PDLJMPR Web Magazine, October 22, 1998
The Great Sprite Odyssey was a sixteen week tour around the U.S and parts of Canada. The primary activity was to visit, with our Sprite, as many Healey activities and people as we could fit into the trip. As we traveled around the country one of the most asked questions was how the Great Sprite Odyssey came about. So we will start this narrative answering that question.
The Great Sprite Odyssey started taking form in June, 1997 when Sprite Rush was announced--a once every five year event. Our car was still in good shape from its 1996 frame-up, we had the time available, and who knew what our situation would be five years from now. Also we had wanted for many years to take a long vacation and see some of the country east of the Mississippi. With these two motivators, the question became how. Having camped on most of our travels a motorhome (which we didn’t have) seemed to be the solution, along with a little trailer for the Sprite to ride in (which we also didn’t have). We could both ride in the motorhome for the long distances and then have the Sprite to run around in for fun. Interesting, it never occurred to us to go to Sprite Rush without the Sprite, and the Sprite had never been trailered.
We set out to get the pieces together in our usual manner--look at as many options as possible and see if we can find a solution to match the requirements. By November we had found a used and slightly larger copy of the motorhome we had selected and had checked it out with a 2000 mile trip. The trailer, also used, was not found until February. We needed ramps to extend the trailer drop ramp to accommodate the limited ground clearance of the Sprite and a place for the hardtop to ride, and we made these modifications.
The Chatters were coming in and we were finding out about other events that we could squeeze in on the way. Texas Healey Roundup in April and the West Coast Meet (in Oregon) in July got our attention and we made reservations along with Sprite Rush and the Carlisle Import Kit/RepliCar Nationals. Incidentally, we only made advance RV parking or hotel reservations at these three events and had no difficulties finding places to stay on the rest of the trip
At this point we set up a spreadsheet of mileages and locations to estimate days to fit with our breathtaking self-imposed maximum speed of 200 miles a day. We took the spreadsheet and computer with us and altered it as the trip progressed. That way, if we decided to lay low a day, we just changed one date and everything fell into place. It also allowed us to plot alternate routes.
With a basic route that included several family and friend stops along with other points of interest to us it became obvious that we had plenty of time to play with the other Healeys if we knew what was going on where. So we wrote letters to the presidents or activities chairmen of the AHCA Chapters on our likely route asking for their event schedules for the time that we expected to be in their area. The response was almost immediate--we began getting e-mails within three days. We were also overwhelmed by the number of responses that included lines like "I really want to meet you, let me know when you’ll be here so we can burn a steak." Our friends on the SPRIDGET news group began sending suggestions and invitations; soon we had more events and invitations than we could possibly fit into the four months we had allocated for this trip.. By the way, we hadn’t met any of these people except through the news group. We started folding these activities into our spreadsheet and came up with a firm plan for getting to the east coast via Texas, Oklahoma, Townsend TN, Carlisle PA, Richmond VA and turning around on the Virginia eastern shore. Our plans were less firm for the return via the West Coast Meet but we figured we could work that out as we travelled and we proceeded to start packing the RV.
Suddenly it was 6:30 p.m. April 10, 1998; we were supposed to be on the road twelve hours ago. It seemed that we had been packing the RV and trailer forever and if we did not leave we would find even more to pack tomorrow. So we closed the house up and hit the road, driving about 50 miles into the foothills east of San Diego to stop and fix dinner. Afterwards we drove until about midnight getting us to a rest stop in the sand dunes about 20 miles west of Yuma, AZ. It was a hectic day but once on the road all of the problems and concerns of the last month disappeared and it felt like a great load had been lifted off our shoulders.
We arrived in Tucson, AZ the following day accompanied by strong winds. With a total length of forty-six feet you do not want strong winds, so we held up in Tucson for Easter Sunday. Monday arrived with only mild winds and we were on the road again. The next few days were rather uneventful and often lacking in visual interest as we crossed New Mexico and western Texas.
