The final Day, a run into New York.
The final day involved a 180mile run into New York. We planned to avoid the interstates before Allenstown but thereafter we had no choice but to take the main road into the centre of New Jersey and the Hyatt Regency Hotel.
For the last few days Ham’s car has been running very rough and despite all our best efforts we haven’t been able to get it running right. Last night we adjusted the carburettors to run two flats richer. Given the longevity of the problem Ham is concerned that there is a serious underlying problem such as a blown head gasket which was confirmed with his conversation with his mechanic. We will have to run gently into New York if the head gasket has gone.
Chris wanted to attend the Harrisburg Cars and Coffee meeting but found that it started at 9:00am rather than as thought 07:00am. We wouldn’t be leaving for New York until around 11:00am which would mean we would be hitting the rush hour of weekenders returning to the city on Sunday evening. In the event we left as discussed at 08:00am and sadly missed the Cars and Coffee meet.
Chris led off in front, breaking trail, Nigel took up the rear, as tail end Charlie and they both shepherded Ham’s faltering Lagonda all the way to New York.
Amelia managed to navigate us to Allentown, about 80 miles from New Jersey, avoiding the busy Interstate. It was a marvellous last drive passing through a number of small, charming clapper board housed towns. We stopped for Chris to fill up with petrol and for Ham to check his temperature and a guy came running down the road to tell us that despite the fact that he’d won $1000 on the lottery seeing our cars was the highlight of his day.
At Allentown we stopped for hot dogs in a classic diner. All the staff seemed to have English relations but noone had watched the Corronation.
Although Ham’s car had been running better than it had for days he began once again to experience problems with his ignition switch when on ‘Coil & Mag’. Fortunately the switch worked fine on either Coil or Mag so ham nursed the old girl onwards to the finish line.
At around 1:00pm we crested a small rise to face the iconic skyline of New York in front of us. It was the moment that we all realised that we had completed this massive adventure. We were on the final few miles into New York and whatever was thrown at us we would be able to cope.
At 1:30pm we finally arrived at the front door of the Hyatt Regency, New Jersey to be given pride of place by the front door where our beautiful cars remain until we drop them off at the shipping warehouse tomorrow.
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