Reliability Tour

[Terry Bond]

First post from Richmond Va! The Reliability Tour is well underway and going fine. Pictures are coming so be patient. We arrived in Richmond on Sunday just in time for the opening dinner and entertainment where we were treated to a lesson in "Southern English." It was a great opening and gave some of the northerners on this tour the chance to learn how to speak "southernese." We have over 40 pre 1916 cars and participants from all over the country including Florida, California, and even Australia! Cars range from a 1903 Cadillac to Model Ts, Locomobile, Studebaker, Interstate, Haynes, Pierce, Pullman, Overland, Packard, Rambler, Buick and a few more that we'll have more info about later when we download some pics. Mondays routes were great back country roads that took us to see some civil war history. The drive through the shaded pathways on the Cold-Harbor battlefield were awesome. We enjoyed a great meal at historic Hanover Tavern and toured Hanover court-house. We had a chance to antique our way back towards Richmond by way of a whole string of neat shops. Today we had a shorter day and headed in towards Richmond. There was plenty of time to go through some of the most amazing gardens we've ever toured. The museums in Richmond were filled with Virginia and Richmond history, including the only surviving Kline Kar. Tonight was an ice-cream social outside in a wonderful setting at a Wyndham resort where were treated to a slice of the Richmond Regions 60th Anniversary birthday cake and the chance to see some gas light cars departing after dark. The Richmond Region is doing a great job, and those little red arrows at every turn are most welcome. The directions are spot-on, the scenery is fantastic and cars are doing well. The heat here has even moderated so we're able to manage quite well. Our 14 T is running great and we're ready to go again tomorrow to soak up some more history along some of Virginia's back roads in the Ashland, Scotchtown and Beaverdam area.

[R W Burgess]

Just a few shots to get started:

I rode with the Reggie Nash Family on Monday. This is Reggie and Cindi's grandaughter "at the wheel" all day. (picture is not reversed-right hand drive 1909 Rambler)

2nd pic: oldest car a 1903 Caddy driven by Australian's Chris and Jenny Sorensen. The car seems to have carb problems as the dark smoke shows here. They are still trying to get this car running correctly again.

3rd pic: Cindi, Alex and Reggie with the Rambler.

4th pic: The Duke Clan, along with the Fuhrman twins. These guys were pictured in their best dress on our tour plaque. They were good as keeping the rest of us feeling younger. Hummm, well the Moms may question that statement. It was really great though seeing these guys playing around on Monday.

Wayne

[R W Burgess]

Over the hill and through the dale.......

Yes Virginia, there are hills in Richmond! Not the best picture, but really cool to see that many of us togetheron the highway on Monday.

Wayne

[R W Burgess]

Sheeeww! Man, playing this old car game will wear one out! I am going to post a couple pictures here for you guys to think about, then I need to cut my grass, it's over my ankles, and the neighbors are starting to look the "other way" when they go by my home.

First pic: The Weaver Family from Pinetops, NC. Funny how I have been to so many tours, yet have not met a fraction of the AACA and HCCA members of our hobby. The Weaver's started out a real long time ago. I'll add to this story.

Video! On Friday, we enjoy a pizza party at Reggie and Cinda Nash's riverfront home. As everyone arrives, I noticed that Director, Bob Parrish, is riding with Janice in her Speedster. Bob's hair was all askew, with a big smile all his face. Not to be outdone, I got permission from Janice to ride back to our hotel for the finish of the day. Well, I had my camera on the ready the whole trip back, but wow, this little jewel of a car is jumpy! I certainly thought my extra 220 pounds would hold her down, but...well, check check out this video.....

You can hear me start to laugh when the camera starts to get shaky. I finally gave up. The youtube program asked if I wanted to clear up the shakiness, but then you'd lose the effect! A few miles later, my eyes started to tear up. I leaned over to Janice and told her I should think of some sad stories to make good use of the tears!:cool: It was a fun trip back to the hotel.

Wayne

[R W Burgess]

Reggie's Playgorund!