This all changed as we arrived in the Texas hill country. It was definitely spring in the land of LBJ. The hills were green and the sides of the road and meadows were covered with wild flowers. Texas Healey Roundup XVIII in Marble Falls began on Friday. Despite predictions of 60% chance of rain, the weather was absolutely great. Saturday morning was the popular choice show with 20 Sprites, 16 of which were bugeyes, 34 big Healeys and one each racing Healey and Sprite. The fellow with the racing "Spec Sprite", Roger Williams, is a local high school shop teacher who has his students build the cars. The program helps keep kids off of the street while teaching them performance automotives. A complete car ready to race costs about $8K. The afternoon was spent on a very pleasant rally though the surrounding hills with stops at a couple of points of interest. Dinner, Awards, and Auction were on Saturday night. Sunday morning was the gymkhana followed by brunch and more awards. Bob’s name tag had been misprinted Jim, which he crossed out and wrote in Bob. The good natured folks of the local club re-christened him Jim-Bob, making him a real southern Texan. All in all, a delightful start to our trip, with lots of wonderful people.
From here we headed north to Claremore, OK, home of Will Rogers, to visit family and friends. While there, the Sprite made the front page of the local newspaper, a delightful article that took almost three months in the mail to catch up with us. This was followed by stops in Memphis and Chattanooga, TN to visit with more family members.
Then it was on to Townsend, TN for an Annual British Car Gathering on Saturday May 2. We were unable to get through on the phone to our internet contact but managed to find Townsend and then a bunch of British cars in a park. Although judging was pretty well over, they let us park with the Sprites for the event. This was like putting a barrel of honey in a bear den. We drove in with a corps of cameras pointed at us, a real Hollywood feeling, and were immediately surrounded with people asking us questions. Our car--fitted out with the hardtop ‘cause it looked like rain--got so much attention that we hardly were able to see anything more than the Sprites, which interestingly outnumbered the big Healeys by two to one. The Triumph Club was out in force with about 35 cars of the 150 cars at the event.
We were beginning to think the people who had seemed so friendly on the internet really didn’t exist. Then three Sprites down we saw a little blue bugeye named Healium which belongs to Amy Turner, Spridgeteer extraordinaire. Turns out both Amy and Paul had been out of town and we’d been calling the phone without the answering machine. At any rate, once we got together, they gave a new meaning to Southern Hospitality.
Before awards presentation the guests of honor, Gerry and Marion Coker, were introduced and said a few words. We had a delightful conversation with them later--of course it helped that they had nice things to say about our car. Both of our original two Sprites and many other Sprites delivered in the southwest had concave rather than convex grills. So we took the opportunity to ask Mr. Coker if he had any knowledge of the factory delivering cars with the "backwards" grills. He told us that he had designed them with convex grills and that was the only way they left the factory to his knowledge. So it appears that the "backward" grills are the work of the distribution and/or dealerships in this country. Since ours has been that way for 38 years, we think we’ll leave it. We decided against the post-show car tour and took a scenic route back to Athens where we met the car tour going the other way. Of course everyone had to wave. Paul and Amy invited us to dinner and we went to a place called Cousin Ben’s Catfish for a real Southern meal, complete with hushpuppies.
On Sunday afternoon, we started out to do some shopping in Athens, but ran into Paul and Charlie Lownsdale (driving Healium) looking for us to join them taking Healium back to the barn where it, along with Gary Lownsdale’s car and boat collection, is stored. We quickly joined them having already heard about this fabulous barn full of cars. We had gone a ways when Charlie heard on the radio that there were hail storms on the road to our destination. So he led us on some alternate routes and before long we had no clue as to were we were or how we got there. At one point we had to stop for gas and get a bite to eat while a hail storm moved out of the way. Finally arriving in the dark of night we were treated to Gary’s 1972 Lotus Elan race car, the only five GSM Deltas in North America, two wooden boats (one an Austin-Healey, the other a Chris-Craft), Paul’s Healey (BT7 not tri-carb), several American muscle cars, Charlie’s Mark III Sprite that he got as a 15-year-old, and his Lotus prepared Cortina for college. There was also Gary’s Custom Red Corvette, Charlie’s "mom’s car" (a beautiful teal blue BJ8), and Amy’s "Barn Sprites" that she is restoring. (Paul and Charlie claim that they are doing all the real work.) There were also 6 to 8 one-of-a-kind race cars awaiting restoration. With all these cars covered, it’s a rather strange sensation pulling off one cover after another almost like a magician.
