The Arch and Victoria British

REMINDER -  Also check out the tabs/pages of our blog:

• updated the cost of gas as we bought it
• map of America marking our route
• I updated the tab/page for Alzheimer's Research to provide the web page where they are also blogging about the adventure of the Rallye to Reno.

Just to back up to last night June 6 when I signed off the blog to say I was headed to the pub.  The St Louis MG Club were the hosts at The Dubliner Pub in downtown St Louis where we enjoyed drinks and dinner.  Great food and fellowship.  The organizers of the Rallye made a few announcements - shown below.

We got our instructions for tomorrow morning's huge group picture at the Arch.

Now for today.  It was blazing hot even at 8 am in downtown St Louis at our hotel.  Already about 87 degrees so early when the other days were at high 60's/low 70's until 11 am.  But that doesn't stop us MGers from having a good time even loading up our cars and heading over for the group shot at the Arch.  Since the Mississippi waterfront flooded and there was lots of mud on the streets leading to the Arch, we gathered instead on the top of the parking deck with the Arch in the background.  We were expertly lined up and then our photo was taken by a helicopter.  We'll be able to order pictures later so this is just an example of what it will look like.

That's Ron checking out the car prior to lining up for the shot - see The Arch in background

Helicopter flew overhead 3 times to take lots of pictures

There were about 60 cars in 3 rows lined up for the photo.  Cars with trailers were in the back/3rd row.  Then you could decide to start the drive for today or go for a ride up to the top of the Arch.  Our group elected to hit the road.  Although it was a short driving day (mileage wise), we were off to a late start after gathering for the group photo shot.  There were 5 in our group today.  Dennis & Pat were leading, then there was Trip & Georgia, Ralph, David, and Ron & Pat.  We had a good day's drive.  Hwy 50 was an excellent driving road with some gentle climbs and long curves.  However.........we mostly got stuck behind a 30 wheeler with a very wide load on a road with double yellow lines - so it took quite a while for us to go about 10 miles before the truck could pull aside and let us pass.  At times we did about 5 mph while the truck was climbing a grade.  Here's what our view was for a while:

Then once we got past the truck, the roads were not quite as scenic but the driving was good.  What does that sign say?  California??  Yep, just up ahead was California.  Well, guess it is time to head back home.  Nope, really it was a city in MO with 4,005 population.  We stopped there for gas and lunch.  We ate at Mel's diner - good food and conversation.  Then it was hit the road for the final push to Kansas City and the hotel.

Does this sign mean that the trip is over?

We arrived at the hotel, cooled down a bit, and then headed over to the office and warehouse of Victoria British for a tour of the warehouse, BBQ dinner, and gift bag.  Victoria British is an MG vendor - one of the vendors where Ron gets parts.  Great BBQ, cake, lots of MG's - especially ones from the local Kansas City MG Club - so lots more people to meet and greet and talk about MG's with.  The facility we toured is one of 3 businesses of the corporation.  It houses the headquarters, MG parts, and Japanese car parts.  Other warehouses are for car and truck parts such as for Ford, Chevy, etc.  THANK YOU VICTORIA BRITISH!

That's Ron talking to some of the Kansas City MG Club members

Then it was back to the hotel and nighty, night.  But wait.  There was one more thing to do.  Remember that yesterday there was no Welcome to Missouri sign for me to get a picture of.  So, Ron was very accommodating and took me for a drive on the interstate again so that I could do two things.  One was to get a picture of the Welcome to Kansas sign that I missed coming into Kansas today and the other was to exit and turn around and get a picture of the Welcome to Missouri sign which was there at this end of the state (but had not been at the St Louis end of the state).  We got it done!  Thank you Ron!

Here is today's collection of photos on Snapfish for your viewing pleasure:
http://www1.snapfish.com/snapfish/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=3786228002/a=12190387_12190387/otsc=SHR/otsi=SALBlink/COBRAND_NAME=snapfish/

See you tomorrow!