David's

Arrived in Tupelo alive and well. We’ve picked up some transmission oil and will top off the trans oil in the morning.

We had dinner at a lovely place downtown which featured the company of a couple of very nice club members. They were so nice to us and have welcomed us with open arms.

The staff of the museum stayed late for us since we were behind schedule. What a great collection of cars! They included:
1911 Sears buggy
1929 Duesenberg
1931Lincoln
A Tucker
And a 1949Triumph 2000 just to name a few.

We can’t impress on you enough how nice people have been to us and how much they have gone out of their way to try to make us welcomed, feel at home, and help solve our problems.

Thank you all so very much you are the shining example of good.

20 miles from Tupelo on the Natchez Trace

4:05pm

Made a fuel stop. The winner was the Smart Car, filling her take tank with 3.2 gallons.

A picture of the Decatur bridge. On the road again.

We’re a bit behind so our lunch plans have changed. We’re in Huntsville, AL having of all things Mexican food.

The 6 has sprung a pretty good leak from the transmission. We’re keeping a close eye on it. We’ll try to figure out how to add oil tonight (you need to have the car in the air).
It shouldn’t keep us from going on.

Take a look at the Birmingham New’s blog. They have a writer traveling with the rally and he is posting just like us.
Http://blog.al.com/engine-block

More later…..

Here is just one of the many views we’re enjoying.

Police escort out of Birmingham

Beautiful views, mountains, country, great roads.

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.