The 1989 Transcontinental Tour - Galveston, Texas to Bar Harbor, Maine
/Written by Howard Henry. Originally published in The Bulb Horn, 1989, Volume L No 4.
Old friends (L to r) ernie gill, curt blake, howard henry, john grundy, diane grundy and judy henry together again. Judy henry always writes The tattler, the tour newsletter.
The Transcontinental Reliability Tours, sponsored by The Veteran Motor Car Club of America, and directed by Millard W. Newman of Florida, have been the greatest old car tours in modern antique car history. 1989 marked the 21st birthday of the tours: it was after the 1966 Glidden Tour in the Tampa Bay area that Millard Newman asked the group if they would be interested in taking a tour lasting as long as a month. The response was enthusiastic, and the 1968 Transcontinental Tour was born.
1968 was the sixtieth anniversary of the 1908 New York to Paris auto race. The 1908 race was international, and thirteen cars signed up. When the final lin-up took place in Times Square, however, there were only six entries: An American Thomas Flyer, a French Sizaire-Naudin, a German Protos, an Italian Zust, a French Motobloc and a French DeDion. The “Longest Auto Race” began in New York City and ran to Albany, Chicago, Seattle, by freighter to Japan, then to Vladivostok, across all of Siberia, Moscow, Berlin and then to the final destination, Paris. Thinking about such a trip today staggers the imagination. The logistics alone would stop most people in their tracks before they started.
Charlene and Peter kesling stop to pose for the photographer while applying elbow grease to their rare 1914 mitchell
In 1908 The New York Times had promised the winning driver $1,000. The American entry, a Thomas Flyer made in Buffalo, New York, with George Schuster driving most of the way, was the victor, but he never received his check. In 1968, Millard Newman persuaded The New York Times to write a check for $1,000, and it was delivered to Mr. Schuster on the first leg of our Transcontinental Tour. Mr. Schuster, then in his nineties and nearly blind, recounted some of the high points of the Siberian crossing. We were all appreciative listeners, but certainly no one in the audience was more interested than Dr. Montague Roberts, whose father was one of the alternate drivers of the Thomas Flyer.
At the beginning of our eighth tour this past June, Millard reminded us that the ‘68 trip was supposed to have been a tour to end all tours. But it was so enjoyable that we have found excuses every few years to make just one more long journey. We have crossed the United States from East to West, West to East, South to North, diagonally, Canada to Mexico, and we even went to England to tour Great Britain in 1987. Where next? Certainly the 1989 Tour was one of the best.
Of the 54 cars listed in the triptik, nine did not show up for one reason or another, 38 were old timers, having been on at least one of the previous trips, and eight were newcomers. The first official act in Galveston was the inspection of each car for:
ken pearson, one of the members of the safety committee, checking george haley’s 1913 peerless for play in the steering
Safety Glass
Brakes
Lights and Red Reflectors
Steering Play
Horn
Fire Extinguisher
Very few adjustments had to be made. The Safety Committee, headed by Ernie Gill, consisted of Kenneth Pearson, John Hovey, Howard Henry, Sheldon Loewenthal, Jim Thomas and George Haley.
It was a great feeling to find our 1913 Packard in the parking lot at the Hotel Galvez. Friends had supervised the unloading and even paid the trucking firm for the Maryland to Texas freight. We septuaganarians (well, one of us) had decided that in order to conserve energy we would not drive the extra 2,000 miles from our home to the starting point in Galveston. Not so John Grundy! John drove his 1910 Packard Touring from Carmel, California to Galveston, managed the 3,000 mile plus tour to Maine, and then drove back home via Iola, Wisconsin, headquarters for Old Cars Weekly. He and a friend made the last 1,100 miles in three days, and John estimated his total round trip to be about 8,500 miles. He had his fourth flat tire on the last day and ran out of gas only ten miles from home.
The loewenthal 1906 Stevens-Duryea at the hotel in jackson, mississippi…or is it tupelo? photo by bill loewenthal.
Susan Young had a desk setup in the lobby of the Hotel Galvez. Susan has acted as Millard’s right arm on many of the past tours and deserves a lot of the credit for making all the arrangements at the many hotels, catching arithmetical errors on entry forms, packing our tour envelopes with correct banners, tickets, etc. and in general getting us off to a good start. It was a pleasure for all of us to be together again and to meet the new tour members who were trying long mileage travel in an old car for the first time.
