Roamin’ Chariots

Winter 2004

 

Tour d’ Ozarks

By Allen Lofland

 

Hi All: thought I would send you a report from the Arkansas weekend :)  We

met five new members, drove hundreds of miles, ate our selves sick, tasted

lots of grape juice, and ruined one $125.00 Tire :). First the New

members,,,,pictures attached, Sue and Robert McKinney of Greenwood Arkansas had us stop by on the way to Ozark to inspect their new acquisition. One nice looking gold Scorpion presently under restoration in Roberts work shop.

Robert McKinney’s

 

AND a workshop to be envied, with all the needed goodies including a full

bathroom :) wow  Robert you could live in there hehe. The weekend did include lots of rain but mostly light showers and did not dampen the spirits nor attitudes of all who showed up.

 

 

Karen and Csaba

 

Probably because of the rain, we kept finding ourselves in the presences of

food :) but we will simply be dieting that much more for the upcoming

holidays. :( Sunday we ventured over to partake of the new annual event "

Raid on Arkie Ben's Barn " We saw more project cars than you want to ever see in one spot along with a lot of nature, what a place, water falls included.

 

 

Ben’s Barn

Cool cats born in the Fiat.

Also met the three other new members , picture attached, there is Purr #1,#2

and #3....Mama was not counted as a member as she deserted her young ones and left no evidence of being a FLU member...After all, this was a car

related event ( birth ) and FLU membership IS required. You should have seen every one jump when Arkie Ben opened the door of that old Spider and Mama Purr came out like a wild animal. I personally thought

it was a raccoon, but then of course the three new members ( Honorary )

made themselves known and Arkie Ben immediately began attempting to auction them off but there were no bidders present.

Well after a good lunch at the Burger Barn we left for Tulsa. Spent the

night at the Holiday Express . After a good nights rest we waddled to the

car and headed home for Wichita.

Allen and Lynn

 

Today ( Tuesday ) I spent much time drying out the carpet in the Black

Spider, news said that Tulsa got 3 inch's of rain Sunday night.  Black Spider

didn't do bad for sitting out in that much  rain, but the carpet and padding

are hanging out to dry in the basement. :) Well, I will let Ron cover the rest

in his newsletter, if there is anyone out there that would like to increase

their membership numbers, Email Arkie Ben and he will ship you a new member.

 

Tour d’Ozarks

By Ron Conlon

 

Tour d’Ozarks on October 8th was again organized by Mike Greer and this year was a big draw with 11 cars meeting at the motel on Friday.  The event centers around a tour of the Ozark mountains on Saturday morning and visits to the wineries in the afternoon.  Allen, as ill luck would have it, drove in at 5pm with a tire going flat.  We made a good effort to save the tire but the sidewall was damaged beyond safe use and this was a performance tire and a major loss but at least the wheel was unscathed. All weekend we nibbled on Rodney’s brownies – yum.

 

Parts were passed around to Tony Feaster and the gang took over the parking lot.  Tony has committed to getting his car to the event for next year.  I saw him at the truck stop with that Ferrari hat on his head and just knew he was looking for us

Tony Feaster

 

Ron and Delmer got picked up by Brady Oberman’s dad and drove to the motel much to everyone’s amazement.  He was a mechanic for the schools and this was his neat project.  He was heading to the local car show, which the weather cancelled, but this gave us more time for lunch.

 

Csaba brought his newly painted white Spider that is looking good.  The weather was very much a presence with overnight heavy rain that let up just enough on Saturday to make the drive pleasant.  The tour itself got interesting for me at the first turn as a truck and slower car separated me from the main group.  The walky-talky faded and the truck and car turned off to find me alone.  So I consulted Mike’s map, dropped my top and took off to catch up the group on the twisties.  I ran at a good pace for about 30 minutes before meeting with the group at a comfort stop.  The mist and scenes and good roads made this exhilarating for me.      

 

Ready to roll

 

The mid-engine set

 

 

          The next stop was the winery for some tasty testing.

One of these cars is different from the others…

 

Mike and Teresa with catch o’ the day

 

 

Texas, Missouri, Kansas, Arkansas and Oklahoma represented.

 

          Dinner was at an Irish theme pub in Altus and very good.  All in all it was an A-plus weekend for the Roamin Chariots.