On the return trip we got lost when we separated from Paul and Charlie too soon. Naturally our map was back at the RV. So we enjoyed an extra 30 mile drive and then had to creep back into the RV park at 1:30 a.m. with the Sprite. Thank goodness the people in the campground were philosophical.
After a couple of days rest it was off to the Carlisle Import & Repli/Kit Car Nationals and Sprite Rush. This first thing to be said about the Carlisle show was that you needed an umbrella and mud boots. A local told us it had been raining for 12 days when we got there and it rained the three days of the Carlisle Show and the first day of Sprite Rush. There were about a dozen hardy Sprite owners who took the mud challenge to be present each day in the Fortieth Anniversary, Sprite Rush front row area at Carlisle. It was obvious that the rain kept many away and accounted for a poor showing, particularly of exotic cars. The vendor area was immense. Hundreds of vendors were selling everything from portable backyard car hoists to rusted-out bugeye bonnets and $10 car covers. A couple of Sprite people found very nice bugeye bonnets for under $150. By noon Sunday the vendor area had been considerably reduced because of the river making its way down the walkways.
Bob and Annice's 'Nevada Biege' 60 Sprite at Sprite Rush - ed
Sprite Rush was a BLAST. There was something going on from about 6:30 am to about midnight every day and one activity just flowed into the next one. Except for registration all of the activities were well planned but even when things did not go exactly as one might hope everyone was laughing and having a good time. The event drew about 190 people and about 90 cars. While the number changed each day for the Popular Choice there were 44 Bugeyes, 14 Flatsides (including Midgets), two big Healeys, a Sebring Sprite and the ex-Briggs Cunningham Le Mans Sprite. The Popular Choice was photographed with a 1800’s panoramic camera yielding a print that is 55 inches in length! Over the four days there was the Popular Choice, Concours judging, a Autotest, a Funkana, a Autocross, a Rallye and a tour to Gettysburg. What we considered an additional event was the mass drive to dinner every evening. Sixty plus Sprites in a line going through town then filling the restaurant parking lot was a kick. This was followed by the Tech Sessions and then the evening Awards Party.
There were only a few breakdowns and, except for one, these were repaired in less than 24 hours. A fellow named Mixon in a red "59 Viper" Sprite had very serious engine problems. He decided to leave his car with a mechanic in the area for repairs. As it turned out we were going right past where Mixon lives on our way to Richmond and were able to give him a lift home. Later we found out that his problem was not as serious as it sounded. Whoever had helped (?) him put the engine together did not torque the bolts on the head, flywheel or front pulley correctly and they were all coming loose. Most of the terrible noise that we heard was the flywheel wobbling around. They did do a complete tear down of the engine but no serious damage was done.
After a delightful dinner with Mixon and his wife it was on to Richmond, VA for British Car Day. We had lost our brake lights the last night of Sprite Rush and thought it was just a wiring problem and left it for the next day. It turned out to be the brake light switch so we trailered it to the Richmond meet with hopes of finding a switch. No luck but we were able to find a switch at NAPA that solved the problem on Monday. The Healey and Sprite turnout at Richmond was very low, four big Healeys and seven Sprites and Midgets. We did get to have a nice conversation with John Vrugtman, Tidewater AHC. There was also an outstanding TVR and a very rare Ghia (I think) bodied Triumph. This event was on a very hot and humid day which took its toll on Annice. She returned to the RV to turn on the air conditioner only to find that the generator stopped working after only a few minutes. The RV gasoline supply had gotten down to the point that it activated the generator automatic shut down. To be brief, we no longer park the RV without enough gasoline for the generator.
After Richmond we were off to the Virginia Eastern Shore to visit with old family friends. This would be our turn around point. So far we had had five weeks of almost non-stop visiting--friends, family and Healey people. We had driven 3600 miles, been in ten states and attended five events with the Sprite and met several hundred people who are interested in Healeys.
After about a week of eating crab meat and other seafood, going to a pig roast, and doing a lot of sightseeing on the Virginia Eastern Shore we headed north. Next on our agenda was Lancaster County, including the Pennsylvania Railroad Museum in Strasburg, and Hershey, where the street lights are shaped like candy kisses and the main drag is Chocolate Avenue. The railroad museum was outstanding and a must see for any rail fans out there.
