The tour started Friday evening at theRockford Quality Inn. With the lobby being under construction, the hotel setup the Presidential Suite to be used by our club as a hospitality room and continental breakfast in the morning. Everyone arriving quickly found their way to the room and gathered to meet & greet before leaving for dinner. Those attending the dinner gathered out front at 6:30 pm and, with tops up due to rain, 12 MGs and 2 non-MGs caravanned the short distance to JMK Nippon, a sleek Japanese restaurant. There we were escorted to a nice room and a Teppan-yaki chef prepared our meals tableside. It was quite a show! After dinner and caravan back to the hotel, many gathered in the hospitality room for a little libation and socializing.

Saturday morning we all gathered outside for the drivers meeting before starting out on our adventure. The weather looked to be clearing but it was a bit chilly and most preferred leave their tops up. Some more cars arrived in the morning and we started our trek with 11 MGBs, 2 MGB GTs, 1 MGA, 1 MG TD, 1 MG ‘M’, 1 TR6, 1 Austin Healy 100 and 2 non-MGs and Russ taking the lead with Ralph bringing up the rear.

We traveled 21 miles and then made a scheduled comfort stop where many took the opportunity to put their tops down. In traditional MG fashion, we had one car that decided it wanted a longer break and didn’t want to run. Not to worry, with Mr. Fix It, Steve Skegg, on hand and a little electrical tape, we had the car running soon and continued on our way. The next stop would be approximately 46.2 miles.

We traveled windy and curvy roads through the beautiful countryside taking in beautiful farm scenes, rolling hills & meadows, along with some not so beautiful smells emanating from some of the farms. The drive was exciting and relaxing. We were enjoying it so much that our leader Russ decided to surprise us and add an unexpected leg to the drive. Even though he wasn’t charging for it a couple decided to sit it out and rejoined the caravan when we looped back and got on original course.
Around noon we arrived at Old World Wisconsin in Eagle, WI, an outdoor history museum that depicts the lives & times of rural 19th century pioneers and immigrants with 65 historic buildings/farms. We had some lunch and everyone set out on their own or small groups to explore. There were hands on displays, live animals and Danish, Finnish, German, Norwegian, Polish and American (to name a few) farms on 600 acres of land. There were trams to take you from farm to farm or you could follow roads or paths and travel by foot. Some did the tram, some a combination, and at least some thought they would do it by foot and hiked almost 4 miles on gravel roads, wooded paths and steep hills. Needless to say, by 3:00 when we all met up to head to hotel, a few were exhausted. We departed around 3:30 and traveled 17 miles to the Super 8 in Whitewater.

Dinner was at the 841 Brew House conveniently located across the street. We arrived at 6:30 and the staff were a bit overwhelmed at first (even though plans had been made well in advance) but they adapted quickly and we enjoyed good food and company. After dinner everyone