Leaving Houston, early Thursday morning.
I left Seattle mid-day Wednesday, and flew to Houston, where my father picked me up in the rally car, the 1979 Mercedes-Benz 450sl. This is the car he bought specifically to run the Cannonball Classic in 2001 (which was cancelled), after our less than stellar performance in the Jaguar for the 1999 Cannonball.
We never did run another Cannonball, but we did take this car on the Forza Mille in the fall of 2001. It is a perfect long-distance cruiser, so we plan to just drive it to the Rally, and back again after it is over. Navigation from Houston to Amelia is simple: Get on I-10 eastbound, drive... turn left when you hit the Atlantic Ocean.
I bought Dad a great seafood dinner at McCormick & Schmick's in Houston (with a $20 off coupon from Alaska Airlines) and we crashed early for the long drive. Six AM CST came two hours too early for me. =) Dad took the first turn at the wheel while I slept.
Leaving Houston, early Thursday morning.
The weather was wonderful, and we left the top down the whole day. I forgot how FLAT it is on the Gulf Coast! The highway just goes straight with the only vertical relief coming from overpasses.
We blow through east Texas, and part of Louisiana... and switch drivers a ways into the latter. I'm flying along somewhere north of New Orleans when I notice the oil pressure has dropped about 10 psi. I'm looking at that when Dad announces that he sees oil on the windshield. We make a hasty exit and pull over on a nice wide shoulder and Dad hops out to check the car. He says, as he's opening the hood: "I just added oil yesterday"... to which I replied: "Did you forget to replace the filler cap?!?!"
Sure enough, there is the filler wide open, and oil all over the engine compartment!
We clean up the car with a towel, pour two quarts in, and after I make sure Dad screws the cap back on...
...we fire it up to check the oil pressure. It is good and we hit the road heading for the next town. The plan is to find a source of Mobil 1 (Dad suggests a WalMart) and maybe get some lunch. Sure enough we find a WalMart right at the end of the off-ramp(!) and stop to top off. I check in with the office on my cell while Dad buys 4 quarts of Mobil 1 and a roll of paper towels. After the oil is topped off, we clean up as best we can, and then top off both the gas tank and our stomachs.
The rest of the day is uneventful... just boring Interstate driving (too much traffic and too many moronic drivers) with an occasional stop to mop up oil. The hood liner is soaked and will likely drip oil out the passenger side of the hood for months. We swap drivers twice more, and finish our day's run in Pensacola, Florida.
The following day we drove with the top up to save my delicate Pacific Northwest Complexion from that weird hot yellow ball in the sky. Even though I was wearing sunscreen yesterday, I have a nasty burn. You see, back home, even when we do see that yellow ball in the sky, it is only a few degrees above the southern horizon... down here in the near-tropics it is high overhead and has less atmosphere between it and my delicate skin. I did remark that Polaris, the north star, is much lower here too... ah the wonders of Geometry illustrated!
Here is a shot of my scary sunburn:
This second day's driving was wierd... I-10 was *crawling* with Florida State Troopers. We stuck to the speed limit, as it was obvious they were on some major "speed emphasis patrol"... and we were without our Valentine1, as I had left the DC adaptor at home. I bought another one and had it shipped to Amelia (it was waiting at the hotel.) Dad *almost* got nailed about halfway between Tallahasee and Jacksonville. He was following a Camry, passing a slower car. The camry was doing at least 90, Dad was doing maybe 80. The Trooper comes out of his hiding place and Dad says "he got me"... thankfully he flies by and nabs the Camry instead.
The Interstate was crowded with many transports bringing valuable cargo to the Concours.
We grab lunch at a Subway, switch drivers, and I pull into Amelia Island about 2pm EST. 900 some miles from Houston, plus a couple thousand by air from Seattle. The Atlantic Ocean is outside our hotel window. On the way to the Island we pass a Rolls Royce Corniche and an early 70's Maserati. We knew we were getting close! =)
Tonight we are attending a dinner put on by Mercedes-Benz. Then tomorrow we are going to a big Classic Car auction (Note to Sue: I'll try not to buy anything... really!).