While in Hershey, a personal matter came up that resulted in our having to return to Virginia. This gave us the opportunity to see Mixon and Carrie once again. Mixon had just got his car back from the engine rebuild and was so thrilled with the way it was running that he was driving it everywhere. Each evening the four of us went Spriting to dinner, causing more than a few heads to turn as the two Sprites passed by. During dinner one evening a fellow came searching the restaurant to find the owners of the Sprites. Mixon immediately staged a one-vote popular choice. All though he shamelessly promoted his red car the Nevada Beige won out to everyones amusement. Returning late in the evening through the narrow streets of downtown the harmonics from the two exhausts would reverberate off the walls of the building as we went by - - what a great sound!!
At this point we decided to go through West Virginia rather than return to Pennsylvania via a road we had now driven three times in three weeks. It was also time to replan so we could make up the time we had lost, and we reluctantly decided that we would have to omit a large area where we had expected to spend time--most of Pennsylvania and Ohio.
In Dayton, we found the worst RV park of the trip, hands down. This cured us of considering transient space in Mobile Home Parks without carefully checking it out. The parking spaces were mostly covered with water and some sewer lines were overflowing. Even worse, a demolition derby car chase, a near fist fight, and another car chase brought out the local gendarmes. We did not want to leave the rig here, much less take the Sprite out of the trailer to mingle with the junkers half its age. So we took RV, trailer and Sprite to the car show again. After the meet, we moved about 10 miles down the road to a lovely lakefront park.
The Vintage British Car Show on May 31 was sponsored by the Miami Valley Austin Healey Club. This event was held in Carillon Park, which besides having a pipe organ and lots of grass and trees is also a historical park and contains such things as a covered bridge, a working 1930’s print shop, and a replica of the Wright Brothers Bicycle Shop, where the Wright Brothers’ original 1905 airplane, the Wright Flyer III, forms a unit of the Dayton Aviation Heritage National Historical Park. The weather was pleasant and lots of nice cars were in attendance, including about 30 Healeys and Sprites. John and Mary Ann Warner presented us with club patches in recognition of our having come so far.
After a day to visit the Air Force Museum we were off to our next stop at the home of Tim and Renee Mahnensmith, President of the Northern Indiana AHC near Fort Wayne. IN. We had a great time with Tim and Renee along with Andi and John Needler barbecuing steaks, talking and admiring Healeys. They recommended that we stop at Auburn, IN to see the Auburn, Cord and Duesenburg museum, and I am happy to say we took their advice. The museum is in the old Auburn factory. The front of the factory was the showroom which is art deco and makes a great room for displaying the ACD’s. The factory area has an assortment of other cars including the Graham Page, a must stop for the auto enthusist .
Next we were off to Bluewater land, where lakes and rivers take on a beautiful turquoise blue color in the sunshine. We were instructed to come directly to Ken Williams’ house, and when we pulled in the driveway Ken was standing there telling us to come on in for dinner. The following day, true to his word, a Bluewater Chapter AHCA event was held in the form of a barbeque with many members of the club dropping in. Incidentally, Ken and Kathleen have a beautiful white entirely-original BJ8 that they bought new in 1968. Even the seats look like new and he drives it on a regular basis. The trip to Sarnia lasted a lot longer than we had anticipated due to our mail not arriving when expected. It was supposed to have arrived a day before us but it was another week ‘til it made its appearance. We took advantage of the Bluewater Club for a lot longer than any of us expected, but felt welcome and had a wonderful time with our new friends. Ken and Kathleen graciously let us "camp" in their driveway for this time. One day after having had fish and chips and ice cream "under the bridge" at the mouth of Lake Huron a very disheartening screech started emanating from the front of the Sprite on right turns. Fortunately we were headed to Murray Schreder’s, the Bluewater Club’s prime mechanic and a man whose mission in life seems to be getting all the Healeys in driveable condition. After a short while we found that a small stone had gotten lodged between the front brake disk and the backing plate. There was just enough free play in the hub so that the stone was free until you turned right, then the gap between the brake disk and the backing plate would narrow and trap it. The stone was then forced to try and turn causing the brake disk or backing plate or both to screech.