This video is of Reggie and Cindi Nash's riverfront home, showing some of the remaining cars leaving for the hotel. Pictured are Sue and Terry Bond, Don, Carol Barlup, and Dale Roth. The last car leaving is Al and Irene Terek, along with Sally Barnett in the back seat....cooollll!

I think it's cool to see AACA members like Al Terek playing with old cars. I've only seen him at a judging school doing his duty, until this tour. Good job Al. I'm sure Irene enjoyed it too.

Wayne

[R W Burgess]

Ok, here is a good picture, might keep it as my desktop for a bit, to remind me of the good times. Morris and Alice Cameron had this Model T available for anyone to drive. I decided my day would be Wednesday. Naturally, I have very few pictures taken from Wednesday. It was all I could do to keep the pedals straight in my mind.

2 Levers on the steering column, neither of which was a turn signal or even a cruise control lever????:confused:

Way too many floor pedals, 3 or 4, none of which did what I asked of them. Going to high gear was easy. Reverse? You could forget that.

I was good at stopping though, didn't even have to cut it off, as it was dead on arrival each time....choked out!

The fun part was my passengers. Poor ladies that I will not name. The screaming started right at the beginning. "Wasn't that a red light?"

Well gosh, I had just found high gear, no point in stopping now. They both took it in good humor though, even though I could find neither one of them for my second day of driving????:eek:

[R W Burgess]

Ice Cream night on the lawn!

We all enjoyed this activity, even had a few early cars show up for the evening. Manny Rein's son Nick even turned on his carbide headlamps for the trip home....darn missed that.

They tell me that some of the local lightening bugs even fell in love with Nick's headlamps!!:cool:

Wayne

[Terry Bond]

Grass cutting was a good idea, but by the time we got home, got the T put to bed and put some things away, we were just too tired. Good thing it's a long weekend. We had a great time. Weather cooperated and despite lots of rain in the area we toured all week in the dry. Heat didn't get really uncomfortable until late on Thurs and on Friday, but we just opened the rear curtain on the T and drove faster. Thanks for posting the video clips Wayne! I've got a good pic of the gas lights you mentioned. They are quite bright actually. The cars were great of course, but we got into some places not normally open to the public, like Tuckahoe Plantation. It was awesome. Lots of great stories but we sure got a great tour on Friday when we added young Clay Furhman to the shot-gun seat in our T. He really knew a lot of the area and filled us in. That young man knows where every old car is within about a 100 mile radius of Richmond.

[budd28]

Well I'm glad everybody had a good time on the tour Morris and Alice make sure every i is dotted and every t is crossed. I was there in spirit because I had to work all week, but I talked to Alice 2-3 times a day. And Terry I liked your suggestion on doing some joint ventures betwwen the Richmond Region and the Tidewater hopefully we can make something happen.

[R W Burgess]

.......... And Terry I liked your suggestion on doing some joint ventures betwwen the Richmond Region and the Tidewater hopefully we can make something happen.

Include the Northern Neck Budd!

Better yet, make it an ODMA venture!

Wayne

[Terry Bond]

Yes - the Old Dominion Meet Association is alive and well and we're excited about the coming season! It's a great way for Va AACA regions/chapters to get together. I'm going to talk with our prez about coming up with a joint event somewhere. I'm absolutely thrilled to see what the Richmond Region did for this tour, and I know their future is strong. Here are a few more pics from the event. By the time I put Susan's pics together with mine, we have enough for a disc full of great memories. I had to take a pic of our Model T alongside that Packard. Among my collection of automotive related sheet music I've got a song called

The Love Story of the Packard and The Ford. We made some new friends and am anxious to follow the T's to NC for one of their events. It was great touring with everyone.

Terry

[Guest festanley]

Kudos to the Richmond Region for a great week of touring. They did a great job of having everything organized from accurate and clear directions to people placed to help direct parking. Plus we were treated to a lot of genuine hospitality. And we got to meet some new friends.

