by Bruce Marshall
all rights reserved
Photos by and property of Bruce Marshall, Wayne
Champagne and Tom Zappala
all rights reserved
While driving through York, PA in ninety-five degree heat and getting snagged
at almost every stoplight on route 15 "business", I was beginning to
wonder how these 77 year old vehicles with their middle aged drivers could
possibly endure such punishment. It took us approximately one hour to
navigate the 3 miles through the downtown maze of traffic, stop signs and mostly
red lights. "Tree City, USA" is also the home of the Harley Davidson
Museum. Wonderful.
The planning and anticipation for this trip began during the Winter of 2006 - 2007. The 2007 Model A Restorers Club (MARC) National Meet was to be held at Colonial Williamsburg in Williamsburg, VA during the week of June 24 - 29, 2007. Those going on the trip would be Tom Zappala (1930 Station Wagon), Wayne Champagne (1931 SW Cabriolet Convertible) and Bruce Marshall (1930 Standard Coupe). Accompanying Tom on the trip down was Dennis Moran as co-pilot and navigator. Dennis would prove invaluable as our map reader and "direction giver" as well as providing Tom with what seemed like an inexhaustible supply of snacks, cold drinks and sharp wit. The women, Cookie Smith, Carol Moran, Lisa Zappala and Susan Champagne, were to fly down to Williamsburg and meet us there. Wayne did most of the route planning with some help from Tom and he made up map books for us (in color no less) to guide us on our way.
A couple of days before departure I was under my car checking fluids, changing the oil and I figured I would lubricate the front spring. Imagine my surprise when I noticed the front spring was broken! The long main leaf was broken and the spring would have to be replaced. Early Thursday morning I drove the car to Harold Legge's garage (thanks Harold) in So. Natick while Wayne Champagne (thanks Wayne) drove to Tam's in West Boylston to pickup a new spring and shackles. By 11 AM we had the old spring out and the new one installed. I then drove directly to Wayne's house and left the car there for the night. I borrowed Wayne's Volvo, did a couple of business things, and then drove home.
At sunrise I left home in Wayne's Volvo loaded with my "stuff" and arrived
in Ashland by 6:30 AM. I proceeded to
pack everything into
Miss Thelma
including some 21st century technology that included a laptop computer, my cell
phone and a GPS
unit. Doug Linden stopped by the Dunkin' Donuts on route 85 in Southborough to
see us off and by 7:45 AM we were moving south and west. Wayne Champagne led
the way followed by Tom Zappala and Dennis Moran in Tom's Station Wagon and me
in my '30 Standard Coupe "Thelma."
Wayne had been working on the route for weeks and after escaping
the morning rush hour we were clipping along on some beautiful roads through the
Blackstone
Valley. We pushed on into Connecticut running through Windsor Locks and
then on to the New York border. We
stopped for lunch at a Subway shop near Red Hook, NY. We all ordered
selections from their "low fat" menu and added a bag of chips too. Spirits
were high and the cars were running great although the weather was getting a bit
warm. My brakes were pulling a bit to the left so after lunch I gave the
adjuster on the
right rear drum a couple of clicks.
Mid-afternoon we pulled into an ice cream stop called
Custer's Last Stand in Wurtsboro, NY and Tom enjoyed his first ice
cream of the trip.
We met a WWII Navy veteran in the parking lot who told us he had owned a Model A
like ours right after the war.
We spent the first night on the road in Matamoras, PA at a
forgettable Holiday Inn where they had an "all you can eat" lobster buffet for
$54.95 per person -- no thank you. At dinner we had a lot of laughs and
even got the chef to come out with complimentary clams casino. I think I
had the chicken parm. Our waiter was a young man from Newbury, NH who was
attending a local college. On the way out of the restaurant, Dennis
thought about some of the good looking desserts on the buffet table but couldn't
figure out how to get them by the cashier.
The ride through Pennsylvania the next day was the most
difficult part of
the whole trip. During the morning we stopped at a restaurant to just take
a break and stretch a bit. It was a little coffee shop that had wonderful
muffins for one dollar each.
I had the blueberry and I think Wayne and Tom had raspberry. Dennis was
eating some of the junk food that was in Tom's car. Everything was going
reasonably well until we started to get near
York, PA. Tom, by the way, was on his second CB radio the first having
burned out the first day. We stopped for lunch at an Arby's roast beef
place and after lunch and about 20 miles from the city we decided to
forgo the interstate that would have taken us around York and instead take a
more direct route through the city itself. You have to realize we had just
been on a very busy local highway for about 20 minutes with traffic (big trucks)
whizzing all around us. On the way to York Tom's second CB radio died and
he decided to stop at Radio Shack and buy a new radio. Thirty minutes
later Tom could be heard again now on the new CB radio. Did I mention the
temperature was climbing? Going through York turned out to be a big
mistake and it took about one hour to travel three miles navigating many,
stop lights and stop signs in the blistering heat and humidity.
We finally got out of York and back on a nice country road and we arrived in Gettysburg, PA in the late afternoon. We stopped only briefly and then went on to our hotel in Emmitsburg, MD. Arriving around 5:30 PM were surprised to see another Model A ('29 Tudor) in the parking lot. The owner, Dick Bartlett, was from Rochester, NY and the next morning he would join us for the run to Williamsburg, VA. We had dinner at the Ott House Pub & Restaurant and the crab chowder and crab cakes were excellent. We all had a great time at the restaurant and decided "what happens in Emmitsburg - stays in Emmitsburg!" The next morning, I managed to put some air in a leaky rear tire and the four cars left the Sleep Inn parking lot at 7:30 AM. The temperature must have already been 80 degrees.
The final leg of the ride to Williamsburg was mostly great Model A roads
with some unavoidable traffic congestion thrown in for good measure. Tom's
car stopped working at a gas stop in northern Virginia. It turned out to be
a distributor problem. We installed a different distributor and we were on
our way again. About an hour later Tom heard a bad rattling noise from
"under the floorboards". It turned out to be the universal joint cover was
loose. This problem was fixed the next day at the repair tent at the host
hotel.
We arrived at the
Woodlands Hotel around 4 PM after three days of hard but
really fun driving. We all had a great feeling of accomplishment.
Some of
the Minutemen were already there including the Lindens, Tallones, Johnsons,
Callans, Michalaks, Gene Bunce, Dave Robbins, Cookie Smith and Susan
Champagne. A full week of "conventioneering" followed including some
beautiful tours to Smithfield, Yorktown and Jamestown. There must have been
over 500 cars on the Grand Tour! What a sight! We were also treated
to two wonderful "off site" dinners.
The first was a great evening at the Tallone's condo nearby where we dined on lasagna, salad, cheeses and a great
cake for dessert. Thanks Gene and Barbara. On
Thursday we drove to Tom Zappala's sister Maria's home and had an incredible barbeque dinner prepared by
her neighbors Bob and Gail Zimmerman. Bob had spent the better part of the day
"massaging" the rib racks on his deluxe grill. They were delicious.
On Saturday morning June 23rd, Wayne and Susan, Tom and Lisa and Bruce and
Cookie headed west towards the Blue Ridge mountains and the Skyline Drive.
We got held up just a bit going through Richmond but the traffic wasn't
nearly as bad as our trip through York, PA. While navigating Richmond,
Wayne spotted a 1931 SW four door sedan in a used car lot. The windows
were smashed out and it appeared to need a "full restoration." The Blue Ridge Parkway did not
disappoint although the hills (up and down) were pretty challenging for our
tough little cars. Tom, in particular, had some challenges climbing the
steep hills because the woody wagon is 400 lbs. heavier than any other Model
A. Tom also says that the woody is the least aerodynamic body style. He
was also carrying my Panama hat in the back that added extra weight.
After traversing the mountains we next arrived in Front Royal, VA for a gas
stop and then it was on to a Holiday Inn Express for the night. The
following day was spent on some fabulous roads in Virginia, West Virginia
and Pennsylvania.
The
Shenandoah River was crossed (twice) near Harper's
Ferry, WV and then it was on to Gettysburg to see a bit of the battlefield,
the cemetery and the town. We had lunch at a restaurant right in the center
of the town (good food, slow service) but had to deal with the sounds, and
smells, of hundreds of motorcycles roaring by while dining outside. The
bikes must have been in town for some sort of "run" or other event.
After lunch we drove down the Lincoln Highway (route 15) through another
torturous
part of York, PA and then on through Lancaster, PA to Bird In Hand in Amish
country.
We stayed at a nice bed and breakfast and the next morning we took
a ride over to Schwalm's Babbitted Bearings for a look at an engine
rebuilding shop.
Cookie called the place "Schwalmi's" saying that we were all going to see the
engine Schwalmi. Ora Landis showed us around his very clean and organized
shop. The women were really interested in the line boring apparatus, the
collection of counterbalanced crankshafts and the restrooms. I purchased another hubcap
to replace one that disappeared the previous day. I figure some Amish kid found
the cap on the side of the road and either accessorized his buggy or thought it
was something from a UFO.
By 10 AM were off again winding our way through Lancaster County and
past all of the pretty farms that dot the rolling countryside. We stopped
for lunch at a small market in New Jersey and enjoyed some great sandwiches.
What followed lunch was a ride through some of the most rugged terrain of
the entire trip as we traversed some state parks with huge hills and deep
valleys. These roads really put the cars to the test. We were forced
to get on a real busy section of NY route 20 for about 5 miles and in that short
time I almost got in two accidents. The first happened when merging from
the left onto route 20 into the high speed lane (nice highway design). A
very fast moving car doing about 75 MPH in a 50 MPH zone almost clipped
me. Shortly afterwards, another speeding New Yorker flew between my coupe and
Tom's woody doing about 50 MPH as he roared through a rotary. Tom
said he just missed the trunk mounted on the rear of my car. 
We arrived at the
United States Military Academy (West Point) at around 4:45 PM on Monday just in
time for the visitor center to close! Leaving West Point, we drove on an
absolutely beautiful road that hugs the cliffs high above the west side of the
Hudson River. The views were some of the best we saw all week. We stayed
at another Holiday Inn that night; this one in Fishkill, NY. We had to get
on I 84 for a few miles to get over there across the Hudson River but even at
5:30 PM everybody managed to emerge the interstate unscathed. One more
night on the road, our
last, and it was on the road early the next day bound for home.
The final day was filled with more steep climbs and brake burning descents. I've learned that signs like "Hog Back Hill Road" and "trucks, test brakes" are an indication that we are going over a mini-mountain. We had lunch in Granby, MA at a Subway (Cookie and I had the grilled chicken, "low fat" 12" sub sandwich that we split) and then it was straight home from there with only a quick ice cream stop, where we all said 'goodbye', in Webster, MA.
What a wonderful vacation we had spending eleven days and ten nights on the road. We traveled approximately 1725 miles on the trip. Any problems we had with the cars were minor. Where do we go next? (maybe Dallas, TX)
Life Is Good!
