Throwback Thursdays - A Trip Down TBN Memory Lane

[2K2BIRD]

Speaking of beautiful areas, the one represented by this unusual piece of memorabilia is almost the exact opposite of New England, but still beautiful in its own way. I'm not sure why I saved this item and stuck it up on the wall in the garage. I guess it was the graphics and the fact I lived in the general area over 40 years ago.

We had to stop in for an emergency visit to this place during a travel event.

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What was the event and what were the circumstances?

[DavidA]

I think that was on our way to Desert Thunder II. We stayed in a hotel in Lake Powell and as we headed out in the morning, as we passed the Ford dealer and turned left, my car went into limp mode and the temp gauge pinned. We limped back to the dealer and after checking the computer system, they 'burped' the cooling system and all was good from then on. That was where we learned that the cars need to be burped after a coolant change or add. They determined that the car only reached 250 degrees and no damage was done. I have to agree since it's still running fine at 182000 miles.

In short, I, or at least my Tbird, was the emergency.

[2K2BIRD]

Yeah, David, it was part of our epic caravan to Desert Thunder II. The day before that happened we visited the Four Corners Monument and Monument Valley on the Utah/AZ border. We finished up late in Monument Valley after eating dinner at Goulding's Lodge Restaurant and Trading Post. It left us with a 2 hour drive to Page, AZ where we had hotel reservations for the night. Most of that drive was in the dark and when I say dark, I mean essentially black. There were stretches of that drive where our headlights were the only lights for miles and miles. Also, cell phone service was non-existent, so had your car over heated then, instead of the very next morning at the most opportune time while we drove past the Ford dealer, the situation would have been a real nightmare.

The folks at Lake Powell Ford we very accommodating in getting in your car right away. We were there less than 2 hours as I remember and we were on our way to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. After our visit there we made our way to that night's stop at the Thunderbird Lodge in Mt. Carmel Junction, Utah where we met up with more TBNers that joined us the next day for the trip on into Las Vegas.

Good times for sure, even though we were nervous about your car for a bit there. As I remember, Bill Green blew a COP on the way into Las Vegas the next day, so he had a little drama as well.

[DavidA]

Most of that drive was in the dark and when I say dark, I mean essentially black.

That trip is one of the most memorable of all the trips we've made together. There were may other 'things', (after dinner at Gouldings comes to mind), that happened on that trip and some of the most beautiful scenery in the USA. As for dark ... I've never seen a black night like that, no moon and NOTHING anywhere, Amazing.

[15AGAIN]

You are right about the cop, DavidA picked me up from the dealer and I rode with Redbird Sally until I got the car back.

[2K2BIRD]

Through the years we've purchased a lot of souvenirs on our TBN trips. Okay, Rosetta has purchased a lot, I've purchased some. Given the size of the retrobird trunk, the running joke is whatever we get has to be very flat. Most of the items have been small - hat pins, refrigerator magnets and T-shirts make up a bunch of the stuff. We've had a few larger items as well, but we've always been able to get the things home inside the car or with a little help from our friends.

The only time we had to have something shipped involved the most expensive item we've bought on a trip. A certain Cherokee Princess and a couple of her cohorts decided they just had to have one and conspired to convince the husbands that resistance was futile. As a result one of these ended up in three different states here in the US.

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1) Name the event - not that hard.

2) Name the conspirators and the states where the clocks ended up.

3) Name the country where they were purchased.

[5bird7]

1 - EuroThunder

2 - one of the conspirators would have been Rosetta

3 - country? Switzerland comes to mind as THE clock-making country but that style also could have been Germany ?

[Quickdraw]

Jeannie must have been another conspirator...

[DavidA]

1 - Euro Thunder

2 - Rosetta, Kim and Toni. (Aside from Fritz, Jeannie and I were the only ones who didn't buy a clock)

3 - Switzerland

[02-T-Bird]

A clock like that would drive me coo coo.

Sorry i I couldn't resist that.

[SugarDaddy]

Oh No!

SugarBabe saw this thread and said she wants to go back to go shopping again with her co-conspirators.

Now, the 2-year old Grand-nephew loves that coo-coo clock. He is fascinated when the clock strikes the hour.

During the Euro Thunder event, the clocks were purchased at a souvenir shop in Interlaken, Switzerland, but they actually came from the Black Forest area of Germany.

[2K2BIRD]

Yeah, leave it to our gals to make major purchases of imported goods in the most expensive country we visited in Europe. BUT .... as we all know, it's cheaper to keep her.

Leave it to David to come out unscathed.

In the end, the EuroThunder Tour and Event was priceless. Frits did an amazing job planning and leading the way.

[SugarDaddy]

In the end, the EuroThunder Tour and Event was priceless. Frits did an amazing job planning and leading the way.

Yes, He did a wonderful job of keeping us wacky cohorts on track through some scenic countryside.

[5bird7]

Oh No!

SugarBabe saw this thread and said she wants to go back to go shopping again with her co-conspirators.

Now, the 2-year old Grand-nephew loves that coo-coo clock. He is fascinated when the clock strikes the hour.

During the Euro Thunder event, the clocks were purchased at a souvenir shop in Interlaken, Switzerland, but they actually came from the Black Forest area of Germany.

Oh, I hit that on both counts in what I posted the other day. Thank you, Jerry!

[2K2BIRD]

Here's a couple of related items that Harry (Quickdraw) made and donated for attendees of an event over a decade ago. The booklet spells out everything there is to know about your retrobird based on your VIN. The framed document is a summary of the data. It's just another example of a TBN member going above and beyond to make events special for the attendees.

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1. Name the event and location.

2. What car museum did we visit as part of the event?

3. Who else still has these items?


MANY THANKS ....

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