Alan

[Marty Roth]

Dale and I had a great time on the Reliability Tour. Our 1914 buick decided to stay in New Orleans and ride out Hurricane Isaac, while her Starter-Generator was being rebuilt in Michigan. Fortunately the tour participants are as gracious as their cars are beautiful.

Richmond Region Hosts Reggie and Cindi Nash asked us to ride with them for Wednesday in their 1909 Rambler Touring -- when we met for breakfast they told us that I would be driving their 103 year-old all-original time capsule. It will take weeks to erode the grin from my face!

Next, I got to drive Don and Carol Barlup's fantastic 1914 Pullman Touring. Apparently Pullman built 25,000 cars, but only 22 are known to exist, and theirs is the only one of its year and type. This car has buckets of torque and a 3-speed plus overdrive to boot! Just an amazing car, and driving it is a thrill.

Our '14 Buick B-37 should be back on the road for local tours this month, and then the Glidden in October.

There were so many fine cars on this tour that it was a pleasure just thinking about them, and a reminder that Touring is where it's at. The Haddens were there from Georgia with their Interstate, and Georgia was also represented by Nevy and Kirsten Clark with their magnificent Pierce-Arrow Speedster. The Taylors came from Ohio with the Stevens-Duryea, while the Gagliano and Raines families each brought an Overland. Add the names of Bond, Barnett, Ricketts, and Rohr and it was hard to tell just how many Past-Presidents or their families were there to honor us with their presence. President Herb and First Lady Fran Oakes got to ride in several great cars and share their days with a bunch of gracious families.

Back home, we had only minimum impact from Hurricane Isaac - downed fences & branches, torn screen on the patio, swollen doors, and a jammed garage door which still will not open. The kids have "borrowed" our spare generators and window A/C units (kept for this kind of emergency), and are still doing their grocery shopping in our freezer.

Looking forward to the Glidden....

Edited September 7, 2012 by Marty Roth (see edit history)

[AC Fuhrman]

Thank you to all who attended and in particular all Richmond Region members that worked so hard to make it happen!

Andy Fuhrman

President

Richmond Region

[Terry Bond]

We're still talking about the tour here in Tidewater. Was just on the phone with Bob Parrish this evening talking about what a great time we had. I think he is actually softening up to a brass era car. Having been seen publicly now in a Model T I think the mold is broken and we can ease him into something interesting. I believe I'm going to buy him a can of brasso for Christmas this year! Had dinner with some friends Monday and we popped our disc in so we could watch the pics from the tour while we ate. Dinner took us almost an hour and a half. I ate slow because I was constantly talking about the cars, the people, the scenery, or something near we saw. I think the most memorable part of the whole week was the beautiful solitude of those country roads. Most of the time we had them to ourselves and all you could see was brass era cars in front or behind you. All you could hear was birds chirping and the rumble of the early cars. It was a trip back in time and I know everyone is anxious for the next chance to polish the brass and roll. Here are a few more pics. First one is our long-distance award winners from Australia in the 1903 Cadillac. How about that Buzzy mascot on Steve and Brenda Rinaldos Model T - rumor has it there will be a number of these recast in light-weight aluminum. Doesn't that early T look just right on the one lane bridge? Sally Barnett is enjoying her top town ride through Richmond, and the last pic is actually a real traffic jam coming out of Richmond on Friday.

Terry

Edited September 12, 2012 by Terry Bond (see edit history)

[Terry Bond]

And just a few more. Sorry to include my own car so much but it performed so well and heck, my post, so why not!

[R W Burgess]

That last picture above of the white Model T is Steve Renaldi. Another tourer had two young girls (about 6-7 years old) with him and Steve drove them around at one of the Plantations later in the week. Kids really smile in old cars.

Wayne

[AC Fuhrman]

I am so pleased with all the great responses here plus the cards and calls I've gotten at home, THANK YOU. The Camerons of course are expert Tour planners but so many others from the Richmond Region came together to make it special! Look for more photos and stories in Buzzard Droppings, Speedster and Antique Automobile.

Andy Fuhrman

Proud President

Richmond Region AACA

:cool: