Michigan hinterlands to spend a week camping and hiking along the Great Lakes shore and experiencing both the lower and upper peninsulas (the latter is apparently referred to as “The U.P.” by those of ‘us’ in the know).

[rick8928]

Part deux:
Sunday 6/23, took off from Columbus towards Detroit (~220 miles), where I stayed with a friend. Nice ride through the Ohio countryside for the first several hours before intersecting the interstate through Toledo and then Detroit. He and his fiancé (both 20 somethings) took me to see "The Henry Ford" museum, an awesome and eclectic collection of cars and machinery and history and furniture. We also did a quick tour through the city, where we saw large scale building abandonment and decay. After a swim at the apartment complex, we had a nice dinner out.

At this point, am 10 days and about 2000 miles into the trip. No issues whatsoever yet.
Monday 6/24 took off into the Michigan hinterlands to spend a week camping and hiking along the Great Lakes shore and experiencing both the lower and upper peninsulas (the latter is apparently referred to as “The U.P.” by those of ‘us’ in the know). The Michigan welcome rest stop lady was kind enough to load me up with plenty of booklets and maps. The tough part will be distilling down the choices to what I want to sample in the 5 days available to explore it all. You should all have such problems (I hear you thinking).
Left my friends in Detroit in perfect weather. Headed directly into the city in order to drive by Grosse Pointe, where the big homes are (remember that great movie “Grosse Point Blanc”?). While on the inner city expressway, came around a bend and w/o warning found that the left lane was closed. The guy in front of me locked up his brakes and got stuck at the barrier. I instinctively darted right and successfully avoided the first accident of the trip. I couldn’t believe how M-DOT failed to provide warning so looked around at other drivers to see if it was just me, but everyone just put their hands up and shook their heads in semi-shock at what we had just been exposed to. It was so ridiculous that in after effect it was funny and some of us just laughed at each other.
Grosse Point is amazingly beautiful. Huge house after house looking better than Beverly Hills, but situated on the gorgeous Lake St. Clair. The contrast with the just experienced bombed out inner Detroit was surreal. Spent that day driving up along the coast of “the thumb” and then into “the mitten” (look at a map of Michigan and you’ll immediately understand). Throughout the day, it was a cloudless sky with ambient air temperature at 90 degrees. Adding the unfiltered sun’s radiant heat and you would be correct in assuming that it was hot. Saved by a liberal coating of sun screen and the goofy hat. Finally made camp (tent) at Tawas Point State Park. At this point I have to give a plug for the Michigan State Park system. Numerous well maintained parks all over the state, in beautiful settings. At Tawas Point, I was able to take a refreshingly cold swim in a nice sandy beach on Lake Huron, cleaning off all of the day’s grime. It felt wonderful! That evening, one of my trailer camping neighbors invited me over to his bonfire, and we spent a nice 1.5 hours chatting before hitting the sack after midnight. The next morning I did a 3 mile run before once again diving into the cold lake. Just as I started breaking camp it started to drizzle. Fortunately it abated after a few minutes and was able to pack up without too much getting wet. Took off and it started drizzling again. Pulled into a service station to fill up under a portico, and left the pump to go in and get a bag of ice for my cooler. Some guy comes running in shouting “whoever owns the Cobra, its leaking gas!” It appears the pump failed to shut off and about a gallon overflowed. The station manager came out and explained that if you don’t put the nozzle in all the way, it can happen. I explained that my fuel inlet is vertical and that gravity held the nozzle in all the way. He then laid litter down on my wet spot, at which point I noticed that every fuel bay had a stain and remnants of kitty litter on it. Me thinks the problem was not mine! Ran into another small rain shower shortly after that and got a free car wash. Problem solved! I actually enjoy driving through a light and short drizzle more than the hot sunshine. A lot more comfortable and everything smells fresher.
