Feburary Tour to Tommy Ring’s Rat Rods

If you weren’t some of the 44 members that showed up this past Saturday, then you missed another great day, road trip, lunch & tour !
Most of us met and left from Loafer’s Glory, after a little coffee & donuts, but some joined us along the way. The weather started off cool, but it got better, and overall it was great day for a ride.

Russ & Pat found a great route, that tuned out to be one of the most trouble-free, directionally un-challenged drives we’ve ever had. We managed to keep together and make the best speeds we’ve done before, on some great roads, and I hope all of you enjoyed it as much as Cindy & I did !

We arrived at Farmers Restaurant in Columbia with-in 15 minutes of our plans, and they were ready for us with plenty of help and so much food ! We proceeded to get our money’s worth of lunch and left there pretty much on time for our short drive to our destination.

Once again, we found that where we went, looked from the front, nothing like what we found in the rear. And in the rear was Ring’s Rat Rods, where “Rat Rods Are Born”. Tommy Ring & one young grandson were there waiting for us.

The shop isn’t very big, and all the rods in it, belong to Tommy and his family. He admits now days, he spends most of his time as a writer for a couple of Rat Rod Magazines and renting out his music recording studio in the basement of his home. After some time looking and talking, we learned more about his musical background and we were invited to see his studio space; so off we went.

Tommy was gracious enough to let all of us, traipse thru his home and down the stairs to the studio, where we were greeted by a beautiful black grand piano. Since Tommy sat down at the piano and started telling us about it, it didn’t take much to get him to play & sing. As I said at the time, our club just celebrated twenty-one years of age, (thanks founders!) and we had been a lot of places and seen a lot of things, but never had we been serenaded !

After that, we thanked our host and most people started leaving on their own. We made it home safe and hope everyone else did also.

Read more

October Tour to Shelbyville

The Honk, Rattle, and Roll Saturday, October 19, 2019 is now in the books. The morning’s AACA tour started out at Loafer’s Glory with a warm fire and ample coffee and donuts for everyone. The weather and temperature was just perfect for an hour and half drive to Shelbyville via Russ Barnes’ ingenious directions – Russ can easily turn a 35 minute drive into 1 ½ hours and has a knack for selecting superb backroads with beautiful scenery, a talent I truly admire.
We had 49 members in attendance and 18 Antique, Hot Rods and Classic Cars, setting an attendance record for the number vehicles driven!!
Our first stop was at Street Rods by Michael in Shelbyville. Michael, Michael’s wife Rosemarie and his technicians showed us their many projects in various states of work from Street Rods to Corvettes, Model A’s, vintage trucks, and many classic cars and engines and parts!! Several HRR members bought T shirts and no doubt made appointments with Michael regarding the possibility of Michael doing some work on their car. Michael can perform most any task from building frames, building engines, designing and duplicating parts to superb paint work.
Next we had lunch at Legends Steakhouse and many of us chose to treat ourselves to their delicious hamburgers via their Saturday special of $3.99 each !! Although Legends was short staffed because several employees were out with illnesses, it actually gave us all more time to socialize and hear various tales that we had never heard before. Then the rain set in, yet it didn’t dampen our afternoon tour.
Our second stop was in the afternoon at Gary King’s Museum of Bedford County. This Museum was actually started by Gary’s father, Garland King, the Chief Fire Marshall in Shelbyville for many years. The Museum had a vast array of memorabilia from Bedford County including too many Fire Engines to count, antique, classic and historical cars both inside the building as well as outside the building. Displayed were letters, a video recording story that Channel 5 did many years ago highlighting the King’s vast display of Bedford County and Shelbyville History. Gary King and his son, Colin, answered any and all questions that our group asked. The Kings are in the process of renovating an abandoned school close by where they will move their historical collection to in the near future, where I’m sure that it will beacon another visit from the Honk, Rattle and Roll Club.
Again, thanks to all who attended and we hope to see you at the next HRR adventure!!

