After the Goldrush

We flew into Sacramento on Air Alaska and took a van downtown to the Best Western Sutter House. After Victoria, Sacramento was looking distinctly sorry for itself. Nearby Stockton has declared bankruptcy and there was evidence that the Golden State has been living beyond its means. But who could resist the old town, by the Sacramento River, with its glittering railroad heritage waiting to be explored. Our first evening we strolled to McCormick & Schmick's for supper in the bar at the Elk Building. The downtown looks quite sorry for itself with its share of boarded up shops and the usual racetrack one-way streets. Sacrificed to the motor car the place is largely deserted at night. The light rail cars connect to the suburbs.

Next morning we sample a Jim Denny's breakfast in an old diner adjacent to our hotel. This is the authentic experience. A mountain of home fries keeps us going all day. Other customers are faced with gigantic pancakes. We walk a few blocks to the old town and the California State Railroad Museum. We split our visit in two in order to take the short excursion train ride. Coffee at Steamer's Coffee & Tea Exchange prior to departure. The museum tells the tale of the Central Pacific which built east from here to join up with Union Pacific in Utah, the first transcontinental railroad - a trip we will be taking shortly. I buy a copy of the book "Stealing the General" by Russell S. Bonds, which tells the story of railroad shenanigans during the American Civil War. We also visit the Huntington & Hopkins Hardware store, reconstructed on a new site, brick by brick, and the Wells Fargo Museum. Supper at the Capitol Garage, 1500 K Street. "You were hungry" says the waiter. Breakfast at the Ambrosia Cafe, 1030 K Street, sunday morning and walk to the Capitol Building, with its marvelous arboretum. 
We walk on to the California Automobile Museum where we are shown round by docent Jim Whent. A Rambler convertible in the parking lot catches my eye. A special exhibition featuring vehicles from 1968 is well done with familiar auto magazine covers round the walls and an Austin America front and centre. We walk back to the Crocker Museum of art, an air-conditioned legacy of California railroad riches. Supper at Bangkok at 12, a Thai restaurant at 900, 12th Street, curry special.

Checker survivor out west

Spotted this old Checker in the suburbs of Victoria, B.C. 
Pic by RLT.

Not quite full of prairie promise

Winnipeg has seen better days, about a century ago when the sky was the limit. We head up the Broadway, where the street cars used to run, and work our way over to Portage and Main, in the city centre. We are offered a free donut by some insurance folk in a random act of diet madness. We take coffee and WiFi at the library.
The Peg, like many other North American cities, has been ruined by one-way streets, four-lane race tracks designed to scare the bejesus out of pedestrians. Many historic buildings have met the wrecking ball and the town has a broken-toothed appearance. We just have time to duck into the streetcar museum, in a replica car, where we learn that the only survivor #396 is being restored. We return to the magnificent 1911 station on Main in time for free coffee and biscuits.

We head out west past Rivers, MB, and into the Qu'Appelle Valley. Soon we are passing the potash mines, a source of prosperity in Saskatchewan. We stop in Melville, SK, and I photograph an old Pontiac up a gantry at a bodyshop. Past endless sloughs we reach the CN Walker yard at Edmonton, AB, via Saskatoon and Ardrossan. We eventually reverse through this massive rail yard arriving at Edmonton VIA station at 05:17, followed by frühstück at 06:00. A large party of Germans is leaving the train here.
Edmonton has a miserable modern station in the suburbs, stuck between the City Centre airport and a grotty trading estate. Train travellers get no taste of the city, like in Ottawa. We depart not having spent a cent.
We repair to the dome car, heading west past numerous container trains with their Hanjin, Evergreen and Italia signs. We spot nodding donkeys pumping oil in the fields. The Grey Cup Special train, vinyl wrapped, is heading towards us. Our train now has a special observation car spliced in, not elevated but with a glass roof. We stick to the 1950s version. We reach the Pembina River gorge where the train pauses on the bridge. Passing large lakes to left and right we reach Edson, AB, a hardscrabble town with railyards, timber and fracking supplies for gas. Another whistle stop at Hinton and we reach Jasper, AB, in the Rockies shortly after 1:00 p.m. We are glad to detrain after three days of rock 'n roll.

To and from Dixieland

Overnight at Franklin, TN, and next morning to Dotson's, 99 East Main St, for breakfast. The grits are a bit watery, but they are forgiven for offering sliced beefsteak tomato as a side dish. Veggies are hard to find on the road. The cafe walls are covered with pictures of country musicians, notably the Judds and Kathy Mattea. We head for the Lane Motor Museum, 702 Murfreesboro Pike, Nashville - $7 a head. This place warrants a second visit - a haven for European cars in an unlikely spot.

We head north into Kentucky for our second visit this year, passing the railway museum at New Haven, a stop in the spring, on the road to Bardstown. We check out Frankfort, but the town is confusing with roadworks and diversions, so we carry on to Lexington, a home to horse-racing, pausing at Versailles for diesel. We stop at the Holiday Inn Express and dine at the DQ (Dairy Queen).
Next morning eastbound in the rain we stop at Olive Hill, KY, for the post office, where Railway Street is much boarded up. This is not postcard country. We reach Huntington, WV, named for Collis Potter Huntington of the C&O, close to the Ohio river. The railroad station has been unsympathetically restored and the ALCO #10 engine is left out in the weather, a rotting national monument. Still worth a visit.
We take a salad lunch at the River & Rail Bakery, snapping up the last two Snickerdoodle cookies. We press on for Charleston in a monsoon, resolving to spend the rest of the day indoors at the WV archives, looking for distant relatives of Mad Jack Fuller. Next morning we search for the Fuller and Kries family graves in the Mount Olivet cemetery, on top of a hill.
We head northeast stopping for diesel at Clendenin, WV, where the customers are straight from Central Casting. We are in oil and gas country. A stop at Walmart for supplies was followed by a roadside picnic. We crossed the Mason-Dixon line to Morrisville, PA, overnighting at Waynesburg, PA, close to the Marcellus shale gas field. Motel rooms are hard to find.
We drive into Pittsburgh, PA, following the GPS to Bicycle Heaven, in an industrial estate, mostly featuring Schwinn krate bikes. The NOS parts are priced for restorers only. We take the backroads to Jamestown, NY, in time to visit the Lucille Ball-Desi Arnaz Center late afternoon. The prerecorded shows were filmed by Desilu in front of a live audience; taping them enabled the bonanza of reruns that has kept Lucy front and centre down the decades.
On our tour we have driven over hundreds of miles of freshly-layed tarmacadam - if resurfacing roads leads to economic salvation then surely America is on the way back. But I am not so sure.
Just when you have despaired of North American road engineers, with their endless stop signs and stoplights, you reach Hamburg, NY, which features roundabouts and bike lanes, looking the epitome of modernity. You could be in Holland. Even dear old Buffalo, NY, has streetcars. Across the Peace Bridge and we have Toronto in our sights.
Pics by RLT.

Elvis and Tammy

July 21: Up early Saturday morning to Tunnel Hill, GA, which featured in the Great Locomotive Chase. The hooter of a northbound freight is heard long before the CSX double-header comes into view. We head into Chattanooga to ride the Tennessee Valley Railroad through Missionary Ridge Tunnel, quite the best short rail excursion anywhere. The new VW factory is nearby and the Passat is being shipped by rail.
Heading west from Tennessee and Georgia into Alabama we stop at the Fame recording studios in Muscle Shoals. Unfortunately, tours can only be arranged in advance and there's nobody there to help. After a quick stop at a Frank Lloyd Wright house in Florence, we dip south and travel the Tammy Wynette Highway into Mississippi, to Tupelo, the birth place of Elvis Presley. Evidence of his (former) presence is everywhere from a lake named after him to a cardboard cut-out in the hotel lobby.
Sunday morning and it is very quiet at the Presley birthplace. The family's two-room home, with front-porch-swing, remains original (but is it on the original site?). A $4 million museum/auditorium complex is under construction just behind. It is slated to open in August to commemorate the 35th anniversary of his death. On display is a 1939 Plymouth, similar to that which took the Presley family to Memphis.

