Saga

1. a long story of heroic achievement, especially a medieval prose narrative in Old Norse or Old Icelandic.

2. a long, involved story, account, or series of incidents.

The story of this trip is neither heroic, nor medieval, nor Old Norse. But it is long, and includes a series of incidents. So, “saga” it is!

What’s All This, Then?

Back in 2017, Lotus Ltd held their annual Lotus Owners Gathering (LOG) in Birmingham, Alabama. It seemed like a long way to drive, across a bunch of not-very-interesting roads, so I decided not to go. I’ve regretted that decision almost ever since. There’s not always a track day at the LOG, but for this one there was, and it was at Barber Motorsports Park. Which is on the same property as the Barber Motorsports Museum, which houses the world’s largest collection of Lotus race cars.

With this trip, I aim to rid myself of the ghost of LOG 37 and finally run some laps at a fabulous track and gander at an impressive number of interesting cars and motorcycles. So when the various track day operations started publishing their calendars back in January, I searched for events that I could combine into a nice trip.

I settled on a single-day event at Road Atlanta on a Monday with a two-day event at Barber the next weekend. Once I had that nailed down, I went about finding places to see on the way to Atlanta, things to do while staying in Atlanta, and more places to see on the way home from Birmingham. I came up with a trip that had me pretty excited.

Preparation and Packing

My track days on this trip are with Chin Track Days. I ran with them at Mid-Ohio a few years ago.

I changed the oil the Friday before I left. I upgraded the undertray several years ago so that I don’t have to take it off to change the oil, I just open a little door. This time, though, I took the undertray off. That gives us access to a bunch of bolts. I have solid motor mounts. Solid mounts make the whole car vibrate. So much so that, unless precautions are taken, some of the bolts work their way out.

When we did some work a few months ago, we found that a number of bolts were missing. We replaced them all and used blue locktite on them. Everything we secured with locktite was still there and in good condition. However, a few bolts on the diffuser had gone missing. I made a trip to the hardware store to get new ones, and when we put the car back together, we used locktite on all these as well.

Before we put it all back together, though, Michael checked that everything we could reach was properly torqued. I’d like to think that this will make for a few fewer rattles but I know better.

I had the car packed the night before I left. On previous trips, it was a bit like a three-dimensional puzzle: how can I fit all this stuff in the car?

This trip, though, I have quite a bit less stuff to carry than in the past. I’m not doing any camping or hiking this time, so I don’t have a pair of hiking boots, my day pack, or a tent. I’m taking both helmets in case I have a passenger one day, but I still have plenty of free space. Note that “plenty of free space” in an Elise bears no similarity to the same idea in any other car. I’m bringing a cooler with me so I can save a few bucks on the road. I packed it with four sodas, which will last a couple of days. This allows me to buy a 12-pack at some point. Not all 12 will fit in the cooler, but I’ll still have plenty of room for those that don’t fit in the cooler. At least, I’m pretty sure I have that much extra room!

April 6

I hit the road at about 8 am after gassing up at Costco.

The drive through Colorado was uneventful. I stopped at the sign at the Kansas border for a photo. About ten minutes later, a pickup truck headed in the opposite direction kicked up a stone that hit my windshield. It’s pretty nasty, the worst rock chip I’ve ever had. I hope it doesn’t crack – they won’t let me on the track if I have a big crack in the windshield.

It’s ironic that, as I left the house and headed directly into the morning sun, I lamented how badly pitted my windshield is. With the sun low on the horizon, it’s like looking through the Milky Way. Looks like I’ll be starting the search for a new windshield when I get home. I understand they can be difficult to source.

Near Lebanon, I made a short detour to the geographic center of the 48 states. The monument is in the process of getting a minor upgrade: a crew had just poured concrete for a length of new sidewalk. They were very interested in the car, so we had a nice chat. They directed me to a woman who was there. They said she was the local expert. I asked her if the monument was in the correct spot. She said the actual geographic center was a short distance across the field to the northwest. She said they have a marker buried there in the correct place and many folks have taken their metal detectors out searching for it, but nobody has had any success. One of the sidewalk crew suggested that it’s probably worked its way deeper in the ground.

There’s a little chapel there. It’s being worked on, so I didn’t step in. Is a pew still a pew if it seats only one person? Wide enough for one person on each side of the aisle. There is usually a visitor log there, but during the work, they have it at the visitor center in Lebanon.

Of course, Google directed me to the monument down a dirt road. On the way out, I went the easy way, on the nice, wide, smooth blacktop. I don’t know why Google keeps wanting to send me down dirt roads. I wish they’d add a “Avoid Dirt Roads” option.

Passing through the town of Marysville, I saw giant squirrels. About one on each block, or thereabouts. Three feet tall, maybe a bit more, black. The sculptures are the same. The squirrel has an acorn in its paws. They’re all customized to one degree or another. The one at the car wash had the acorn painted to look like a soap bubble. The one at the bank had a golden tail. I learned later that Marysville is called Black Squirrel City.

Between Lebanon and my hotel in Atchison, I saw quite a few pillars of smoke. At first, I thought I was imagining. But, sure enough, at any given spot I could see three or four of these smoke pillars. One looked quite big – was it a structural fire? In the end, I don’t think it was. I passed a couple of places where the ground was burnt. I think it’s just farmers clearing the undergrowth out of drainage ditches or something along those lines.

After I checked into my room, I went in search of fuel and food. My phone directed me across the river into Missouri for gas, and on the way back I grabbed a burger at the place next to the hotel.

Not a terribly long day and the only negative was the damaged windshield.