Well Folks here is Part One.
One of the most ask questions on the trip was how did it start. So we are
going to start this tying to answer that question. Part Two will be the trip
going East and Part Three will be the return tip. Both to follow this week we
hope. This is fairly long but hope you enjoy it.
The Great Sprite Odyssey started taking form in June, 1997 when Sprite Rush
was announced. Our car was still in good shape from its 1996 frame-up, we had
the time available, and who knew what our situation would be five years from
now. With that decided, the question was how. We had wanted for many years
to take a long vacation and see some of the country east of the Mississippi.
With our background of camping, a motorhome (which we didn’t have) seemed to
be the solution, along with a little trailer for the Sprite to ride in (which
we also didn’t have). We could both ride in the motorhome for the long
distances and then have the Sprite to run around in for fun.
We set out to get the pieces together in our usual manner--look at as much
stuff as possible and see if we can find what we want. By November we had
found a used and slightly larger copy of the motorhome we had selected and had
checked it out with a 2000 mile trip. The trailer was not found until
February. We needed ramps to extend the trailer drop ramp for the Sprite and
a place for the hardtop to ride, and these modifications were made.
The Chatters were coming in and we were finding out about other events that we
could squeeze in on the way. Texas Healey Roundup in April and the West Coast
Meet (in Oregon) in July got our interest and we made reservations along with
Sprite Rush. Incidentally, we only made advance RV parking or hotel
reservations at these three events. It worked out fine.
At this point we set up a spreadsheet of mileages and locations to estimate
days to fit with our breathtaking maximum self imposed distance of 200 miles a
day. We carried this with us and altered it as the trip progressed. That
way, if we decided to lay low a day, we just changed one date and everything
fell into place. We could also plot alternate routes.
We had several family and friend stops, as well as plans to visit other places
of interest to us. It became obvious however that we had plenty of time to
play with the other Healeys if we knew what was going on where. To this end,
we used the Austin Healey Club of America membership roster to write letters
to the presidents or activities chairmen of the clubs on our likely route
asking for their event schedules for the time that we would be in their area.
The response was almost immediate--we began getting e-mails the next day. We
were also overwhelmed by the number of responses that included lines like “I
really want to meet you, let me know when you’ll be here so we can at least
burn a steak.” Our friends on the SPRIDGET news group began sending
suggestions and invitations; soon we had more events and invitations than we
than we could possibly fit into four months. By the way, we hadn’t met any of
these people except through the news group. We started folding these into our
spreadsheet and came up with a firm plan for getting to the east coast via
Texas, Oklahoma, Townsend TN, Carlisle PA, Richmond VA and turning around on
the Virginia eastern shore. Our plans were less firm for the return via the
West Coast Meet, and as it turned out, delays made it necessary to modify that
portion of the trip anyway.
Fact is, the trip was terrific. We met hundreds of people, made lots of new
friends, and generally had a great time. Our motorhome logged 11,400 miles
and our “trailer queen”(the Sprite) had 2000 additional miles on it when we
got home. The motorhome ran perfectly. The Sprite got by with a couple of
minor electrical problems, an exhaust leak, and a horrendous noise caused by a
small stone that got lodged between the front brake disk and the backing
plate--all fairly easily fixed. The trailer got the wheels and axle torn off
just before our last meet, but that’s another story--car, motorhome and we
were fine and the trailer got fixed. We didn’t even manage to get a hard luck
trophy at the WCM because one fellow had to leave his car at home. We visited
20 U.S. States and 5 Canadian provinces. We have been home a week and are
already looking longingly at doing something similar next year, and maybe
managing to meet people in some of the places that we had to bypass this year.
Highlights have to be the following, not necessarily in this order:
Finding someone slithering under our car at Texas Healey Roundup Popular
Choice to verify that the bottom was “as clean as it looks on top”.
Driving into the Townsend meet late in the morning and facing what seemed to
be every camera in the place as we drove over to the Sprite area to park. We
felt like movie stars.
A wonderful Bluewater AHC Barbecue at the home of Ken and Kathleen Williams
arranged just because we were visiting.
Driving the Funkana at West Coast Meet for a lark and then learning that we
had placed third.
Going to dinner en masse every evening at Sprite Rush--a real hoot. Imagine
lining up 50 or 60 almost identical cars and driving them three or four miles
to a prearranged dinner location.
Amy and Paul Tuner’s, along with Charlie Lownsdale’s, great hospitality when
we were in Tennessee.
An absolutely wonderful steak dinner prepared by Tim Mahnensmith and enjoyed
with his wife and the Needlers of the Northern Indiana AHC.
Bob and Ann
60 Sprite
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