Robert & Janet Shadoin HRR Board Member & Host

Read more

August Tour Pictures

The HRR August tour was a well-attended event with 37 members/spouses/guests participating.  It was a “Two-Stage” tour with each stage being optional.  The first stage was the “Cars and Coffee” cruise-in at the AMC Dine-In Thoroughbred 20 (movie theater) in Franklin, TN which started at 8:00am and wrapped up at 10:00am.   This cruise-in has been going on for years and if you’ve never been you owe it to yourself to go, especially on the first Saturday of the month.  There are usually around 1,000 rides that show up and several of our club members are organizers and warmly invite other HR&R members to attend.  

The destination for the second stage was the Amish community in Ethridge, TN.  The group left at 10:30 am from the parking lot of the Kroger Grocery on Columbia Ave in Franklin, just a few miles from “Cars and Coffee”.   The 60 mile journey to Ethridge consisted mainly of back roads that wound through the beautiful country side of Tennessee.  The first stop was Bob’s Café where we dined on a traditional “meat and three” including dessert, drink and tip for $13!  Then the members were left to their own to meander among the Amish farms and peruse and purchase their wares using a handy map provided at the visitor’s center.   Among the myriad choices: fresh vegetables, peanut brittle, jellies, jams and sorghum molasses, baked goods, furniture, rugs, baskets, walking sticks, cutting boards, birdhouses and even caskets.  As with Cars and Coffee, if you’ve never been to the Amish community you owe it to yourself to go.

Greg Faulk & Sally McKay

 

Read more

June Tour Pictures

Well if you weren’t one of the near fifty members that joined us this last Saturday, you missed another great Tour !
 
We started off as usual gathering & leaving from Loafers Glory early Saturday morning, with iffy weather, but will the magnificent travel route of Russ & Pat Barnes, rain was very limited all day !
 
After our usual in-route rest-stop, we made it to Hendersonville to an unbelievable car-barn and collection.  As you can see from Arlene’s pictures, this collection is varied and awesome!  A couple of his cars represent in my opinion some of the prettiest cars ever produced.  The collection is also known for a large number of Yenko cars.
 
After about an hour,  drooling over the cars, we headed out to our second stop and lunch at the Historic Rose Mont Mansion in Gallatin.   Eli & his staff greeted us and Tolbert’s Boxed lunches had our lunch set up for us in the meeting space of the rear building.  After our lunch, we broke into three groups and our Re-enactor dressed Guides spoke to us about life at Rose Mont & it’s history, plus Gallatin’s roll in the Civil War.
 
If you like to learn more about Rose Mont  for a future visit ….see this link, including  a story by Tennessee Crossroads: https://www.gallatintn.gov/257/Historic-Rose-Mont
 
I think everyone enjoyed the day together, I know I did!   It was  good combination of cars & Tennessee history.

Read more

April Tour Pictures

SPRING HAS SPRUNG, and our spring tour is now in the history books. Approximately 40 of our club members met at Loafers Glory to a sprinkle of angels blessings. ( it never rains on a car event ). We left at 8:45 on schedule and traveled to our first destination. We were greeted by John Bridges who guided us thru his collection of Lincoln, Tbird, Packard concepts, Cadillac, and Studebaker concepts and his history to put this collection together. ( the angels blessings had stopped at this point). I think that everyone was amazed by John’s fore-site and engineering that he had to create all of the things he has put together. Very talented!!! From there we moved on to Bar-B Cutie for lunch. They had a space ready for us and moved us thru very fast and it was delicious!! ( thanks to Rick for setting this up for us ).We moved on toward Nashville where, under Russ’s navigation thru busy Nashville traffic we ended up at our final destination, The Marathon Village. We had private parking set aside for us and were set up for a private orientation of the history of Marathon and a tour of the work shop by Barry Walker the founder and owner of the Village. After the orientation we were on our own to explore the many shops offered in the old plant building. A big THANK YOU to John and Barry for their gracious hospitality !!!!
Like I always say, IT NEVER RAINS ON A CAR FUNCTION !!!!!!!!!!

Read more

April “Off Cycle” Willis Johnson Tour Pictures

Honk Rattle & Roll, April 2nd was another great tour with a large participation over 60 in attendance. Big thanks you to Grassland Baptist Church, Willis Johnson and Barbara’s Home Cooking for allowing us to use and view their facilities. Thanks to Arleen Timbs and Rick Jones for the great pictures, and Cindy Stewart & Larry Arrowood for  their help in making this activity a SUCCESS!

Tom Collins 

Read more

The Happening: The Honk, Rattle, and Roll February Classic Car Tour

The Honk, Rattle, and Roll classic car tour on Saturday, February 16 was an awesomely fun event. We had 36 participants and a rainless day to enjoy!
After great coffee, donuts, and conversation at Loafers’ Glory, the tour headed to our first stop, Gateway Classic Cars. The Gateway warehouse was filled with beautiful cars of every description, year, model, and price. Everyone fell in love with the first car on the showroom floor, a 1934 Plymouth coupe in dazzling maroon and only $42,000.

Our second stop was the best stop of all. We met Jeff McGinnis and his crew, house parents, and children of the Baptist Children’s Home in Brentwood. Cheyenne, a ward of the home and an eleventh grader at Brentwood High School, gave our group her personal testimony. She had been living with her grandmother, and they did not get along. When Cheyenne finally ran away from home, she was removed and placed at the Baptist Children’s Home. Cheyenne broke down telling her story, and I don’t believe that there was a dry eye in the place.  

  Our group also toured the homes that are “home away from home for these children.” The homes were clean, neat, and provided a safe place for these children to reassess who they are and to get a fresh start in a beautiful and loving Christian environment.

  Lunch at “Famous Daves” was delicious. The barbecue, French fries, baked beans, hot pickles, and even banana pudding flowed. The staff even visited the parking lots to drool over our classics parked there. 

  Our last stop was at “Streetside Classic Cars.” Again, every year, make, model and price could be found. The 1938 Packard as you entered the showroom was a mere $129,000. The 1958 Imperial stopped everyone for a closer look. Mike Barrett’s showed us his brother’s bright yellow corvette on the floor and for sale.

Great weather, Great time with really great people!  Tom & Pearl Vasser Host

Read more

October Driving Tour Pictures

The Fall Colors and Tables by the Lake Tour turn out was very good despite the early rains. Several old cars were driven and by late morning I’m sure others that didn’t bring out their old iron wished they had. The ride to the collections and the restaurant was not the most scenic the “Fall Colors” didn’t live up to expectations since the leaves are just starting to turn, however the “Tables by the Lake” lived up to it’s name by providing a great view of the lake, nice boats and a couple nice homes.

The collections of John Jennings and Larry King were very diverse providing every member at least one vehicle they would like to have in their garage. Both hosts were very gracious trusting and allowing us to freely roam their facilities at our own pace. Also, if you remember, Larry King invited anyone from our club to show up at his shop on Thursday’s for an ongoing get together with other car enthusiasts.

We hope everyone enjoyed lunch at “The Rudder” located at Anchor High Marina in Hendersonville where we were provided a private room and dedicated waiter so that we could enjoy each other`s company without distractions.

Read more

August Tour Pictures

WOW, what a great tour! Good weather, good food and excellent collections with 49 members attending in 24 cars. Thanks to Glenn & Robert Halls for sharing their collections with us and Butch Roth, Russ & Pat Barnes for their great planning. The tour went off as scheduled with no one getting lost. Thanks to Arleen Timbs, Dick Fleener and Rick Jones for the wonderful pictures below. 

Read more

June Tour Pictures

On a very hot June day we began at Tom and Barbara Collins’ “Loafer’s Glory” for coffee and doughnuts and our usual safety briefing. With 13 great cars and 24 attendees, we were off at 9 am. Russ Barnes delivered up yet another fabulous route of approximately 157 miles.

Read more