Up in Smoke

Sunday dawned bright and sunny.  Slowly we all started to gathered for breakfast at the Sleep Inn.  

The coffee really helped get things going.  Since we were now radio-less we were relegated to the back of the pack, which meant someone else was going to have to lead the group.  The two candidates were Andy or Trish.  Trish thought the directions and her iPad would be enough to do the job.  Andy wasted no time to defer to Trish.  After loading up the Model A's and moderns we headed out to see what adventures the roads would take us on today.

US RT 6 out of Middletown was a pleasant road, what we would call Model A friendly.  Traffic was light and with Bruce setting the pace at about 45 MPH, Wayne and Andy followed along with me and Jack bringing up the rear.  Following along made for a nice view of the Model A's in front of us. The rural nature of the area really did make the ride very pleasant.

We were cruising along, enjoying the drive.  As we neared Port Jervis, we were descending Slate Hill when Andy, and I, noticed a lot of smoke coming from Jack's truck.  I had no CB, but thankfully Andy contacted Jack informing him of the SMOKE and Jack pulled over immediately.

The Model A's continued down the road  to a large pull out to park safely and I turned around to return to Jack.  Jack was already out inspecting the problem.  With a trail of fluid behind him and a puddle underneath the truck he could see it was transmission fluid.  There was no hope of a quick repair, so the only thing to do was call AAA.  Oh no - not again.  The best arrangement was to have Jack's pickup towed to the local Ford dealer and hope the repair could be made asap.

The only problem was that the dealership was

not open today (Sunday).  Jack & Jo were thinking of renting a car to continue, but car rental locations were closed as well.  So the only option was to load up Jack & Jo's stuff into our car and continue to Gettysburg.  Jack left the keys with a detailed note of the problem in the Service Drop Box and will call Phil's Ford service department tomorrow to work out the repair.

With that, we headed off to the interstate to get to Gettysburg.   We kept in touch with the A group and they were making very good time.  We were hoping to catch them but our lunch at Mooses' biker bar took longer that we expected, but the food and outdoor patio setting was great.

Meanwhile the A group followed roads that would take them through the less traveled areas around the Delaware River and the country side of eastern PA on the way to Harrisburg. From there it was a little more of a challenge to find Model A friendly roads down to Gettysburg.

Although we were on the interstate and the A's on secondary road including a dirt road!  Yup a dirt, well actually it was gravel road, we arrived at the hotel complex at the same time.  The parking lots were full of Model A from all over, what a great sight.

In attendance are Jack & Jo, Wayne & Sue, Bruce & Trish, Doug & Nan, Andy & Marilyn, Len & Peg, Gene & Barbara, and John & Martha. We all got checked in and registered for the event which starts tomorrow.