The clouds abated and the sun came out to cook me once again. Took one of my several picturesque rest breaks along Lake Huron at Seagull Point. A local police officer came driving around making his rounds. He challenged my presence there so I had to take him out….Nah, he was a great guy, Sportster 1200 rider and we chatted for about 15 minutes and then he posed his car for a nose-to-nose picture. Decided to escape the heat and stay in the cheapest hotel (aka “flop house”) in Mackinaw City to get some air conditioning. Walked several miles to tour a retired Coast Guard ice breaker- nick named “The Mighty Mac”- (facilitated winter Great Lakes shipping), watched a video of the building of the 5 mile Mackinac Bridge-nick named “The Mighty Mac” (fortunately, I had no problem discerning the difference between a bridge and an ice breaker, so confusion was avoided), saw a lighthouse (there are 116 on the Michigan Coast, most or all in some form of renovation/restoration), and fed a roll of Ritz crackers to the seagulls. Man, they go ape **** when someone feeds them-total alpha male battleground. By the end of the roll I had them snatching crackers out of my fingers (a little scary as they don’t look like they have a weak bite) and doing Immleman roles to beat the next gull in an air interception. Fun!
Wednesday 6/26 headed over “The Mighty Mac” (not the ice breaker-that would have hurt) into the You Pee. Went directly North to the Soo Locks in Sault Saint Marie, and took the two hour boat tour through the American locks into Lake Superior, then back through the Canadian locks into Lake Huron. Comfy and interesting. Took a nice pair of back roads (28 and 123) to the Tahquamenon State Park and walked out the path to see the upper falls. A pittance compared to Niagara Falls, but located in a much more rural and scenic setting. Interesting aspect was the brown color of the water-large amounts of tannic acid from decaying vegetation.
Decided to camp out in the rustic campground along the river, and asked for a site under the trees due to the forecasted rain. OMG!! Remember the Alfred Hitchcock movie “The Birds”? This night was a remake entitled “The Mosquitoes”. I’m no neophyte to these annoying bugs, having grown up in Rochester NY. But that was kid stuff compared to this nightmare. They were everywhere and ceaseless in their biting. You walked around in a cloud of bugs. After setting up camp walked over to the “modern” camp for a shower. Thought I would show those bugs a thing or two by putting on long pants and shirt. Stupidly, still wore my sandals. Received about 30 bites on my ankles for my efforts. Didn’t itch them and they’re almost gone as of this 6/28 writing. Note to self-wear high socks in mosquitoville. Ended up walking around and visiting other sufferers who at least had campfires going (helps scare away the bugs). Apparently this year’s weather has been a weird combination of coolness and wetness, producing an historic brood of mosquitos. Fortunately, a breeze picked up (in advance of the rain) at about 11PM and blew the little suckers away; so everyone was able to seal themselves into their tents and get a nice comfortable sleep.
My 35 year old two-man tent remained leak free and I beat feet out of there by 7AM the next morning. Immediately after leaving the riverside campground and getting up to speed, the bug debacle ceased. Ran into a nice little rainstorm which fully cleared the air and made everything fresh and clean. Made my way back over “The Mighty Mac” (bridge again) and headed down the West coast of the mitten, now with Lake Michigan at the side.

