Our adventurous Bugeye travelers have had a productive week. They passed through Biloxi, New Orleans and finally home to Austin, Texas, 4107 miles after they departed our shop in Connecticut (they went “the long way”).
They sent this picture above of the car on the beach in Northern Florida followed by the picture below. Bugeyes have never done well off-road, and we all knew Mollie’s exhaust was a bit too low to begin with. Alas, it’s never fun when important parts depart your vehicle.
No problem for this team, and they quickly had the front portion plugged back on and the rear hanger safety wired to the bumper bracket. By the way, it’s not hard to tear the rear exhaust hanger on these cars, and it is smart to carry a spare even if you’ll never drive on rough terrain-they are only three bucks. (you can find these here)
A day or two later they crossed the Mississippi River (below),
and arrived in New Orleans to visit the WWII museum,
and enjoy a sweet New Orleans B&B.
They eventually crossed into Texas, and arrived at home.
Below you can see Mollie’s garage-mate back in Texas, Amanda’s BMW Z4. Why would you leave a perfectly wonderful Z4 in the garage while galavanting around the entire eastern third of America in a 1960 Bugeye Sprite?
Here’s how Amanda answers that question:
Reflections on three weeks in a tiny car… You must be mentally prepared for anything. Weather, mechanical failure, every thing that can happen probably will. Take it in stride as much as possible.
You will end up talking sometimes for hours with complete strangers about the car, the car they used to have and the memories this one brings back, it’s just going to happen. A simple stop for gas and you finally get on the road two hours later with half the small town waving goodbye.
Then there’s the Bugeye diet plan. After a day of driving, anything under three miles is a walking distance restaurant!
Distance: 250 miles a day isn’t bad, 300 and 350 are rough. Cooler and overcast days are easier. Hot ‘stop and go’ traffic not so much. You get so small rain squalls are not a big deal, as long as you can keep moving, it stays pretty dry and can be a welcome break from the heat, lol. Good permanent addition to door map/storage pocket is a microfiber cloth to wipe off the rain on the inside of the windshield!
Stay hydrated. The heat and wind take their toll. Sunscreen is essential, and a hat is pretty much a must have also.
We mainly avoided freeways. The Bugeye gives you a good excuse to take the backroads, take everything at a slower pace, see everything that you would miss zipping along at 70 with climate control, sound insulation, power everything, & cruise control.
Did we have difficulties in our 4000+ mile trek, sure. Would I have traded the experience? Not on your life. Now, we’re trying to figure out what our next big adventure with Mollie will be????
