Sentimental Tour-Touring in Texas!

[R W Burgess]

Gosh guys, do you know how far it is from Virginia to Kerrville, Texas?

1600+ miles, that's how far! We drove for 3 days, but we finally got here. The surprise in Dallas, TX is what got us. We spend the night 30 miles north of Dallas last night and woke up to an inch of snow and ice. (see photo).

We left the hotel at about 6:30, but had to clean the snow off of my pickup. For the next 1 1/2 hours, we saw at least 6-7 cars wrecked on the bridges on I-35. Our truck got a little sideways at 3 different times, even once to the point that I thought I might hit the car beside me. Thankfully, the temperature warmed up above freezing before we got to Austin and the road improved. The wind did not.

Well, we're here, registered and getting ready for the evening dinner. I'll have many pictures to share with you throughout the week.

Wayne

[Peter J.Heizmann]

Hi, Gloria & Wayne.

Glad you folks made it. I was stationed at Ft. Hood (Killeen, TX) in 1967-68 prior to going on a fun filled, Gov't paid-for, 17 month vacation to Southeast Asia. While at Ft. Hood our favorite weekend hobby was going to Shakey's Pizza Parlor in Austin, TX and give the "Aggies (sp) a hard time. Drove down in a 1960 Buick convertible owned by a die-hard old car nut. Do me a favor...see if they are still there. I still have a cheap plastic spinning top that they handed out. Place was neat. Had a gent on the piano and a banjo player. You could sing along to their tunes and had a screen with the song's words. Great times!

Have a good time.

Peter.

[Marty Roth]

Hi Wayne and Gloria,

Glad to have you here in Midland.

Dale and I trailered 12 hours on Saturday from New Orleans - the side winds were terrible on a tall, slab-sided trailer. Below freezing again tonight, but temperatures should be in the 70s daytime.

We are driving the pictured '41 Caddy -- love your '56 Chevy Handyman Wagon

[R W Burgess]

More pictures:

1. Gloria and Mike in the Hotel Lobby, a beautiful western style lobby.

2. Bob and Ruth Truex, all the way from Gridley, Ca, drove their Desoto all the way too.

3. Brenda Shore Kaiser, being serenaded by the

"Part of the Problem" Band at the opening ceremony dinner. The lead band member was pulling at Brenda's heart strings...should have been there Dave!(Brenda's husband)

4. Gloria and me.....party time!

Expecting a big day on the road tomorrow.

PS, Pedro, went very near Ford Hood, but was too lost to find Austin. :confused:

[R W Burgess]

Early rise today guys. Went to wipe off the foggy windshield and found frost!????? Back inside for the credit card to scrape it off. Eventually it got really warm in the afternoon. Sweat shirt in the morning, short sleeves in the afternoon.

Let's see if we can get up some pictures:

1. Beautiful yellow T-Bird at the breakfast break.

2. A very nice LaSalle just leaving the breakfast stop for the YO Ranch.

3. We first visited the YO Ranch. Front gate, cattle crossing style, next stop, the main Lodge? 7 miles straight ahead! After all, 40,000 acres takes a little time to get around on. Anyway, we got on the bus for a trip through the wild animal park. No, not our AACA people, but the exotic animals cared for on this ranch. Pictured is an Ostrich looking for a meal, trying to enter the bus..."Do I smell food?"

4. A very pregnant giraffe who happens to love lettuce. Some of our members got the feed her.

[R W Burgess]

1.Well, we found a Karaoke machine on the ranch and son Mike tries out his talent impersonating Elvis! Some say Wayne sang a few words, but it wasn't really him.

2. Here's good old Hulon winning top prize for chunking cow patties, although they call them chips??? Hey, Wayne knows what a cow patty is regardless of what you call it.

3. Last picture shows us following each other through the country side. Flood gauge? Yes, quick rain showers can make some of these roads impassable. Amazing, huh?

The group hit a few shops on the way in, plus a couple car collections. Sorry to say, I missed the best of these attending to a business problem.

We're heading north tomorrow, ("I'm going to Luckenbock, TX, with Waylon and Willie, and the boys!":cool:) so more pics will be on the way.

Wayne

[Guest Moepar]

Wayne-

I NEED DETAILS!!! Give up the dirt on the Hulon cow flop flap toss. He is in some serious need of a hard time from his favorite newsletter editor. This time he cant utter his five favorite words about me taking his picture - "Dawn I'm gonna KILL you!!" :eek:

He's just not fast enough!!

