TELL US ABOUT STEVE ROAKE

We named this event the STEVE ROAKE MEMORIAL MORGANS OVER AMERICA VI for many reasons .

Steve worked closely with Jeremy Harrison on creating the route for Morgans Over America I in 1990. www.morgansoveramerica.co.uk.  Subsequently, Steve planned the wonderful routes for MOA II, III and IV. He did a superb job of including scenic routes, interesting historical sites, parties with other Morgan Clubs, making each trip unique and an awesome adventure. 

He hosted us at his Dry Creek home on several of the trips.

When Ken and Elaine decided they would plan MOA VI, Elaine mentioned to Steve  that we would be doing another trip. Steve expressed that he didn't believe he would be strong enough to go. Sadly,  Steve passed away April 14, 2011 not long afterward.  At Steve's Celebration of Life, Elaine, who was the Master of Ceremonies, just felt it was the right thing to do and ended the event with the announcement that MOAVI would be in memory of Steve. 

A little about Steve for those who didn't know this wonderful man:

Steve graduated from Notre Dame in 1960 with a Degree in Architecture. He worked in Manhattan for several years, moved to San Francisco, and opened his own office a few years later. Steve left his mark in San Francisco, designing award winning residential complexes. In 1979, he bought land in the Dry Creek area of Sonoma County; he designed his dream home and moved to Sonoma County in 1998.

Steve was well known and liked for his casual sense of humor, diversity of interests and his zest for life. His interest in classic cars led him to collect a number of beautiful cars which he enjoyed driving. Steve was active in many car clubs, including the Antique Automobile Car Association, Franklin Club, Kaiser-Frazer Owners' Club, International, Morgan Club, Freewheelers, Lincoln Owners Club, Antique Studebaker Club, Classic Car Club of America (CCCA) and Nor-Cal Region of the CCCA. Steve also served on the Board of Directors of both Classic Car Club of America and Nor- Cal Region CCCA. Steve toured extensively with other car enthusiasts and he hosted many tours, designing the routes and setting up the logistics for participants. Steve had the great honor of being invited to show his 1931 Studebaker President All Seasons Roadster at the Concours d'Elegance 2010 in Pebble Beach last August.

Steve was charming and talented and generous with his time and private philanthropy and enjoyed sharing his excellent culinary talents with his friends. 

Wonderful Response

Thank you to everyone who indicated your desire to complete the entire trip of Morgans Over America VI, and to those who indicated they either wouldn't be able to do the entire trip, nor commit to any of it at this time. Although I have yet to hear from a few people on the list, it is looking like a decent size group of people.
Since the blog is one method we will use to communicate, THIS POSTING IS A TEST, to see if you receive an email from the post. So please forward it to me when you receive it. You have my email from the prior emails. If forwarding it is too complicated, just send me an e-mail "I received it", or similar.
Happy Morganning

DAY 6 and More

Thanks to everyone who has responded to my email of Saturday night. If you didn't receive an email, please note so in the comments section of this blog, as you are not on our "interested list".  For those who haven't answered, please do your best to answer. If we have 15 cars or 40 cars makes a big difference in hotel selection.

In reviewing Day 6 of the route that Ken has made, I note that there is an optional side trip to White Sulfur Springs, WV. When we were there on MOA IV, we managed to take a picture of all of us in the circle in front of the Greenbrier Resort http://www.greenbrier.com http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Greenbrier .  We personally would like to go there again. Some had dinner at one one of the restaurants $$$$$, but there are dress codes, and blue jeans are not a part of it, and a jacket and tie is. The dress codes are clearly marked on each restaurant should you wish to wander about and to have dinner. Also most require reservations.  If there is enough interest, we can make group reservations.  Not to worry about this all yet, but you might want to see if you are interested.
There are also The Bunker Tours http://www.greenbrier.com/play-here/the-bunker.aspx  which might be interesting as well.

