Photos by Lesley & Gavin Kidd, Bob Chalker

On Saturday the club was represented in the Katy Livestock and Rodeo parade, a two mile affair through the heart of the city.  The weather was a bit nippy to start but everyone bundled up and had their cowboy hats firmly on their heads.  Soon the day warmed up a bit and everyone had a great time.  We had 10 cars with a mix of MGB's and MGA's and we took in a stray Triumph.  The streets were filled with spectators and our cars were a hit.  Maybe it was all the candy we threw to the little ones.  We were pleasantly surprised later in the day when we learned that the club was awarded first place in the class of Cars, Trucks, Tractors & Toys.  Gee, I wonder if they thought we were driving cars or toys?   Next year we will need to up our game, maybe we will add decorations and choreographed maneuvers down the parade route. 

Enjoy the photos below.....

It is hard to believe that February is almost over and that it is 80 degrees outside.  Perfect weather for top down driving.  Well maybe not so perfect on Wednesday when approximately 20 club members travelled to Sealy for a tour of the Bumbera's Performance shop.  We were warmly greeted by their youngest daughter Kendall who led the tour.  We had a special treat when family patriarch Kenny joined us to share several entertaining stories.  The Bumbera's had a mix of classic restorations, hot rods and racing cars in the shop.  As they tell it, they restore and build customer's cars by day and prepare their racing machines by night.  It was great to see the mix of vehicles in various states of restoration and build.  And we all enjoyed the company of the shop's dog Sarge. 

Following the tour we headed to the Wolf Pack Bar & Grill downtown Sealy to break bread and swap stories.

Kendall Bumbera touring us around the shop

Kenny Bumbera sharing one of his many stories

Sarge greeted us at the door

… Probably not to the U.S. but we can dream.   Click HERE to catch up on the MG Cyberster which is forecasted to go on sale beginning in April in the Europe and China.

Here is the latest through the end of January....

For those considering doing the long drive to Calgary, Alberta, Canada for MG 2023, I have now completed planning for the route from Texas to Calgary. While this is still preliminary and subject to change, I expect the route we take will be pretty close to what is presented below. If you are interested in joining us, please contact me as soon as possible. We will have to finalize the route as soon as we can so that we can make reservations at hotels and other places, like Yellowstone and Going to the Sun Road. 

I have shown pdfs of the daily drives. Some of the drives cannot currently be shown in Google Maps because of winter road closures, so I have marked those by hand. This drive to Calgary will take ten days and cover approximately 2,600 miles plus whatever you drive on Day 1 to get to the meeting point in the Texas panhandle.

General rules of the road: We will have breakfast eaten and be ready to leave by 8:00 am each day and will arrive at our destination by 5:00 pm. The mileage shown is for each segment of the planned route, as is the driving time. We will avoid interstate highways where it is possible and reasonable to do so. We will make frequent stops for pictures, bio breaks, food and interesting roadside attractions. All of the roads will be paved, and we will be flexible for route corrections if needed.

Day One - Thursday, July 6: Drive to Hotel Turkey, Turkey, TX  Approximately an 8 hr drive from Houston

Meet at the Hotel Turkey, home of Western Swing music, for dinner. If more than four cars participate, we will need to switch to a meeting destination near Lubbock. I am open for suggestions on this as long as we meet in this general area.

Day Two - Friday, July 7: Turkey, TX to Trinidad, CO 338 miles, 5 hr 50 min, time zone change to MDT

We will plan a morning stop at the Cadillac Ranch near Amarillo. Not a whole lot else to see, so we'll just have a leisurely travel day with plenty of rest stops to get used to being on the road. With the time change we will get in early.

Day Three - Saturday, July 8: Trinidad, CO to Georgetown, CO 298 mi, 6 hr 20 min

First day of scenic drives in the Rocky Mountains. Leaving Trinidad we will take the Highway of Legends Byway over our first mountain passes on the way to Walsenberg, CO. We end the day taking the Guanella Pass Scenic Byway over an 11,669 ft pass. An alternative to Guanella would be to drive through Breckenridge and crest the Loveland Pass on Route 6.

