Susan and I just visited our daughter Rachel who bought a house in Minneapolis. Having rehabbed a house in Baltimore, I was there to apply my skills once again. I did electrical work, plumbing and a lot of hauling.....the hauling is tough on the old back! Replacing toilets is always a fun job. Oh yes, pulling that cursed bowl off its base and the little treasures one might find.....YIKES!!

Well, Susan, Rach and I got a lot done, and as we sat with a drink on the porch, we talked about many things. Somehow the Chicagoland MG Club came up, and our tours into Michigan, Wisconsin and NW Illinois came to play. These were those very sacred 2.5 day MG family excursions. Our Club's huge into the MG mecca of topdown driving during the day, group dinners at night, and of course my favorite... the after hours social where the folding chairs, wine, beer and even a few cigars, came out! Susan and I talked about this and even my daughter Rachel, (who loves and drives the MGB "Mongrel" almost as good as Dad...and will inherit it) said the tours sounded awesome!

We had new members courageously join the club on these 2.5 day sabbaticals, who were welcomed into the Chicagoland MG family with open arms, making many new friends. Susan and I relocated out of Illinois to east Tennessee where we found not 1 but 4 MG clubs. However we still travelled north to the last Wine, Cheese & Beer Tour...........and good Lord that was fun!

I have assembled some pics in this article of these tours from the past, to relive memories of them, but also to perk interest in folks who may perhaps bring one of them back, or something new forward. The Lands End Rally in former days was a 2 day treasure hunt type rally, many times staying at the eclectic Don Q Inn in Wisconsin - great fun! For a few years the club did a weekend event called Return to Abingdon (in Illinois) where Friday night we dined with a fish fry at the local VFW lodge. Saturday the main street in Abingdon was closed down so the club could do an autocross on the main drag there! The early summer 2.5 day Secrets of Jo Daviess County took us to a fantastic overlook of the Mississippi in a park that fashioned an invasion of humming birds. I have particularly fond memories of the Wine, Cheese & Beer Tour where I would masquerade Friday nights as some sort of mad character from English history (or Elvis).

Russ Mehaffey and I took over the Wine, Cheese & Beer Tour from Ann & John Schroeder and we just had a blast mapping out the routes. I remember one time we were insulting each other and laughing our heads off to the point of missing the route we were planning, and then getting lost. It was a good time.

Of course the evenings in the parking lots were the best, where we all sat in the company of appropriate libations and talked about the day, our cars, the club and worked to solve world hunger.

There is a Spring Tour now that we have not participated in due to our lack of knowledge, but I do intend to check this out, and try to plan our next trip north for it.

Should anyone wish to take up the mantle of planning out one of these tours, there is a lot of help from all the good work that has been done on previous weekend tours.

Wine, Cheese & Beer Tours

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