For those of you who wanted to enjoy Fall color, Dan Herman came through with a terrific itinerary. It was impromptu (as it had to be…the leaves don’t wait!) so a few of us rallied on October 9th for a single-day drive, on a two-day notice. We had just three cars - the Herman’s, Holzman’s and Bard’s, so it was truly a personal tour.

The weather was absolutely perfect—high 50’s in the morning and 80’s in the afternoon. The sky was incredibly blue and we were ready for an amazing drive. We met at Dan and Nancy’s at 9 a.m. We then departed Lake Carroll and drove county roads to Pleasant Valley, and on through Derinda Valley to Hanover. Our three little cars were scaring up the leaves on either side of the narrow curvy roads and looking up through towers of trees in their peak of autumn splendor. We did a round trip on Blanding’s landing Road spur, and enjoyed a quick run through crowded Galena. We drove past Sinsinawa Dominican nunnery through Dickeyville, followed by crooked roads and quaint, adorable little towns with vintage homes decorated with pumpkins, vibrant marigolds and mums on our way to Potosi.

Our delightful lunch spot was at the Petosi Inn, outside on the patio - great conversation, laughs and local brew. Folks there were quite accommodating, even allowing our dog Leah to be carried through the restaurant to the back patio to lunch with us!

From Potosi we returned to Dickeyville and on to Hazel Green. We continued through Council Hill Station where we ran into a barn dance, complete with string instruments and a blind dog! We finally drove on through Schapville, and returned to Stockton and home. We hope more of our members will join us on a tour next year for magnificent Fall Colors! Thanks again, Dan!!!

~~ Teri Holzman

Checking out the ‘ghost parts’.

On October 30th we had our last rally of the year. 12 teams gathered in our garage for the Halloween Run. There were six MGB's, one MGA, two TD's, a TC, plus two OM's (that stands for Other Makes). The weather was most helpful, much better than the weatherman forecasted. By the time that the rally started the frost had disappeared by the sun in a clear, crisp, blue sky. And when we were enjoying a late lunch and some very good brewsky's at Flatlanders the clouds returned and the rain started.

The rally was about 40 miles and visited several nice wooded areas and forest preserves with the last of the fall colors. The winners were Roger and Shirley Goebbert with the perfect score. All check points (Halloween candy), all three parts: fuses, an ignition rotor, and a brake pad. These parts where covered under a white sheet and represented the Ghosts of Spare Parts. Similarly there were the Ghosts of MG Models: a TD (we would have accepted TA through TC also because the difference is hard to feel through the white sheet), an A, and a CGT (we would accept C and CGT, because the bulges in the hood are the significant difference). The check point letters also had to be unscrambled to form the name of a MG personality. Most people knew (or guessed correctly) Cecil Kimber. Second, also with a perfect score Ric and Nancy Maitzen in their red TD. We broke the tie because Roger's "CGT" was a hair more correct than Ric's "C". Third was the MGA of Russ & Amy Mehaffey who missed the MGC bubble in the hood and called it a BGT.

~~Reinout Vogt