Below are some of my vacation pics from the MAA tour.  The tour left Las Vegas on Saturday morning, April 11th.  Five days later on April 15th we rolled into Birmingham Alabama where the Mustang Club of America held the Mustangs 45th Anniversary party.  

On the evening of the 16th there was a cruise into Homewood AL, a suburb of Birmingham.  There were so many beautiful cars there you couldn't see them all in one night.  There was a car show, a race, open track sessions, swap meet and vendor displays all in one place, at Barber Motorsports Park. 

This is Mark (L) and Mike (R) at Hot Rod Central in Las Vegas.  They helped me get my car fixed before the tour started.  Some people consider it cheating, but I shipped my car from Maryland out to Vegas then flew out to meet it.  Two days before the shipper arrived to pick up my car, I twisted some brackets on the r&p steering.  I brought some spares with me and Mark and Mike made the repairs in just a couple of hours!  I was off and running.  The next day I went into California and went all the way down to the bottom of Death Valley, 200 ft below sea level.

We were given a tour of the Shelby plant and a dinner party the night before the tour started.  The car in the background is the very first Shelby Cobra manufactured in 1962.

These are some of the cars that came out for the start of the trip.

This is Ron and Berdean's Acapulco Blue 69 Mach 1 from Colorado.  He drives this car all over creation having also done the Hot Rod Power Tour.

 This is Martin and Netta's 70 Mach 1 from Ontario. They drove down to Vegas, then at the end of the MAA tour (Birmingham AL) they had to drive back to Ontario.  It has a 5 speed and cruised along quite well.

This is Ken and Kacie's beautiful 69 Mach 1 from California.  Kacie drove this car in high school and helped her dad Ken rebuild the engine as well as do the paint and body work.

This is an almost all original 68 Shelby GT500KR convertible.  It made the entire trip without a problem.

 I never saw this Mach 1 again after the first day.  There was also a yellow 70 Boss 302 that was all stock including the dual points ignition (twice as much to fail IMO) that made the drive. 

This 67 fastback also went the whole distance.

And another early classic that made the long haul.

 This is me going across the Hoover dam very slowly.  You can see the new bridge under construction.  We drove up to 6000 ft in elevation.  The car ran just fine from below sea level to 6K ft with a good ole' Ford spec Holley carb!

 Here I am at the Hoover dam, just on the Arizona side.

Day one had us driving through Flagstaff, AZ.  It snowed and sleeted in the mountains.  This pic is courtesy of a fellow MAA tour member.

At the end of the first day, we passed through Winslow AZ.  Several of us stopped for gas.  I had to get the obligatory "Standing on the corner in Winslow, Arizona" picture.  (Welcome to Winslow sign in background).

 This pic was taken in the Painted Desert on day 2.  A small group of around 50 cars took a detour to drive through the Petrified Forest and Painted Desert (they're both part of the same park).

 As you can see, not every car makes it out of the desert alive!

OK, so they're not car pics, but the Painted Desert and Petrified Forest are perfect car excursions for a driving vacation.

These 2 pics are courtesy of fellow MAA members.

People joined the tour in every town we stopped overnight, and sometimes where we stopped for lunch.

 Here I am after just arriving in Birmingham, AL.  What an adventure!!  The white 65 fastback beside my car has a 32V DOHC 4.6L engine and Mii suspension up front.  He cruised along at quite a pace.  I hung with him for quite a stretch through East Texas. 

 These are most of the 69 and 70 Mach 1s that made the long haul.  The red 70 Mach on the far end joined us in Amarillo on day 3.  There was one 69 Mach 1 that had not yet arrived when I took this pic, and I had given up on them.

  But shortly after the Mach 1 photo shoot in Birmingham, after everyone scattered, Ken and Kacie showed up.  Beside them to the left is the 68 Shelby GT500KR, and behind the Shelby, with the hood up is a 70 Boss 302.  Unfortunately I didn't think to take a picture of the Boss.

I met people from Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the Netherlands and Germany.  There were people from 47 states including Alaska and Hawaii, and 13 different countries that started from Las Vegas and drove across our country to Birmingham.  There are lots of Mustang fans all over the world.  

From Birmingham I went north to visit friends in Madison AL.  We had a wonderful evening with good conversation,  Mexican food and margaritas.  I left early Sunday morning for home in Southern Maryland.  Including my trip into Death Valley, I drove 3436 miles in just a little less than 2 weeks.  I was ready to go home, but I can't wait to do it again on the 50th!