The Arrival

Friday Morning in the parking lot
Originally uploaded by The Put-Man.

Thursday: 1 day to FFO

Wednesday night I ended up fetching Alvon from O'Hare an hour late, after my Spider overheated, leaving me without my Jeep. My lovely, patient, and all-to-understanding girlfriend drove over to my house, picked my dumb-ass up, drove me to my Jeep, and we went together to pick up Alvon. Knowing I needed to vent, she let me spew as my Spider had done. I'm glad I got that out of my system before meeting Alvon.

Alvon turned out to be a nice guy, a good houseguest, and while driving the next day, an excellent traveling companion. He's owned his '70 Spider since '85, and it has about 200,000 miles on it, but the last few years he has done an amazing job bringing it back to better-than-new condition. Wednesday night he and I stayed up late showing each other pictures of our cars, and swapping Fiat stories.

Thursday I got up early to load the Jeep and get Azzie hooked up. Even though she wasn't running, I was going to drag her ass to FFO, anyway. I'd put too much heart, effort, and tears into this damn car to leave it at home. Alvon helped me load up, and we were on the road by 8:30am.

We were looking to hook up with Mike Bouse's convoy that was gathering at his house between 12 noon and 2 pm. Peanut butter sandwiches and Kool Aid were promised, and the thought of a convoy was enough to make me smile.

Traffic out of Chicago wasn't too bad, much better than I'd expected. Alvon and I stopped at the Hinsdale oasis to meet a co-worker of his who lived nearby. I told Alvon it'd be a shame to be this close and NOT stop, although it would make our timeline a bit tight. As it turns out, we rolled into Mike's yard just in time for the 2pm roll-out.

With no time for sandwiches, only a muffin for breakfast, and having forgotten dinner the night before - MAN, my tummy was rumbling! But it was good to be in the convoy, and cool to see a few Spiders traveling together. Not a large convoy, it was just three of us. Dave Nicholson's red Spider with a cool hardtop was a nice addition to the group. I'd looked forward to meeting him, and he & his wife Carol couldn't have been nicer or more down to earth.

Even with Mike's Spider developing a slow coolant leak, we made good time. The coolant leak was little more than seepage, and with a call into John Logan, a replacement bit was on it's way to meet us at FFO. We pushed on. We hit rush hour. My tummy rumbled. We pulled into the Marriott about 6pm.

We checked in, and quickly met back down in the lobby to rush over to where others were holding seats at dinner for us. Faint with hunger, I have no idea what I ate, but my brain again began to function during dinner, where I met a few new friends. After dinner, a small contingent went to K-Mart for supplies. I bought two containers of radiator coolant, as I'd looked at Mike's thermostat, and thought I may know what to do to fix my overheating issue.

Back at the hotel about 9pm, I walk through the parking lot, admiring the other Fiats that have arrived so far. Wasting little time, I dig my tools from the back of the Jeep, and reach in to pop the hood on the Spider.

The sound of the hood-pop must have echoed through the parking lot.

Within minutes, no fewer than 6 guys were gathered around my car, offering advice, tools, holding flashlights, and helping a fellow Fiat nut any way they could.

By 11pm my Spider was running, the cooling system holding, radiator fan working just like it should. My relief was enormous, my head was soaring in the clouds, my pretty little Spider was back on the road.

Azzie was drivable!