[rick8928]

Part 3:
By the way, Michigan has the best set of criteria for establishing dotted passing lines that I've ever seen. Everywhere else it seems that the dashes are conservatively placed in order to ensure the safe passing ability of the 95th percentile 80 year old grandma driving a 60’s Rambler. Michigan treats you as a rational adult and is amazingly liberal in terms of where they authorize passing (clearly marked with roadside signs as well as dashed and solid lines). Needless to say, passing any other vehicle with the cobra is a trivial matter. Almost as trivial as with my R1 motorcycle, but not quite.
Set up camp at the State Park at Traverse City, then took several hours to drive up the M22 to the Northport Lighthouse and down the other M22 (they make an isosceles triangle) to take a scenic drive through the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Park. Holy Moly-these dunes need to be seen to be believed. You can search the internet for images but these 2D pics don’t come close to doing them justice (just checked). I haven’t mentioned it yet but virtually everyone I meet asks me one of two questions (and you know what’s coming). Non car people ask “what kind of car is that?” Car people ask me “real or kit?” I’ve been asked the latter 67 times (I’m serious, am keeping count for my amusement). I’m universally polite and friendly in my responses, while internally thinking “do you really think there’s anyone out there driving their million dollar 60’s Shelby AC Cobras down dirt roads, crusty with bugs and plastered with aerodynamically formed dirt trails due to the multiple rain squalls encountered, stuffed to the max with camping gear and parked in the budget zone?” Nevertheless, the car is ALWAYS a conversation starter and has led to a great number of friendly talks with strangers. “You meet the nicest people in an FFR Cobra”-hey, someone ought to run with that tagline!
This morning 6/28, took forum member Steno’s advice (thanks!) and headed over to the cute little seaside town of Frankfort, went a mile down the road to Elberta for a great breakfast, then headed down the M22 past Arcadia along a very nice road full of turns and elevation changes. Ran across another stunning seaside cliff view at an overlook just above Arcadia. “Wow!!” is all I can say. By the way, check out ffcars updates and Factory Five’s Facebook page for pics and hopefully vids on the latter (will try and put some on the dropbox tonight, and it will probably take Mad Dog a few days to post, given the weekend).
Anyhow, the rest of the day was simply a 200 mile transit trip inland to Howell. On the way, saw a beautiful collection of clouds off to my side, containing brilliant white towering clouds of different types, along with huge masses of black. You guessed it, they chased me all the way into Howell as the road jinked north and south, catching me about four times in short duration squalls. As it has been so far in this trip, nothing lasted long enough to be uncomfortable and I didn’t bother stopping to put on rain gear. Arrived at Howell fully dry and checked into one of those motels that might have been nice four decades and three owners ago (the pool’s an empty “see-ment” pond). It was ‘featured’ in one of those coupon newspaper booklets you pick up at state welcome centers. But, it’s cheap, has a bed and free Wi-Fi (hence am filing this report tonight). No sense in spending money when that’s all I need.
Now have approximately 3000 miles under my belt for this meandering trip (uh-oh, I think I need to up my 8000 mile estimate to something much bigger). Nothing but fun so far and no mechanicals. Weather has been relatively mild other than for several days of scorching heat. Hoping that continues as long as possible. Until the next report, TTFN.

[Jeff Kleiner]

Part 3:
This morning 6/28, took forum member Steno’s advice (thanks!) and headed over to the cute little seaside town of Frankfort...

I know Frankfort and that was excellent advice! One of my sisters and her family have a summer house on Crystal Lake a few miles away. We go for an extended stay every 4th of July and one of these years if the long range forecast is good the roadster will make the trip (my wife isn't as adventurous regarding an open car in the rain as we are :)).

Really enjoying your reports Rick! Please keep them coming and travel safely :)

Jeff

[Mad Dog]

As Rick mentioned, we've posted some photos he sent us on Factory Five's website. Here's some of the photos we've posted. Click here to read the post. (https://www.factoryfive.com/whats-new/factory-five-customer-rick-s-embarks-on-a-tour-de-usa/)

https://www.factoryfive.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/IMG_0271.jpg
While at Seagull Point, Rick had a little run-in with the local authorities, but no worries – they were a fellow car enthusiast and wanted to check out Rick’s Factory Five Roadster.

https://www.factoryfive.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/IMG_0301.jpg
Roadside view point, Michigan M22 North of Arcadia, Lake Michigan

https://www.factoryfive.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/IMG_0288.jpg
Rick’s been camping out and has been trying to park under trees as there’s been the threat of rain from time to time.

[rick8928]

Days 20-25
Spent a total of 4 days with family and friends; boating, swimming, jogging, and eating. Very nice time but on the last day I found myself ready to get back into the itinerant exploratory mode that I’m now accustomed to. Took off Saturday morning in nice partly cloudy and cool conditions, taking back roads for a while before intersecting the interstate. The clouds evaporated into a clear blue sky and I baked. Once again, saved by the goofy hat (my brother has now named me “Sir Rick of Wisconsin” after Sir Lawrence of Arabia).

Serendipity # 1: While approaching Des Moines saw a huge number of hot rods on the road. Finally pulled into a rest area and did a google search to find that Goodguys was holding “The Heartland Nationals” show at the State Fairgrounds just 12 miles from where I was at that very moment. SHWING! 20 minutes later I was pulling into the parking lot. Holy cow: thousands of rolling works of art. Also saw two cobra replicas-one was on display from some manufacturer (427 Performance?) which looked nice and polished and finished, with a square tube frame; the other a Midstates slowly driving in the midst of the internal fairgrounds traffic jam. It looked very nice and clean, but had a ride height that I’d estimate at 6 or 7” and consequently looked a little “different” to my eyes. Spent several hours mentally overloading on one beautiful hot rod or muscle car after another, ranging from rat rods to concourse winners. There are sure a lot of mint muscle cars in the Midwest. At some point, I just couldn't absorb any more- must be like visiting the Louvre and after a while coming across the Mona Lisa and thinking “ho hum-snore”. Excellent unintended foray!