Dawn

[R W Burgess]

Big day today, then around 12:30 pm, the whole area lost all cell phones, bank money machine operations and long distance calling abilities. Not good!

But, let's start with a picture from Dave Kontor's Hupmobile mirror. I allowed my son, Mike, to drive the wagon today. He had problems with the cold engine and got way behind us. After about 25 minutes, my buddy Dave told me that the big red wagon was "trucking" our way, so I took the picture below. The side glass caused a reflection, but it's cool just the same.

Wayne

PS, forgot to mention that the Tour Logo you see here on Dave's car is the first National AACA Sentimental Tour put on by the Bull Run Region.

[R W Burgess]

A little back road driving...in second gear, no less. This one had us following a very nice green Mercury and two Louisiana friends in their '57 Nomads following Mike (right side-top) up the steep hill.

Wayne

[R W Burgess]

"We're going to Luckenbach, Texas, with Willy, and Waylon, and the boys!":cool:

The Burgess Clan at their favorite Texas town.

[R W Burgess]

The James Bartlett Packard!

[R W Burgess]

Stu and Clarice Allen, on the front porch of the Luckenbach, Texas Post Office, come Country Store!

The Allen's will be hosts with the 2012 Sentimental Tour in the Valley of Virginia.

Wayne

[R W Burgess]

My buddy, Dave Kontor from Latrobe, Pa with his 1932 Hupmobile in front of the Luckenbach Post Office.

[MCHinson]

Wayne, tell Dave I said hello. Sorry I could not make this one. Hope to see him next time!

[R W Burgess]

Will do Matt!

Calling for afternoon showers today. Hoping the Rainex makes for an easy day!

Wayne

[R W Burgess]

Left out a couple pictures yesterday, one, the Enchanted Rock State Park and its main attraction, the big pink rock you see below. We were allowed to climb the rock, which takes about 45 minutes. I did see about 5 doing the climbing as we left for our next stop.

I also left out the second pic below of some of our tours under the Luckenbach resident tree.

Just looked out the window, it's raining this morning, so I guess rain gear is going to be required early today. Gloria has also just informed me that we have a dressup dinner tonight with entertainment. Marty, Mike, and I will be lying very low!:eek::cool:

Wayne

PS: Whoops, forgot to mention that yesterday some also visited a Winery for tastings. I did not get pictures of this, as Gloria left me at the front gate, while she went in...something about crazy enough????:eek::confused:

[R W Burgess]

Running a little slow this morning guys. Talking to lots of people, driving all over the country side, then partying till the wee hours can wear one down...more about the partying later:

Early morning at the YO ranch Hotel will find touring cars like these below.....the Rinaldo MG, the Shore Chevy and the Gauld Jag!

[R W Burgess]

The dashboard of the John Sweney '32 7 passenger Caddy, a V-12 folks. John was warming up his V12 yesterday morning, hence the rain covered windshield, when I heard the big V12 bubbling, bobbling, missing?, no not missing, well it was running at any case.:confused:

Actually, John told me it would run on first 2 or 3 cylinders, then the rest of those cylinders would come into song. Really neat to hear the engine change tone.

Second picture is the Caddy from behind. Hulon McCraw road in the back yesterday, looking like a driving Miss Daisy movie star....umm, maybe "MR" Daisy!

[R W Burgess]

Our breakfast stop yesterday was at the Dream Cruise company, a business full of available cars for sale. Gloria spotted this '59 Chevy El Camino, then went Ga- Ga...Wayne to the rescue. Enough cars, we have! says Yoda, uh, Wayne!

[R W Burgess]

We're headed to Fredericksburg today, where you see us following the Glenn and Sandra Juneau Oldsmobile through town here.

Second pic: We're filling up the town parking spots as we highlight the early American style of everywhere USA in the 50's. The 5 and dime, the old record shop (had a time getting Mike out of there), and other old style stores (now antique shops) in Fredericksburg, TX. We all actually had "passports" to carry around to different shops to get "stamped"........

Then, last night the most stamped passport got a prize basket, one winner shown here....Earl and Judy Beauchamp!

[R W Burgess]

One more..then it's time for breakfast!

Dress-up night at the hotel, where we listened to the "Sentimental Journey Band". Here you see Ardie and Charlie Froehlich dressed to the nines! Charlie, can you change the spelling of your last name? Do you know how many times I have to look your name up in the tour book????:cool:

Wayne

[StillOutThere]

I'm a Kerrville local enjoying the cars down at the YO Hotel in the evenings. Had the honor of rebuilding the water pump on the '32 Cad V12 in the parking lot the other night - haven't done one of those in a few years.

