Sorry for the delay in getting this part posted, had a hard drive die and have
been playing computer fixer. Then it appears that it is too long as one part
so am going to try doing it as part 2a and part 2b.
The Great Sprite Odyssey Part Two A
Suddenly it was 6:30 p.m. April 10, 1998; we were supposed to be on the road
twelve hours ago. It seemed that we had been packing the RV and trailer
forever and if we did not leave we would find even more to pack tomorrow. So
we closed the house up and hit the road, driving about 50 miles into the
foothills east of San Diego to stop and fix dinner. Afterwards we drove until
about midnight getting us to a rest stop in the sand dunes about 20 miles west
of Yuma, AZ. It was a hectic day but once on the road all of the problems and
concerns of the last month disappeared and it felt like a great load had been
lifted off our shoulders.
We arrived in Tucson, AZ the following day accompanied by strong winds. With a
total length of forty-six feet you do not want strong winds, so we held up in
Tucson for Easter Sunday. Monday arrived with only mild winds and we were on
the road again. The next few days were rather uneventful and often lacking in
visual interest as we crossed New Mexico and western Texas.
This all changed as we arrived in the Texas hill country. It was definitely
spring in the land of LBJ. The hills were green and the sides of the road and
meadows were covered with wild flowers. Texas Healey Roundup XVIII in Marble
Falls began on Friday. Despite predictions of 60% chance of rain, the weather
was absolutely great. Saturday morning was the popular choice show with 20
Sprites, 16 of which were bugeyes, 34 big Healeys and one each racing Healey
and Sprite. The fellow with the racing “Spec Sprite”, Roger Williams, is a
local high school shop teacher who has his students build the cars. The
program helps keep kids off of the street while teaching them performance
automotives. A complete car ready to race costs about $5K. The afternoon was
spent on a very pleasant rally though the surrounding hills with stops at a
couple of points of interest. Dinner, Awards, and Auction were on Saturday
night. Sunday morning was the gymkhana followed by brunch and more awards.
Bob’s name tag had been misprinted Jim, which he crossed out and wrote in Bob.
The good natured folks of the local club re-christened him Jim-Bob, making him
a real southern Texan. All in all, a delightful start to our trip, with lots
of wonderful people.
>From here we headed north to Claremore, OK, home of Will Rogers, to visit
family and friends. While there, the Sprite made the front page of the local
newspaper, a delightful article that took almost three months to catch up with
us. This was followed by stops in Memphis and Chattanooga, TN to visit with
more family members.
Then it was on to Townsend, TN for an Annual British Car Gathering on Saturday
May 2. Our internet contact wasn’t answering the phone so Saturday morning we
set out to find Townsend. Eventually we found it, as well as a bunch of
British cars in a park. Although judging was pretty well over, they let us
park with the Sprites for the event. This was like putting a barrel of honey
in a bear den. We drove in with a corps of cameras pointed at us-- real
Hollywood stuff--and were immediately surrounded with people asking us
questions. Our car--fitted out with the hardtop ‘cause it looked like
rain--got so much attention that we hardly were able to see anything more than
the Sprites, which interestingly outnumbered the big Healeys by two to one.
The Triumphs were out in force with about 35 cars of the 150 cars at the
event.
We were beginning to think the people who had seemed so friendly on the
internet really didn’t exist. Then three Sprites down we saw a little blue
bugeye named Healium which belongs to Amy T., Spridgeteer extraordinaire.
Turns out both Amy and Paul had been out of town and we’d been calling the
phone without the answering machine. At any rate, once we got together, they
gave a new meaning to Southern Hospitality.
Before awards presentation the guests of honor, Gerry and Marion Coker, were
introduced and said a few words. We had a delightful conversation with them
later--of course it helped that they had nice things to say about our car.
Both of our original two cars and many other cars delivered in the southwest
had concave rather than convex grills. We took the opportunity to ask Mr.
Coker if he had any knowledge of the factory delivering cars with the
“backwards” grills. He told us that he had designed them with convex grills
and that was the only way they left the factory to his knowledge. So it
appears that the “backward” grills are the work of the distribution and/or
dealerships in this country. Since ours has been that way for 38 years, we
think we’ll leave it. We decided against the post-show car tour and took a
scenic route back to Athens where we met the car tour going the other way. Of
course everyone had to wave. Paul and Amy invited us to dinner and we went to
a place called Cousin Ben’s Catfish for a real Southern meal, complete with
hushpuppies.
On Sunday afternoon, we started out to do some shopping in Athens, but ran
into Paul and Charlie Lownsdale (driving Healium) looking for us to join them
taking Healium back to the barn where it, along with Gary Lownsdale’s car and
boat collection, is stored. We quickly joined them having already heard about
this fabulous barn full of cars. We had gone a ways when Charlie heard on the
radio that there were hail storms on the road to our destination. So he led
us on some alternate routes and before long we had no clue as to were we were
or how we got there. At one point we had to stop for gas and get a bite to
eat while a hail storm moved out of the way. Finally arriving in the dark of
night we were treated to Gary’s 1972 Lotus Elan race car, the only five GSM
Deltas in North America, two wooden boats (one an Austin-Healey, the other a
Chris-Craft), Paul’s Healey (BT7 not tri-carb), several American muscle cars,
Charlie’s Mark III Sprite that he got as a 15-year-old, and his Lotus prepared
Cortina for college. There was also Gary’s Custom Red Corvette, Charlie’s
“mom’s car” (a beautiful teal blue BJ8), and Amy’s “Barn Sprites” that she is
restoring. (Paul and Charlie claim that they are doing all the real work.)
There were also 6 to 8 one-of-a-kind race cars awaiting restoration. With all
these cars covered, it’s a rather strange sensation pulling off one cover
after another almost like a magician.
On the return trip we got lost when we separated from Paul and Charlie too
soon. Naturally our map was back at the RV. So we enjoyed an extra 30 mile
drive and then had to creep back into the RV park at 1:30 a.m. with the
Sprite. Thank goodness the people in the campground were philosophical.
(continues in Part Two B)
Bob and Annice (Ann)
60 Sprite
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