Hi All,

Just spent two enjoyable days in John's company as part of the Toronto Triumph Club and the British Saloon Car Club of Canada.

Members of the two clubs met John at the Border on Tuesday Evening in Niagara Falls and escorted him up to Burlington Ontario where John spent the evening relaxing after a long days drive. Two stags, A TR3A,TR4A, 4 6's, A Morgan, and and MGBGT and a Jag all joined in on the drive.

John had the car serviced on Wednesday at one of our Stag experts homes while he got a chance to update the website with more details of the journey. Wednesday evening, we met John for dinner at a local pub and listened to him speak about his days with Triumph and also listened to his story of how the drive came about. A very interesting speaker and we thoroughly enjoyed the evening.

Today John is on the road again to Sarnia Ontario where he will be escorted further by the TTC and the BSCCC and handed off to the Bluewater British Car Club I believe.

If John is driving through your area please support him in any way that you can.

Cheers,
David Tushingham
1973 TR6
1960 TR3A

Several YouTube entries on the website - check 'em out:

TTACD

Picking John and "Uncle Jack" up tomorrow pm!

We had a great time leading John from London to Corunna, ON. We had 15 cars in total; a really good turn out.

The BBQ at our house went off very well and even the local Press showed up to interview him.

John was certainly a bit nervous about the next days crossing but I told John to stop fretting; that crossing over at Sombra/Marine City would work out okay and it did!

Here's some pictures from the event my wife Judy and I had for John, as well as a few on the ferry from Sombra to Marine City.

John in Corunna

Also, here a link to the interview, including a video interview.
http://www.theobserver.ca/ArticleDisplayGenContent.aspx?e=13676

Picked John and "Uncle Jack" up in Evansville yesterday, along with BCF'er Paul Stedman. Nice drive back to Clarksville and wonderful dinner with John, who's snoozing away before we leave for Nashville later this morning.

Lovely gentleman, and his stories about the drive and the cause for which he's making it are wonderful.

I hope you can visit with him when he's in your area.

Will try to post some pictures as soon as I can.

Mickey

Only took a few pictures, as I was more interested in chatting with John and learning about his cause.

Pictures here - they're in reverse order - loading Photobucket doesn't seem to make sense to me!

Truly hated to hand him off to the Memphis club...

Again, if at all possible, do NOT miss meeting him.

Hello All,

John Marcartney and "Uncle Jack" are now sweating it out in Texas. When I was there two years ago for VTR, it was 115 F!!!
I am driving down to Raton Tuesday Morning early from Lafayette. Join me!

Here is the schedule from the TTA web site starting the 18th of August for caravaners in the North Texas, New Mexico, and Rocky Mountain Colorado regions.

Tuesday 08/18 - Departure from Amarillo TX to Raton NM to Rendezvous with any and all caravaners to escort John to Colorado Springs. After an overnighter in Colorado Springs - well read on ...

Tuesday 08/18 - Departure from Amarillo TX to Raton NM to Rendezvous with any and all caravaners to escort John to Colorado Springs. After an overnighter in Colorado Springs -

Wednesday 08/19 - drive up and down Pikes Peak Toll road, then lunch in Colorado Springs , then north toward and through Denver before rush hour!

ALL ROCKY MOUNTAIN BRITISH CLUBS: John is available for a talk about Coventry Motor industry days either Thursday 20th or Friday 21st evenings. Contact Glenn Merrell ASAP to set something up at your venue and invite all the other British Car clubs and members - pass the hat! Any arrangements and organization are greatly appreciated!

At this point, we’re at about past the ‘halfway’ point in terms of distance covered and distance to go before the finish. With this in mind, Glenn and Susan Merrell have kindly asked John to spend a few days R&R with them in Lafayette, Colorado. Glenn is past Chairman and President of The Triumph Stag Club, USA and very much of a moving light in the organization and co-ordination of the Triumph Trans-AmeriCa Charity Drive 2009, Glenn being the TTA North American Charity Drive 2009 Coordinator.

Sun. 23 August. A visit to Fort Collins as a guest of The British Motoring Club of Northern Colorado

Tue 25 August. The Drive resumes with John and “uncle jack” leaving Fort Collins, en-route for an evening meet with the guys and gals of somewhere between Ft. Collins and Omaha NE.

Cheers!

Doug,
The drive IS coming down the coast. Routes on the map are for general routes ONLY.

Actual routes are up to the local clubs to pick, so Coast Highway it is (and has always been)!!