Wanted to give a highlight spot to my favorite car on the tour, especially since I'm a Mopar fan. There must be some 30 or more car trailers around here and in some cases I understand the necessity but one of the cars traveling the furthest by license plate is the unassuming '51 DeSoto wagon from north of Sacramento, Calif. which was driven all the way here and will be driving all the way home. The wondrous young lady in the passenger seat informed us it has a '56 Hemi under the hood rather than the original six and all the better for topping the Rocky Mountains. A couple of pix attached.

Green lights, blue skies and thanks all y'all for visiting Kerrville, Texas. Y'all come back now.

[R W Burgess]

That Desoto belongs to Bob and Ruth Trueax of Gridley, CA. They have driven all over this nation in that car. While on the way to the first Sentimental Tour in Manassas, Virginia years ago, they had a genterator go out right in the middle of Richmond, Va on Interstate 95. Not to worry, Bob either had the generator or the connections to get her back on the road in short order.

After the Manassas Tour, the Trueaxes even stopped by my little part of the world for the Northern Neck's annual car show in Warsaw Virginia(After a lot of coaxing by Wayne ) Thanks Bob!

Wayne

[Paul Dobbin]

I too am enjoying the 2010 Sentimental Tour with Wayne and the boys. I'm taking lot of pictures that will have to wait to get posted. (New camera and

limited time for Computer)

This Texas Hill Country Tour is well laid out and executed. Everyday is different in scenery and stops. Through 4 days we've logged 504 miles and

20,000 calories. Seems the old definition of AACA Touring is still, "A drive on crooked roads between places to eat." But, we love it!

Edited March 26, 2010 by Paul Dobbin
spelling (see edit history)

[Terry Bond]

We're chillin out at the hospitality suite in the hotel after a great day of winding country roads with plenty of great scenery. We had some of the worlds greatest ice cream today - apple flavor! What a great week it's been. Even managed to raid some antique shops and find some goodies. Susan and I have enjoyed riding in the back-seats of some great vehicles this week and are really appreciative of the hospitality of the "Road Relics." More later with photos.

Terry

[Marty Roth]

Dale and I have re-connected with several friends on this tour, as well as some from VMCCA who used to live here in Kerrville - John and Marilyn Cornfoot came in for dinner tonight.

Today's drive was one of the prettiest we've had in a long time - top-down, of course, and yes, we are driving the pale yellow 1941 Cadillac convertible pictured below.

[johndog1957]

First, thanks to Wayne Graefon and his friend Jeff for all the help with the 1932 Cadillac water pump! The small leak had gone from minor nuisance to major flow, and we would have been stopped in our tracks without help to get new packing!

Also, I have lots of pictures and video snippets, which i will post later... Here is a TEST of one short clip from Luckenbach!

<EMBED height=344 type=application/x-shockwave-flash width=425 src=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Emb29Dcdeag&hl=en_US&fs=1& allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true"></EMBED>

[R W Burgess]

Thanks for posting today guys. And, John, (Johndog), it was a pleasure meeting you this week.

Well guys, I took so many pictures that editing the ones that need to be posted will take a little time. I'll do my best to put them up in the morning. We saw some of the prettiest country today in the Texas highlands, really breathtaking at times.

Till tomorrow.. Wayne

[R W Burgess]

1. First thing yesterday morning had us following the Robbie Grey '29 Ford Model A with the ever smiling Nelson Driver as co-pilot. These two friends are from the Valley of Virginia (Staunton-Waynesboro area) and seem to be everywhere an AACA Tour is happening.

2. Of course you have heard of Boot Hill, well this next picture isn't it, because these boots were "donated" and put on top of the fence posts years ago as a donation to the poor of this area in the early days. Boots are still put on this fence today to keep the memories of harder times alive.

3. After following the Grey Model A, we let this very nice LaSalle pass us by. I think there may be a story coming from me concerning this Bill and Nora Schlenker LaSalle, very nice car. We were following these guys when we encountered this beautiful piece of highway, what a site.

4. After coming down the hill, we had a breakfast break at the Lone Star Motorcycle Museum. This was about the time that I realized that Verizon had forgotten this part of the world, and my business people for the day were probably starting to wonder what part of the world Wayne had fell off of????? More about that later.

