MOGSouth Fall Meet Jacksonville FL / Amelia Island FL (5-6 Nov 2021) Event Report

A Nor Easter?  Not sure where we found it, but it certainly found us and then just sat there.   Honestly, I wasn’t even sure that Florida had Nor Easters.  I thought they were reserved for New England and came with snow??

Well, that’s one thing we didn’t have . . . snow!  But it felt like it!  We had rain and wind and cold and nasty!! 

Boy, what a weekend for leaky little British cars!  We left the Morgans at the hotel (knowing they would float if needed!) and spent our time in Amelia Island and Fernandina Beach, mostly indoors!  Yes, we did have Morgans at the Meet and a special thanks to those intrepid owners who brought their cars!   But there were others that were somewhat more conservative and brought SUVs and trucks.  This was good in that it allowed us all to pile into something more weather-tight and make our way to Amelia Island and Fernandina Beach without suffering.   We feared our planned drive along the water would be fraught with floods, etc. since the local news was terrorizing us with pictures of rising waters and warnings that high tide would occur just when we planned on driving along the coastal route; so we opted for the less scenic (but higher in elevation) streets to get there.  It would have been darn near impossible to see the coastal scenes with the rain pouring down anyway!  So, one of the Meet’s planned activities (scenic drive!) went out the window!

Another primary activity for our Fall Meet, was the afternoon charter boat ride up the Amelia River to see the running of the right whales.  (Per the internet.  There is one population of North Atlantic right whales along the eastern coast of North America. They spend the summer at their feeding and mating grounds off the coast of New England and Canada. During the winter [This was to be the weekend!], pregnant females travel south along the coast of northeast Florida, Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina where they give birth and raise their young.)

The other starring bit of the boat ride was touring the coast line of Cumberland Island (long abandoned by the famous Carnegies), with its wild ponies, etc. 

Given the weather, the boat ride was cancelled by the charter boat company.  ‘Neither fit for man or beast!‘  they said!  So they gave us our money back!   And we used that money to eat and drink generate heat!  We did that well!!

Susan and David Morgan, who live in downtown Fernandina Beach, opened up their lovey historic home and allowed us to watch a few notable college football games and thaw out some before dinner.   We even poked and prodded David’s lovely Plus 4, as it sat high and dry in the garage!  Smart man!   

Dinner was at the Sandbar and Kitchen restaurant, which was conveniently located on the beach and right next to the Amelia Island Right Whale Festival (again, this was cancelled for Saturday).  Arghhhh… So we had a great dinner, had entertaining conversations, and enjoyed watching the Right whales swim by (oh wait, we couldn’t do that either because it was raining too hard to see out the windows).  (I’m beginning to see a pattern here….)

The highlight of dinner was probably when Susan Morgan won the raffle for a bottle of Heaven’s Door whiskey (probably because of the good karma she received by opening up her home to us wet wanderers). 

Well, despite the weather dashing all our plans, we still had fun.  See ya’ll at the Holiday Party in Peachtree City, GA 4 December (details on www.MOGSouth.com).  With luck, we should be due for some nice weather.