ETMGDC September Meeting Minutes

The meeting was held at O’Charley’s Restaurant in Morristown, on Sept.
It was convened at 7:15 PM by the president Jim Stepp with 8 members present.

Treasurer Jolean Ballard reports $882.82 on deposit and $121.95 in flower fund.

Old Business: After action report on The Total Eclipse of the Sun Run Hosted by the Blount British Car club. Thank you Jim Watson for setting it up and Bob Doherty for hosting this gathering of members from at least five clubs.

Next years Car Show was discussed.

Upcoming events discussed included:

Shoals British Car Club show at Joe Wheeler State Park Rogersville, AL September 8-9 http://shoalsbritishcars.org/default_files/Page329.htm

An Autocross time trial to be held at the old Sam’s Club parking lot north west corner of Interstate 81 exit 63 at Kingsport, TN. 16 Sept. at 10 am

The 39th annual Allandale Car Show. Sunday, September 17 to honor Kingsport's 100th year. Show flyer - http://kingsport100.org/event/allandale-car-show/

The 23rd Annual Nashville British Car Club Car Show will be held this year at the Tennessee Baptist Children's Home at 1310 Franklin Road in Brentwood due to the renovations at Centennial Park. October 14th.
http://www.nashvillebritishcarclub.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/Flyer-2017.pdf

Member lead rides were discussed but none were scheduled.

It was suggested that the Flower Fund be dissolved and incorporated into the general fund for ease of record keeping. A motion to that effect will be made at the next meeting.

The meeting adjourned about 7:45 PM

 

 

ETMGDC July Meeting Minutes

The meeting was held at O’Charley’s Restaurant in Morristown, on July 6, 2017.

It was convened at 7:30 PM by the president Jim Stepp with 15 members present.

Treasurer Jolean Ballard issued a detailed report on the car show, which raised $2180 for the Daily Bred Charity. That compares with $1728 in 2014 and $1102 in 2015 when there was predicted and actual rain.

Old Business: After action report on our Morristown British and European Car Show of June 3rd 2017.

Congratulations to show chairman Jim Stepp, Funkhana chairman Alan Birdsall and everyone else who worked to make this show a success and fun.
Thank you all.

New Business: July 22, ETMGDC Grainger County Tour. Starting at 9 am at Clinch Mountain Veterans Overlook on US 25-E and ending up at Alan and Jane Birdsalls house for a covered dish cook-out. More details will be sent out by e-mail.

Up coming events:

July 22, ETMGDC Grainger County Tour

July 29, Tomato Festival Car Show, $5, Rutledge Middle School, Grainger Co. 9am

August 21, 2017, The Total Eclipse of the Sun Run - the Bluont County Club may be planning this. If not, we will scout out a picnic location. Here is the NASA Link for the eclipse: http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/SEgoogle/SEgoogle2001/SE2017Aug21Tgoogle.html
And for the map of when and where it will be: https://eclipse2017.nasa.gov/eclipse-maps

September 8-9, 2017 Brits of the Shoals Gathering Joe Wheeler State Park & Resort

October 14, Nashville British Car Show

October 26-29, 2017 - Annual SBCC Chattanooga Choo Choo Show, Chattanooga, Tn.
Meeting adjourned about 8:15 PM.

Grainger County Tour Update

We will meet at Veterans’ Overlook near the top of Clinch Mountain at 9am Sat. 22 July 2017 for the Grainger County Tour and drive to the Birdsall’s home for a cookout. Please RSVP janebirdsall@nokia.com if you plan on attending.

Paper maps with this route will be given for each car before we start out. It’s a 1 1/2 hr drive from Veterans’ Overlook to their house, not counting stops. This tour will mostly avoid main roads instead circumnavigating the county on secondary and back roads.

The county is generally located between two rivers; the Holston River (Cherokee Lake) on the south and the Clinch River (Norris Lake) on the north. The county is split by its most dominant geological feature, Clinch Mountain, an erosion resistant sandstone ridge standing about 1,300 feet above adjacent valley floors.

Here is a link to an online topographic map of the county so one can follow these directions on the map:
https://www.anyplaceamerica.com/directory/tn/grainger-county-47057/.

Load the map, then zoom in with the + sign or the wheel of your mouse. Once you have zoomed in, slide the map around holding down the left mouse button to show the southern most part of the east boundary which is the US25E bridge from Morristown.

For those of you coming from Morristown, as you cross the bridge over Cherokee Lake you are on part of the Dixie Highway, one of the named interstate roads that predated the US Route system of 1925. After you cross the lake you will pass Lakeshore Drive (State Route 375) on your left. That intersection is the end point of the tour for cars heading north after the cookout.

