Patience, Perseverance and Leadership

Dec. 29 was a study of patience, perseverance and team leadership for the Drive Home II road crew. We started early, rolling out of mid-town Manhattan at 5:45 a.m. and crossing over to Brooklyn for a TV segment with the local Fox station at Grand Army Plaza. Dale led the process of unloading the 1917 Crane-Simplex from the trailer near the massive Plaza arch, and David handled the short TV interviews over the next couple of hours at designated time slots.

 In between, we chatted with the TV crew and local police as the rain held off, daybreak came and the city began to wake up. Things were fairly relaxed except for the FDNY fire truck that came screaming down Flatbush Avenue before taking a hard left to careen directly through the middle of the Plaza and within several feet of us and the cars.

That was the first adrenalin rush of the day.

Interviews over, we loaded up and Dale took the truck and trailer to New Jersey to meet up with us later, while the rest of our troop toured the tip of Manhattan and headed uptown. With me at the wheel of the Mustang, I dropped David and his luggage off around 48^th Street, so he could jet back West for his wife Lynda’s art exhibit opening (he’ll rejoin us in Michigan in the coming days). Our caravan proceeded past the Bulgari store on 5^th Ave and Carnegie Hall, and made its way down to Times Square where preparations were being made for New Year’s Eve.  
 

All along the way the cars were getting lots of notice and photos, and Derek was taking full advantage of the scene by sitting in the back of the SUV with the hatch up and video rolling. That’s about the time I noticed the Mustang starting to buck in and out of gear in the stop-and-go traffic, which I reported to the team via walkie-talkie. We then made a beeline to the Lincoln Tunnel to get out of town – and we almost made it.  

About two blocks before the tunnel I reported the Mustang was laboring hard. We pulled over and found transmission fluid was spraying on the asphalt below, so we shut her down to minimize her misery.  

That was the second adrenalin rush of the day, but the team persevered.

Huddling up, the team determined Ashley and I would stay with the Mustang and Valerie, Bill, and Derek would get the other two cars out of Manhattan to meet up with Dale in New Jersey. Ashley and Valerie then jumped into full battle mode by making contacts with ACM Board Member Keith Flickinger’s team at Precision Motor Cars in Allentown, PA and Hagerty Insurance to have the car towed. The plan was for to us to continue the trek through Philly and Washington D.C. and then pick up the (hopefully repaired) Mustang when we went to Allentown on Dec. 31 as part of our regular route. Thanks to Hagerty and Precision, the Mustang was on a tow truck within an hour and secured in Allentown by the end of the day.

 

Everything was clicking into place when Ashley and I got a report that a rock blew one of Dale’s truck tires out and he was in pit crew mode at a rest stop in New Jersey. Shortly thereafter, the car gang reported they had pulled off the freeway because the Nomad was dangerously low on oil, and they were in search of a service station.

That was the third adrenalin rush of the day, and yet the team continued to rally and persevere.

In another hour, with the Mustang safe, tire fixed and engine oiled up, the crew reunited at Molly Pitcher Service Area on the New Jersey Turnpike and quickly decided we would forego Philly (really hated to miss that cheesesteak!) and head straight to our hotel in northern Virginia. Three-plus hours later we were skirting Washington D.C. with great views of the Capitol and monuments before we dropped into our Arlington hotel for the night and lots of laughs at a great team dinner.  

That was the day, and what a day it was. Full of twists and turns, and for every one of them the team rallied and responded. Patience, perseverance and leadership – that’s what makes America great, that’s what makes American cars great and that’s what I love about traveling with the Drive Home II team.

More reports of adrenalin rushes tomorrow, hopefully none mechanically-related. In the meantime, remind me to tell you about the time as a 16-year-old I blew out the water pump of my ’66 Ford at midnight in 1974 somewhere around Riverton, WY. I thought about that on Dec. 29 somewhere near Times Square.