We meet a friendly couple from Wales - turns out he is a teacher and she comes from the same part of the country as my late father. They join us in a visit to the Tupelo Car Museum, which boasts a complete set of Elvis movie posters and a car that he gave as a present to the Denver, CO, Chief of Police. This 1949 Allard caught my eye. Recommended.

We head northeast on the Natchez Trace, a tourist highway devoid of trucks, but with precious little of interest along the way. We stop at the gravesite of Meriwether Lewis, with its ongoing mystery as to cause of death.
Pics by RLT.

Backroads and Blue Highways

July 16: The Deep South tour rolls on, leaving Pennsylvania behind and heading down the Delmarva peninsular, passing close to Wilmington, DE, an Amtrak stop at New Year. We are making for Georgetown, DE, an overnighter away from the coast, which saves dollars. We lodge at the Comfort Inn & Suites, 20530 DuPont Blvd, $105.95 incl tax. We find some bagels for supper in a strip mall at J&J Bagels, 28 Georgetown Plaza, Georgetown, DE.
In the morning we head for Lewes, DE, twinned with Lewes, East Sussex, England. It is a wonder anybody visits as there are no signs off the highway and, like its counterpart in England, the place is plagued with parking meters. Founded in 1631 by Dutchmen, and shortly after named Lewes, the town is a relative newcomer, but claims to be the first town in the first state of the US.
Friendly folk greeted us at the Chamber of Commerce and the Historical Society, who both do a fine job of promoting the town, once you find it and a place to park. We find some postcards at the latter, hard to come by in Lewes. I guess folk are sending less cards.
Next we hug the coast, driving through endless beach resorts crowded with holiday makers. It's hard to imagine a sharper contrast to the Amish farmland we left yesterday. We turn inland and off the highway to Pocomoke City, MD, which turns out to be a rewarding lunch spot by the Pocomoke River. The newly-opened Riverside Grill, 2 Riverside Drive, sells hamburger lunches at popular prices. I was amused by the nearby MAR-VA cinema.

We take the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel, an engineering marvel and an attraction all by itself. Opened in 1965, the toll costs $12 to cross the 20 mile stretch of bridges, man-made islands and two 1-mile tunnels. We detour via Elizabeth City where we fill up with diesel at $3.58 per gallon, rightly fearing worse on the Outer Banks. We learn that diesel will be cheaper in South Carolina where there is less tax. An overnight stop at The Travelodge, Kill Devil Hills, is a bit spendy at $160.88 incl tax. We meet up with Tracy next morning, a friend for over forty years, and go out for brunch. She has lived in KDH for many years and has many tales to tell about the local scene.
We leave the Outer Banks, spotting our first Piggly Wiggly at Plymouth, NC. We take diesel at Pinetops, NC, where I spot this Winnebago for sale. A snip at $2,000!

Avoiding the interstate we pass fields of tobacco, cotton, peanuts and other crops. A heavy driving day in the over 90 F heat we cover 260 miles before checking in to the Comfort Inn, 1957 Cedar Creek Road, Fayetteville, still in NC. This is the cheapest yet at $67.66 incl tax.

Next morning we stop to photograph a Renault Dauphine, atop a defunct gas station on Hwy 301. There was a time when Renault gave VW a run for their money in the US, but those days are long gone.
"South of the Border" billboards proliferate beside the highway as you drive towards South Carolina. A phoney Mexican attraction, right in the middle of nowhere, it has got more kitsch than Route 66. At Darlington Raceway we visit the small NASCAR musuem which has an impressive collection of stock car racing exhibits. This is stock car country as she used to be, a world away from the slick-suited businessmen of Daytona. The Darlington track, "Too tough to tame," is a holdout from the days of Rockingham and North Wilkesboro. We reach Augusta, GA, and crash out with takeout.
The highlight of the tour goes pear-shaped at Madison, GA, - see Punchbuggy Passim.
Skirting Atlanta we stop at Kennesaw, GA, to visit the Southern Museum of Civil War and Locomotive History, which features the story of the "General" locomotive. During the Civil War, "Andrews' Raiders" stole the General and a chase ensued north through the mountains toward Chattanooga. A different perspective is given here than that at the museum in Strasburg, PA, on the "Great Locomotive Chase." Another exhibit contains the only fully restored belt-driven locomotive assembly line in the US, which was rescued when the Glover Machine Works in Marietta, GA, was demolished.
We ride on to Dalton, GA, for a stop at the Holiday Inn Express, with supper next door at the Holiday Inn.
Pics by RLT.

Hillclimbing in the Keystone state

A day in Corning, NY, with the smart car parked for the day. Cooked breakfast at Donna's on Market Street, with Pyrex collection and 95 cent coffee. We take the shuttle bus to the Corning Museum of Glass. We took in the Frank Carder collection, missed on a previous visit, plus the exhibition re the 1972 flood in the Rakow Research Library. Combination tickets $36.50 for two, includes art museum.
Hot Dog lunch at Jim's Texas Hot, followed by watching the Elmer Darling Duo singing country tunes in Centerway Square - "Happy Trails to You." Annette buys some Snickerdoodle cookies from an Amish gentleman at the Farmer's Market.
To the Rockwell Museum of Western Art:
"There was no where to go but everywhere, keep rolling under the western stars." - Jack Kerouac.
I never saw a backroad that I didn't want to go down.
In the evening we planned a quiet snack in the Steuben Bar at the Radisson. First the fire alarm went off and wouldn't stop, so the fire brigade turned out. Then a tiddly grandma to be, tipped gin and tonic all down herself and insisted on demonstrating how it was done. We retreated upstairs and a large dog started barking outside our door. Never go back.
Next morning depart 07:53 on Hwy 17 for Elmira, NY. Great road breakfast up at the counter at Lights Bakery & Coffee Shop, 211 West 2nd Street, $12.64 for two incl tax with bottomless coffee. South on Hwy 14 towards Canton crossing into Pennsylvania. Hwy 154 to Laporte, then via Nordmount and Sonestown. Take diesel at Endless Mountain Market, Muncy Valley - $3.79.9 per gallon. They have Goldenberg's peanut chews!

Arrive Wilkes-Barre at 12:50, after checking into the Comfort Inn we divert to Wegman's for grocery. They have grits, the shape of things to come. Reading The Times Leader, the local paper trailing Giants Despair hillclimb this weekend. Speed Channel is also advertising the hillclimb, admission free.
More here. Pic by Annette.

Lucky in Kentucky

A second day trip in our rented Nissan Cube took us to Elizabethtown, to Swope's Cars of Yesteryear Museum. Consisting of the personal collection of Sam Swope, car dealer, this free museum is his gift to the community. Among the mostly American cars was this Jaguar XK120.

The weather was kind for March with signs of spring everywhere.

On the return leg we stopped by Bardstown and happened upon R.J. Corman's My Old Kentucky Dinner Train.

Pics by RLT and Annette.

Corvair survivor

Not all the good stuff is in a museum. We spotted this air-cooled Chevrolet Corvair Greenbrier in a parking lot in Elizabethtown, Kentucky. See PunchBuggy Passim.
Pic by RLT.

Way down in Bowling Green

We drove south from Louisville early, stopping for breakfast at the Waffle House in Brooks, Kentucky, off I-65. Just about the perfect road-trip breakfast with two eggs and grits. Add sliced tomato. Yum. Note inverted ashtray - smoking permitted.

We went on the factory tour at the Corvette plant in Bowling Green. They assemble eighty Corvettes per ten-hour shift at this 1m-square foot plant, a former Chrysler air-conditioning factory. This was a rather grubby establishment which did not project a high-tech image. Seeing behind the scenes rather diminished the lustre.
On to the Corvette Museum where Roy Orbison's Vette, made in St Louis, was waiting.

Home via the backroads in search of vintage tin, past signs for Abe Lincoln's birthplace and the Jim Beam distillery.
Pics by Annette.

