Left Monday morning about 8 AM. 18 degrees.

Met Doorman about noon in Dayton, dropped off AC cover. Beautiful sunshine day with storm on the way so we kept on without staying long.

Made it to southern Kentucky, stopped for gas at exit 25. Engine stumbled and quit on off ramp... restarted, gassed up but still running rough. I thought maybe vapor lock so we ran on. No such luck. Limped to exit 11, died on ramp, coasted to parking. (for once I'm glad for the hills in Kentucky... downhill coast to park... no power steering or brakes!)

Bad news: Turns out my 1 year old distributor died. Cap is full of black dust, won't even run.

Good news: I still had the old distributor so I pulled the bad one, dropped in the new, eyeballed the marks and it ran. Half hour later we're good.

Stayed for the night. Rained all night, then we drove 13 hours to northern Florida, stopped at rest area. Good day!

Made it to Naples and stopped last night at Lenny and Judy's place. Great hospitality, nice visit.

Heading to the Keys tomorrow. I'll post pics then!

He left the door open back in MI, can't you feel the cold air rushing through TN?

Steve, what kind of distributor and cap set up are you using? BTW, that was quite a run all the way from southern Kentucky to northern Florida in one day. More than I could do for sure.
Jim

Hope you stick around Lenny's till we get there. Should be there by 10AM if things go right. Skyping with Len tonight at 6:30.

Danny, we'd like to see you also before we go. Figured we'd leave around noon if we can. We'll plan it tonight!

Jim, the distributor I got last year from Summit. It has better advance and was new so I tried it. I was happy with it until Monday.

I originally posted it as "HEI ignition upgrade" in the Barth upgrade forum. As soon as I get to the Keys I'm going to look it over more and see what happened. As of now, the cap is full of black grime of unknown origin and the pickup module is intermittent. When I figure it out I'll post what I know as a PS to that thread. Sure glad I kept the original one intact as a spare!

So far, my longest Barth day was 17 hours. The seat is very comfortable and if the wind isn't outrageous I don't mind a long day now and then. 5 or 6 hours is about ideal, though.

Sorry for my not so smart remark. I must have posted the same minute you told about your troubles. Glad you got her going again. Safe travels.

quote:

Originally posted by Marvin+Doris:
He left the door open back in MI, can't you feel the cold air rushing through TN?

No problem... you ain't kidding! (35 in Atlanta this morning) I had no idea how bad the snow wanted me... chased me all the way to the gulf. Just don't tell anyone, they'll run me out of town!

We stayed 2 nights with Lenny and Judy near Naples. Great folks. Lenny is amazing... 2 weeks after open heart (I mean OPEN... lots of staples!) he is up and around.

Friday morning was a mini Barth GTG at Lenny's! Danny and Suzy showed up in the Euro and Tom and Nancy in their Jeep! How cool is that?

We continued the somewhat contrary trip. Leaving Lenny's the lighter plug quit (bad connection), no GPS.

30 miles from the end of the 1500 mile ride, some dufus piled up 5 cars on one of the bridges, stopped traffic BOTH ways for 3 hours. We pulled over with the ocean about 100 feet away, had dinner, potty break, etc. Best traffic jam I've ever been in. Felt sorry for all the people in cars running over to the bushes

Finally got to Sunshine Key safe and sound. I'll have photos soon.

Now on to the Barth projects.

What a surprise to pull into the L&J RV Resort and see Steve standing there with Tommy Johns! Had a nice but too short visit with them before they headed south, then spent a great weekend with Lenny and Judy. Got some yard work done that has been understandably neglected, and turned a new base for a table lamp in ash. Sunday turned to crap, mid 40's and rainy, but it cleared up for the trip home. Stopped at Campers World and picked up a new HD head for the bat-wing. Hope it improves reception, I'll let you all know.

L&J RV resort, Fri GTG. Me on left, Lenny on right, Danny's Euro in back!



The cat relaxed after his long days of traveling... ah, the life of Reilly! (That's how he got his name)



On to the Keys! Recognize the setting?







Inside looking out.



No more snow! Sunshine! Life is good. Have Barth, will travel.

Oh look, another Barth!



Tom and Nancy showed up today. Chased the wind away and the weather warmed up!

Now tell me when you are comming back this way.hope to see you on the way back.
I am more activemabe lunch on 5th ave .Great place to look around.also tin city.
Lenny

Where is a picture of that missing brown Barth that is suppose to be there?

Nick

Still looking for that brown Barth...

Found a thirsty manatee that stopped by for drink.



Tom and I went fishing for yellowtail snapper yesterday, brought a few home.
Blue Angels did their air show over Key West today.

It was in the 80's today, another fine day in the Keys. I got the new cruise cruise control partly installed, will be done soon.

Looking forward to TN in a week or so!

Steve you are torturing me. Stuck in Minnesnowta. 10 inch of glare ice on the driveway. a foot of snow still on DBarth.

We shouldn't be able to say at night "now that is putting ice on the lake" Multiple sub zero temps.

AGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH