Lipstick Red, Part III

"Hi Kathi; let me talk to Bill."

So it began. I was working in Trumbull, CT on the Friday before Lobster Mog and had made the 3 hour dash from there to home in Hull, MA to swap the MINI for the Roadster and continue the next 4 hours to Bill Alexander's home in Cape Elizabeth, ME. Going through downtown Boston at rush hour is never fun and a recent roof collapse had one of the tunnels closed so a mile and a half of progress took an hour and a half.

Picture this: Inching along in unseasonable heat underground in a Morgan. What would happen if ? Stow that thought! After all, this is a new car, less than 2000 miles on the clock. Nevertheless I did not use the much desired A/C because I did not want to tempt fate. The speed picked up soon after I crossed the Tobin Bridge. Thunder and ominous black clouds induced me to stop and put the hood up for the first time ever. It was rather straight forward unfolding the frame and latching the front before bumping the rear into the catches. Anyone looking would have assumed I did it all the time. The rains came and I went through the gears; wiper speeds that is. First using the intermittent, then the slow and as the cats and dogs began in earnest shifting into fast.

A leak! I knew it! Just wait until I rip off a complaint to Dennis. Oops; false alarm - the drip was on my shoulder. I pushed the hood flap over the sidescreen, where it belongs, and that was the end of it. The wipers and the electric windshield did a good job and I was booking along at 80mph on the Maine turnpike. Just after paying the toll I pulled over to check directions and, and it stopped and would not even a cranking sound make.

"Bill, the Roadster won't start can you hitch up your trailer and bring me in ?"

Bill ("one call and we do it all") Alexander backed the Roadster laden trailer into his garage where I made up for lost time by eating barbeque and drinking beer while Bill, Gerry Willburn, Penny Bates and Paul Sullivan found and replaced a blown fuse. I suspected from the start that it was a fuse problem because I stood by while fuses were swapped out on Butch Tysinger’s new Roadster in Cambria a few weeks ago. While waiting for the Alexander Tow Company I called Mike at Morgan West and he too suggested looking at the fuses. One problem: The fuses are in an aluminum enclosure under the bonnet. Yes; in the same relative location on top of the scuttle where the +4 and 4/4 of old had fuses. Only it is dark; it is raining; and the cover of the fuse box is held in place by three #!@$ button-head screws! Impossible to remove without an Allen wrench.

The rest of the weekend was uneventful by comparison and certainly more fun. The lineup of Morgans at the Harpswell Yacht Club numbered at least 25. I discovered what is probably going to be an immutable law in the Garner household: the Roadster is mine when it breaks but it is Kathi's the rest of the time. In true form she and Jan Sullivan did the poker rally while Paul and I followed in a +4 loaner from Bill.

LobsterMog dinner on the deck was a treat, as it always is, and many crustaceans were sent to their final reward. We shared a table with Gerry and Barbara Willburn. Remembering all the articles written about what kinds of spares a Morgan driver should have on board before venturing off, Gerry suggested that the road kit for a new Morgan is rather simple: a cell phone, credit card and Morgan club roster. I wondered out loud what would have happened if I had been driving a new Porsche instead of a Morgan when it went poop? "Porsche drivers would not have come to pick you up" was the first reply and the second was that "Porsche drivers probably would not have the equipment on hand even if they did show up". That is being a little harsh on Porsche drivers (they must have been thinking of BMWs) but it does point out a difference between Morgan owners and the rest of the world: we expect problems and have the camaraderie to cope with them.

Oh, and following an e-mail to Dennis itemizing my "issues", including a complaint that a tool is needed to get at the fuses, I received a brand new Gorrilla Grip metric Allen wrench set. You wouldn't get that kind of service from a Porsche dealer.