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Events

The New Thunderbird 2002 C.T.C.I. Convention June 27-July2, 2002

Started out to just highlight some of the Ford Thunderbird 02s that showed up but then decided to make this more of a personal journal of our trip out to New Jersey and back.  As such, this will become of series of pages chronicling the trip and may take several weeks(years?) to finish.  I took well over 600 digital photos & know that you won't want to see them all so will  pick and choose to showcase the journey.
 

Start of trip (June 24) with well-packed trunk (try to fit all this into the new Thunderbird!) There are 3 soft suitcases, 1 garment bag. small chest of tools; misc. bags; 2 folding chairs and folding table that each slip into their own bags; cleaning supplies in bucket; duster (or is it a suster?!); liquor case for the evenings in the motel room; 12 pint water bottles; spare oil; wheel/tire of course; a few spare parts; numerous towels for those pesky leaks during rain storms & 1 large R.C. 2002 model plus room for souvenirs.  Still had room to spare on the return trip for some blown up balloons for the 4th of July parade in Atlanta (but that's getting ahead of myself).

We traveled with 2 other early Thunderbirds, a black, former "trailer queen" '56 on it's first road trip and driven by Tom Stocks (CTCI director) & his wife Elaine, and a Thunderbird Bronze '57 driven by Scott McGilvray and passenger Don Hyde - 2 well-respected experts on the early Thunderbirds.  Between the 4 men, we had plenty of expertise for the little break-downs that occurred everyday.  The first of which was our car - the filler tube to the gas tank came loose and had to be temporarily "taped" back into place.

The black '56 had it's share of trouble, first a minor fuel leak, fixed by replacing a hose.  That evening threatened rain so when we went to dinner, Tom found an ideal spot (photo at right) to park his 56 while ours braved the possible rain.  As the trip progressed, Tom finally got over his paranoia of his car getting wet but it was really traumatic for him to drive thru his first rain storm - at least it only lasted a few minutes but it did occur daily.

 
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Rest areas along the way provided us a needed spot to eat and socialize. That's Elaine, George, Don, Tom, & Scott with me holding the camera

Here's the 3 beauties lined up in a row at a rest stop

They're parked for the night.

The driver's side window motor finally started giving us fits on the 2nd day out.  Would go down but not up.  We prayed for no rain the rest of the trip as the windows are part of our "air conditioning" - car is only equipped for fresh air.

 
 

More troubles plagued us as Tom had to repair a hole in his brake line twice.  Talk about a scary moment when he was behind us and discovered he had no brakes as he was coming to a stop behind our car.  He had to swerve and coast around the corner to the right as we made a left to find a filling station to fill our cars.  The above was the first time and it happened again the next day when we crossed the New Jersey line.			Scott was also not to be denied a service call as he popped the hood to check his oil and the hood release broke off inside.  Note what's missing in the circle in the middle photo if you know what to look for. (remember to click on photo to view larger).
We finally spotted our first '02 of the trip - in New Jersey, but never did catch up to it as it took off on an exit.		First '02 we spotted at our final destination on July 27 was Hobobob's - It was nice to see "our" car again.  That's a white '56 in the foreground and that's NOT our green 57 near the back of that row - there were at least 5 willow green or sea haze green '57s at this show - very unusual to see that many of that color at ANY show and we were parked next to 2 others thru out the show.		After our car was parked, I "ran" into Patrick LeStrange (57bluebird) parking his black '02 in his '57 'bird's touring display spot.  He was nice enough to pose with his car.

Though the 2002 Thunderbirds are not eligible for judged showing at C.T.C.I. (Classic Thunderbird Club, International) events, they were allowed to be displayed in the display area at the Convention in New Jersey, mainly for security reasons for their owners as these cars are attracting owners with as much passion for these 'birds as the original classics from 1955, '56 and '57. (and I'm here to help fuel that passion).  Through out the next 4 days, I tracked every '02 that I spotted either in the public parking lots around the hotel or the secured area of the show parking.  Twenty two '02s showed up during this time period and there were several owners who didn't  drive their new 'birds over but came out to see the sights anyway or were showing their classic '55-'57s.

Next Page (trip 2)