Day 4: Grand Reunions and High-Flying Emotions

The Day 4 itinerary included travel from Tallahassee to Birmingham with a bit of a twist. Part of the group took a direct route, while David, Tabetha, Keith, Dave, and I hatched a plot to surprise AAT Marketing Manager Ashley Bice at her house in Niceville, FL. Ashley has participated in the past Drives, but more than that she’s been the main marketing, communications, and social media strategist who has made these efforts such a success. She would have been right along with us on the Drive Home III as well, were it not for the fact that she and husband Jay are within a week or two of having their first child. (BTW, she continues to drive our schedule and provide detailed coordination for us on a virtual basis from home while she and Jay wait for the big day to arrive.)

The Big Niceville Surprise crew left the hotel first driving the ’62 International, the ’72 El Camino, and the support truck and trailer. About 10 miles out we realized we had SUV keys that were needed by the other group, so I wheeled around in the El Camino to give them to Bill who had come halfway out to meet me in the Camaro. Transfer completed, I did my best to catch up with my Niceville gang but the El Camino sputtered and sorted badly up through the carburetor making it hard to reach 70 mph or better. (Keith later indicated it may have a bad spot in the carburetor because of a stuck needle or float.)

When I finally caught up and followed along behind the International, it wasn’t long until Tabetha came over the walkie-talkie to say the truck’s heater core had failed and antifreeze was leaking on the floorboard. Once stopped, our McGyver mechanic Keith re-routed the hoses to bypass the core altogether. While that solved one problem, it created another – the truck had no heat, so Tabetha and David used a blanket on their laps to try to stay warm. At the next fuel stop, David identified a hole in the floorboard that was contributing to the chill, and he stuffed it with a rag for a quick temporary fix.

We made it to Niceville and pulled in the driveway just as Jay and Ashley were going out to breakfast. The poor girl was so surprised she looked like she was going to hyperventilate and collapse, but she held up and we had a great reunion and Tabetha presented her with some really thoughtful shower gifts.             

 

 

Leaving out of Niceville, we hotfooted it for about five hours to Birmingham for a Cars and Cocoa event at the Barber Vintage Motorsports Complex and Museum. The Barber facility features a 2.38-mile racetrack and 1,400 motorcycles and cars in a gorgeous multi-floor museum that you have to see to believe.

The Barber folks were gracious enough to let us run our Drive Home III cars around the track, and I drove with Dawn Fisher in our Plymouth Fury. Dawn is a highly experienced track driver (with a special affinity for Audis) who has actually raced at Barber in the past, and I believed her when she told me: “You’re lucky they told us no passing other cars today or I’d make you scream!”

On to dinner, I had an extra special treat when my sister Joan Wymer and her friend Brooks Marie drove down from Huntsville and joined us at a Trussville restaurant. I haven’t seen Joan in more than five years and during that time she’s become an experienced and highly popular master falconer in Alabama. I’m super proud of my sister’s passion and expertise, and it was on full display when she took our group to the parking lot and uncrated Watson, the 7-month-old red-tail hawk she captured and trained, and now regularly hunts with. Watson put on a good show for the crowd, Joan answered questions and shared a lot of interesting falconry info, and I had my first chance to have “a hawk on the fist.”

 

All in all a day of grand reunions and high flying emotions. Send positive thoughts for good weather our way: Tomorrow we skip to the northeast toward Greenville, SC and more Drive Home III adventure!    


#DriveHome, #AATDriveHome