Sunday, June 11th, was our day to line up outside the Hotel Galvez and take off for Bar Harbor, Maine which seemed very far away at that point. Our day’s run would take us to Beaumont, Texas, near the Louisiana state line. It was great to be on our way, especially to leave the high humidity and 100 degree weather at Galveston. Our Packard (#2) ran fine until we stopped for gas near Baytown, only to find the car wouldn’t start. A short tow from Dick Staadt’s Fiat provided the necessary momentum to get going, and we reached Beaumont without further trouble. Expert Gill diagnosed the problem as a broken Bendix spring. Luckily, we located a nearby starter and generator repair service which provided the parts necessary for gill to make the repairs. It is nice that there are people like Ernie who have the knowledge and experience and especially the willingness to help the less talented tourists.
As news trickled in at the end of the day, we learned of an accident that had befallen our Tour Director. Millard had been changing a tire and was blowing it up with the safety ring face down, which is normal good practice, when the tire “exploded”, rose off the ground and hit him hard enough to break his right arm. Later inspection revealed that the last attendant had used a wheel retainer ring instead of the approved Firestone safety ring. Luckily, John Grundy knows how to manage a Rolls-Royce, so he took over the driving chores since Millard’s cranking and steering arm had been rendered useless. John’s guest, Ron Adams, could drive the Packard (#45), so it worked out well for all concerned.
Tour director millard newman suffered bodily harm the second day out, but his rolls looks as good as it did on the 1968 tour.
On the second day out Harold Via’s Simplex (#22) had developed a loud engine knock. It was found a main bearing had melted down. That was the end of the trip for the Simplex but not its owner. Harold showed he is a man of action. He arranged to borrow Jim Conant’s trailer, plus a teenage baggage boy from Alex Joyce, and drove the 1,000 miles plus from Mississippi to Free Union, Virginia. Three days later he turned up in Nashville with a Model T Ford Touring Car in which he finished the trip. Another sad happening on that day was John Drew’s 1911 Ford (#12) suffering a broken crankshaft. He trailered the car to Connecticut where he replaced the engine, rejoining us some days later to complete the tour.
ernie and althea gill and their 1912 packard are the only combination of three to have made all eight transcontinentals.
For the next few days we motored up a unique and beautiful highway. It is called the Natchez Trace Parkway and runs 450 miles through Mississippi, a corner of Alabama, and ends just south of Nashville, Tennessee. Imagine a parkway of that length with no billboards, no trucks, no traffic lights and an immaculately maintained right of way. It is a tribute to our National Parks System.
Charlie bradshaw, cork simmelink assisting, changed a cylinder head on his 1914 cadillac in the opryland hotel parking lot.
Before we got to Nashville, the experts had repaired the clutch bearing on Bud Stanley’s 1914 Cole (#13), straightened the vibrating crankshaft on Bod Lewin’s 1910 Buick (#42), fixed a clutch problem on Mike Sierra’s 1912 Hudson (#6) and changed a head on Charlie Bradshaw’s 1914 Cadillac (#50). The latter had blown a spark plug out of its head and pierced the hood. The valve port also blew out. These were strange happenings! The cylinder was replaced in the parking lot of the Opryland Hotel. Charlie, with the help of Cork Simmerlink, got things put together and bravely kept on until New York State where the jug cracked on the #4 cylinder. Like many others, he surely gets an A for effort.
We spent two nights at the Opryland Hotel. It is indescribably huge. It now has 1900 rooms and 500 more are being added. When you register at the hotel desk, the clerk gives you a 14 page booklet with maps showing the meeting rooms, dining rooms and guest areas. The first evening we were bussed to the nearby Cumberland River, where we took a three hour dinner cruise on the General Jackson Showboat. Alex Joyce generously hosted a cocktail party aboard the boat. Alex, who drove a 1910 Stanley Steamer (#28), was also instrumental in arranging to have most of the tourist’s luggage transported daily in a closed truck. Five young men from Woodbury Forest School came to be known affectionately as the Baggage Boys or the Luggage Lads.
Kentucky, the birth state of Abraham Lincoln, was certainly picturesque, and we were sorry we were unable to spend more time there. Unfortunately, one of our group, Earl Young, spent more time there then he had planned in that he suffered a heart attack and had to remain in a Louisville hospital for more than a week. On the way to Ohio we ran into more heavy rains and wondered if the weather would ever clear. Bill Davis, Tour Marshal, reported that he had been antique auto touring and white water rafting before, but never in the same conveyance on the same day!
Just before entering Cleveland, we saw signs in Strongsville directing us to a VMCCA gathering nearby. Welcome hors d’oeuvers were served at the home of Bill and Bernice Donze. It was a nice surprise. The following day Jim and Dorthy Conant opened their home so we could inspect their wonderful collection of automotive art as well as their antique autos. Larry and Ginger Kraus offered great pizzas for everyone. All in all, it was a hospitable town. A mid-tour banquet was held at the Crawford Auto-Aviation Museum that evening, and it was good to have the chance to inspect their outstanding auto collection.
