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Spotted!

Mickey Richaud

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This morning, on the way to McMinnville, saw a bright yellow big Healey and a white Bugeye on I-24. Then as I pulled into a gas station, another pale yellow Healey. Turns out they were all at the Southeast Healey meet in Manchester.

But the big surprise was an encounter with a TR8 on the little two-lane highway between McMinnville and Murfreesboro. Turns out we knew each other and had lost contact. A ride in his car several years ago is what "doomed" me to Wedge-dom! We've traded emails, and hopefully, he'll jump in here from time to time.

Big day, all in all, and the TR8 performed like a champ - about a 280 mile trip.
 
McMinnville, what were you doing in Oregon??
 
grin.gif
 
I love seeing other LBCs when I'm out in mine. The local TV news anchorman hre lives nearby and has an awarding winning Spitfire; a couple of guys nearby have TR3s, there's a TR250, and some TR6s and other MGBs.
 
It *is* neat to see other Brit-car folks. My street commuter for the last 7 years has been an MX-5 Miata; a great car, but not one that gets anyone talking to me about British cars.

This year I've been driving my "new" chrome-bumper'69 MGB and dozens of folks have come up and talked to me at stores, gas stations, rest stops, hot rod cruise nights, etc. I get waves and "thumbs-up" from other cars (often, Miatas).
My classic car insurance and our local state law allows me to drive the MGB no more than 2000 miles per year. I figured I might drive it maybe 500 miles this year, but I'm already up to 1500 miles (since July). It's been great fun to use it.
And right now, the brake rotors on the Miata look pretty rusty....not seeing much use.

And related to Micky's comment, I met a fellow this weekend that I have not talked to since about 1974. He was a former student of mine when I was teaching high school auto shop. He'd found me via the internet and knew he'd see me at the Thunderbolt Historics this past weekend. I almost fell over when he introduced himself! He is now an engineer, living with his family in Delaware. His wife is an engineer and both his kids are in college (one in Ireland).
Last time I saw him, he was a grimey, annoying little kid with long hair and a squeaky voice. Now, he's taller and has got a deeper voice and I have more hair than him.
He's a racer too (with a Formula Ford)....he got into racing partly (he said) because he'd worked on some of our old "race car" projects in auto shop (we built two Foruma Vees, a racing kart and he was one of the kids who'd done some minor stuff on my old race Sprite).

He thinks he may look for an Elva soon.

Neat.
 
aeronca65t said:
He thinks he may look for an Elva soon.

Neat.

Here's one for him.

A few miles away, though... :frown:
 
aeronca65t said:
And related to Micky's comment, I met a fellow this weekend that I have talked to since about 1974. He was a former student of mine when I was teaching high school auto shop. He'd found me via the internet and knew he'd see me at the Thunderbolt Historics this past weekend. I almost fell over when he introduced himself! He is now an engineer, living with his family in Delaware. His wife is an engineer and both his kids are in college (one in Ireland).
Last time I saw him, he was a grimey, annoying little kid with long hair and a squeaky voice. Now, he's taller and has got a deeper voice and I have more hair than him.
He's a racer too (with a Formula Ford)....he got into racing partly (he said) because he'd worked on some of our old "race car" projects in auto shop (we built two Foruma Vees, a racing kart and he was one of the kids who'd done some minor stuff on my old race Sprite).

He thinks he may look for an Elva soon.

Neat.

Doesn't it make you feel good to hear that formers are doing well? Kinda makes you feel like you've done something worthwhile after all.

Sometimes you find out that one whom you didn't think would succeed has done very well. Maybe he or she is a late-bloomer. Once in a while I'll get a call from a former who just barely squeeked by and who is now running a shop and looking for a grad to hire! Just goes to show that you can't always tell who will succeed.

Many students wanted to thank me for teaching them. I would say, "If you really want to thank me, after you get a job tell me where and what you are doing and send me a picture of you new house, car, airplane, boat or whatever and I'll put it on the bulletin board."

No better feeling.
 
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