Okay, It is my turn to take over again...

This was an INCREDIBLE  journey from start to finish and what made it the best was being with my best friend, my husband.  He was so kind to step in and blog for me when I would literally drop off asleep in the middle of sentences while talking BEFORE  I even got to the blog portion of the evening.  He drove some of my miles when I just could not and he made me laugh as he tried out his "new" material (jokes) on me as we drove.  I really do love you, even if your first love was a Toyota and not me.

Secondly, it was the people we travelled with that made it INTERESTING.  First, it was Cheryl and Don at our first stop in Las Vegas; then it was Martha and Bob who went the whole distance (if you guys by chance find this blog EMAIL ME); my parents meeting us in Birmingham was delightful; the fact that the staff at the Doubletree Hotel were sorry to see us go; meeting up and laughing with Chris and Angela Billings and Craig and Amy Beckley from our home club; and  all the Aussies we enjoyed time with: Gordon, Darryl, Robin, and Colleen and the two blokes who bravely bought a vintage pony in CA and drove it cross country.

I am sure Jeff mentioned some of this in his previous blogs; but, I just want to say THANK YOU ALL!! You made this so memorable.

To Mustang One thank YOU for organizing us and getting us to Birmingham.  We'll give you a pass on Bossier City, just once!  I was sincere in my offer of help with the 50th run...I learned that the Holiday Inn Expresses are absolutely delightful!

Now that our girl has returned to grocery and Starbucks runs, she is preparing for our own car show here in Suisun City.  This ain't no small potatoes show, even if we are on display only.  The chairs of the show have worked hard to get us to 140 cars and ours will make it 141!  I will be writing a press release for Board approval later this week so that we have our community come out and see all the beautiful cars, enjoy the weather, support the Matt Garcia Foundation and admire our Participant Award from the 45th MCA Show.  (OOPS it slipped in.)

Finally, for all who are getting magazines this month, the outstanding ad for the 2010 Mustang ...the two people standing next to the vintage Mach are none other than our club president Bill Watkins and Boardmember Sue Calvert!  The Golden Hills Mustang Club is EVERYWHERE!  

Okay, I need to check out the IKEA superhero as he gives me more shelving space in our office for my business....until next time....Larissa

Home! (Suisun City, CA) From Jeff

Greetings Family, Friends and Followers,

After 5 days of driving, driving and more driving, we finally rolled to a stop in front of our home. Mission Accomplished!

This was a long trip, longer coming home since we went south to see (what is still the mess of) New Orleans and San Antonio. Our plans to visit the Grand Canyon had to be dropped due to the length of the never ending state that is known as Texas. I will have total mileage, average gas mileage (car onboard computer says over 24 mpg which is incredible for a muscle car) and other statistics later on when I reconcile my receipts which I have plenty of.

Those who drove classic Mustangs across the country, either with our Mustangs Across America (MAA) group or other groups, no doubt had fun doing so. But, the newer Mustangs like ours were by far more comfortable. Dependability, ability to run all day long at a higher average speed without overheating, cruise control, air conditioning, heater, power to spare, stop now brakes, satellite radio coast to coast and weatherstripping that actually seals made the thousands of miles much more enjoyable. Still, we were both more than ready to not be in the car driving for 7 plus hours each day. Something about mile after mile of more after more of the same road going through the same state tends to wear on you. I will admit that I have a renewed appreciation for long haul truck drivers.

We went from Tuscon, AZ to Las Vegas, NV on Thursday. We rejoined Interstate 40 and the remainder of Highway 93 back to Hoover Dam. This time, Larissa had the chance to gawk and take pictures. We returned to the Aliante Station Hotel & Casino to spend our last night on the road. We had so enjoyed the hotel two weeks earlier when MAA used the Aliante as the headquarters hotel to form up for the jump off point to our road trip. Well, not everything went quite right on the second time. I had called them to make the room reservation while we were in the never ending state of Texas. I had considerable difficulty due to a lanquage problem with the person setting up our reservation. When we arrived, we found a hotel that was sold out and while we had a room, the electronic reservation left our one key requirement: non smoking room. We were stuck in an ashtray for the night. While it did not reek to the extent of the Rodeway Inn in Boosier City, Louisiana, we were shocked and really disappointed. When I complained to the front desk person, he explained that the language barrier problem was a common complaint with many guests since Station Hotels corporate recently decided to outsource all of their telephone reservations / customer service to Guatemala. Guatemala? Come on, Nevada Casinos, you guys are already raking in plenty from the hoards of gamblers and all the other fees for room ammenities. Can't you employ some people from the very country that makes it possible for you to make your profits in the first place? My protestations were not entirely in vain. After numerous appologies for the smoking room situation, we supposedly have a note in our account that will entitle us to a free upgrade to a preferred room (I am assuming the bottle water is not an extra charge in a preferred room) on our next visit. Considering that we spent the night in an ashtray, I am not in a huge hurry to return without an iron clad guarantee that this time the room will be smoke free. Don't get me wrong, the Aliante is a fine, brand new hotel and casino. I just can not put up with the smoke. Unfortunately, smoking is permitted in the casino. Luckily for them and not for me, my gambling skills remain such that I do not last long in the casino.