5. I pulled off the highway for this shot. This little steep hill was quite steep, a second gear pull for our little Chevy. I could hear these three cars pulling hard before they came into sight. I do not recognize the Caddy, but that's Earl and Judy Beauchamp in their '39 Buick seemingly pushing the Treaux Desoto up the grade.

6. We were pulling into the town of Leakey for lunch with this shot. I'm getting really upset now as I realize that I still do not have cell service. Grumbling about it inside the restaurant, I suddenly heard the John Sweney cell phone ring. John graciously offered his phone, which I will forever thank him for. Seems that At&T was the only phone service in town. I joked that I should have used John's phone to call Verizon and ask them if they "COULD HEAR ME NOW?";) , since I had use another carrier to call them.

7. Leaving Leakey, we ended up following Mike and Betty Kraemer's '57 Chevy Nomad, a very pretty machine from Houma, LA. What about those cliffs guys?

Well, we're getting dressed for our last day of touring in Texas. I will see what else I can take pictures of before we leave. Speaking of pictures, yesterday my son, Mike was taking a picture of some Buffalo beside the highway. another lady had already pulled off the road in her personal car and was waving at us as we went by. Seeing Mike with the camera pointed to her made her almost hit the ground covering her face up. Lots of Camera shy people in the world. :eek:

Catch you later!

Wayne

[R W Burgess]

The 2010 Sentimental Tour is over and all of the tourers are heading for home. I'll have the last day of pictures up before week's end. A few of us had some mechanical problems today.

1. Earl Beauchamp only got about 30 miles from the hotel when the check engine light on his late model Chevy displayed a malfunction. He also had trouble getting the truck to receive fuel. Luckily he found a Chevy dealer to get him going again.

2. Dave Kontor blew out another trailer tire while following me up the road, his third for the tour. We got the spare on in short order, but Dave was concerned with not having a spare, so he found someone in Texarkana to put another spare together.

3. The Peterson crew, Don, West, and Robert, had a trailer u-bolt-spring combination malfunction which caused the axles to try to go in different directions. Last I heard, he has a shop in Shreveport, LA getting the trailer operational again.

These are just the guys I know that are having trouble. Hopefully everyone else will make it safely home.

Wayne

[Marty Roth]

We are home safe and sound outside of New Orleans, and had a great dinner at Prejean's Restaurant in Lafayette, Louisiana - no mechanical concerns along the way home - just juggling cars and trailer in the driveway.

We did have a traffic tie-up in Houston on I-10, and a Female driver was so locked into her cell phone that every time traffic did move, it took several toots of the horn to get her attention to get her moving. We finally had to go around her right since she was blocking the left lane, and then she chased and threatened us after we got going!

We tried to take old-car friends Karen & Harry from Lake Charles, LA to dinner, but they were at a surprise birthday party

Ron and Linda made it safely back to Midland, TX with that beautiful red 1957 Chevy convertible. This was their first AACA Tour,and really enjoyed it.

Spent the late night with our daughter in the local E.R. with what scared us, but turned out to be (probably) an infected salivary gland. Her MD will follow-up

Freckles, our 20-year-old Dalmatian is home from boarding at the Veterinarian - she thinks she is going to summer camp.

Kudos to the folks who gave us a fantastic week of touring TEXAS HILL COUNTRY-and we saw lots of Texas Bluebonnets blooming along our return trip on I-10

Thanks again to Earl Beauchamp for the idea of the Sentimental Tour- we had a ball

Edited March 28, 2010 by Marty Roth
typos (see edit history)

[Terry Bond]

Wow, what a great time in Texas! We're home now, unpacking, nursing some sniffles from the drastic change in temps - it was 43 degrees here in Norfolk when we landed! I've been going through a zillion great pics since first coffee this morning. This is what touring is all about-great cars, beautiful scenery, good food, friendships old and new, all wrapped in the AACA umbrella. Thanks to the Road Relics, Vic and Jan and the team for a wonderful weekend and a great beginning to our next 75 years on the road together! Here are pics of the cars we got to ride in, and three generations of the Peterson family.

More later (with pics of course)

Terry

[Terry Bond]

And a few more pics just for the fun of it...

[R W Burgess]

Excellant pictures Terry. Really like that dual Buick shot of Doug and Chris's cars.

