[jdean]

My usually trusty Cobra replica caught on fire in downtown Austin, but with the help of many a violent catastrophe was avoided. A suddenly stuck carb float spilling gasoline caught fire while I was trying to start the car for the third time while cruising 6th street at night with a group of TCC members.

Bottom line was, with the help of many, my car was saved from major damage (or more likely from being reduced to a crispy french fry) and was back running great the same night.

There are too many names to remember to thank but here are some:

- Mike M. for extinguishing the flames.
- Jim J. for using the blanket borrowed from the nearby homeless person to help beat the flames down until Mike hit it with the extinguisher.
- Damon R. for directing traffic
- Dee W. (congratulations Dee and you will get my vote every time!) and
- Brian (Lone Star Cobras) for bringing a trailer down to haul my car back.
- All the group there for sticking with me until we got cleared out.
- Don B. for disassembling, cleaning and putting my carb back together. It needed all the extinguisher powder cleaned out, along with whatever might have caused the stuck float valve. Don B. and Jim W. ....also thanks for bringing in the support vehicle and making it available for all of us that needed tools and advice for the weekend.

For all who helped me, I had equal offers of help and ready volunteers for anything else I needed.

So what could have been a very bad weekend for me turned out to be a fun event thanks to the people of TCC!!

AND....I know there were several other situations this weekend with maybe less dramatic problems that were solved by the same spirit of helpfulness.