Serendipity # 2: Due to having baked all day, wanted a cold shower and air conditioning for the night so wimped out again and opened up the handy welcome center coupon book. Found a cheapo inn located down the road in Cedar Rapids. Apple maps directed me off the freeway directly into downtown, and I thought “uh oh”. Fortunately, was further directed 4 miles out into the burbs, off the beaten path to an acceptable spot. As an aside, from my afternoon visit to the State Fairgrounds for the Goodguys show and my sojourn that evening, it appears that Iowa is experiencing an obesity epidemic. There must be a lot of calories in corn. Yikes! Anyhow, the next morning, I chose route 3 of the 3 Apple maps choices to stay on non-interstates. While driving along route 151 past Anamosa Iowa saw a big sign for the “National Motorcycle Museum”. Immediate U-Turn to go to one of the items on my planned itinerary, which I hadn't checked in days and thus would have missed if not for my lucky choice of hotel and routes. THE best museum I've ever seen, in terms of layout, presentation, and selection, given its subject matter. For a motorcyclist interested in the history, sheer nirvana. Once again, after several hours and the resulting mental overload, left as a very satisfied visitor. Highly recommended!

Got a lot of “what kind of car is that?” questions on this trip segment, along with a number of suggested spots to visit. Based on that input and the “ten pounds of stuff in a five pound bag” syndrome mentioned at the beginning of this thread, have decided to forego a second visit to the Oshkosh EAA Airventure in order to use that week for other first time must-dos and still try and get to Laguna Seca for the Pebble Beach Concourse and vintage races in mid – August. In the neighborhood of Monticello Iowa, there were segments on route 151 that had a 360 degree horizon to horizon view of nothing but undulating landscape covered in cornfields, with an occasional farm and associated silos. Breathtakingly beautiful.

While in Wisconsin, ran into Peter Egan, world renowned writer/humorist for both “Cycle World” and “Road&Track”, who I’ve been reading since back in the 70s. Ok, Ok, I didn't just run into him, I stalked him (man love has its darker side). Found his address in the white pages and drove out to his farmhouse in the boonies, merely hoping to get a picture of mecca as a drive by. He heard the rumble as I pulled up in his driveway (nothing ventured, nothing gained!), came out for a looksee and proceeded to give me a couple of hours of his time. Offered a cup of coffee and we just chatted out in his garage about bikes and cars. His lovely wife Barb showed up, having just returned from picking cherries. And yes, Peter is just as gracious and friendly as you’d expect of someone with friends wherever he goes. Took him for a ride and then virtually forced him to get in the driver’s seat, overcoming his initial polite refusal (I let all my friends drive it-these cars are as strong as the steel they're made of and anything can be fixed; besides its simple golden rule stuff and I know I’d be thrilled if the shoe was on the other foot). Peter commented how easy and comfortable it is to drive (I think that as long time long distance motorcyclists, we both have a different perspective than others on traveling comfort-for me, a 400 mile drive in this thing is like sitting on the living room couch, relatively speaking). Not wanting to wear out my welcome, I dismissed myself, letting him get back to work. What another awesome, memorable experience (the hits just keep on coming)!

Will be just hanging with my brother for the next several days, and then we’ll head north for some camping. Given the heat, humidity, and high level of mosquitoes in this neck of the woods (again!?), we'll probably take his air conditioned Camry for that venture. The following Saturday night and Sunday we’ll be at Road America for the vintage races, at which time I plan on taking a charity lap around the course if offered during lunchtime. Thereafter, I’ll be hitting the road for the Dakotas. 4700 miles in now. Until the next time…..
Pictures: 7 x National Motorcycle Museum; Crossing the Mississippi again at Dubuque Iowa;Peter Egan in his Library; Peter and Barb in the Garage
19605196061960719608196091961019611196121961319614

[rick8928]

Several more pics:

Peter's famous garage
On the road in my car
Back at the ranch
At a semi-abandoned old style garage

19615196161961719618

[DARKPT]

Good to hear Peter is as open and engaging as you'd hope he would be from reading his articles.