Another road trip update:

Earl Beauchamp called me at dinnertime today and said that he blew out a trailer tire in the middle of a 20+ mile bridge in Louisana, had to limp to the end of the bridge where one side of the tire remains fell off the rim. Then, at dinner time tonight as he checked the straps on his Buick, he noticed wood chips "inside" the trailer. The blown tire had punched a football size hole in his trailer floor.:eek:

He also told me that the good tire in front of the blown one had picked up many steel pins, looking like a porcupine.

My pictures will have to wait until tomorrow night. In packing up all of our luggage and the goodies that Gloria "bought", I can't find my camera case....imagine that!

Wayne

[johndog1957]

Here are some more pictures... They speak for themselves!

- John Sweney

[Dynaflash8]

Finally made it home at 6:20 EDT Monday. Sorry Suburban (there might be a Ford in my future) still running with check engine light on and nearly impossible to put gas into (but I percevered -- check spelling on that (Google says persevered, Earl!Wayne). It took us four hours longer to go three hundred miles less than Burgess, but he's a professional truck owner. No more blown out tires. All the travel difficulties coming home can't take away from the fact that this was an absolutely wonderful tour. Vic Donnell and company did the best planning of any tour I've ever attended. I must have gained ten pounds on the free breakfasts! I loved this tour, great scenery, great music, great people, great cars. I can't be anymore excited about what a great tour this was. Congratulations to the Road Relics who make up the Centras Texas Region. I might have some pictures to post later on if I can figue out how to do that. Many thanks to the Road Relics for a wonderful time from Judy and me. Earl Beauchamp

[R W Burgess]

Left out of Keerville in a hurry on Friday morning, with everyone having the end of day packing on their mind. "All slow cars please move to the right!", these fast Buicks are saying!

Picture two..."Ask and you shall receive!" says Dave Kontor's Hupmobile to the Buicks of Chris Johnson and Doug Seybold.

[R W Burgess]

Our breakfast stop for Friday was in Bandera, Tx at the Bandera First Baptist Church (thanks guys!), then across the street to the Frontier Times Museum, where I caught these cars in the parking lot.

Right behind the Museum, Hulon McCraw gave a Texas "Yahoo!" to the camera man (me) to check this out! Yep, a fifties style bomb shelter. Brought back memories to me of crouching under a school desk, like that would do any good???:eek:

Then, after seeing this bomb shelter....did we really think this little box would protect us from radiation poisoning? A well to do neighbor of mine had one of these, although I have never seen it, the only one within 50 miles of my house that I knew of.

[R W Burgess]

pic 1. the very nice '50 Olds of Lars and Joan Anderson, Master Editors from Oconomowoc, WI. I'm not learning how to pronounce that Lars, took me three months to pronounce Canandaigua for Pat Thorpe

pic 2. Then we have this picture in the same park, Veteran's Park, setting in Boerne, TX where we had our buffet lunch. That's "Miss Jenny" in front of Ernie and Jenny's 1955 Jag-e-way! (Jaguar)

This little park also had a Memorial Oblisk listing all of the area's military men and women that did not return from foreign wars back to World War I. Amazingly, the area did not lose any Vietnam vets. I wish that I could say the same for my little part of the world.

Edit: I had forgotten my Cowgirl. When in Texas, you dress like Texans!

Edited March 30, 2010 by R W Burgess
Left out my Cowgirl! (see edit history)

[R W Burgess]

pic 1. Here's Top's (and Bonnie Dunn's) 1958 Edsel Citation!

Top, you ask? You see, George (Top) was an Army Veteran with 6 years in Germany, where he served as the Top Sergeant of his company. For those that do not know, the Top Sergeant ran the companies in the US Army. Even the officers did not mess with these guys. Old George was full of good old stories, which he shared with me on a Fredericksburg bench while the wives shopped that day. Enjoyed it George. Oh, and Bonnie? Well she's another big fan of "Farmville"???? Where have we heard this before? Philadelphia! That's it. Why can't we have a "Old Carville" for the AACA and the world, so we can shop for parts, fix old cars, and not ever spend a penny?

pic 2. Awards night at the YO Conference Center was a hit, as we all enjoyed our last night together and with sorrow, said our last good byes until next time. This picture is of the Sentimental Tour top winners, in my estimation. Earl and Judy Beauchamp from Sebring FL. Earl twisted a lot of arms to get the AACA to accept the Sentimental Tour as an even number year National Tour. Those of us who have followed the tour around the 5 states that hosted it have enjoyed it immensely. (sorry, I missed the Kentucky Divisional Tour). Make sure that the next time you see Earl and Judy, you thank them.

Until next time,

Wayne and Gloria Burgess