With heavy clouds hanging over the Metroplex Sunday morning, it was nice to see six cars lined up at the Cracker Barrel in Denton. It was windy and overcast, but that would be the worst weather we'd see all day. After a brief drivers' meeting - and a lot of time catching up with brock, we headed northward on the first leg of our journey.

We got stuck behind a handful of lost boaters on the first leg as we headed north to Lake Ray Roberts and then east to Aubrey. From there, we had a clear shot to Tioga, and kept pace behind a thankfully swift Hummer as we headed north of the lake to Gainesville. We had the food court almost all to ourselves for lunch. The burger's at CJ's Burgers and Fried Pies weren't half bad, but the pies were quite a bit better than the last ones I had at Fulton's. However, selection is a bit limited - four fruit varieties and four creme.

Having made this run twice now with large groups (20+) and twice with small groups (6-7), I'm going to have to say I prefer the small group, especially when leading. It's certainly nice to be able to see from front to back most of the time. It's also nice to be able to use the radios to make fun of brock (and his desire to turn left) instead of keeping track of where everyone is.

The MME crew chats before heading in for lunch.

After our lunch of burgers and pies, we all piled in and headed north of the Red River (or Red Trickle, as it were) to Marietta and our first half-lap around Lake Murray. After a brief pit-stop, we then headed north toward Turner Falls. We pulled up to the last light leaving Ardmore with a bunch of guys on some sweet custom bikes. The lead bike and I had a nice drag race (and probably made lots of cool noise) up to the speed limit. We exchanged thumbs-up and the bikers let us take the lead when the road dropped to two lanes.

We all snuck around a rolling speed bump in time to make a full assault on the curvies heading into the falls. Our lead cars came around the right-hander from the top of the hill and surprised an officer from Altus, Oklahoma. Later on after our hearts started beating again, we'd figure out that Altus, Oklahoma, is at least 120 miles from Turner Falls.

On the road with the Miatas

After we left Turner falls, we hit the high point of our trip as we headed up 77D into some great decreasing radius turns. After a blast up the hill and over the dale, we turned right onto what every map I found called "Road." It was a bit bumpy for the stiffly sprung, even causing brock's turn signal to come on. We had a great time making fun of him on the radio. We drove 15 miles to 177 only encountering one car headed our way, and only passed one car going the other way. From there it was a nice cruise down 177 to our last pit stop.

Miatas on "Road"

We hit the last pit stop about 3:15 and opted to run down to Clark's Outpost for BBQ instead of having a very early dinner of Catfish in Marietta. I somehow managed to take the correct exit to pass through Gainesville and get us back on the right road to Tioga. Unfortunately, some kiddos in a Civic held us up during the best of the curves on the way back. I guess they must have gone to the driving school where the instructor puts a cup of coffee on the dash...

Are you sure this isn't someone's driveway?

We arrived safe and sound with the same six cars and eight people we started with. We were tough on the wait staff, since we all ordered the same thing -- except for that rabble-rouser, Chaz. We were all saddened when Clarks' was unable to fullfil POS's request for a glass of iced tea big enough to sit in, but we all drank enough of it for a good bath.

Fun was had by all. No tickets. And as far as I could see we were all well behaved and stayed on our side of the yellow line in the curves.

Until next time!

After a hard day on the road, everyone buttons up before heading in for gallons of iced tea and the excellent brisket at Clark's Outpost in Tioga.

Come join us next time! Hopefully you'll get to spend more time looking at our cars than at us...