Moparts 2007 Winter Cruise
The moparts winter cruise started off as a chance to escape the COLD New England weather by taking a trip to Florida and back. What better way of doing this than driving my 71 Challenger Conv.?
Making this a moparts cruise by stopping and visiting moparts members on the route. Started making plans and found that to include all the stops and members on the route would take way longer than the 10 days that were planned. So after setting our agenda, we took off.
 DB - Dave |
 Gassing up in the NJ Snow |
 Maryland Hotel - No Snow |
Hoping to leave the snow behind we took off for our first stop in NJ. We stopped to visit Moparts Mods, DBDartman and Ira. But snow and cold weather was still with us. The first night we stopped in Maryland.
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Across the Chesapeake Bay Bridge
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On into VA and to check out some of Ranger Dan's fleet of Mopars.
That evening we drove into NC and headed to Randleman, NC. Stopping at the Richard Petty Museum the next morning.
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Click for more pictures from the Richard Petty Museum.
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Finally finding nice weather, we ran the car through a car wash (yes convertibles leak).
All clean again, our next stop was in central, NC to visit moparts members Deamon3406 & Duster408. They are partners in a boat service repair business.
Between them they have many Mopar A Bodies- Click for Pictures.
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The next morning we found ourselves in TN and at www.musclecarmuseum.com Floyd Garrett's Muscle Car Museum - Click for lots of Pictures
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We then headed down the "TAIL OF THE DRAGON" (with 318 curves in 11 miles) Route 129 into GA. Which is a very interesting road to drive. (power steering would have been nice)
At this point we stopped in to visit Lawrence at www.mopartsracing.com. We wandered through his Mopar Performance Warehouse and stayed there that night. The next morning after the required grits for breakfast, we were off to Ocala, FL.
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Finally, We are in FL and it is warm enough to put the top down. Our next stop Garlits Drag Racing Museum, www.garlits.com
Click for Many More pictures at Garlits Drag Racing Museum
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Then a long drive down the west coast of FL , across the Everglades and on to Stuart, FL
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Got into Stuart, FL that evening and meet up with Andrew of www.autohausofsouthflorida.com. Andrew is an old friend of mine from CT and he put us up for a few days. We found perfect weather and did lots of cruising around in the convertible with the top down. At this point we were glad that we were out of the New England weather and cruising in a convertible in February.
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Stopped over at AUTOHAUS OF SOUTH FLORIDA INC. Where they work on Porsche, BMW, Mercedes Benz and other interesting cars.
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We then walked next door to where they work on formula type race cars, Click for More Pictures
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Visited Robert another moparts member, and checked out his work in progress Challenger T/A - Click for more pictures
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We all hung out with Bill and Ginger who own a trim shop, (Lane's Trim Shop - 772-283-9222)
Where Bill is now restoring his 70 Challenger - Click for more pictures.
 Andrew & Ginger |
 Tim & Tom |
 Bill's Challenger |
Did the straight shot home up I-95, The total trip was just over 3000 miles and about $900 in fuel. The Challenger ran great, and the only thing it needed was couple quarts of oil.
But this is what we found when we got home. Car covered in salt, sand and snow. At this point living in FL for the winter looks like a good idea.
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