Save some time for the Barber Motorsports museum in Birmingham AL. Their historic motorcycle collection is unparalleled, though their presentation is much more.... sterile.

[carlewms]

Rick,

Thanks for letting us all live your fantastic trip. Carl

[Garry Bopp]

Rick,

I'm a big fan of Peter Egan and would love to meet him some day and take him for a ride in the coupe! Your trip just keeps getting better. Enjoying your reports and pictures immensely!

Garry

[rick8928]

Darkpt- have been to Barber and agree with your assessment 100%

Carl-my pleasure

Garry-due to my decision to skip Oshkosh, will be in Hatton ND on 24 July for a few days before heading out. Will you be in the area then?

[rick8928]

Spent the middle of the week hanging out at my brother Gordy’s house in Madison, getting a 3+ mile jog in every morning. Fixed the long broken (6 months) stereo system in his place by spending 3 minutes looking at it and seeing that the turntable was unplugged underneath the shelving, which was causing feedback when the receiver was set to “auxiliary” and precluding the playing of an extensive classical record collection. Notwithstanding that I’ve built my own car, THIS certified me as an official “mechanical wizard” by local reckoning.

Also spent an afternoon at Barnes & Noble catching up on all the car/motorcycle/airplane magazines, and another ensuring that the Camry was suitable for a camping trip (checking oil/fluid/tire pressure levels, replacing a slashed spare tire, and performing an extensive washing/interior and trunk cleaning/vacuuming session). The car was no longer an experimental petri dish engaged in growing an exotic crop of exotic organisms. Gordy and I attended the weekly summer Wednesday evening concert on the grass at the central square on the grounds of the Madison state capital building. This concert featured a world famous (there’s such a thing?) harmonica player, backed by the local chamber orchestra, and was held under perfect skies and weather. Great ambiance-very pleasant. I did take the Cobra on a 60 mile drive out in the country, to a cute little town named Spring Green along with the neighboring Tower Hill State Park on the Wisconsin River. The latter turned out to be a Reader’s Digest (i.e. condensed) version of mosquitoville, so the visit was extremely short!

On Friday July 12th, we took off heading north. Spent a day in the Wisconsin Dells exploring kitchville (it is a small version of Pigeon Forge Tennessee, if you’ve ever seen that), with the highlights being a land/river tour in a WWII vintage “Duck” amphibious truck and an excellent dinner at a German restaurant. We camped out in a great campsite, made a nice fire, and went for a nice swim in the lake-like Wisconsin River the following morning after my run through the campgrounds.

That day we headed up into the beautiful Door County peninsula for the weekend. On the way, we stopped in Montello, one of the many quaint little Wisconsin towns, for a cup of coffee. While sitting on a bench sipping, I spotted an old building with a cornerstone labeled “IOOF 1886”. Looked it up on Google to see that it stood for “The International Organization of Odd Fellows” (excellent name!), which turns out to be a fellowship and philanthropic organization based in England, and was the first of these types of organizations (Elks, Rotary, Kiwanis...) to include women members. Good for them.

Later on, we stopped in Green Bay to visit the hallowed Lambeau field, home of the Packers. I’m no stick and ball sports fan, so it meant absolutely nada to me, but everyone else was treating it as a visit to the Vatican, with the late Vince Lombardi being the sainted ex pope. Gordy wanted to show me the exalted playing field, but it turns out you can’t see a single blade of grass w/o paying for a tour (apparently they’ve got to maximize every cent of the revenue stream in order to afford the players). So, seeing one of the many ongoing tour groups wandering around with a guide, we joined at the back of the pack. We were immediately approached by the rear guard action, who asked us if we wanted to take a tour. I politely answered that “it appeared we are already on one”. He asked for our tickets, to which I responded “naah, they cost money”. He chuckled and observed “well, no fault in trying”. We left him and the rear part of the tour group laughing. My brother gets a kick out of my wisenheimer shtick, so I feel compelled to play to his needs. We also followed directions to a memorial for deceased motorcycle riders. This contained a large number of memorial bricks, not surprising seeing the scarcity of helmeted riders in Wisconsin and the gaggle of Harley Davidsons parked at every bar and pub.

We ended up in Egg Harbor for the night at the quaint old world Alpine Resort, built in the 20s. We had perfect weather and gorgeous views of the sunset over Lake Michigan. After empowering the young girl at the desk with the ability to offer discounts, to no avail, it took going to two levels of management to secure a waterside room for the price of a “cheap seats” non-view room, thereby saving $30. My brother enjoys seeing me play this game, so once again I endeavored to please. We had dinner at Mojo Rosas Mexican restaurant. I lived in Los Angeles for 17 years and ever since then Mexican food has been my most frequent dine out choice, so have probably eaten it at least 1000 times. This was THE worst Mexican food I’ve ever had, lacking any spice at all (the red sauce on my burrito was essentially marinara sauce). My brother’s flautas was equally unpleasant. On the other hand, the service was abysmally slow and the price was inflated, so at least we got the trifecta. A “must miss” for anyone in the area! The next morning, had a fantastic run through some of the Alpine Country Club golf course and the tree covered residential peninsula, with some roads paved and others gravel covered. Lovely homes on the water and a great place to jog. After a nice breakfast at the resort, we hit the road.

Pictures:
Concert on the Square in Madison
Campsite in Wisconsin Dells
River riding on the Duck
Odd Fellows in Montello
Wisconsinites' Mecca
Biker memorial
Sunset from Alpine Hotel in Egg Harbor
Peninsula State Park-Eagle Tower
Eagle Trail
How to keep a roof trimmed

[rick8928]

On Sunday, we headed down to Whitefish Dunes State Park, where Gordy remembered an expansive sandy beach from years ago. We were a little early, but surprisingly were one of only five cars in the parking lot. We found out why when we got to the beach. It is no longer deep, but only about 10 yards wide. More importantly, it stunk to high heaven of dead fish. There was a large display explaining why: in 1947 a small fish called the alewife invaded Lake Michigan from the Atlantic Ocean. The alewife is predominantly a salt water fish used to a stable environment. The spring runoff causes quick changes in temperature and water chemistry in the great lakes, the alewives can’t handle it, and they end up piled on the shore. Given the stench, our planned day at the beach turned into a half hour reconnaissance and we beat feat out of there. Several hours later, we were back in Madison after a total trip of about 650 miles.

The following week was again spent hanging out in Madison, in the midst of a sustained heat wave. My brother and I spent a comfortable afternoon at Devil’s Lake, fixed a leaky exhaust pipe on the Camry, hung out at Barnes & Noble for another afternoon, entertained some neighbors for after dinner drinks, and attended another evening concert on the square; this one consisting of Elton John tunes. Nice.

A flurry of emails resulted in arranging a planned meet-up at the forthcoming weekend’s Road America event between Peter and Barb Egan, Thomas and Chris Payne (Restored 30s Garage), and my brother and I. More time on the laptop and telephone resulted in a refinement of my near term trip planning and the confirmed meet-up (AKA leaching off of) a number of long lost friends, arranging a time for my wife Constance to meet up with me for a week in the Southwest (not to be spent in the Cobra!), acquisition of several Target Shelby T-shirts (one for my buddy and fellow car builder PJ Davis), and learning that my wife, in her aerospace executive role, was heading off to England for a few days to attend the Royal Air Force Air Tattoo and associated formal dinners (damn her-she should be sitting home pining for me in my absence!). Lastly, received a Facebook message that my friend and former “day-wife” Jennifer (we worked closely together during the last decade prior to my retirement) was planning on visiting family in Santa Barbara and wondered if she could join me for the drive down the California coast. The result is that she’s going to fly into Monterey and attend the Laguna Seca vintage races and Pebble Beach Concourse d’Elegance with me, before the drive down towards L.A. on the Pacific Coast Highway. This will be fun, as she’s a great traveling companion. As a necessity, I’ll be shipping a bunch of my travel gear ahead to L.A. to make room for her in the passenger compartment. Forum member Rick (CRZN 427) has offered a place to spend the night in Morro Bay on the way down, with a choice of one or two bedrooms, “depending on the nature of your relationship with the accompanying co-worker”. I’ll have to check with my wife to get her input before answering him. LOL!! All of the above highlighted the fact that in this age of Wi-Fi, laptops, and smartphones, we are just a few cheap electrons away from family and friends, no matter where in the world we or they are. Amazing times.

