After all the preparation, the day arrived to drive the 450 miles to Lake of the Ozarks for the third Mid-West Outing for Fiat and Lancia Owners. This Year the plan was to get there in my own car, a daily use '79 Spider 2000. The car was running well and Delmer and John with their mid-engine Scorpion and X1/9 were ready. A passenger had joined us. Les Anderson who is getting his very early 65 Fiat 124 Sedan in driving shape after years of non-use. He hopped from car to car entertaining us with his repartee. The weather was not hot and the drive went well. Once again the ability of the Spider to cruise at 75 mph on the interstate was much appreciated.

We pulled into the Scottish Inn by late afternoon to find that Allen and Lynn had already set up shop and the motel was all booked up with participants. Last minute plans were struck over dinner and then a needed rest.

Friday got off to a quick start as we purchased the luncheon food and beverages to greet the 25 or so cars arriving throughout the day. Ken and Mike arrived early to round out the organizers. I opened up Trunk Mart to sell Mirafiori goods and the icebreaker reception slowly began to form as more arrivals pulled into the lot. Allen had acquired a great grill for the lunch and we found a tub and ice for refreshments. The day was perfect and many sat about the pool for a Fiat related chat as others puttered about the cars. I tried to greet all arrivals and with John's help registered them.

After lunch and the concours, next on the agenda was the rally set up by Rodger Grantham. The cars lined up with navigators riding shotgun. Phil Dillard, in a moment of bravado, agreed to ride with me and immediately began sorting through the clues searching for spelling and grammatical errors (there should be a comma at the next turn and the great Martin/Marten controversy). We found some of the clues and invented others as I struggled to keep the car on the road between bursts of laughter ­ such skill on the twisty roadways of the Ozarks. Afterwards I grabbed our answer sheet and headed for the dinner with John, deciding on another drive in the X. The sheet I grabbed was a shopping list and the other was still in my Spider. Nevertheless we placed higher than if we used our proper answer sheet. Beer must have been an important clue.

Sunday and coffee among the cars and we headed home. The rain hit us half way but cleared to muggy air but a good trip.

Mike Greer, Ken Dickson and Allen Lofland were great. I just took directions. Next year date is made for the same time, same station. I'll be there.
Go to: http://www.mirafiori.com/~kdickson/ for the official site.
             

 Texas Motor Speedway

July 12th was the weekend for the SCCA regional races at Texas Motor Speedway and Oscar of Vick Autosport had invited us down from Oklahoma to partake. We messed around in the pits with Csaba, Ramzi and Robert and had a lunch with the Dallas area Fiatisti. It was a good day.