We also did our laundry in White Sulfur Springs- I think Steve K has a story about that. Speaking of laundry, we make an effort to have hotels/motels every 3-4 days that have self serve laundry, or else have laundromats in the town. Occasionally, if in a location for 2 days, we send "out" our laundry so we can spend time visiting, rather than doing laundry. We also have "laundry parties".
We will have MOA regalia as well- shirts, fleeces, hats, badges that are included in the registration fee, with optional items to purchase. If dressing MOAish, you need fewer clothes to pack in your limited space.

CREATING ROUTE MAPS FOR GARMIN

Happy Easter

Husband Philip is working on creating maps of the MOAVI route for his Garmin. (Ken is creating the routes and paper maps). Providing Phil figures out how to accomplish this, he will provide the files for anyone using a Garmin. He doesn't have  a Tom Tom (anymore), but doesn't believe that preplanned, sharable routes can be created on Tom Tom. If there is a need for this, and someone knows how to do it, we will include you in the route map making.
If you have a choice of which GPS to buy before MOA VI, you might take this into consideration. Or just buy a Garmin for the trip, which I have seen available for $99.

The number of interested people in the trip continues to climb. Again, if you are not seriously interested in doing the entire route, please have us remove your name from the list. If you subscribe to this blog, you can follow along without being counted in the "very interested" group.

Have a Happy Easter. It is beautiful here today in Groveland California today. May take the Moggie to brunch at the Country Club.

New Moggie Car Barn

IMPORTANT HISTORY- WAR 1812-1815

On the MOA VI trip, we will be visiting many historical battle sites. You may wish to review your understanding of the WAR OF 1812-1815 on this Wikipedia site to make the trip more interesting.  Our trip will be on the 200th Anniversary Year of the end of the war.

More Morganeers are showing interest in joining on the trip- we are up to close to 50 cars.
We will soon be contacting each of you to provide us with a better idea of your intent to join the entire trip. If you are just curious about the trip, but really doubt you will join us, please let us know.

LIST IS GROWING

There are now 43 Morgan's (and their drivers) signed up for MOA VI, 2015, and we haven't even yet advertised to all the UK Morgan Club Centres. This is a fantastic response.
As we will be limiting the number of Morgans that come on the trip (less than 43), please let us know if you are no longer interested so you can be removed from the list.
It presents many challenges and much more work for the organizers if participants don't do the entire route, as planned. Ken and I  receive nothing other than smiles,  thank you's and a small gift for organizing these trips (no, you don't cover our expenses- never have on MOA's) which keeps the trip cost as reasonable as possible, and far less than other trips. Those who pay for the entire trip have expectations of us, and we can't be diverted for others.
Therefore,  we plan on only taking participants who agree to do the entire route. Yes, if we are in your area, you can drive along with us for one day. You will need to copy the master list for the route, as we don't carry extra "dailies".
Sorry about not being able to do Day Trippers, but it is much too much work for us.

THIRTY MORGANS SIGN UP

The list is growing rapidly of people interested in MOA VI- 2015. We have 30 Morgan owners who have  expressed serious interest in the trip. In January 2014, non-refundable (but transferable) deposits will be requested to assure a spot on the trip. At this point, we haven't determined how many places there will be on the trip, but we do know that 43 cars is too many and 20 works well (keep up the good work George and Moira).

For those who have not been on our Morgans Over America trips, we work with a travel agent on booking rooms, and the participants pay the travel agent directly- generally in 2 payments. Individuals do not deal directly with the hotels/motels. At this time we do not know the average daily room rate for 2015- but for budgeting purposes, plan $175 per day (we will definitely try for lower). We include staying at historical hotels, and then prefer motels where we keep our Morgans outside the door. It is difficult to deal with participants who do not do the entire trip, so please plan on the entire trip.

For shipping from UK and Australia, we will look for a volunteer(s)  from each country to coordinate the shipping from that country. Shipping will be TO Savannah, Georgia and FROM Norfolk, Virginia. There are shipping routes with the same carriers that call at both ports. We will probably "FedEx" some Morgans from the West Coast to Savannah, unless everyone decides to drive there and back.

We also hope to make contact with local Morgan and British car clubs for visiting along the route. On MOA IV, an entire town brought out the band, and a Wings and Wheels festival was held at the airport museum- great fun.