The club barbeque was certainly the highlight of our time there, but we did get to do a lot of exploring and enjoying this beautiful area. It is very different from San Diego and is another place we could learn to love--at least in the summertime. We did get to know our hosts well and really hope we were successful in convincing them that they should come to San Diego next year. By now we were beginning to need to pay bills, which we couldn’t do electronically from Canada, so we said goodbye to our host and headed northwest.
We had decided to go north through Michigan and across the upper peninsula to get to Green Bay, WI. It turned out that our time on the peninsula was at the end of the big Harley Davidson Anniversary. For several days we were meeting groups of two to forty Harley Davidson’s returning to the east. In the motorhome, all we could do was look, but we enjoyed seeing all of the bikes anyway.
Our expectations were too high of the National Railroad Museum in Green Bay, and we were somewhat disappointed. By any other name it is a fine museum with a fine collection including a Big Boy, the largest steam engine in existence. While in Green Bay, we did get to meet Dave and Terry Woerpel and their daughter Ana of the Wisconsin AHC and the Spridget news group. We spent a very nice afternoon talking, having lunch, and looking at photos and our car. Dave and family were on their way home from vacation so we did not get to see his photo collection and car.
Our next Healey-related stop was in Minneapolis. This almost ended our trip. It was normal Minneapolis weather with thunder showers most days. As we were coming into the city for the first time it was apparent that the freeway was headed into the thunder shower up ahead and everyone was turning on their headlights and windshield wipers. That is, every one except a cab driver who was busy talking to his passenger. When he realized that it was raining he moved left one lane and stopped to try and find his light and wiper switches. That one lane over was about 2 1/2 car lengths in front of our roughly 15,000 pounds of RV and trailer. Am not sure how we missed him but did manage to get over one lane; thank heavens the traffic was not heavy.
While in Minneapolis, we met with Susan and Dean Toensing, President and Treasurer of the AHC of Minnesota. We got a really good picture looking session in with Dean the day we arrived (in the motorhome and trailer, as it turned out). Then a few days later Susan’s schedule allowed time for the four of us to have a very enjoyable evening and dinner.
While taking the Sprite out of the trailer I knocked the tailpipe loose at the manifold. We still have the trumpet end manifold which acts more like a ball joint than a rigid connection. The trailer ramp angle was off just a little bit and caught the clamp in the middle of the two piece exhaust pipe. I have to get this welded up and get rid of that d*** clamp! Now we had to work fixing it into our schedule and with out the Sprite our mobility was seriously limited. Not having anything to get the Sprite off of the ground made for an interesting time trying to work on the tail pipe. After several attempts we finally got it fitted so it does not sound like it leaks but I would not want to place money on it.
After Minneapolis we had almost two weeks to get to the next Healey event, the West Coast Meet in Oregon. However we needed to get across the Rockies at as low an elevation as reasonable so we went north into Canada to cross through Jasper, Alberta. which is the long way around. Along the way we found The Royal Tyrrell Museum, an outstanding dinosaur museum in Drumheller, Alberta. and the Reynolds-Alberta Museum in Wetaskiwin, Alberta which presents a history of ground and air transportation, agriculture and industry for the Province. The latter museum came about from a donation from a regional auto dealer, Reynolds, who would take anything as a trade in for a car. He also apparently never got rid of any of these trade ins. Almost everything in the museum, except the airplanes, were donated by Reynolds. Even with an additional one hundred or so cars plus farm equipment the museum has waiting to be restored, Reynolds still has enough left over for a separate museum of his own and acres of cars and farm equipment setting outside. In one field we noticed a Kaiser rusting away on the end of a row, it seemed a shame as there are not too many of these cars left. We drove the Sprite to the museum and surprise - - got in free. They were having vintage car days and anyone that drove a 1960 or older car to the museum got in free. In addition we got to park just off of the entrance and it was a great picture except we had left the camera back at the RV.