Letter from Kentucky

LOUISVILLE. Ky., We had a torrid trip on United Airlines down to Kentucky and a snafu with the shuttle bus on arrival. A complaint at the Brown Hotel elicited two free breakfast coupons which launched the day at J. Graham's Cafe this morning.
We then took a taxi to the Antique Automobile Club of America Kentuckiana Region Swap Meet at the Kentucky Expo Centre. Over 1,000 vendors in several halls. We scored a free copy of Hemmings Sports & Exotic Car magazine, in which I had a short story published. I also bought two wrenches for $1 and 50 cents respectively, plus a motoring hardback book at $8. Back to town for a late bar lunch at the Seelbach Hotel, including a visit to the Rathskeller, haunt of Al Capone and F. Scott Fitgerald. We then scored some last minute tickets for Lyle Lovett and John Hiatt at the Brown Theatre. Outstanding. I have often wondered why I am condemned to roam the highways of North America. Now I know.

Pics by RLT.

Eureka patina

Lots of old stuff has turned up lately. The auction preview where we spotted the vintage tractor was followed two weeks later, on Rogers Road, by a sale of old machine tools, NOS parts, oil cans, old signs and assorted junk. I managed to grab a picture of this old Eureka Radiator Cores sign, "since 1915," before it was knocked down to a collector and wrenched off the wall.

Pic by RLT.

Flathead tractor curiosity

We went to an auction preview on Rogers Road in Toronto where they were selling off the remains of an old garage. This tractor with 21-stud Flathead Ford V8 caught my eye. What could it possibly be? Maybe an old Funk conversion? The Massey Harris tank further muddied the water:

It has been a while since somebody sat here for work:

I hope it goes to a good home.
Pics by RLT.

Angoulême the easy way

We went to Angoulême for the Circuit des Remparts. Hours of thrashing down the motorway are out so we opted for the TGV, with a change of trains (and stations) in Lille. To add spice we took three Brompton folding bicycles.
We left Lewes on the 05.29, making a cross-platform change at Gatwick, onto the Gatwick Express for Victoria, a more spacious and comfortable way to reach the smoke. Unfold the bikes and we head for St Pancras. Outside Buckingham Palace a shout from Richard Banks reveals a saddle malfunction and a bike pump fallen in the road. Essentially a shakedown run for his new Brompton 6-speed we limp to St. Pancras where running repairs are effected.
After a coffee stop (Costa, £5.65 for three) we depart at 08.27 by Eurostar for Lille. Breakfast on the train in first class comfort is most acceptable. There is time for a quick cycle tour of Lille, in the old town, where we spot a vintage Peugeot folder with 22" wheels and a beater bike with Fichtel & Sachs Dreigang.

After a snack lunch on the concourse at Lille Flandres we join the 12.45, departing six-minutes late for points south. On arrival we assemble the bikes for Angoulême-Nord - it is a climb out of town to les montagnes. We check-in to the F1 hotel and take supper at a Chinese buffet. Saturday and we are bicycling into the boondocks in search of classic cars and the Le Rallye International de Charente. The morning is wet as we stop at the Chateau de Balzac, an intriguing walled house where we decline a tour. On to Bric-à-Brac at Vindelle, where Richard scores two Duralex glasses, 50 cents, for his Citroën 'H' campervan project. The old motorised bicycles are another attraction as we take a pic-nic lunch. We cycle on stopping at a wrecking yard on the outskirts of Montignac where we spot a wonderful selection of postwar French (and German) vehicles including an 'H' van.

Further on we realise that Montignac was a stop on a previous tour and we head with anticipation to the Bar le Donjon. See PunchBuggy Passim. After a few beers some 400 classic cars are passing our table. There is traffic chaos and the boys join the action, directing the cars in their high-viz jackets.

On the return leg I'm struggling up the hill past La Templerie, at Champniers, necessitating a water stop. Supper at La Boucherie, a meaty restaurant next to our hotel.
On Sunday we take a taxi into Angoulême, where we have lost the teashop at Les Halles and the Tribune du théâtre, the grandstand on the short chute past the startline. Sitting in the grandstand opposite there is discontent as folk stand to watch the racing. We move on, watching the racing from many different vantage points, and ducking into town during the frequent showers. The racing is splendid, watching folk wrestling their aging machinery round the tricky street circuit.

