Ann and I have finalized the arrangements for this year’s Wine, Cheese, and Beer Tour. We are heading west this year. We hope you can join us for another fun weekend in our MG’s with our touring friends. I will send an itinerary by email closer to the date.

We will dine at our favorite Japanese restaurant on Friday night. If you have joined us before you know the food is as excellent as the preparation. We are staying at the Quality Suites on Walton Street in Rockford Friday night. The room rate is $65.00 plus tax. This is the same as last year. Please reserve your rooms from the Chicagoland MG Club block. The number at the hotel is 815 227-1300. Please let us know if you plan to join us for Friday dinner so we can make reservations. We will have a parking lot party to finish the evening.

We will leave from the hotel parking lot Saturday morning, driving West and South through some beautiful areas of Illinois and Iowa. The hotel for Saturday is the Comfort Inn – East Moline. The rates are $70 for a single king, $75.00 for

two queens, $85 for king suites, and $110 for hot tub suites. The phone number is 309-792-4660. The block is under the Chicagoland MG Club. Please note the August 17th deadline for our group rate at the hotels.

We have found some scenic roads for a nice leisurely tour this year.

If you are attending this event, please let us know your plans and send your email address and cell number as soon as possible. There will be additional information coming to participants.

Hope you all can join us! We have already heard from several of you confirming your plans to go.

John and Ann
flobearsmg@comcast.net
630 244-4930

Tales of Mongrel
By Ralph Arata
“The Neutralizer”
Trouble on the Border

The early morning hour was warm and pleasant. It was almost tropic - balmy but with a cool soft breeze blowing from the west. Moon light reflected on the water of the Potomac, almost glistening due to the month’s full moon making its début. The cherry blossoms had long since retired from their annual springtime performance on the fruit trees that lined both side of that great and historic river. To the south of the Potomac one could hear the great oaks of Arlington Cemetery, their leaves rustling. Even General Robert E Lee could have found solace in his former home at Arlington although it had been confiscated by Union forces early in the Civil War and made as cemetery to bury the Northern dead his Army of Northern Virginia put to rest so abruptly during that great time of American conflict.

To the north, the lights of Washington DC had shown bright. New York Ave threaded it’s was north from the river to Georgetown and to M Street which was normally alive with tourists and merry makers but few were to found at this hour of the morning.

A tall, slender and athletic figure walked slowly but deliberately up M Street to Clyde’s All American Bar, long closed for the evening, and then crossed the street to a small all-night internet café. He casually closed the café door behind him. He surveyed his surroundings and quickly eyed a dark figure in one corner, back to the wall. Neither man acknowledged

the other. Bill Reece, the youngest ever chief Fed, the man to run the US Justice Department was also the man solely responsible for what happened at a special ops complex, located deep in the Allegheny Mountains simply known as “The Farm”. Reece moved to the dark figure that simply placed the palm of his hand forward to invite the Fed to the other seat at the table. Bill Reece, former CIA operative and special ops department manager had seen a lot in his varied but secretive career. He wasn’t quite prepared for the weathered face and icy stare the “dark-man” gave him.

“Mr. Arata, I presume”, said the big Fed! “Good to meet you Bill”, came the reply! Reece knew this soldier from the Farm’s files. He knew of his Army Ranger training and seek-and-destroy missions in the Balkans and Desert Storm. Reece looked straight into the eyes of death, the eyes of the “Neutralizer” and didn’t flinch for a second.

“I hear that little MG you have is fast”, said Reece. I hear the Farm’s automotive expert (Tom ‘the Doctor’ Josefek) gets to spend a few dollars of tax payers money every time you use it!

The soldier didn’t reply right away but kept the stare. He liked the new big Fed. He had never met a man that could

(Continued on page 13)