Club News
ETMGDC January Meeting Minutes:
The meeting was held at O’Charley’s Restaurant, Morristown, Jan. 3, 2019
President Eddie Ballard convened the meeting about 7 pm with 9 members and two guests present.
The Treasurer’s Report: Alan Birdsall reported a balance of $587.57 on deposit. Several members present paid their dues after that.
Old Business:
December minutes - There were no December minutes because there was no meeting. Instead, the ETMGDC’s Christmas Dinner was held.
Membership Dues ($20) are due. Please bring them to the meeting or mail them to: Alan Birdsall, 321 Lake Breeze Landing, Rutledge,TN 37861
Concern was expressed about the need to keep the club on a stable financial footing, and several suggestions were. No action was taken.
Club Name Change: No action taken.
ETMGDC Bylaws Article 2. Purpose: The club exists to provide meetings and activities for the fellowship of MG enthusiasts and for the enjoyment and preservation of the MG and other British sports cars.
Even though our website explicitly says; “Owning a British car is not a requirement to belong to the club” many of us believe the name might deter potential members with Japanese or other sports cars from even looking at the website or joining our club, so a more inclusive name might be considered. The question is a is open and has beek kicked around for a long time. If anyone comes us with a good name that members might prefer please bring it to our attention.
The 2019 Morristown British & European Car Show:
There was unanimous support for a car show, so a vote was deemed unnecessary. The date and location were made official and a committee appointed.
Date: (June 1st) First Saturday
Location: Downtown on Main Street like last year.
Car Show Committee: Jim Stepp volunteered to be the Car Show chairman. He was authorized to make any decisions necessary pertaining to the car show including appointing of judges if needed, prizes and determining class divisions for the show. Other committee members are Eddie and Jolean Ballard, Alan and Jane Birdsall, Bob Frazier and Larry Peck. - See New Business below.
NAMGBR membership for insurance (see attachment - Red is expired memberships, and green is active with expiration date).
We need eight members to keep their NAMGBR membership. The attachment shows active and expired membership. Please let me know if you are renewing your NAMGBR membership. It is not limited to MGB owners.
New Business:
Out of town Visitor: One of our guests was Travis Whitt of the USAF stationed in Sacramento CA. He is the son of our founder and first club president Mark Whitt and he has promised to send us a copy of the 2004 newspaper clipping announcing the founding of the club.
Events Committee. The car show committee was converted into an events committee to be responsible for the car show as well as club drives, cookouts etc. A committee meeting is scheduled for Friday afternoon January 18th about 5pm at a location TBA.
Events Calendar as compared to our current method of listing short notice impromptu drives and upcoming events in e-mails I will try to update and add an events calendar to minutes and updates as event dates come available.
ETMGDC Drives and Picnics: TBA
Upcoming Events:
Jan. 11-13 The 35TH Annual Cabin Fever Car & Motorcycle Show
Located at the Knoxville Expo Center, 5441 Clinton Hwy.
Admission - $10
Jan 19-20 The Winter Angel Car Show: Located at the Walters State
Great Smoky Mountain Expo Center - $5admission $25 entry fee and you must leave your car overnight.
Feb. 2, 2019 The Greenville Car Museum Winter Party –
We can meet up with the Blount County British Car Club members on the way up there – probably at the Mac Donald’s at Exit 8 on I-81, time TBA by e-mail. At least two cars from ETMGDC will make the trip.
About April 1, 2019 The April Fools British Car Bash - TBA
May 10-12 Springtime in the Smokies - Townsend, TN –
May 25 – June 2rd - DRIVE YOUR BRITISH CAR WEEK.
And, any other activities that members bring up. Hope to see you there.
The meeting adjourned about 7:35 pm.
Laura Stroud
Our most sincere condolences to valued club member Wayne Stroud and family for the tragic passing of Laura Stroud on January 24th, 2018. Our club members enjoyed the company of Laura on many occasions. We hope and pray that time will lessen the pain of this loss.
Morristown EAA Fly–In and Cruise-in Pics
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
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