The next morning, we left early for the final leg home. More driving, 9 hours worth. Barstow (fuel stop), Mojave, Bakersfield, Fresno, Merced, Modesto (fuel stop), Stockton, my favorite Highway 12, home. Along the way, we saw justice dispensed when two vehicles, one being a red Toyota pickup, blew past us weaving through traffic that included a CHP on an on ramp. Oddly enough, about two hours later near Modesto, this same pickup blew past us again. We had been driving at the speed limit nonstop and this clown managed to catch up to us after being stopped & cited by the CHP. Some people don't learn.

When all was said and done, we made the complete trip there and back without drawing the attention of highway patrol / state police / state troopers. It was not because of lack of them - they were everywhere, especially in the middle of absolutely nowhere locations and there were a lot of them. We were also lucky in the few times that we went at somewhat "elevated" speeds, nobody official noticed. Heh, heh, heh.

On our trip east, we ran with dozens of MAA Mustangs. On our return trip west, not a single MAA Mustang. They all probably went straight home on I-40 instead of our oddessy along I-10. Oh well, we were on our own schedule on the way home. It was just a long, long drive.

In the morning, I resume my 125 mile commute runs. Oh joy, more driving!

Stay tuned for some more information in a future blog or two. Thanks for letting us share our adventures with you. Hope you enjoyed the ride too!

Jeff & Larissa

Tucson AZ - From Jeff

Greetings Friends, Family & Followers,

We have arrived in one piece in Tuscon, Arizona from Ozona, Texas! What a freaking long drive, all of it on the same road, Interstate 10. All three of us - myself, Larissa and the Pony need a rest after this day.

Ya know, I mentioned to Larissa that I thought it would be a good idea to take a different path back home instead of the same highways that we took coming east. Well, now that I have seen much of Interstate 10, I can scratch this off of my list of must do roads for the future. I have a renewed sense of respect for truck drivers (the good ones) who drive for a living. Throughout our trip, we have seen Stimulus Funds at work. There are massive road construction projects going on everywhere and for miles at a time. Lots of workers (great thing), lots of new bridges and pavement (great infrastructure redevelopment), lots of slow cone zones (acceptable annoyance). These endless construction zones remind me of airports for some reason...

Of Interstate 10 and much of Texas, New Mexico and Arizona that it passes through, I can say this: fuel tank draining, bladder bursting, mind numbing, often scenic, more often endless miles through nothingness. Things got quite dicey going through the congestion in the big cities like New Orleans, Beaumont, Houston, El Paso and Tucson. Getting back to the open road was welcome and there were many small towns of both interest and bleakness all wrapped up together. It is a conflicting story of the economy to see 1) towns left struggling by the highway with boarded up or simply abandoned buildings, 2) lots of empty billboards, 3) booming road construction projects and 4) new hotels going up left and right in these same struggling small towns. I am not sure of the message or the lesson I have gained from this trip except that the common thread of Americana is that the entire country is having a rough time dragging through this economic mess. Real estate prices are frighteningly affordable again, ambulance chasing lawyers want you business, gulf state enterpreneurs will help you recover from hurricane disasters (for a fee, of course). Super clean restrooms, always fresh coffee, mechanic on duty 24/7, free WiFi hotspot, authentic American food, tire sale, gator petting park, cajun fried catfish and crawfish, rooms from 24.99 and up, good jerky in 30 miles, weigh station - all trucks exit, prison area - please do not pick up hitch hikers. Are we there yet? We're still in Texas?!

There is plenty of beautiful desert Southwest scenery. There are oil well steel donkeys pumping away next to brand new huge wind turbines. There are railbeds with supersized trains running on them. There are state police / troopers / highway patrol (whatever you call them in each state) appearing in the middle of nowhere catching speed demons. There are homes in the middle of nowhere leaving one to wonder what reason is there to live there other than to be away, really away from it all. There are structures in ruins much like European castles except nowhere near as old. Grinding poverty blocks from a new hotel being built. I do not understand.

We leave in the morning for Las Vegas. One more leg to go after that before we get home to our kitties who will either be happy to see us again, or grouchy, or both.

Here are some pictures of the more interesting scenery on the never ending Interstate 10.

Jeff

Ozona, Texas - From Jeff

Greetings Family, Friends and Followers!

We find ourselves in Ozona, Texas. O what? The O Zone? The ozone capital of Texas? The merry old zone of Oz? Might as well be. We had enough of driving for the day this was the next stop on Interstate 10. This state of Texas is much bigger in person than it is on a map!

So where is the Zone of O? I is roughly 4 hours west of San Antonio and a day east of Tucson of the Arid Zone. If you can shake the creepy feeling that you are suddenly living an episode of the Twilight Zone, you find that Ozona has multiple facets: gas stations and hotels including a soon to open brand new Holiday Inn Express, a visitor center with chamber of commerce, old stone (circa 1902) city buildings with a nice park, old brick homes some of which are very nice & well maintained and then other homes that are of various states of disrepair and occupancy. It is a two stoplight town with a baseball field where the outfield terminates at the carved out hillside - suggest you let those flyballs go... If you wanted to find an out of the way place to live, this would be it although the area could also be used to film period movies from the 1940's or 1950's. Primary industry in the area, other than supporting transient highway travellers like us, appears to be deer hunting - reminds Larissa of Danielsville PA (just kidding, LOL). The total number of ATM machines here, when it works, appears to be one, at the gas station / convenience store / pizza joint. The pizza was OK here in the land that time forgot. Larissa needed help from a local pizza regular interpreting "thin crust or thick crust?" from the pizza maker who had a very heavy Asian accent flavored with Texas drawl. We can not help but feel really out of place here. At least there were three local Mustangs here so our car did not draw quite as much attention as in New Orleans except for the gray Mustang who followed us through town for a while apparently thinking we were the local red Mustang - surprise!

We drove for hours in the morning towards the smoggy skies of Houston. I love the smell of Oleum and Sulphur in the morning! I-10 runs right through Houston, stop and go with accidents aplenty. I have never seen such large oil refineries or as many in one place before since I went to Corpus Cristi back in 2001.

We made it to San Antonio in time for lunch. After the disappointment of New Orleans, the Riverwalk more than made up for it. Larissa figured out how to use the camera in video mode and recorded most of the tour, including the tour guide's comments. (Larissa here: and Jeff thought that buying a camera on clearance was a BAD idea and he wasn't too keen on taking the video, he kept insisting I take still pix instead. )

We are staying at a very nice Best Western which is either recently new or recently renovated. We got in just before all the paint covered workers painting radio towers showed up first at the above mentioned pizza joint and then here with their equipment trucks, all of them. I am not expecting the Mustang radio antenna to be painted but I am sure it could be done really nicely if I asked.

We also realized our plans to visit the Grand Canyon were too grand. Texas is BIG. The state, the stop signs, the Ford trucks, and the array of purses. You can get a free 72 ounce steak dinner, provided you eat all of it and the salad by yourself, otherwise the meal costs a dollar an ounce - we chose not to try. So, crossing the state is taking two days and then going straight to the Aliante in Las Vegas. Tomorrow, we drive a reasonable 9 hours; Thursday is a quick trip of 7 hours and then Friday is back to the 9 hours. Just a relaxing jaunt back home, right? Don & Cheryl, come join us Thursday night at the Aliante - that blackjack machine and I have some unfinished business to settle from two weeks ago...

We have reserved a room in Tucson for Wednesday night. That is 600 plus miles from here. Before you think we can just blow out the carbon on the Mustang and get there in an hour, guess again. Texas state troopers, local police, county sheriff, all of them were out in force on the road. The speed limit out here in the middle of nowhere is 80. I cruised at about 75 on cruise control after seeing 5 cars pulled over in 5 miles on a particularily isolated stretch of Interstate Nowhere. Yes, I am a chicken. Texas is mile after mile of nothingness - rocks, shrubs, powerlines, vultures, bugs, trucks, semi squashed armadillos, oppossums and deer. Larissa keeps trying to convince me that the armadillos and oppossums are just sleeping by the side of the road with their feet straight out. Yep. Can anyone tell me what Nature's purpose for armadillos is other than being a food source for the ugliest vultures I have ever seen by the side of the road?

Well, that is it for now. Big country takes long time to traverse. Next time I ship Mustang by overnight Fed/Ex or UPS, with me in it.

Jeff and Larissa

Birmingham AL Through Beaumont TX - From Jeff

Greetings Family, Friends and Followers,

Our Mustang celebration event complete, we left Birmingham, Alabama, this morning after a leisurely breakfast with Larissa's parents at our hotel, the Doubletree. Breakfast was at 06:00 AM and we were on the road at 07:30 and this was leisurely considering the schedule we had to keep on the way east to the Mustang celebration.

All the restaurant staff at the Doubletree mentioned many times that the Mustang group was by far the best group of people they have ever had stay at the hotel and they hope we will be back in 5 years for the 50th celebration. Even the crazy Aussies and Kiwis were wished back soon as they brought energy to any place they showed up at. They were everywhere and from the two gentlemen who helped me clean up our pony for show in exchange for a lift to the racetrack - buying up car parts to take home at a fraction of the cost of buying them in Australia, to the two blokes who bought a car here to ship home.

Speaking of those two - we caught up to them in the honor's circle of original owners of 64 1/2 Mustangs of which I would have bought the red one I pictured last night if I had a spare $23k lying around. Anyway, we saw these two men travelling with us in the Mustangs Across America group starting in Las Vegas all the way to Birmingham in a '67 convertible. Usually we were blowing right by them at least once each day. It turns out that they flew in to Los Angeles, test drove the car around a block or so, bought it right then, drove it to the celebration, intend to drive it back to Los Angeles and finally ship it home to Australia!

I told you these blokes were crazy but it gets even better. Each time we blew past them, it looked like they were having a grand time just driving at their own pace. It actually reminded me of the two British chaps rambling along in an Austin Healy or MG or whatever it was in the movie The Gumball Rally. Look it up to fully appreciate the image - the movie came out in 1976 or so by Warner Bros. and it was a spin off of the Cannonball Baker Sea To Shining Sea Memorial Trophy Dash of the early 1970's. Not the lousy movie with Burt Reynolds - The Cannonball Run. That movie sucked by comparison. Trust me, find the film, watch it to understand my twisted sense of humor.

So anyway, I commented to these two Aussies that they must have been having a grand time on the run to Birmingham in their new Mustang. "Oh you think so, mate?" What I thought was them chatting was often their teeth chattering as their new Mustang had a non working heater core, missing grommet around the throttle linkage at the firewall and when we went through that snowstorm in Arizona with our car nice and toasty and sealed, they had snow / hail / rain coming in through the gap between the top of the window and the convertible top. Apparently early Mustangs were not known for having a tight sealing top like we had in our former '02 convertible. When we stopped at rest stops, washed up and dried our hands on those hot air blowers, they used those hot air blowers to thaw out their toes. Not to worry, though as they quickly bought warmer clothes than the shorts, tee shirts and Aussie ball caps they brought over and were wearing aroung Birmingham. Like me, they had a hard time comprehending the idea of snow in Arizona in April.

So, we are travelling home in a more or less straight line back home from Birmingham, AL to Suisun City, CA. Slight detours include New Orleans, San Antonio, Grand Canyon and Las Vegas...

We spent a total of about 20 minutes in New Orleans, most of it trying to figure out how to get back out. We used Google Maps to get us to city center thinking it would take us close to the French Quarter. When we got hopelessly lost in not so great areas of the city, we switched to our GPS unit, plugging in a restaurant search for a restaurant nearby. Well, that got us into an even worse area where a shiny bright red Mustang REALLY stuck out and drew lots of eyeballs, including the chickens who were literally crossing the street in front of us and getting to the other side. Finally, we got to the French Quarter, or so we thought. Note to all who have Mustangs: stay away from this area as the car is too big for the narrow streets, the street urchins, police, construction, delivery trucks and car eating potholes all combined. Do not even think of parking in a parking garage as it is valet only and we were definitely not going to let some wierd person park our car, with all our travelling possessions in it in a garage where the restaurant dumpsters were inside the garage, next to the parking spots and should have been emptied sometime last week. Nope. We could not get out of there fast enough.

You know what - just forget New Orleans all together. It is not ready yet. The outskirts of the city have neighborhoods that are still decimated from Katrina - caved in apartment complex buildings, boarded up houses, collapsed, burned out, abandoned. Depressing to see. Before New Orleans, while still in Mississippi, we past a half mile stretch of old FEMA trailers, stacked up like cord wood. Who knows what will happen with them.

So, tonight we are in Winnie, Texas. It is 20 miles west of Beaumont. We are here because we could not 1) get a room in the hotels we tried in Beaumont and 2) we could not get back to the hotels along the side of the freeway because the frontage road you needed was one way and by the time you saw the hotel it was too late. You just could not get there from here. So, we are in a very nice brand new Holiday Inn Express.

Tuesday morning we head off for the Riverwalk in San Antonio and the Alamo. Remember the Alamo and don't mess with Texas. After that, it is as far as we can make it towards New Mexico before sundown. Lots of driving but the Pony is doing just fine cruising at 70 or so - there are highway patrol everywhere looking to fill their coffers and I would prefer not to help them in that objective.

No new pictures today - trust me, the stripped and dead trees outside of New Orleans and the city itself were not worth the effort. So, instead, more Mustangs! Enjoy.

Jeff

Car Show - Too Many Mustangs! - From Jeff

Greetings Family, Friends And Followers,

Is it possible to have too much of a good thing? Larissa and I are pretty much Mustanged out. There were just too many of every kind, color, year to count, much less see, much less remember. But, we saw as much as we could see and have the sunburns to prove it. Good thing we took lots of pictures to remember this trip as I have seen more Mustangs in one spot than I ever thought possible. The first Mustang was built on April 17, 1964. From the stunning collection of '64 1/2 Mustangs we saw, not to mention the honored circle of '64 1/2 Mustangs present that were still owned by their original owners, it is hard to believe that 45 years had passed.

These came from all over the country including a beautiful coupe from Kansas, for sale for a mere $23k. The owner said it was time to sell now as he has done everything imaginable with it for 45 years and what else is there to do - good point. A four-speed, he describe the balky original transmission behavior as "trying to stir a keg full of nails with a crowbar". I would like to find out but the price of admission is unfortunately out of reach for me at the moment and I suspect most banks would laugh at the thought of financing a 45 year old keg full of nails. Perhaps I can get a bailout from the TARP funds?

How many red Mustangs? How many red Mustang coupes? How many red Mustang coupe Shelbys? How many red Mustang coupe Shelby Cobras? I lost count. How many classics of all types? Too many to count. How many cars? Thousands. l heard estimates of people attending the show in the 35000 range. Check out the pictures to get an idea.

Everywhere you turned, there were more Mustangs.

Yes, that is a pink Playboy Pony. As the sign and the owner described it, it was a one of a kind. And, it is also for sale for a mere $45k. I'll pass, thank you.

There were a lot of patriotic themed Mustangs. This was my favorite.

In the vendor area, we waited in a long line for a chance to get an autograph from Steve Saleen. He is starting a new company, SMS, and is working on something special for the 50th Anniversary Mustang - see the yellow artist's sketch in the background. He thanked each and every person who came to him for a signature, talked for a moment or two and posed for a picture. Real class act. Larissa had a grin from sunburned ear to sunburned ear!

Golden Hills Mustang Club has been properly represented at the car show. Since we have been made honorary members of the Mustang Club of Australia (Queensland and New South Wales Chapters, respectively), I will need to find window space for more decals quickly.

Say hello to Mustang One. This is the actual first production Mustang and it is here in the Barber Motorsports Museum which is also a huge motorcycle museum - I took lots of pictures of them too.

This is Mustang '62. Yes, that's right. This is the two seater concept car that pre-dated the production Mustang. I had never heard of this car before. It is considerably different from the actual production car. These pictures do not do it justice.

Well that is it for now. Our time here in Birmingham is complete which is a good thing as the tornado sirens were blaring earlier today. No joke! Time for the journey home. Not exactly a straight line, we are going to Mustang our way through New Orleans, San Antonio, Grand Canyon and Las Vegas on the way home. Let us hope for a tail wind.

Stay tuned for road trip updates.

Jeff

Honorary Aussies! - From Co-Pilot Jeff

Greetings family, friends and followers!

T'was the night before car show and all through the hotel, not a creature was stirring, except the Swedes, the Germans, the Slovakians, the Canadians, the Danes, the Kiwis, the Aussies and of course us Americans.

A day after arrival here in Birmingham, the order of the day was 1) brunch with Larissa's parents, 2) finding the Barber Motorsports Race Track, 3) waiting in the conga line to get to the front of the registration line (classic Mustangs overheating as we putzed in line, 4) getting lost trying to find the coin operated laundromat that Big Daddy (MAA Mustang 2) had told us was just up the road at the next exit next to the CVS drug store, 5) arguing with the GPS unit who kept telling it was recalculating and telling us to turn left or right when we know we did not come this way from the hotel earlier and 6) cleaning up and preparing the Red Pony for show the next morning. It is item 6 that I will discuss and had the most interesting and unexpected outcome as a result.

Let's set the playing field: We get back from our travels about Birmingham. The weather has been perfect since our arrival which is much improved over the "Toto, I don't think we are in Kansas anymore" weather that we heard about on The Weather Channel while we were busy getting snowed on in Arizona. Anyway, it is late in the afternoon and our room had still not been made up by the housekeeping staff which was overwhelmed with everyone from MAA selling out the hotel. So, we went down to the lobby to wait for our room to get tended to. As Larissa and I are answering post-stay survey questions sent to us by email from the Aliante Station hotel in Las Vegas, a group of Mustang enthusiasts (and owners) from Australia showed up and plopped down in the chairs next to us waiting for friends to arrive. Extraordinarily friendly, they started chatting with us, exchanging experiences and showing pictures of their adventures traveling in our great country prior to and then during the MAA run. The pictures of one of their colleagues rolling a Hertz rental Mustang one mile from the rental office were somewhat painful but Hertz had no problem replacing their car (good thing they took out all the optional insurance). We told them that we were going to be showing our car at the celebration event. Two of the men we were chatting with, Gordon and Darrell, asked if they could catch a ride with us when we go back on Saturday for day 2 of the event as their wives would be tired of the Mustang smorgasbord after tomorrow (Friday). Sure, of course, we'd be delighted to offer a hitch. Uh, by the way, the race track is about 10 miles away and you know how tight the back seat of the Mustang is, right? Right.

The DoubleTree hotel gives out complimentary bags of chocolate chip cookies, still warm, in the hotel lobby in the late afternoon. We had just enjoyed our cookies and wrote each other's room numbers and phone numbers on cookie bags to exchange. We decided to head back up to the room where Larissa wanted to work on her Mary Kay orders and I was going to go clean the car. Gordon and Darrell offered to help me clean up the Mustang. Surprised but pleased at the offer, I accepted. Just then their friends flying in from New York walked in the front door. Big cheers and hugs. We decided to go ahead and leave and Gordon said that they would be along to give me a hand shortly.

Sure enough, I had not even finished changing into shorts when our room phone rang. It was Gordon asking where the car was so he could find it and me. We met at the car, Darrell was close behind followed by Larissa's dad who came out to see the event of me doing what I thought was going to be just a quick wipe down to get the dust and bugs off. Anything but! I had sweet talked the executive housekeeper in to loaning me a bucket for water and a few towels so I could do my thing. Gordon and Darrell would have none of that. "What cleaning supplies did you bring?" I showed them our stuff from home - Meguire's spray, glass cleaner, tire foam, vinyl & leather wipes, ShamWow! shammy things. Much better. Gordon and Darrell went to work and showed me a thing or two about detailing. By the time we were finished, the car was all gussied up and ready to show, even the tires (Wailun, you know how I feel about my dull tires). I told them how thankful I was for their help. Not at all, they said - "like a Sunday afternoon in my garage!" Gordon said. Not only that, but, since we were willing to take them to and from the show on Saturday, Gordon presented me with two small clip on Koala bears that clip on to the rear view mirror and an Australia ball point pen. He told me that Larissa and I are now "Honorary Aussies" for which I am very honored. The Koalas will be on the mirror at least throughout the car show as gratitude and friendship. We Americans could re-learn a thing or two from our friends down under.

Cheers, Mate!