As we started south after Jasper we were several days ahead of schedule for the West Coast Meet and decided to use those days to relax in Vernon, British Columbia. This would give us the opportunity to go up to Silver Star for dinner since we had missed the ‘96 meet that was held there. The ‘96 meet was a big part of the driver to get our car back on the road. It was a great dissapointment when circumstances prohibited us from attending. Well, best laid plans and all of that stuff. On the way into the camp ground we were unsuccessful in missing a very large chuck hole in the road. This hole swallowed a wheel on the trailer bringing it to a stop which shattered springs and shackles, ripping the axle off. Looking in the rear view mirror there was the axle and wheels spinning around in the middle of the road and the trailer tilted up at about forty degrees. Fortunately I was able to get the trailer to straighten up and the whole rig off to the side of the road. Checking the trailer revealed that the car and hard top had stayed in place and almost nothing had moved, absolutely amazing. So rather than several days of sightseeing and having a dinner on the mountain we were on the phone to the insurance, down at the trailer repair shop and trying to find a way to get our car to Oregon, about 600 miles away. One evening before we left Vernon I had taken the Sprite to town for gas and some groceries and in a parking lot spotted a number of unusual cars. So of course I had to investiage. It turned out to be Crusie Night and although most of the cars were hot rods there was an Engilshman with a MGB that wanted to talk my ear off. I was only there for a little over an hour but had lots of people come by with questions about the Sprite. As I got ready to leave the organizers came over and present me with a Vernon Crusie Night T-shirt for having the car from the furthest away.
The weather had turned warm with temperatures starting to push 100 so driving the Sprite along with the RV to Oregon and back was out of the question. Fortunately we finally located an open trailer for the Sprite at a reasonable rental price and took off for Oregon.
The West Coast Meet was held at the Kah-Nee-Ta Resort on the Warm Springs Indian Reservation. The meet was absolutely dominated by the big Healeys--about sixty cars as best as we could count. We sort of felt like the Lone Ranger and Tonto with only two other Bugeye Sprites and three flat sides. One Bugeye was modified enough to be put in a Special Class. We took first, the only trophy, in the Popular Choice for Bugeyes and felt rather bad as the other car was a very nice stock Red Sprite. Come on Sprite owners lets get them out for the 1999 West Coast Meet in San Diego!! On the second day we decided to go down where the Funkana was being held to watch that event. We got caught up in the moment and had a go at it, finishing Third. Annice had been relentlessly scouring the lodge for the items in the Scavenger Hunt and finished in a four-way tie. The third day was the rally and we did badly. Guess we are just old time-distance-speed rallyists; we never seem to do well with the instructions and questions type rally. It was a nice drive, even if we did do an extra eighty or so miles. The guests for the meet were Margot Healey along with John and Joy Healey. What a summer, we got to talk with the Healeys Gerry Coker and John Sprinzel!
After the West Coast Meet we had to return to Vernon, BC to turn in the rental trailer and pick up our repaired trailer, after which we could turn around and drive the same 600 miles for the third time. At this point it was mostly just driving the last 1,700 miles home from Vernon. The temperature had been in the 90-100 degree range going on nineteen days when we crossed out of the San Joaquin Valley. Once over the coastal range near Monterey, CA we picked up the ocean breezes which brought the temperature down in the range to which we are more accustomed. This also gave us the opportunity to stop and spend a few hours with Larry and Sandy Miller of the SPRIDGET news group and Pebble Beach Sports Car Club. This was a surprise visit and they had another commitment but worked in a few hours to talk, look a pictures and let use see how Larry’s car is coming along. It is one of our delights to be able to spend time with the Millers as we wander up and down the west coast.
Finally on July 28 we were home and with mixed feelings. The trip had been terrific. We met hundreds of people, made lots of new friends, and generally had a great time. In sixteen weeks our motorhome logged 11,400 miles and our "trailer queen" (the Sprite) had 2000 additional miles. We were in twenty states, five Canadian Provinces and participated in two national, one regional and one local Healey events, three British Car Days, two mixed car shows and had the opportunity to at least share a meal, cars, and photos on seven occasions with other Healey folks. Thats almost one Healey activity per week plus visits with friends and family. What a time!!
It was nice to get home but almost immediately there was a longing to be on the road again. After only a week we were already looking at doing something similar next year, and maybe managing to meet people in some of the places that we had to bypass this time Lets see, we could go to Kentucky and the rest of Pennsylvania and . . . .
by Bob and Annice Kitterer
If you liked the Odyssey, e-mail Bob and Annice and tell them so! - ed