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Annual
M.A.R.C. National Meet Photos by Wayne Champagne and Bruce Marshall |
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We are all back now after an "excellent adventure" to Williamsburg, VA for the 2007 MARC National Meet. The three Model A's met in Southborough, MA on the morning of June 15th and Doug Linden came by to see us off. By 7:30 AM we were moving south and west. Wayne Champagne led the way in his 1931 Cabriolet followed by Tom Zappala and Dennis Moran in Tom's '30 Station Wagon and Bruce Marshall in his '30 Standard Coupe. |
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had been working on the route for weeks and after escaping the morning
rush hour we were rolling through some beautiful roads through the
Blackstone Valley. We pushed on into Connecticut running through
Windsor Locks and then on to the New York border. We stopped
for lunch near Red Hook, NY. Spirits were high and the cars
were running great although the weather was getting a bit warm. We spent the first night on the road in Matamoras, PA at a forgettable Holiday Inn where they had an "all you can eat" lobster buffet for $54.95 per person -- no thank you. |
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The
ride through Pennsylvania the next day was the most difficult part
of the whole trip. Everything was going well until we started
to get near York, PA. After a quick lunch about 20 miles from
the city we decided to forgo the interstate that would have taken
us around York and instead take a more direct route through the
city itself. This turned out to be a big mistake and it took
about one hour to travel three miles navigating many, stop lights
and stop signs in the blistering heat and humidity.
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We
finally got out of York and back on a nice country road and we arrived
in Gettysburg, PA in the late afternoon. We stopped only briefly
and then went on to our hotel in Emmitsburg, PA. Arriving
around 5:30 PM were surprised to see another Model A ('29 Tudor)
in the parking lot. The owner, Dick Bartlett, was from Rochester,
NY and the next morning he joined us for the run to Williamsburg,
VA. Bruce managed to put some air in a leaky rear tire and
the four cars left the Sleep Inn parking lot at 7:30 AM. The
temperature must have already been 80 degrees.
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The
final leg of the ride to Williamsburg was mostly great Model A roads
with some unavoidable traffic congestion thrown in for good measure.
Tom's car stopped working at a gas stop in northern Virginia.
It turned out to be a distributor problem. We installed a
different distributor and we were on our way again. About
an hour later Tom heard a bad rattling noise from "under the floorboards".
It turned out to be the universal joint cover was loose. This
problem was fixed the next day at the repair tent at the host hotel.
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We
arrived at the Woodlands Hotel around 4 PM after three days of hard
but really fun driving. We all had a great feeling of accomplishment.
Some of the Minutemen were already there including the Lindens,
Tallones, Johnsons, Callans, Michalaks, Gene Bunce, Dave Robbins,
Cookie Smith and Susan Champagne. A full week of "conventioneering"
followed including some beautiful tours to Smithfield, Yorktown
and Jamestown.
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| There must have been over 500 cars on the Grand Tour! What a sight! We were also treated to two wonderful "off site" dinners. The first was a great evening at the Tallone's condo nearby where we dined on lasagna, salad, cheeses and a great cake for dessert. Thanks Gene and Barbara. On Thursday we drove to Tom Zappala's sister Maria's home and had an incredible barbque dinner prepared by her neighbors Bob and Gail Zimmerman. Bob had spent the better part of the day "massaging" the rib racks on his deluxe grill. They were delicious. | |
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