Day Four - Sunday, July 9: Georgetown, CO to Cheyenne, WY 228 miles, 5 hr 50 min

A full day of scenic drives in the Rocky Mountains.  Leaving Georgetown we head for scenic Hwy 40 which passes Winter Park ski area on the way to Granby. From Granby we head into the Rock Mountain National Park and take the Trail Ridge Road Hwy 34 through the park. One of the highest continuous paved roads in the US, the high point is 12,183 ft above sea level. The road ends in Estes Park, and we will continue through the eastern slopes and catch part of the Cache La Poudre Scenic Byway before heading into the plains and onto Cheyenne.

Day Five - Monday, July 10: Cheyenne, WY to State Game Lodge, Custer Park, SD 299 miles, 5 hr 50 min

A lot of open plains to cover before we hit the scenic roads of the Black Hills. Possible stops include Wind Cave National Park or the Crazy Horse Memorial. We will end with the amazing Needles Highway before stopping at the State Game Lodge in Custer State Park for the evening.

Day Six - Tuesday, July 11: Custer State Park to Gillette, WY 249 miles, 5 hr 35 min

Our day begins with a drive to Mt. Rushmore on Iron Mountain Road, which features unique views of the monument framed through tunnels on the road. After Mt. Rushmore, we drive the fabulouse roads of the Black Hills through the towns of Deadwood and Spearfish on our way to Devil's Tower National Monument. From there we head on to our destination in Gillette, WY.

Day Seven - Wednesday, July 12: Gillette, WY to Cooke City, MT 342 miles, 6 hr 40 min

A lot of driving, but the great plains are broken up by a scenic highway through the Bighorn National Forest and the day ends with a drive on the glorious Beartooth Highway, cresting at 10,947 ft in the mountains east of Yellowstone.

Day Eight - Thursday, July 13: Cooke City, MT to Bozeman, MT 134 miles, 2 hr 50 min plus Yellowstone Loop

We start this day driving through the bison populated plains along the East Yellowstone entrance. We will do a loop through the grandfather of our National Parks that will take us past Yellowstone Falls, Old Faithful, Grand Prismatic Spring and Mammoth Hot Springs, and will spend as much of our six hours or so in the park seeing as much as we can. We end the day in the college town of Bozeman.

Day Nine - Friday, July 4: Bozeman, MT to Whitefish, MT 317 mi, 5 hr 40 min

We get to enjoy a lot of scenic Montana on our way to Whitefish. Plenty of empty roads, trees, large valleys and mountain passes. We end the day in the resort town of Whitefish.

Day Ten - Saturday, July 15: Whitefish, MT to Deerfoot Inn and Casino, Calgary 279 miles, 5 hr 40 mins

Our last day on the road starts with driving through Glacier National Park and the incomparable Going to the Sun Road cresting Logan Pass (small cars only). We will cross the border at the Chief Mountain crossing and stop at Waterton National Park in Canada. From there, we will travel north through the foothills on our way to our destination hotel in Calgary.

Sunday, July 16 Stampede Grounds, Calgary: The closing day of the Calgary Stampede! Gates for the Greatest Outdoor Show on Earth open at 9:00 and the show closes with fireworks at 11:00 pm. We can catch both the Rodeo Finals in the afternoon and the Chuckwagon Finals in the evening if we buy our tickets early.

Monday, July 17: Registration for NAMGBR is open until 5:00 pm, so we can spend the day driving through the foothills, Highwood Pass, Kananaskis Provincial Park, and Banff National Park if anyone is interested.

I will work on the return route and hope to have something by the end of the month. In the meantime, register for the MG2023 and reserve the hotel in Calgary. Remember to add the Saturday night July 15. And make sure to register to see the tour of the Phillips car collection on Tuesday, July 18, it is great!

- Scott Hardy

 Save the date for the Spring 2023 Gathering of the Faithful.  The TMGR has announced that the event will be held April 27-30th in Cedar Park, TX.  Cedar Park is an easy drive from Houston and with it's convenient location to Austin and the Hill Country there will be plenty of fun for all.

The host hotel will be the Hyatt Regency - Cedar Park and the organizers have made arrangements for discounted hotel rooms.  Here is a link to make your reservations or you can call the hotel directly (512) 337-3001.  Tell them you are with the Texas MG Register.  But book soon as the rooms will go fast.

Stay tuned for more to come on this year's Spring GoF.  

Greetings all,

The Houston MG Car Club is an affiliate member of the North American MGB Register and the North American MGA Register.  Because of this relationship we get several benefits including the ability to secure insurance for the club and our events at no cost to us.  We also have the opportunity to vote on the officers of the NAMGBR.  

But to have this benefit there is a requirement for us to know which members of the Houston MG Car Club are also members of  the Registers.  We are asking that everyone who is a member of one or both Registers to provide us with your respective membership numbers for each of the registers.  This is easy to do.  Simply go to your profile page on the Houston MG Car Club website and enter them.  The field is near the bottom of the page, below where you enter your vehicle information.  

And if you are a member of one of the Registers but not a member of Houston MG Car Club, we would love to have you become a member.  Simply click on “Join Us” above.

Thank you in advance for your timely response to this request.

Houston MG Car Club Board of Directors 

During the Club's Christmas party on December 3rd president Mike Woodward, board chair Ron Redding and incoming president Bob Chalker announced the 2022 award winners:

President's Award

Greg Fleischer

Board of Director's Award: 

Fran and Glenn Carpenter

Back Seat Driver's Award 

Angie Bard

Ralph Diebert Award:

Rich Colwell, 1959 MGA Twin Cam

Alan Rayne Memorial Award 

The Broken Crankshaft

Larry Lovins

MG Driver Award

Most miles in an MG

Roger Sykes

Kimber Spirit Award

Most events in any car

Mike Woodward

Safety Fast Award 

Most events in an MG

Gordan Bard

Presidential Recognition Award

Mike Woodward

500 Mile Club

Roger Sykes

Rob Ficalora

Bob Chalker

Scott Hardy

Rich Colwell

Ralph Ratta

Ken Evesson

Gary Myers

Alex Laverock

Bill Sysman

Ron Redding

Dwight Dawson

Gordan Bard

Joe Schrodi

Registration is now open for NAMGBR’s MG 2023, “MGs in the Foothills”, to take place in Calgary, Alberta, Canada July 17-20, 2023. The event will be held just after the world-famous Calgary Stampede closes on Sunday, July 16. The link for registration is https://mg2023.regfox.com/calgary.

Scott and Trish Hardy, current members of the Houston MG Car Club, lived in Calgary for over 25 years before moving to Texas. In fact, we are in the blue MG pictured in the promotional photograph for the event!

Scott and Trish would like to invite any HMGCC members who want to visit one of the most beautiful areas of North America to join them on the journey. The goal is to drive mostly MG friendly roads and visit many attractions on the way there and back.

The general outline of our plan is to leave from a meeting place in Texas sometime between July 5 - 7 and arrive in Calgary Saturday, July 15. The route north will take us through New Mexico, Colorado, Wyoming and Montana. These dates allow time for a scenic drive, stops at many attractions en route, and enable us to catch the final day of Stampede on Sunday, July 16. We will also offer a drive through the foothills of the Canadian Rockies on Monday before registration opens.

We would depart on Friday, July 21 to return to Texas via an entirely different route going through Utah and Arizona, again stopping to see attractions on the way. Return to Texas would be the weekend of July 29 - 30. Trish and I will not lead this section of the trip, though we will organize it, because we will be staying in Calgary for our son's wedding early in August.

We will be publicizing this drive with all the MG clubs in Texas to try and generate interest in the trip. There are practical limits to the number of participants, but we will face that issue if it arises. And we will welcome input on timing, routing and attractions from anyone who is seriously interested.

UPDATE:  The TMGR has posted photos from the event.  To see and download the photos go to www.imagemaker.cc.  Once there Click on "Cars" button and scroll down to the bottom of the page and select the event. Once the page opens click on the words "Dave Nelson Photos".

The Fall Gathering of the Faithful (GoF) was held November 3-6th in Clifton Texas and it was a wild affair.  No, not that kind of wild, it was held at the Texas Safari Exotic Animal Ranch.  The Houston MG Car Club was well represented by the Bowers, Carpenters, Chalkers, Crows, Hardys, Schrodis, Sessions and Roger Sykes.  One of the highlights of the weekend was seeing Steve Sessions MGB back on the road after a thorough restoration.

By the way, did you know that Clifton has been officially recognized by the Texas Legislature as the Norwegian capital of Texas.  Clifton and the surrounding area was settled by Norwegian immigrants in the mid-19th century.   To this day they are proudly Norwegian and the town has more than its share of trolls to prove it.

Knowing that we were in town one of the local's put their pride and joys on display along the roadside.  If you are looking for a new addition to your stable it looks like at least one of them is for sale.

The weekend began with a wine and cheese party held at Valley Mills Vineyards on Thursday evening.  Attendance was great and everyone was happy to be back together again.

Each morning Kim and I had breakfast at a wonderful cafe and soda fountain in town.  The food was great and the company even better.

Friday was the busiest days we have experienced at a GoF.  It began with a road rally on the beautiful country roads between Clifton and Glen Rose.  These towns sit near where Texas transitions from the green climate of the southeast to the more arid in central Texas.  As the route meandered we moved back and forth between the different environments.  Along the route we passed St. Olaf Kirke church, or more commonly known as the Rock Church.  It is located just outside of Cranfills Gap a community often referred to as Norse.  The church was built in 1886 and served the local Lutheran community.  

The rally ended in Glen Rose before noon allowing us to spend some time walking around the town and enjoying lunch.  There was a second rally planned for the afternoon but Kim and I took a more direct route home so that we could spend more time exploring the Rock Church and I would be back to Clifton in time to attend the tech session on carburetors. 

One more fun fact, just outside of Glen Rose they discovered dinosaur tracks.  Although we did not have time this trip, I hope we will get back to Dinosaur Valley State Park to see the tracks for ourselves.

Following the tech session, the ladies attended the 1st (and hopefully annual) ladies tea at the Bosque Arts Museum.  Peggy Schrodi was co-organizer of the event and by all accounts it was a tremendous success.  While Kim enjoyed the tea, I spent time cleaning the many bugs off the front of the car getting it ready for the car show the next day.

Next up was a pizza party held in an old western town on the ranch.  Well maybe it wasn't so old and probably nota real town but it made for a great venue.  Getting to the town allowed us to drive across the ranch's property and to get up close and friendly with the many exotic animals on site.   We had fun meeting new people and reconnecting with old friends.

Saturday began with the car show, there was a funkana in the afternoon and it ended with the traditional awards banquet.  Once again Houston was well represented claiming several awards:

• Roger Sykes, Octagon of Honor with his 1974 MGB GT
• Glen & Fran Carpenter, Vintage class 1st place with their 1934 PA
• Bill & Sally Bowers, Special class 1st place,1974 MGB GT V6 conversion
• Bob & Kim Chalker, MGB Chrome Bumper, 4th place, 1972 MGB.

In addition Peggy Schrodi was given special recognition for her outstanding work in organizing the ladies tea.  Scot and Trish Hardy won the funkana and Kim and I were pleasantly surprised to learn that we won the morning road rally.  I have always said that Kim is one of the world's best navigators!

If you haven't attended a GoF you really should make a point to do so soon.  MG is known as the marque of friendship, the Gof's make an exclamation point on this statement.