On Friday 7/19 Gordy and I took off for Elkhart Lake to attend the annual Road America vintage race extravaganza. It’s a very quaint and pretty little town with the usual shops and cafes, plus several large resorts. On race weekend Fridays for this event, they have an evening concourse for the race cars, who make the several mile trek from the race track on the public roads, and park on the tree lined streets near the resort area. Town folk and race weekend attendees are lined up on the sidewalk to see the spectacle of their arrival, and then get to mingle around them for several hours, before the cars fire up and blast out of there on their way back to the track. Major cool. We met up with Thomas, Chris, and their drag racing friend John (former GM Powertrain engineer, now working in the heavy appliance industry), then found and chatted with Peter Egan for a bit (still super friendly and gracious), then wandered among the race cars. Good times! That night, Gordy and I headed for a state park campground (and just missed a deer leaping across the road in the darkness), but were turned away in the absence of any vacancies. Uh oh. Were directed to another park 20 miles away who had one open site left, but when we arrived there at 9:55 we found a closed office (was supposed to be open to 10:00). Fortunately, we had spotted a motel a mile back in Belgium WI, so gave up the camping plan and called it a night.

Saturday morning was bright and sunny, so jogged off to the east and as I crested a hill found a stunning view of glistening Lake Michigan disappearing over the horizon. Nice jog to and along the beach, returning to the hotel through the Harrington Beach State Park. Gordy and I then drove back to the beach for a little sand and sun, then hit the road to get a delicious and decadent breakfast at a pancake joint. We spent the afternoon in Elkhart Lake again, where my car was parked on the street near the area set aside for that evening’s street car concourse-the car got a huge amount of attention (whenever we had it in sight while we wandered around town, it was usually attended by one or more gawkers). If we ever had to retrieve anything from the trunk, got the usual questions and benefitted from the usual friendly conversations. Thomas, Chris, and John met up with us again and we wandered through this evening’s cars (which we didn’t appreciate as nearly as much as the prior night’s race cars). After a number of texts and voicemails, successfully met up with fellow forum member Tom (Cheapsnake), his wife Sandy, and their friends and family. We had a nice chat, before agreeing to meet up at Sunday’s races. As we left town in the raucous Cobra (OK, OK - FFR Mark 4 Roadster), all eyes were on us. Chinese food with the Philo Illinois crowd and a hotel completed our day.

Sunday dawned a little cooler and cloudy. We headed over to the track early, signed up for the lunchtime lap tour session, and then wandered around the paddock and track while the various vintage classes did their morning warm-ups. The lunchtime track tour was excellent. We got 40 minutes of track time, at one point getting up to about 100 mph. My completely non motor head brother had never been on a racetrack before and for him it was a total thrill. It would have been even better if our pace car had been a little more forceful in passing the slower cars, but it was still a blast. A spectator came up to me later and informed me that my car was the loudest one on the track, by far (big surprise to all of us FFR guys-not). Enjoyed the Can-AM, Corvette 60th Anniversary, and other races; hung out with Tom (Cheapsnake) and Sandy for a bit (including a photo-op), and said our good-byes to Thomas and Chris, just as the sky started spitting. Got caught in a heavy and sustained rainstorm on the way back to Madison, the heaviest of the trip, and got kind of soaked (the inside of the windshield, dash top, and instrument panel were dripping wet). Halfway back, pulled into a gas station with covered pumps to take a break, and was informed by a fellow traveler that the way ahead had hail, traffic pulling off the road due to visibility conditions, and a 20 mph travel speed. Yikes! Then another young guy came up and invited us to hang out in his auto shop 2 blocks away to wait out the storm. We took him up on it for about a half hour, then decided to bite the bullet and continue on. Experienced another half hour of heavy rain before, as always, the sky cleared and the rain stopped. By the time we pulled into Gordy’s place, the outside of the car was fully dry, but the carpets will have to be vacuumed at the gas station before I take off to the west. Great two week sojourn hanging with my bro’ and going on joint adventures! Just like when we were kids.