Gale Rodman and her 1913 Cadillac (#15) had joined us in Nashville, but in Clevland the distributor shaft seized and the gears stripped. Unfortunately, it proved unfixable.
Our group had a generous invitation to stop for a pancake breakfast at Joe Loecy’s home in Chardon, Ohio. This visit gave us a chance to see his outstanding collection of Rolls-Royces. From the Cleveland area we continued Northeast into Pennsylvania where we spent the night in Warren, just a few miles from Ernie Gill’s favorite deer hunting spot. The following day in Elmira, New York, John Grundy repaired his right rear wheel, the wooden spokes having become visibly and audibly looser and looser. John removed all the spokes from the felloe, cleaned off the loose dirt, then glued them together with a liberal coating of epoxy. It was a repair job that was hard to believe, but thankfully successful. The Grundy group got the wheel properly aligned, too.
John Grundy’s 1910 Packard 30 at the ascutney mountain resort which was HQ for the Brass and Gas tour. John Grundy Photo.
We moved further in New York State and stopped at Cazenovia where the Oneida Lake Region AACA provided us with coffee and donuts. It was nice to meet the local group and get a chance to see their cars. It was also fun for the Henry’s to have lunch with five members of their family. We spent the night in Utica, where Judy saw her old nursemaid for the first time in fifty years. The following day we were off to Rutland, Vermont. The drive was through typical New England rolling country. We arrived at our checkpoint in good time where a guest of the tour, Dr. Robert Collins, treated the whole entourage to a cocktail party.
Alex joyce with some of the “baggage boys” from woodbury forest school in his 1910 stanley at the finish in ellsworth maine.
Tuesday, July 27th, brought us to the ski lodge at Ascutney, Vermont where we merged with the VMCCA-HCCA New England National Brass and Gas Tour for three days. It was a great spectacle to see over 250 brass cars all at one location. The tour committee had arranged different daily tours and games, including a trip to Curt Blake’s Mountain where several hundred of us were treated to lunch. It was a tough climb for the cars, and even in low gear it was a stain to reach the top. That day’s tour was certainly a high point in more ways than one!
When it came time to leave the Ascutney Mountain Resort we realized that our trip was two-thirds over. Most of the tourists made the run to Paris, Maine where Millard had arranged for the group to see Bob Bahre’s collection of rare and exotic automobiles. The Bahres not only provided lunch for the crowd, but their hospitality extended well into the night as they wined and dined those who used the shop facilities. Bud Stanley’s Cole (#13) had lost a kingpin and had made a temporary repair. Mr. Bahre’s machinist fashioned a pin that worked like new.
The Henry’s spent the off night seeing more relatives and checked in at Le Chateau Champlain in good time. It was a real pleasure to cross the border into Canada now that the old red tape seems to have been eliminated. At the restoration hour we got the bad news about Larry O’Neal’s 1912 Cadillac (#23) burning out the number one rod bearing. He was unable to find babbitt material to pour his bearing, so was forced to use solder, which held up for the remaining miles. Somebody really used his head. Henry Petronis had to replace two broken axles on his Lozier (#8) near Montreal.
The 150 mile drive to Quebec (Northwest) down the St. Lawrence River Valley was through comfortable rolling country. Traffic was light and everyone seemed friendly. We were in Quebec City for two days and there was lots to see and do. Many took advantage of bus tours and taxis to “do” the town. It did seem a little strange to be spending the Fourth of July in Canada.
The final leg of our 3,000 mile trip was south through lower Canada, an easy entrance into the United States near Jackman, Maine and a pleasant “on your own” night spent at Skowhegan, Maine. Since the motel had no dining room, the motel keeper recommended a small restaurant which had a lobster at two for $12.95. It seemed impossible that two people could eat four lobsters, but we did! Several of our group stayed at a nearby motel and had their own cookout and general all around good time.
By Thursday, July 6th, we had gotten so used to touring that it had become a way of life for us. It didn’t seem possible that the great trip was coming to an end. All the cars were assembled at our final motel, the Holiday Inn at Ellsworth, where we lined up to receive the completion plaque from our Tour Director. The parking lot was a busy place. Some were loading their antique cars into huge transports while others were being met by their own trailers. Repacking was going on all around us. The last phone call regarding the trip was to the Ken Pearsons, friends of Earl Young, and assurance was given that Earl had recovered from his heart problem.
At the final banquet Millard Newman thanked Dorothy Conant, the check-in lady, and Judy Henry, the Tattler editor and publisher, for their contributions to the enjoyment of the tour. It had been a long trip with some very bad luck for some of the participants, but on the good side the group was congenial and it was more than a little sad to see it all come to an end.