MAY/JUNE 2016, VOL 41 NO 5

People, get those engines running as spring is here and summer is around the corner. Make sure you do a pre-check on your car so everything is in great condition and you won’t break down on your runs. (The part about your car not breaking down is a fairy tale. Get real….it is an MG!).

I am sitting at work looking outside at clear blue skies and a temperature of about 80 degrees. I still need to get my MGA off the jack stands because the car has a brake problem. I am eliminating different things as I have a brake booster on my car and now the brakes lock up when I start the engine and vacuum is applied to the booster. I will disconnect the vacuum next to see what happens.

Every other year here on the West Coast we have a car meet called North Meets South. People come from Northern California, Southern California, Nevada, and Arizona to get together in Buellton, CA which is just around the corner from next year’s GT. I look forward to being there as the roads have a lot of twists and turns and we will be driving the back roads. I am also looking forward to meeting people I haven’t seen since the last show. I’ll let you know how it goes. Every time I get back home from one of these trips, which are over one hundred miles, I get out of my car and kiss the ground that I made it back and so did the car.

The next big car show and get together is MG2016/GT-41 in Louisville, KY in June. This will be a great time as all models of MG will be present. Our Chairman, Carol, has been working very hard on this event so that you will have a wonderful time. There are a lot of things that have to be done to make an event such as this happen; and all the National MG Clubs such as NAMGAR, NAMGBR, MG T Series, along with all the other clubs, have to come together with one voice and agree on events, dinner, and many other things. This has to be a big challenge, as Carol has to work with all the other clubs to make this event as great as it is going to be. I also have to get started on projects for this event such as our vendor room layout, a dinner, and anything else Carol needs me to do. My wife Debbie and I will take a few days after the GT to do some sightseeing before we return home and get back to work.

We will be home for only a week or so and then off to our adventure with one of our MG vendors who put on a trip each year to Europe. I should say the vendor’s wife does the trip. We have been going on these trips for fourteen years now. We have missed a few, but always enjoy the adventure. This will be trip number 15 and we start in England and take a cruise ship from Southampton to the Baltic Sea. The highlight of the trip will be Russia, when we visit St. Petersburg. We will go to the Hermitage which is a Russian museum like our Smithsonian. The museum was remodeled after the war when a lot of it was destroyed. One of my favorite rooms is the Amethyst Room. The entire room is covered with Amethyst and is so bright. The trips usually have a limit on how many can attend as we use a bus, but on this trip there is no limit. We will also see the Scandinavian countries and Estonia. We end up back in England and then go to London for about four days. London is a wonderful city to see the theater in Covent Garden along the Strand. There are many great restaurants to choose from and I will be eating a lot of Indian food.

If you are interested in a future trip, contact me. The trips are reasonable and we get to see many things that are not on the normal sightseeing lists. Just sit back and enjoy the trip with plenty of free time. When we went to Germany a few years ago, my wife and I left the group and we took a three hour train trip through the beautiful German countryside to meet Gunther, who is the Magnette Registrar in Europe. He picked us up in his Magnette and took us to his home for beer, homemade Bratwurst, and good conversation about MGs and Magnettes. That was a fun side trip and a chance to meet someone that I have talked to via the Internet.

As you work on your car or cars, please support our advertisers and let them know you saw their ad in MGA! magazine. In the next issue I will be talking about the gathering in Louisville and all the things that happened at MG2016/GT-41.

Safety Fast!