Dave or Helen’s

You didn’t really think a bunch of old car nuts were going to be ontime did you?

Here is a quick picture:

The focus of this series of events was doing something for the kids. Through your financial participation, your prayers, and after our event this morning we feel REALLY good about what we’ve done. Now it’s party time!

We just got back from the kickoff dinner. We met a lot of nice folks who gave us a warm welcome. Many members of the local club came to show their support and wish us well.

The route hasn’t changed, you can see a map of both days route 4 or 5 posts below. The northern AL or Georgian British car club (Dave can’t remember which) is providing lunch for us at a park in Florence, AL. Once we travel the Natches Trace we’ll make Tupelo in time for a personal tour of the Auto Museum there. Who would guess there would be a world class auto collection in Mississippi?

All teams meet tomorrow at 7am for the final send off. Our departure time has changed to 8am.

We’ll log on in the morning and post some pictures of the rally start.

You couldn’t have designed it any better. The smiles on the faces were priceless. The event was supposed to run from 10 to 11. Instead we had kids as early as 9:30 and they were still arriving close to noon.

We took quite a few pictures with our regular camera and will post those soon, but we wanted to get something up here for those of you who have been waiting. Below are just a couple we took Before the start of the event.

We prayed we’d make a difference, even if it was only for a little while. There were over 40 kids and we have over 40 stories. We’ll tell you just one for now.
Luke is a little blonde boy. He didn’t talk much and needed the assistance of a nurse to push the cart around which held all the machines that deliver his medicines and keep him alive. Luke wasn’t to sure what was going on but he noticed the sun, which he hadn’t felt on his skin for a very long time, and he saw the the 60+ year old Bentley sedan sitting amongst the 11 cars that participated. Helen gave him a Circle S Racing shirt and convinced him to have his picture taken by “The Old Statesman”. We don’t know if he didn’t feel well, was confused by being outside, or something else but it was pretty obvious when he sat on the windowsill of the hospital with his nurse this pouty faced little boy hadn’t seen good in quite a while. Dave printed the picture and took it to little Luke. There was just a moment of hesitation, it took him a few seconds to realize what he held, but then it registered….he face beemed and started pointing to the big Bentley. He was trying to show everyone THAT was THE car in the picture and it was HIM in the picture. His nurse had his shirt, but that picture wasn’t leaving his hands. It was there as we saw him heading back to his hospital room……a smile.

The printer works perfectly!

MGBGT & a TR3 have arrived.

Helen is bright, shiny, and beautiful.

We’ve met the president of the local British car club, Ruben.

More in a couple of hours.

Whew! We’re in Birmingham. Tired.
See you tomorrow.

Hattiesberg,MS
All is well, no trouble with the trailer or truck. Gas mileage is worse than we thought. At the last fill-up we managed a whopping 8.2 miles per gallon!

We’re grabbing a drink, a bite to eat, and some relaxation.

Helen says, “11 hours cooped up in the same vehicle and he hasn’t killed me yet, WOO HOO!”

Noon.
All is well

7 hours of driving and hurricane damage the whole way. First Ike, then Rita, then Gustav, now katrina. Damage and trees down the whole way.

On the road around 5:00 am.
Already had Dave make a pit stop. Going to be a long day. Saw a beautiful sunrise in Beamont.

Dave loaded the 6 in the trailer yesterday. The overall length of the truck and trailer is over 50 feet! Its a monster.

The trailer is nice and roomy with great tie-down points. Big doors and a new ramp made the drive-in quite uneventful.

Once the trailer was loaded we did one last walk around to check the air pressure in the tires, etc. The tires on the truck don’t have a lot of miles on them but it looks like we ran over some debris from the hurricane when we were bringing the trailer home.

Imagine what would happen if you were driving a 7,000 pound truck at 65mph and you were hauling a 4,000 pound trailer when this tire blew. Of course it would have happened in the middle of nowhere Mississippi. A quick trip to the tire store and the truck is once again a safe vehicle.

More later today………..