(Note: Some CVBMC members also belong to the Raleigh area club. This report is for an event they organize)
By Corky Guenther
The North Carolina MG Car Club’s annual Coastal Tour this year took us to Kitty Hawk with the Wright Brothers Memorial and Roanoke Island. The Ahrendts , Priscilla and I left Thursday morning (April 4th) as the official start of the tour was at 8:30 Friday morning from Knightsdale, NC; an eastern suburb of Raleigh about 4 hours away. I had planned a route that was; as is our custom, neither the fastest nor the shortest, using non-Interstates and entered it into our Garmin. Things were proceeding well until we got to the Statesville area when our Garmin locked up, refusing to navigate the route any further so Dave and Kathy assumed the lead. We reached the hotel without further incident, ordered in Pizza and retired.
Friday morning when we went out to pack the car, we were reminded that the pollen season was upon us. The TC had a distinctly yellow cast and there was a large hand print (not any of ours) on the bonnet. We headed for the Knightsdale Hardees and joined the group. The Coastal Tour is known for always encountering rain during the weekend. To that point, the official mascot is a “Rubber Ducky” issued to each participating car on the first tour and carried within on subsequent ones. This year was no exception as we encountered light showers Friday morning on the way to the beach. Not really a bother.
When we pulled in to the first “comfort stop” we found a contingent of Miatas there. They apparently had caught wind of our tour and decided to follow the same route. They were also at our second stop and as the groups pulled out; we were a bit delayed and found ourselves mixed in with them. They soon tired of the TC’s pace and forged ahead while we pressed on to catch up with our group. We had almost made it when we passed our lunch stop. While I was concentrating on traffic and catching up I missed it. Fortunately folks in one of the Non-LBCs were trailing us and chased us down. Following lunch, we set off for the Wright Brothers Memorial and museum spending the afternoon there before checking in at the hotel.
There were showers overnight but none the next morning. The plan was for us to return to the Wright Brothers Memorial for a photo event. We started out mid-pack but when we reached the park check in kiosk, I picked the wrong line and the car in front of us took 5 minutes (not an exaggeration) and by the time we got through, our entire group was long gone. As we navigated the parking lot, the rear felt a bit soft and sure enough, shortly, the left rear was flat. When a tire goes flat on a TC, you stop. Now. There’s no such thing as limping along slowly so, no catching up with the group at the parking lot at the top of the hill. I had the jack out and the wheel off when one of the Non-LBCs pulled up and said they would take us to the memorial so we could be included in the group photo, providing our first ride in a Prius. Group photos completed, we returned to the car, finished the tire change and drove up to the parking lot for our own pics.
We spent the afternoon on Roanoke Island roaming the park exhibits and visiting the Elizabeth II, a representation of a 16th century merchant sailing vessel on which the colonists arrived. There were 100 people on board split approximately evenly between crew and passengers.
Sunday, we left early and all was well until our Garmin locked up again around Salisbury. It did recover but then wandered off into the boonies or so it seemed and again the Ahrendts took over (Kathy said: “staged a coup”) to lead us home. I’m not sure that they will trust us to lead the parade again even if they plan the route and generate the file. David said: “for somebody who spent his entire working life in hi-tech, technology sure hates you”. I couldn’t agree more.