In fact, it is 101/1A all the way to SLO!

Cheers!

Glenn,

Thanks!Is there any way of knowing when/where they'll
be staying in the Eureka area.I'm willing to do anything I
can to help.Should I drive the TR6,or the Cortina?

- Doug

Doug,
You need to contact Joe Cain of Triumph Travelers. JoeCainPEaol.com

Joe has all the details for caravaning with John down the coast through California.

Hello Travelers to Triumphest / NATC 2009:

ONLY 36 DAYS to TRIUMPHEST / North American Triumph Challenge 2009 in San Luis Obispo California!!

I am completing my plans for caravaning to Triumphest / NATC 2009 from Colorado. In the past we have traveled solo in the Stag and had some pretty spectacular drives I reported on over the years. This one should not be any different.

At present I am planning on a two day drive from Lafayette Colorado to San Luis Obispo California, and the moss don't grow under the wheels of this Stag! Get there, unpack and get with the program.

Basic route is approximately 1200 miles; out of Denver west on I-70 through the Colorado Rockies to I-15 in Utah, south through Las Vegas then west to Barstow California, spice it up a bit and take CA HWY 58 west to CA HWY 223, CA HWY 166 (maybe a photo op at ButtonWillow track) across the mountains to Santa Maria, then north on 101 to Pismo Beach.

I want to depart Colorado on either the 27th or 28th of September at the latest to arrive in Pismo the 29th.

There is a large caravan of Triumphs planning to travel with the TTA STTAG and John Macartney from Monterey CA the morning of the 30th down 1A and I'd like to meet up with them about San Simeon on 1A late morning on the 30th to make the grand finale arrival drive into SLO.

Comments and ideas? Wanna meet up?

--
Glenn Merrell
TSN Admin
http://www.triumphstag.net
mailto:StagByTriumphtriumphstagclub.org

BTW, John and Uncle Jack, with myself and Paul Lugo in my Stag summited Pikes Peak on the 19th of August.

Go to the Flickr site for photos
http://www.flickr.com/groups/triumphtransamerica/
and the TTA Web site for the trip to Omaha NE.

Glenn,

Thanks for the info,& update.Due to financial reasons,
& the fact that my TR6 would need too much work to go all the
way to SLO,I'll have to be content to maybe drive with John
for a limited distance.

- Doug

Well... This weekend he'll be here in Calgary, I hope to make it to some of the events, and I suspect I'll take some photos... LOL

Ya think?

Give him Janet's and my regards, please!

Mickey

Hi All,

It has been a week or so since I have put updates on the TTA Charity drive status out to the Triumph world.

As of Tuesday 31 August 2009 John crossed the Canadian border for the 3rd time and is now departing Winnipeg. After departing Colorado on the 25th of August, John was accompanied off the interstate roads along the North Platte river in Colorado to Nebraska by members of the British Car Club of Northern Colorado. Arriving in Omaha Nebraska, John was received by Nebraska Triumphs for two events, then off to Minneapolis/St. Paul Twin Cities for a couple of nights with Minnesota Triumphs, then off toward Alexandria and Fargo en route to Canada. Many thanks to the many dozens of volunteers who hosted and caravaned with John to this point. John now faces some of the longest distances to drive across the Canadian Territories over the next two weeks, not to mention some extremely stunning scenery to boot.

I am happy to announce the Winnipeg British Car club has topped the charitable contributions from a single stop over!! I promised the host clubs not to publish individual totals by clubs because every club has performed exquisitely regardless of club size or donation amount. Our drive total direct to charity now exceeds $11,000.00 USD!! Want to top your own club or group's contributions? Go and rally some corporate donations directly to Sidran.org or a local Trauma / PTSD charity and I'll tally them toward your groups total. We still have a lot of time to get this donation total much higher, and do not forget - many companies match charitable donations of their employees.

As it stands now, there are only about 6 clubs and maybe as many hosts remaining in about 27 days until the "Gran Finale Drive to Triumphest". This "Gran Finale" drive is being organized by the Triumph Travelers Sport Car Club member Joe Cain and others of TTSCC. This drive is planned to head south Wednesday morning 30 September on Highway 1A from Monterey through the redwood forest, a lunch stop somewhere (maybe Cambria), then arrive en masse in two full lines of Triumphs driving on Hwy 101 to the host hotel in San Luis Obispo sometime early afternoon, again, another FIRST! This may just be one of the largest single drives of Triumphs assembled anywhere at one time and place in North America and what a spectacular road to do it! TTSCC might have to turn Hwy 1A into a temporary toll road to collect money for a local California charity or the California government!

