Rally Season is upon us

Spring is here, and rally season has started. The Great Race is not for another month and a half, but we just spent a long weekend in Michigan for The Great Race Spring Rally.

Thanks to the rally coordinators and sponsors Stahl’s International and The Great Race team, we were able to enjoy some of the beauty on the St. Clair River.

We wanted to give you the same small taste of what we were able to experience over the past three days as a warm up to The Great Race.

The event was held in Chesterfield, Michigan, and we started each day in the same spot. We rallied out in the farm land North East of Detroit.

We were up early Friday morning, and headed East toward the agricultural area. The trees are full of leaves, and many were full of bright pink and white flowers. We drove through an apple orchard where the trees were covered in white blossoms. We drove around the many lakes in the area, as well as between the fields. We are continually awed by the old barns and pretty farm houses.

We finished the day at the Packard Proving Grounds. It is a beautiful campus with Tudor style buildings and a tree lined drive that leads to what was a two mile track, banks and all. Today the Packard Proving Grounds are a non-profit organization to maintain the car’s history including a museum, event hall and part of the original track.

We rallied again on Saturday, much of it in the same area as Friday. We headed a little further North in the afternoon and drove around the Western edge of Lake Huron. The weather was perfect! We always seem to land in these areas on chamber of commerce kind of days.

We stopped for a quick lunch at the Wills St Clair Car Museum. Although not a successful car producer, its creator CH Wills worked for Ford, and invented Vanadium steel and other alloys that are still used today. He sold his shares of Ford stock for over $1.2 million in 1920, and started his company. He built and sold luxury cars in the early 20s and was out of business by 1926.

We finished the day at The Stahl’s Automotive Museum. Our second time at this museum, but we all took notice of the many more cars in the collection. We were here in 2018 for lunch, so the visit was a quick one.

Saturday night gave us the time to stroll around and enjoy the incredible car and pipe organ collection. The car collection included some great old fire trucks from the early 1900s to a Volkswagen Beetle made of decorative white wrought iron and everything in between.

1931 Cord “The Lost Cord” This was a recreation of a one off car.

We went to Michigan to have some real life practice before the Great Race. We feel fortunate to have had 3 days of driving, visiting with our rally friends, and a taste of some local nostalgia.

We appreciate you riding along with us, and hope you will follow along. We start our drive from Owensboro, Kentucky to Gardner, Maine June 21,2024.

Thank you to our sponsors McCollister’s Transportation for getting Jane to Michigan on time and in perfect condition.

We also want to thank our sponsors at Mustang Country. Jane’s new motor ran great, and we are pleased with her overall performance.

Lastly, thanks to everyone who helps keep our lives moving in our absence!