(Continued from page 13)

23rd Annual All British Swap Meet & Autojumble in Wheaton, IL

Bailing out early afternoon, back to WiFi to post 135 photos on the club web site. Monday morning oil change at Pep Boys (1200 miles overdue), then off to visit Then we were off to visit Steve "Sparky" Sparks in Chicago. His Midget was running so badly that he didn't day try to get it off the blocks. We found extremely rich fuel mixture and extremely retarded ignition timing. Also, a failed PCV valve sucking copious amounts of raw air into the intake manifold. I was a bit surprised that I managed to get tit reassembled, so it worked again, after which a standard tune-up had the car purring like a kitten. Sparky actually kicked it off the blocks and drove it to the club meeting.

Twist and Sparky, who's fooling who?

Sparky's Midget getting an attitude adjustment

Speaking of club meeting, good turn-out when John Twist was the guest speaker. and I'm sure others will have comments on that. I picked up my younger daughter Honey, who happens to live not far from Mack's, and ran her home again afterward (while Elliot was waiting patiently to get his seat back). Late night heading south again, landing just south of Bloomington-Normal for the night.

John Mangles, the "MG Doc" in St Louis

Taking a couple of days to lay plans, on Thursday we were storming all around St Louis, MO shop hopping. I think we hit seven shops in the St Louis area (lots of photos and notes on my web site), ending up visiting a friend Glen Fraska in Weldon Springs, MO. He has an interesting MGA Coupe the used to belong to his father. He drives it regularly to keep it in decent running condition as he is slowly fixing it up with an eye toward full restoration in the near future. Nice interior, but badly corroded frame, so he has procured a good replacement frame to get the ball rolling. Then headed south a couple hours into Arkansas late night.

Friday, we had lots of miles to cover, visiting shops in Jonesboro, North Little Rock, and Benton, Arkansas. Then heading back north planning on Monday shop appointments in southern Missouri and then on to Kansas City (and more points west).

Until next time, follow our follies at: http://MGAguru.com/mobile

~~ Barney and Elliot Gaylord