The Revenge of Murphy (and his Law)

Ther's something about going to a new car show that I've never attended before. I'm like a kid on Christmas eve. I don't want to go to sleep, yet I want the morning to be there already. When you add a roadtrip in to the mix I'm ten times worse. Heck, I'll take a roadtrip just for the sake of it, and often when I'm supposed to be going to the store to buy milk.

Now, what's I'm referring to is the Tucson British Car Roundup. Everything's great except for the Tucson part. Not that I have anything against Tucson, it's that Tucson has somthing against me. There are three cities/towns that thwart my every move; Quincy, MA; Mesa, AZ; and Tucson, AZ. Quincy, well, none of my family live there any more, nor do I routinely visit the east coast, so it has little effect on me. Mesa is a learned but dealable pain (I live 5 miles from the Mesa border). Tucson seems to want to mess with me every time I visit. And, oddly enough, it lets me through just fine when I'm headed somewhere on the other side of the city.

This morning, Murphy reared his ugly head first thing. Being too excited to sleep last night I sat up until 4 am watching episodes of Cimarron Strip on Netflix (great late sixties Western series). My lovely wife tried to wake me twice this morning at 6am to no avail. She even brewed me a pot of coffee (note to self, buy flowers). I finally roused myself at quarter to 8, 15 minutes (and over 100 miles) away from the show. Not to be deterred, I threw evrything in the car, grabbed some now two hour old coffee and hit the road.

Now, I'd checked the route the night before and had compared it against the nifty new travel map option in my new google phone (Google phone users, beware, the built in map system is COMPLETELY WORTHLESS). Happily I sped off down the road at the maximum prudent speed, drinking coffee and jamming out to the Clash in the car. I made remarkable time to Tucson, including 10 miles of road construction.

On reaching Tucson I started listening to the directions.... turn, turn, turn, etc, etc. I found myself ending on a dirt road not far from Oracle (North East of Tucson). Realizing, finally, that this was not where I was supposed to be (and the clock was now reading 10 am, two hours late!) I freaked. After the freakout session ended, having gone through a list of epithets long and horrible enough to make myslf and most of the Navy blush I figured out where I was supposed to be. (At that point, another stream of epithets emerged, which caused the remaining segment of the navy to blush) I was on the completly wrong end of Tucson and had to now span an entire City to get to where I needed to be.

This meant backtracking to the highway. And I must say, citizens of Tucson... I commend your patience and question your sanity at the same time. Tucson is the site of the longest (duration), stupidest major highway construction... and I'll leave it at that. (You know, it definitely reminds me of poor Charley on the MTA!)

After driving halfway to New Mexico and doing the necessary backtracking I made it to the car show. Luckily, I'd called the wife before I reached it and she calmed me down. (note to self, buy *more* flowers). By the time I finally reached the show I was 3 hours late, and completely frustrated.

Then, I walked out between two building and saw the field of cars. It was immediately worth my earlier frustrations. The roundup is an interesting event. It must be great fun for the folks who enter their cars. I suppose next year I'll know! The showing grounds were small, and there were not many cars there (e.g. under 100). That being said, it was some of the greatest British automobile quality and rarity that I've seen in a LONG time! The quality of the show, for me, was summed up in 4 cars: a Jensen Healey, a TR-5, a XK140 Hardtop, and a Jaguar XJ220.

I spent 90% of my time with two cars, the TR-5 and the Jensen-Healey. I'd never seen a TR-5 before. After talking to the owner I understood exactly why. The registry states that there are only 17 in the United States. If anyone knows the owner of the car tell him I'd happily put myself up for adoption as long as I get bequeathed the car. :) He can even name his next grandchild!

As to the Jensen-Healey. I knew it would be there, and I so wanted to be able to bring one of mine down, but the running one wouldn't make the trip and the non-running one doesn't have an engine (thus the non-running state). That JH belongs to Dale who lives out in New Mexico. He and I had been exchanging emails for a good while and it was really nice to meet a "long distance friend". And Dale, if you read this, think about Jensen West 2009. We'll put you up overnight as you pass through Phoenix, then we can race out west. :) We got to spend a good long while chatting about the cars, looking under the hood, and comparing notes. What I thought was really funny about it was that Dale was embarrased to put his hood up (it's a driver, and well, covered in oil, like every proper British car). We put the hood up, started talking about the car and the engine and people actually made a beeline to see it, and talk about having had one or having wanted one. I thought it was great having a crowd around the Jensen Healey, especially considering it was parked next to a proper AC. :)

The day ended without major mishap. I headed home (rather sadly, because I knew I was missing some fun), got on the highway after having asked for directions (damned GPS thingy) and made a beeline back to Phoenix. My only consolation was having the IPod fixate on Harpers Bizarre.. I endd up singing along to them the entire ride home. I like it when that happens because I know Dad's on the roadtrip with me. He would have loved the show.

Oh, and no-one is allowed to mention the XK140 Hardtop to my wife or show her the pictures because I know it'll go on her list just behind the 1970 Dodge Charger and XK150 coupe.... At least I married a woman with great taste!

Jody

The pictures are uploading and I'll post when they're available.

Jensen Healey Door Panels

So I finally got my experience with redoing the door panels written up. I will admit that it was more work than I initially anticipated it being, but the end result is nothing short of brilliant! If you want to lar how to do your own door panel restoration then read the article. http://www.theymightberacing.com/Projects/FrameOff/JH74G/DoorPanelRestoration.aspx