The track looks somewhat neglected with hedges uncut and plants unpruned on the ramparts. We grab a cab to an Italian restaurant close to our digs. Monday morning we roar into town and take tea opposite the station, buying baguettes for the train journey north. The weekend is over all too soon.

Pics by Richard Banks and RLT.

Steam era

We went to Steam Era at Milton on Saturday, the 51st bash out west of Toronto - an old time farm event with traction engines and classic cars. This pink Model A Ford caught the spirit of the event. It was damn hot as we listened to Marion's Country Band, in "can't bust 'ems," playing fifties style. They were interrupted by the local pols and bigwigs, in the official opening ceremony, one of whom assured us that we had the future to look forward to.
Pic by RLT.

Steelyard blues

These two Studebaker Lark compact cars were lurking in a backlot in Ely, Nevada, when we spotted them there last summer.

Note the Mercedes-style grille on the second car

Day 27: Tonopah, Nevada to Ely, Nevada

At the motel we spot a 1946 Renault 4CV on a round-the-world tour, following the route of the 1908 New York-Paris race. Also these International Scout survivors. To the Tonopah Historic Mining Park - over a hundred acres of the original mines which you can wander about on designated paths. Some 500 foot drops in the stopes give you pause for thought.

We take Hwy 6 for three hours across the desert to Ely. With very few cars on the road we marvel at Railroad Valley and cross an oilpatch to the ghost town of Currant. We hypermile for some 160 miles between gas stations. Check-in at the Ramada and run into town for more thrifts, which are a bust, and grocery. We spot an orange Bonneville lakester heading for Utah.

Day 23: Carson City, Nevada

To Incline, Nevada to find the old Bonanza theme park which traded off the TV series until 2004. The locality was used for some scenes in the original TV show. The site is shuttered and there is little visible from the road.
We drive past Lake Tahoe to Truckee, California. We see the Amtrak California Zephyr heading westbound. We drive through the Donner Pass and return via Interstate 80 at 7,240 feet.
We head into Reno and check out the car auction and swap meet. This Hilborn-injected nailhead Buick-powered Model T hot rod reportedly has the motor from Tony Nancy's 22Jr.

The swap meet has more sellers than buyers and many stalls are packing to go. I buy a copy of Hot Rod Magazine from January 1965.

Tower of Power play Boomtown Casino and Resort, Reno, NV, August 21, 2010. Bob Dylan plays Harveys Lake Tahoe Outdoor Arena, Stateline, NV, August 22, 2010.

Day 12: Coeur d'Alene, Idaho

Rolling at 07:00 to avoid the crowds at breakfast and make the most of the cool part of the day, although it turns out to be nowhere near as hot as yesterday. We roll north 40 miles to Sandpoint, taking diesel at Westmond at $2.96 a gallon. We cross a large expanse of water on arrival with a freight train on a parallel bridge making a fine sight heading south. We arrive at Evans Brothers Neighbourhood Espresso Bar, where we park the smart car at this old mill site and chat to the gawkers. We check out the antique stores and thrift shops. I spot this Oldsmobile Toronado for sale, (everything is for sale in the US) , a GM curiosity with massive cubic inches and front-wheel-drive. Must chew through front tires like an alligator. What were they thinking?

We cruise out to the beach on Lake Pend Oreille and then turn west and across the stateline to lunch at Owen's Grocery, Deli and Soda Fountain, at Newport, Washington. This is an old time store not to be missed with large custom-built sandwiches at $3.50. We return to Coeur d'Alene via Rathdrum, Idaho with its large rail yard.

Day 11: Coeur d'Alene, Idaho

We are spending three nights in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho. Today we are up early and taking the scenic byway round Coeur d'Alene lake, looping round to Mission Landing at Cataldo. We visit the Jesuit Mission, said to be the oldest building in Idaho. This picture reminded me of the old joke: "You know you are a redneck when you mow the lawn and find a car!"

On to Kellogg and Wardner, scene of the dynamiting of the mine concentrator in 1899. We take coffee at Josie's Full of Beans and visit the mining museum in Kellogg - wonderful old photographs. Back to town via Smelterville.