Can you guess the correct answers (at the end of the drive in SLO) for:
The total miles driven (to the nearest 1/10th of a mile calculated by Streets-n-Trips according to my entry log feedback from each host club) by John in the TTA Stag "uj" - based on actual routes driven? The actual odometer reading - total miles from the Stag (off by roughly 9% high) to the mile at the end of the drive (from John's travel log)? The total number of people John spoke to about PTSD? The total number of Triumphs who caravaned with John? The total number of Host Clubs and Hosts for John? The total dollars raised for Charity (by the Awards dinner 3 October 2009 in SLO)?

A few TTA Charity Drive 2009 business matters:

1. I'd like to get a few sponsors to step up and donate some nice prizes for the correct answers to the above questions, awarded at Triumphest.
2. I am also asking for contributions to cover John and Liz
Macartney's registration fee for Triumphest / NATC 2009 and their hotel room at the Embassy Suites host hotel. Please contact me off list if you are willing to help out. Myself, Joe Pawlak and John Macartney will have a tech session at 4:00 pm 2 October reviewing the drive from start to finish, and I will be passing the hat to top off the totals for charity. If donating for charity, bring your checkbook or donate online, if for covering John's expenses, drop in $0.$$ to $$$$.00 at SLO;
3. Many thanks to the excellent efforts of Delaware Valley Triumph Club, Sunoco has donated $1000 in gift cards to the drive. Problem is, we did not receive the cards until John was in Tulsa Oklahoma, and all of the Sunoco Stations are east of Kentucky, with very few in California, and none remaining the Canadian western provinces and territories, Washington or Oregon. So we have ten (10), One Hundred Dollar US, ($100 USD) Sunoco Gift Cards some lucky awardees can use at any Sunoco retailer for anything Sunoco sells including fuel and services. Here is the deal. This drive is all about charity!! We want to leverage the value of
this donation for charity. Write a MINIMUM of a Two Hundred Dollar ($200) donation check (ONLY checks dated AFTER 1 September 2009) (or ONLINE CONTRIBUTION at Sidran.org after 1 September 2009) to Sidran referencing "TTA Charity Drive 2009" in the memo line and mail or click it to Sidran. Send me a copy of the check or confirmed online donation with a Self Addressed First Class stamped envelope and I will send you a $100 Sunoco Gift Card! You win TWICE, because Sidran will send you a tax deductible slip for your $200 donation, and you will get a $100 card to use for anything at Sunoco! Cards will be mailed out after Triumphest, and only the first ten (10) donations received by me will receive a gift card, so contact me if you are going to take advantage of this excellent offer!!

Thanks for your time!

It was a good day with John, a very friendly man with an interesting and compelling story to tell (I know you know it Mickey), and a rather nice Triumph Stag at that, and Stag's are a rare sight here in Alberta.

I just took a few basic photos, that I'll get to sometime this week.

Glad you got to meet him - a fine gentleman he is!

It pleases me that John has been so well received. This has been quite the epic event for a lot of people.

There are only 4 more clubs between Calgary and San Luis Obispo. The Best places to catch John are going to be with Vancouver Triumphs in Vancouver, TYEE Triumphs in Washington, Portland Triumphs in Portland, then Triumph Travelers Sports Car Club in San Francisco.

The Gran Finale Drive departs Monterey the morning of the 30th of September (place to be announced) to travel along Hwy 1A to San Luis Obispo, a stop midway for lunch along the coast.
So if you want to cruise with a LOT of other Triumphs in the grand completion of this drive, THIS is the drive to attend!
More information soon!

A few pics of John and Liz McCartney and UJ in Vancouver B.C.yesterday (Sept 12 2009).Hosted by the British Columbia Triumph Registry the local TR club.Great couple they are!Weather was top notch,(low 90 degrees). approx fifty LBC's from various clubs were present.

Unfortunatly when John left he only got about a half block from the show site and uj's electric fuel pump crooked in the middle of the intersection!A pump was found quickly and I,
with the help of several others did a quick re and re., and John and uj were "on the road again"

Updates at John's site at http://www.triumphtransamerica.org.uk/ seem to have dried up since Sept. 12th; has anyone heard anything? Or maybe he decided to just stay in Vancouver! I hope all is well.

He has had some computer issues; could be the reason for no posts of late.