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As many of you know I own my Reatta for the pleasure of driving it through the mountains of Tennessee and North Carolina. I just saw on the TV that all my favorite places to drive have been closed to the public. The Great Smoky Mountain National Park has been closed. It is the most visited national park in the U.S. I can understand the reasons for closing all the visitor centers and bathrooms in the park to insure that people aren't congregating and spreading the virus but I don't understand why they have to close the roads. Maybe they don't want crowds of people pissing on the side of the road who might spread the virus. ? Highway 441 that runs between Gatlinburg, TN and Cherokee, NC, (a great destination for people interested in their Cherokee heritage and for gamblers at Harrah's Casino), has been closed. The Cherohala Skyway, the most scenic road in this area, has been closed. The Tail of the Dragon, the must fun road to drive in this area, has been closed. Between having to stay in the house all the time and not being able to drive my Reatta this virus is taking a toll on me. Maybe all this will be over soon and we can get back to normal. Stay safe Reatta fans!

Ronnie...thanks for bringing the manual over to the forum. I've always been leery of using mine, but now I can repair it if it fails while trying it out.

Are you interested in trying to repair it yourself? If so Click here to view the Cassette Deck Repair Manual. The manual is in PDF format.

Well thanks Hal. Glad you picked it up and it ran for you. It did get "good" car treatment in the early years and actually last fall it got front tie rods and ball joints along with front brake lines. The rear brake lines were done I believe the year before. You have Barney cranks so that is good as well. Overall still a nice car that still looks good. Between this one, and the Red one at Bob's as well as your own "in need" Reatta you should end up with two nice cars. I have decided also that the 'vert will be our Brownsville Reatta as we purchased a mobile home down here for a "winter" retreat [the months of January, February, and March]. We'll need a car here and the place we bought has both a car port and a one car garage so the 'vert would be great for that and have inside storage. This also gets me back to a situation where my remaining three cars will fit in my garage. The "off season" Reatta along the back wall and the Enclave on the left and the driving Reatta on the right. This also will end the snow shoveling for the "Widow Schneider" the lady that allowed me to store a Reatta in her garage for snow blowing her driveway. She will be 85 this year and has been hinting at selling her house and going into assisted living. I think that I was one of the reasons why she could stay in her house, but that can't weigh into my decision as to what I want to do. I did her driveway for over 12 years and now it is time to move on...

Dave's former winter driver, the Black 89, finally came home with me today. I saw Ronnie's post about covid 19 disrupting many things we sort of take for granted. I found the opportunity to have a friend take me to Dave's to pick up the car, but there is a sense of living on the edge for us old folks just riding in a car together. We decided if we had a Corona beer before and after the car transport it would ward off evil spirits. Sort of tongue in cheek that but no doubt our awareness, and wariness, has certainly changed. The car was a bit reluctant to start but more from operator error due it sitting for an extended period. Ran well once started, and drives pretty well. Definitely a more "floaty" ride than my regular, but for over 318k miles, it is remarkable almost everything works well which is a testament to the care Dave lavished on this car.