This is Bean Station, the county’s oldest community. Soon you pass under an interchange where US11W joins briefly with US25E. US11 is one of the main north-south roads running from the Canadian boarder to the Gulf Coast and the main road through Grainger County. The segment through Grainger County is one of the oldest roads in the Southeast, having been built in the early years of the country as part of the “Great Wilderness Road” that included 11W and 25E to Cumberland Gap. It was built on the pre-existing Indian trail called the Great Cherokee Warpath. US11W was also incorporated into State Route 1; the first paved state road, built in 1915 from Bristol to Memphis and it was the Lee Highway during the time of named roads. But, much of that old road and the old town of Bean Station were flooded and relocated in 1941 when Cherokee lake was impounded. Your time on 11W is brief however, because 11W veers away from US25 E to head down the Richland Valley toward the county seat, Rutledge.

Those heading for the assembly area stay on US25E and begin the climb up Clinch Mountain to Veterans’ Overlook near the top of the mountain. Enjoy the view.

We will leave Veterans’ Overlook a little after 9AM crossing the mountain and going down hill and turn left (south) onto Bullen Valley Road, just before US25E crosses part of Norris Lake. On Bullen Valley Road we will go about 4.5 miles west-southwest turning right onto Cracker Neck Road for about 1 ½ miles. Shortly after a “hidden road entrance” sign we turn right onto Log Mountain Road.

We will group up before making this easy to miss turn. Newly paved, this narrow curvy road reminds me of mountain roads in Colorado - no guard rails, so we’ll keep the speed down, but it’s worth it to get to Dutch Valley Rd on the other side of Log Mountain where we follow the rail line down to Liberty Hill passing old churches and an old wooden schoolhouse.

Dutch Valley Road terminates with Tater Valley Road to your right and Cracker Neck Road to your left. Turn left and after a short distance turn right at the Petticoat Junction General Store onto Washburn Road. As one might guess, Washburn Road leads to Washburn, the largest town on this side of the county. At Washburn, we will turn right onto SR131 and proceed west-southwest to Joppa Mountain Road the only pass across Clinch Mountain southwest of the US25E pass we took earlier.

Joppa Mountain Road is longer, wider and curvier than Log Mountain Rd. and has guardrails. As soon as we get off the mountain we will turn right onto Highland Springs Road. This road reminds me of the British country lanes you see in old movies from the 50’s and 60’s. It’s very pretty. At this point we are going down Poor Valley, named so because of the relatively thin and poor soil quality resulting from the breakdown of the Chattanooga Shale that underlies it. We will stay in this picturesque valley by turning onto Lea Lake Road that will take us past Lea Lake, site of a famous 19th century resort hotel.

We ultimately leave this small valley at Blaine, turning right (southbound) on US11W for about two miles. There’s a Food City in Blaine, if a fuel or bathroom break is needed we can go about a mile down US11W and stop there.

At the Blaine Post Office, we will turn east onto Indian Ridge Road which will take us 2 ½ miles to Richland Creek and the community of Richland, so named because, you guessed it, the soil is deep and rich (compared to Poor Valley). There we cross a one lane arch bridge that was built by the WPA in the 30’s.

After the bridge Indian Ridge Road turns sharply to the left while Nance Ferry Road goes straight. We stay on Indian Ridge Road to the Holston River and then back up again eventually passing Indian Cave Road, the route to one of Grainger County’s historic tourist sites – Indian Cave. But, we’ll stay on Indian Ridge until it terminates on Owl Hole Gap Road. Turn right onto Owl Hole Gap Road and go .6 miles to a small parking lot at Buffalo Springs on your right (just past Game Farm Road) where a standpipe allows people to fill water barrels in trucks. We’ll stop there to regroup at the spring and appreciate the beauty of the waterfall. (And get wet, if you so desire.)

Roads that cross from valley to valley in this part of the county have at least one thing in common - curves, and Owl Hole Gap is no exception. It terminates at State Route 92 where we turn right and go about a mile to State Route 375, Lakeshore Drive. There’s a gas station with pure gas there. Turn left onto Lakeshore Drive (SR 375) which runs along Cherokee Lake back up to our starting point at US25E. But, about 4.5 miles off of SR 92 on Lakeshore we will turn onto Wani-Village Rd. to go to Alan and Jane Birdsall’s home for a cookout. After the cookout, those heading to points north can go up Lakeshore Road (SR 375) the 13.4 miles back to US 25E. Those heading south can go back to SR 92 and turn left to pass Cherokee Dam on the way to Jefferson City and 11E. Happy Motoring!

