MacAuley's Folly

Today the garage wasn't so merry.  I snagged a good pair of pants on a raggy old rusty car part that Pat obtained a few years back.  This is one of the parts that elicited the comment "PAT YOU'RE SI-I-I-I-ICK!!!" from the person who told us it was there in the first place.

Let me start at the beginning.  Spider Bulyk, a member of our Morgan Club, put an ad in our newsletter about a field near his house where sadly, some ingracious soul had parked a Morgan.  And left it.  For 12 years it sat.  Getting rustier and rustier.  He said neighborhood kids had come and played and jumped on it and a left it an ungodly mess.  He added, if anyone wants to come up and scrounge some free parts from it, I'm sure it would be OK.  This is what caught Pat's attention. 

Here's the actual ad

Next thing we know, we are renting a van to drive from VA to NY to 'scrounge for parts.'

The field was a few miles from Spider's house and wildly overgrown.  In the middle was a barely recognizable pile of rust.   Pat went to work.  "Wow! The wings only have a couple holes in them!"  As he's picking up this piece and that, at least the ones that didn't crumble from the movement.  And stuffing them into the van.

At some point Spider says, you might as well take the whole thing!  Pat says, good idea!  He starts trying to get the whole body into the van, but a part of it was hanging out.  We ended up cutting the body into three sections to get it inside the van.  This was justified by the fact that it was falling apart anyway.

As we were driving away, we hear Spider yell after us, "PAT YOU'RE SI-I-I-I-I-I-ICK!!!"

I made Pat a plaque with wooden letters that Christmas, christening the mess "MacAuley's Folly."

And today that rusty old piece reared its head and reminded me of why it was there.

MOG 43 Luray VA June 7-9 2013

We had planned to leave about 12 noon to drive to Luray - a 90-minute drive.

I started off Friday with looking out and seeing RAIN RAIN RAIN!!

Pat couldn't drive the Morgan in the rain - the only top we have is a surrey top for sunshine! (on the agenda for next year - making new top)

Friday night Lorien joined me down there and we attended the keg party and held up the MacAuleys' die hard reputation! Pat came up the next morning.

Saturday was the Concours d'Elegance and I started early (8 AM) at the Registration/Regalia (i.e. hats, t-shirts, etc) table, then we headed to the Concours location. Here are the cars that were still on the field after it rained again for about half an hour!  We were in the Luray Caverns parking lot.

http://morgandc.com/Gallery/MOG43-smac-concours/index.htm

this blue one is Morgie - see newly installed buckles on back of top:

After the car show, we had a Gymkhana, which is carspeak for crazy people doing crazy things while driving a car. This time the driver and navigator had to ride stick horses, bring back 2 planks, drive over the planks, shoot beer cans off with a water gun, rope a 'horse', find some grub in a haystack (cans of beans, rubber chicken, etc), then the driver had to wear a blindfold and be navigated thru a short slalom to the finish. While Pat and Lorien were getting ready to run, the couple from PA ran into the wall during the blindfold part! There is a video which I hope to get my hands on when it gets posted, and then I will share. Sheridan, Eric and Max joined us for the Gymkhana. Here's a picture of the wall, picture a car running into it! The same driver later backed into a column in front of the hotel and dented his bumper!

http://morgandc.com/Gallery/MOG43-smac-gymkhana/index.htm

On Sunday, we had the Autocross. That's where the driver races around at breakneck speed (usually in second gear) through a course marked with pylons on a large asphalted area. We were lucky to be in the Shenandoah Valley at the Shenandoah Speedway. Lorien and Pat both ran our car. It sounded pretty smooth!!

 More Autocross pix:

http://morgandc.com/Gallery/MOG43-smac-autox/index.htm

Sunday night we had the Awards Banquet and Midnight Madness. Lorien and Pat both got trophies for the Gymkhana and the Autocross!! Yaay, MacAuleys!! The only Midnight Madness Managed was that Lorien and I, who were still around after everyone else had gone to bed, placed a couple of cacti from the gymkhana onto a couple of the cars.

Monday the rain started up again and since we had to check out and go home, Pat had to drive in the rain the 60 miles home. The rain came and went several times and was gone by the time we got 20 miles from home, but it was grueling!! For him, not me, I was following safely, warm and dry in the van with all the luggage and paraphernalia.

Miscellaneous shots of the fam, the banquet, midnight madness, the morning waiting for rain to stop, driving home. http://morgandc.com/Gallery/MOG43-smac-misc/index.htm