In September of 2010, several Mustang owners gathered at the Biltmore Estate for the "Mustangs at the Mansion" MCA National show. A group of SSP owners were planning on this trip for months and I just couldn't miss it, especially having a great interest in architecture! Being that my girlfriend lives in another state and our time to see each other is slim, we thought this would be a great trip to experience together. I left three days before the show, allowing me the opportunity to pick up my girlfriend in Maryland. Well, it didn't quite work out this way! I was about an hour from home and the thermostat in my TX DPS started going crazy. This was not a good sign. One would think, oh I don't have to worry because my truck and trailer is only an hour away. WRONG! My father was borrowing my trailer to pick up my brothers Mustang outside of Albany, NY. When I gave him a call and told him what was up, he was just getting to his house about 7-8 hours from me. Just my luck! I managed to get it to a parking lot just off the exit and as with all times I travel, I pack a "common things that I need that could go wrong" bag. First thing first... thermostat. After waiting for the engine to cool, I started working on it. Well, anyone who owns a fox Mustang knows that unless you have the right size wrench (length-wise), you can't take it out. Lucky for me, mine fit in there, but I could only turn it fractions of an inch at a time. If I had had one 1/8" shorter, I would have been ok! After sitting parked for 2.5 hours, I was on my way again. Thirty minutes later... ut oh! It starts heating up again. I turn into an Autozone parking lot and wait for my dad to swing in. After nine hours of hanging out with the guys inside Autozone, he came with the trailer. My brother's Mustang was dropped off in NH so that we could take mine home to ME if we couldn't fix it in the parking lot and keep going. So, here I am now in Maine, getting home at about 2am with the truck and trailer because we realized the problem was bigger than anticipated.
Next morning comes, parts store didn't have the parts, so I left it on the trailer and off I went after changing the oil in the truck. I left around noon and arrived at my sister's in PA just after 2:30am in the morning. Luckily for me, my sister, mother, and two nieces picked up my girlfriend in Maryland at the airport. Stayed up to chat a bit with her then it was time to hit the hay. 6am rolled around and I was rough. I called up David, who I was going to convoy down with, and we agreed he was going to take off ahead of me because we needed to fully wake up before we hit the road. I met up with Bill and some friends for a convoy down. It was a great trip, very little traffic, and we were very safe in getting down there, adhering to the speed limit and occasionally going slower to compensate for rough roads, as I wasn't the only one pulling a trailer!
We arrive in the area sometime after 8pm and I felt like a kid in the candy store when we got to the hotel. All these times, I've only seen pictures of these SSP's online and I now get to see a swarm of them in the parking lot all decked out for street-legal travel (markings were covered, not in service signs, etc.). After running around the parking lot almost drooling on the cars, I chatted with a few other SSP owners, washed my car and truck, and finally got to bed after midnight!
Friday was an interesting day for us at the show. I was going to trailer my car in, but I found out some great news that encouraged me just to take a risk and drive it. After taking some group photos with the Wounded Warriors Shelby GT500 (which our club was asked to get to the show) in front of the hotel, just 45 minutes before we had to leave, the local police came to escort us. Yes, it is fun to say we had an escort, but what made this even more special was the fact that we got to use the lights on most of the roads and both the lights and sirens once we were on Biltmore property. Oh what a time it was! As we escorted the Wounded Warriors Shelby in, there was a lot of surprised people who were very appreciative of the grand entrance of the Shelby. It was quite a site from in the car, so I can't imagine what it looked like from outside the car!
Gladly, although my car heated up a lot, I didn't have any significant problems with it on the trip to the Biltmore. Renee and I caught a ride back to the hotel with Jim in his Florida Highway Patrol car. Thanks again Jim! We got back to the hotel and went out to eat at a nice Greek and Italian restaurant just around the corner from the hotel that Steve and his wife scouted out just days prior. We had one of our "board meetings" there, had some great prizes, food, and most importantly, great company. Thanks again to David and Mike for covering the bill! We returned back to the hotel to have another "board meeting" outside and it was a blast. It's amazing how many people have a hard time closing the curtains at a hotel. You never think about it until you see it from the parking lot!
Saturday rolls around, we all get to the show safely and park together in a different lot this time to accommodate the attendance of other Mustangs. I brought the Expedition with me this time. One thing about our group is that no matter where we are or what we do, we always seem to have fun! Although we offered to park outside of where most of the activity was for the show, most of us spent a lot of time at the Biltmore Mansion, as we had well over twenty of us choose to all go in for the tour together. What a place to visit! After our tour was done, Renee and I browsed around in the gift shops a bit, purchased a few things, and away we went back to the car. We scoped out the dinner, returned to our cars, and some went to take a quick photo in front of the Biltmore Mansion. Just to be on the safe side with engine cooling, I was one of the few that went right back to the hotel. I took the TX DPS back and Renee drove the Expedition. We had yet another "board meeting" out in the parking lot and had (no surprise here) another great time.
Sunday morning rolled around and after helping Gary get on the road when he had battery problems, Renee and I said our good-byes and off we went.
Overall, I must say we had way too much fun! Those few days seemed like it happened in a blink of an eye and I can't wait for the next big show I attend with as many Mustangs as we had or even more!
Photos Gallery coming soon!