Story and photos by Mark Wing

Linda Riel was our hostess for the first Tn’Vittles breakfast of the new year.  The venue was Cocina Azul, a Mexican/New Mexican restaurant on Montgomery Blvd. in Albuquerque that is highly rated on Yelp (the customer rating website) and noted for its well-prepared food and moderate prices.

The day started out chilly, in the 30’s, but warmed up nicely as the morning progressed.  Linda and Jeff Richards braved the weather by arriving in Jeff’s 1926 roadster.  The Duncan’s too drove their 1920 Model T touring car that’s been in Marilyn’s family since the 1950’s where it had languished in a Kansas barn until being restored by Marilyn and Paul around five years ago.  Other Model T drivers included Don Mitchell in his 1927 Tudor, Larry and Lorna Azevedo driving their rare 1915 Couplet (which had only recently had a new top installed), Steve Suttle showing up in his beautifully restored 1925 coupe, Mark Wing driving his late 1924 (almost an identical car to Steve’s, but having the 21″ diameter X 4.5″ wide “balloon” tires (an option in the 1925 model year), and Dave Ferro with his friend Rebecca (visiting from Montana) who came in Dave’s 1918 depot hack.

Dave and Rebecca had a dramatic drive in that morning as the fan hub bolt failed on Dave’s 1918 depot hack.  The broken bolt resulted in the fan tipping into the recently installed Brassworks radiator and breaking off one of the fan blades.  It made a horrible sound and must have been a very scary experience!  Luckily, the cold morning didn’t require the use of a fan and it also happened fairly close to the restaurant, so there was no problem with overheating. The second bit of good luck was the broken fan blade bent the radiator fins on the passenger side but did not cut into the coolant tubes!  Dave plans to replace the hub bearing with a ball bearing version and will replace the 1916-20 style fan and mounting bolt.  After some cosmetic attention to the bent cooling fins, it should be as good as new!

The breakfast was well-attended with 34 club members and guests and a total of 7 cars.  Both the venue and the food were very good and everyone had a wonderful time.

Thank you Linda for hosting this – the first club breakfast of 2018!