Tomorrow morning will be heading up to Hatton, ND to visit a former co-worker for a few days, then on to Sturgis after passing through New Salem (home of “Salem Sue, the World's Largest Holstein Cow”-Garry Bopp, will you be there this Thursday or Friday, or am I a week too early?), then on to Mt. Rushmore, the Crazy Horse Memorial, Devil’s Tower, Yellowstone Park by way of Beartooth Highway, Glacier National Park by way of Going-to-the-Sun Road, and then if all goes well will end up on an Island off the coast of Seattle sometime within the first week of August. That’s about 2600 miles in one sentence, which will push me well over 8000 miles accumulated on the trip by then. Looks like an awesome set of sights are in my future, and I’ll keep you apprised of them periodically. Until the next time……
Pictures:
Gordy, Chris, Thomas, and John
Thomas Payne, your's truly, Peter Egan
Bailey's Harbor camp site
New Can-Am clone series: VIR in October!
With Sandy and Tom (Cheapsnake)

[jkrueger]

pretty cool! keep us updated.

JC

[carlewms]

Rick,

Great update. I hope your staying cool in the heat wave,

How is the car doing?

Carl

[longislandwrx]

This is such an awesome trip. 25 years from now I'd love to do something similar.

[rick8928]

I'm continuing to update my trip thread in ffcars.com, roadster subforum ("About to embark on a Tour de USA"). Trying to save upload time by just updating there and also sending to FFR for their occasional Facebook page update. Hope you still find it entertaining and thanks for the responses.

[JWolfe]

What an amazing thread! I'm jealous

[Garry Bopp]

Rick joined John Tongish and I in the summer of 2018 to do the "Lake Superior Circle Tour". We had a blast and only got stopped by the Mounties once in Ontario ... they wanted to look at the cars!

BTW, Rick recently sold his Mk4 and moved on to motorcycles and BMW cars.

Garry

132652132653132654

[rick8928]

Wow, this thread came back after 7 years!
1. As I had mentioned earlier in this thread, the entire trip in far more detail is hosted on ffcars.com with the same thread title.

2. I sold my cobra because after 47,000 miles in 6 years, and multiple trips to FFR for the summer homecoming, multiple trips to the London cobrafest, the "tour de USA", "tour de Florida", "Tour de Midwest" , "Tour de Lake Superior", multiple trips to Wisconsin, upstate NY, Rehoboth Beach for the annual capital area cobra club get togethers, the annual new years day run around DC, multiple car shows and cars and coffee, yada yada yada.....I had basically done all I was ever going to do with the car. For several years, everything was just a repeat of stuff I'd already done. If I had a bigger garage, I'd have kept the car. However, my three car garage was filled with 3 cars (one of which was the cobra), and 3 motorcycles. Every time I wanted to ride a motorcycle, I had to "rearrange the deck chairs on the Titanic" to get a bike out the door.

3. So, sold the cobra at a semi give away price to a nice young man from Staten Island (drove him up there in the car, took my license plate off the car, and he dropped me off in the city one early summer Saturday, where I spent several hours walking uptown from the Brooklyn Bridge, eating off food trucks, observing the feminine eye candy, and just having a lovely hike. Got on a prepaid [by the buyer] big bus and had a relaxing ride back to Baltimore where my wife picked me up; a very enjoyable fitting last day of Cobra ownership).

4. Garry is slightly confused (hey, he's past his "sell by" date and retired, so what do you expect?). :+) I've had my BMW 330i since 2002, and it has about 210,000 miles on it. I also have a 2016 Porsche Cayman S flat 6 six speed manual, which had become my newly favorite 4 wheeled conveyance. It and the cobra are two completely different sides of the fast car coin: brutal iron sledgehammer vs. poised titanium scalpel. Both great, but I'd done so much with the cobra I wanted to spend my time in the Porsche. So, after selling the cobra was able to migrate all the motorcycles to the 3rd garage bay, allowing easy access. I ended up selling two older bikes and replacing them with a brand new Triumph Speed Twin. Basically, I de-vintaged my fun fleet and have been enjoying myself ever since.

No doubt more info than you needed or desired, but I wanted to complete the saga and explain why I sold the cobra, cuz I never fell out of love with the experience. I miss the fun of the research, the build, time on the forum, and all the great folks I met as part of my cobra build and travel experience.

Keep on truckin' folks,
Rick

[Garry Bopp]

Rick,

I was pretty surprised to see this post come up again, as well.

Only "slightly confused"! That's a pretty big compliment! If I remember correctly, you were the one that taught me the phrase "retirement does NOT suck"! I've been living the dream!

Garry

[Jeff Kleiner]

Good to see you around here again Rick, and get an update on what life has been bringing you! I've told many people about your "Tour de fill in the blank" adventures :)

Be well,
Jeff