ECONOBOX CAFÉ

Monday, October 3, 2011

Festiva Madness trip... day ten

Today's drive took us from Dandridge TN into Kentucky for a few miles then into Illinois before arriving at our destination just outside St Louis, Missouri.

We Canadians have something to learn about highway traffic from our neighbours to the south. This is a photo inside the rest area/welcome center at the Tennessee border...

E & I at the Tennesse Welcome center.

The Interstates are in generally good condition well marked exits and markers at every mile. Even when going through or around a town or city there seems to be good flow. The only time we experienced any real congestion was a few days ago south of Washington DC and between Williamsburg and Virginia Beach.

Interstate through Tennessee.

We decided to bypass Nashville as we were looking forward to a relaxing evening at our next stop. We went through Kentucky without any troubles passing through Paducah on our way into Illinois. If any of you have listened to Veggie Tales "Boyz in the Sink" you should recognize that name!

Next stop was Metropolis Illinois, home of the 40 foot Superman statue. Thanks to the Hills for recommending this stop! Although it was short it was a lot of fun.

E & B posing...

Clark Kent and B must have the same glasses supplier!

A super car for Superman?

The drive from Metropolis to St Louis was fairly uneventful but we did notice a few more semi's on the road along with a bit more traffic. On our way through St Louis to our hotel we crossed the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers. The shots we took of the Gateway Arch didn't turn out too well as we weren't very close on our drive by.

Our hotel, the Super 8 in Troy MO turned out to be one of the top two on our trip so far! It's a fairly new building, has an indoor pool, free movies rentals, fairly quick computers and a fast internet connection. We headed over to Hardee's for supper. This was the last time that E could order off the children's menu as it was only for 12 and under!

E and his last "children's meal"!!!

After all going for a swim Sharon and I picked out a movie for B, E and I to watch and then headed out to the lobby to enjoy the complimentary coffee while I updated the blog and watched some HGTV on the lobby TV.

CLICK HERE FOR DAY 11!

Festiva Madness trip... day nine

Well here we are in beautiful Raleigh NC. Except for the occasional breezy periods the weather was great!

We were the 12th Festiva to sign in and by noon the total was up to 73 Festivas and Aspires, beating last year's attendance by four. A group of five or six cars came up from Florida.

I would say that about a quarter of the cars there had engine swaps ranging from mild, like ours with a SOHC B6 to Chris's Mazda KL-ZE 2.5l V-6 shoe horned into the engine compartment. The most common swap appeared to be the Escort GT 1.8l DOHC engine.

We took the longest distance traveled (one way) with 2750 miles. Second went to Charlie from Arizona whose one way distance was 2200 miles. Third was from Sioux Falls SD with a distance of 1100 miles.

Lowest mileage went to the car with only 53100 original miles, highest went to a car with over 300,000 miles.

We had a great time meeting a lot of people who we've only met on the http://www.fordfestiva.com/ forum. Some of them have said that they are considering coming up for Westiva 2012, our upcoming Kananaskis Festiva meet in July!

Here are a few photos that we took. Here's a link to more. If you're interested I'm pretty sure that there will be a link or two to even more on http://www.festivamadness.com/.

Welcome desk!

An overview

One of the two Festiva truck conversions.

Charlies car after a 2200 mile drive! He won the "fan favorite" award.

Sharon, E, I, B and me with the Festiva.

Another overview

We left Raleigh at about three-thirty and headed off to Dandridge, Tennessee. Arrived at the hotel at around 9:45pm after a drive through some pretty twisty roads. Unfortunately it was dark when we went through the mountains and weren't able to enjoy the scenery. Tomorrow's drive takes us to St. Louis passing through four states.

CLICK HERE FOR DAY 10!

Sunday, October 2, 2011

Festiva Madness trip Day 8

Day 8 of the trip found us in Colonial Williamsburg for most of the day and then on to Virginia Beach.

Colonial Williamsburg is an amazing place! The thing that really struck me is that this is part of the modern town. There are private residences right next to some of the display buildings and after hours you can drive your car down the streets as you would any where else. You don't actually have to pay to wander around but if you want to look in any of the buildings or take any of the tours a ticket is required.

We toured the Governor's Palace and the Capitol among others and Sharon, B and Ian took part in a hearing in the courthouse. We'll have lots of stories to tell when we get home as well as lots of recommendations and suggestions for your own visit!

Next stop on the day was Virginia Beach. The drive there and back was eye opening as we traveled both directions in rush hour traffic. HOV lanes helped a bit but traffic bottlenecked at each of the tunnels we had to go through. Had a short but really enjoyable time splashing about in the salt water. I suggested to B, E and I that they taste the water. B and I just licked their wet hands but E actually drank some... spit it our rather quickly too!

Had another rainy night drive into Raleigh but arrived safe and sound around 10:00pm.