Cincinnati Fun in 2001

by Doug Linden

That was the theme for the Model A Restorers Club (MARC) national convention and it was right on the target for the almost 900 Model A’s that converged on Cincinnati June 25 – 29, 2001. Five families of the Minuteman Club attended; the Callan’s, Johnson’s, Buckley’s, Linden’s, and the team of Silvestrone/Defazio.  However, only 3 braved the journey in their Model A’s.

Doug & Nan, Frank & Dottie, and Bucky & Joci, started their journey to Cincinnati on Friday June 22^nd but only after Wayne Champagne and Dick & Barbara O’Brien gave us a surprise send off.  A few miles into the journey we noticed that Buckley’s had disappeared in traffic.  We pulled over to wait, but they didn’t show, and no response on the CB either.  Nan finally suggested we go to CH 19 and see if any of the truckers could tell us where they were.  Within seconds we knew they were just getting started again.  A fuse blew.  With our little caravan moving again it was smooth travelling.  In spite of the fact that the weather was supposed to be rainy, the travel conditions were fine.  In fact, it wasn’t until we got to Rt 209 in Pennsylvania that we started to get some showers.  Unfortunately the showers became rain and eventually a full-blown thunderstorm.  That’s when Frank needed to so some repairs to his headlights since turning them on would blow the fuse.  After deciding that working under a tree in a thunderstorm wasn’t the best place to be, we took cover under a gas station canopy to make the repairs. Rolling once again down pleasant roads (Rts 209 and 443) through the Pocono’s and Blue Mountains, we stopped in Pine Grove for the evening.

It was still overcast in the morning, but we hit the road and headed south  on US 11 into Maryland, West Virginia and Virginia.  We turned west on US 50, which is on of the most scenic roads we traveled.  BUT, it must hold the record for crossing mountaintops.  I’ve never seen so many of them.  We crossed one peak, which had us doing hairpin turns all the way to the top, only to be confronted by another peak, which was reported to be the highest peak in MD.  Needless to say it slowed us down a bit.  We stopped for the night in Bridgeport WV where we found another Model A at the hotel.  We also heard of many other Model A’s passing through this way earlier.   I’m surprised we haven’t seen the others.

Sunday, we got going under beautiful skies and it was more hills, less mountains, and finally we got into the Ohio flat land, which made travel easy.  We stopped a few times, once for a flea market and later for ice cream.  Gotta have ice cream. 

We made it to Cincinnati, actually Sharonville, late that afternoon.  There were Model A’s everywhere.  The hotel parking lots were full of them.  We got our meet registration packages and poked around the host hotel.   Our hotel was across the street, again the parking lot was full of Model A’s – boy was this going to be fun.

The next few days we enjoyed the camaraderie of Model A’ers from all over the mid west.  Frank was the only one to make to the Flat hill climb, where he got his official timing slips to prove he did well.  On Tuesday we traveled to the Kentucky Motor Speedway toured the facilities, but more importantly, we got to drive two laps on this brand new NASCAR track. Bucky and Frank really showed me how to get around a racetrack.  They had me by half a lap in no time.  But everyone knows a big sedan can’t keep up with roadsters.   That night we went to the casino boat.  The bad news was we were late and missed the boat, the good news we stayed in the buffet dining room and didn’t loose any money gambling.  Thursday was the mandatory tour.  I have never seen so many Model A’s in one place before, over 700 cars.  That was some sight.  We then did a 20 mile traffic tour to a wonderful park that was only 2 miles from the hotel.  On Friday, Frank and Dottie and Bucky and Joci went to Dayton to tour the Airforce Museum.  Nan and I went to the quaint town of Waynesville that is full of antique shops.  We found some great old restored gas stations along the way, which were great Kodak moments.  The Awards banquet was Friday night and what a great job the Ohio Club did on this event.  Everything went smoothly and efficiently.

Saturday morning it was time for everyone to pack up the Model A’s and bid farewell to our new Model A friends.  We also decided that we weren’t going to go over the WV mountains on the way home.  Our new plan has us take US22 out of Cincinnati and it proved to be a nice FLAT road.  We made good time until we came across and car accident that shut down the road in both directions.  I took the time to readjust my points.  The others snacked on fruit and cold drinks.  Once rolling again, we stayed on US 22 enjoying the scenery and stopped in the Pittsburgh area that evening.  We ate in a great German restaurant that night.

The next day Frank and Dottie needed to get home so they bid us farewell in Altoona, PA.  We continued on and found the nicest little car museum in Huntingdon, PA.  The Swigart museum was full of fine antique automobiles including a 12,000-mile original Model A Slant Windshield Town Sedan.  Needless to say we enjoyed that stop.  While we were there another Model A pulled in.  We had seen this Tudor in Cincy.  It was carrying a portable electric generator on the trunk rack and in the rear window was a house  air conditioner.  What a site, but it worked well according to the owner’s wife who suffered from asthma. 

The ride was great and the hills we not too hard to negotiate.  Later in the afternoon we really took the road less traveled and took a small, very small, ferry across the Susquehanna River.  Nan threw open the house door hanging from a tree to signal the ferry it had passenger waiting.  Yep, that was the way it was done.  Four cars (its capacity) piled on the little paddle wheel ferry and off across the river we went, albeit with a thunderstorm off in the distance.  We made it to the other side with only a little sprinkle.  We got into the  mountains when the storm caught us.  Oh boy…Thunder was crashing all around, wind and rain was coming down in buckets.  In a sedan you can roll up the windows, but in a roadster you can’t, so we sloshed onward until we came to gas station where we took cover under it canopy.  Finally, the storm passed.  Evidence that this was a strong storm was now visible by the downed branches, dirt on the roads and in one town a fire most likely caused by lightning. 

The weather improved quickly so we continued to Stroudsburg, PA for the night.  The hotel was very nice, complete with it’s own restaurant where we enjoyed our last evening meal on the road.   The next morning was really cold as we packed the cars for the final leg of the trip home.  Under clear and refreshing skies we made it home by late afternoon. 

We put on about 2000 miles during the trip, with the longest day being 315 miles.  We saw gas prices as low $1.12/ gal in Ohio.  Climbed some beautiful (but high) West Virginia mountains,  and got caught in an unbelievable storm.  The most unbelievable part of the story is that the 70 year old Model A’s never missed a beat.  The performed flawlessly and brought us all home safely.  THANK YOU HENRY FORD.