Larry Peck

 

Grainger County Tour Pics

Contributor - Eddie Ballard

 

June 6th, Euroshow, 2015

Our June 6th, first ever, Morristown European Car Show was a huge success. Thanks to the officers and members of the club for organizing and promoting the show, we had 69 entries representing many makes and models and great attendance. Special thanks to the sponsors and those contributing items for the silent auction. Sponsors for the show included:

Cumberland Glass, Framing by Carol, Bill Parker Carpet Service, Sonny’s Auto & Truck Repair, WERK & WMTN Radio Stations, Trade Center/Sonic Emporium, Roger Yount Body Shop, Pizza Cottage, McDonald’s Restaurant, K & J Auto Sales, Waste Industrials, and Lowland Credit Union.

As a result of these efforts, we were able to raise over $1,700 for the Daily Bread.

 

March 5, 2015 Meeting

Due to snow and icing of roads,, minutes of the March meeting are not availible as just a handful of people were able to attend.

February 5, 2015 Meeting

Meeting was held February 5, 2015 at the Stagebrush Steakhouse Restaurant. Those present –

· Jim Steppe
· Ed & Jolean Ballard
· Al & Liz Bauerle
· George & Teresa Greene
· Spencer Hogan
· Paul & Kathryn Ireson
· Chuck Gaines
· Ben Bailey
· Juan Dominguez
· Bob & Chris Frazer
· Mike & Joyce Thomas
· Jim Watson

Treasure Report - $795.29 club account and $89.00 flower fund

Old Business –

· Drive Committee met at Cracker Barrel and came up with drives and new activities for the club. See the attached Drive Schedule. Any questions let Ed and Jolean Ballard, Jim Steppe, Spencer Hogan, or Jim Watson know.
· The “Morristown’s First Ever European Car Show” is now being planned and work is underway to make it happen. The Car show flyer and registration is attached for your review and to be able to register your car. See the flyer for all the information. Let the Drive Committee know if you have any questions.
· The April Fools Bash flyer is attached. Please RSVP to TY, see flyer. We need to talk about who is going and where to meet. See flyer for details.
· The Springtime in the Smokies British and European Car show information is also attached.

New Business –

· Update on Car Show – Also club members need to check with Jim Steppe to see what they can do to help.
· March 21 – Saturday’s Tech Session – Details/Jim Steppe
· March 28 – April Fool’s Bash – Details
· Need to update email list with new members

NEXT CLUB MEETING –

· THURSDAY, MARCH 5th - STAGEBRUSH STEAKHOUSE RESTAURANT
· MEET/GREET – 6:45 OR SO
· EAT/TALK – 7:00 OR SO
· MEETING – 8:00 OR SO

IF THE WEATHER IS NOT NICE AND THE ROADS ARE SLICK – I WILL SEND OUT AN EMAIL IN THE MORNING TO CANCEL THE MEETING FOR THIS WEEK AND WE WILL HAVE TO MORE IT TO A MORE DESIREABLE DAY. STAY TUNE AND SEE WHAT HAPPENS……………………………….COME ON SPRINGJ

Any questions or comments, let me know.

Thank

Jim Watson
East Tennessee MG Driver’s Club Secretary
865-599-4305
spridget@charter.net

 

 

A quick note and some pics regarding the club charity contributions;
"Here we are with Hobe Williams (Daily Bread ) and Liz Justiss (M.A.T.S) They were very appreciative and you would have thought we had just given them a thousand dollars."

Fools Bash 2013

ETMGDC co-hosted the Eighth Annual British Car Fools Bash in Maryville, TN this year. Club members attended the event, joined by British Car enthusiasts from around the area to kick off the new driving season. More here!

Hot Springs Drive 2012

Members of the ETMGDC and friends enjoyed a picnic and drive to Hot Springs, NC. More info here

MG 2012 Dillard Georgia

Several members of ETMGDC attended MGB 2012 in Dillard, Ga. See more here

April Fools Bash 2012

Pictures from the event

VIR, Heacock Golden Cup Historic Race November 4th, 5th, and 6th

Members of ETMGDC attended race. More on Past Events page

ABCS Fall Color Drive October 22nd, 2011

Members of ETMGDC enjoyed drive held by the Appalachian British Car Society. Pics and details on ........Past Events page!

Paint Creek Drive October 1st, 2011

Annual drive and picnic at Paint Creek. For more details see the Past Events page.

Morristown Cruise-In August 26th, 2011

Pictures, see Past Events Page

Celtic Festival, Big Stone Gap August 20, 2011

For Pictures, see Past Events page

2011 Annual Club Picnic at Hot Springs July 16, 2011

Our annual Hot Springs drive and picnic was attended by several members. For more details, see the Past Events page.