VCCA Home Forums GENERAL DISCUSSION Meets, Tours & Events My Six Cylinder Tour Journal… Verona NY, 2014

It's that time of year again! This year we are off to Verona New York with the Eastern Six Cylinder group. There are big changes this year personally for the way this is going go! First of all, I'm bringing along a couple of "Tour Newbies" with me. Jane and Abigail are going to be providing the navigating and singing (screaming!) for the ride down there. I guess that means that the stop at "Hooters" is cancelled. Don't tune out just yet, we've still got a few other photo ops up our sleeves! Secondly, we're going to be riding in style on the way down there, as we break in the new-to-us 2008 GMC Sierra pick up, and the brand new open car hauler by "Big Tex Trailers". A big "Thank You" to my friend Barry Staples, and you guys on Chat, for all of the advise on getting the whole set-up right. If there are any failures, I blame you guys! Thirdly, We are bringing our 1950 Convertible along for the ride. All I can say is, thank God we've got the trailer there! Unfortunately, my wife had that whole "I don't push old cars" vow squeezed into our wedding ceremony, so at some time I may need a few of you guys on the tour to push this bucket!

I also want to apologize in advance. In the past, I have tried to enjoy the tour during the day, then spend time in the evening at the hotel updating the Journal for all of you guys and gals that couldn't make it. This year I'll be travelling with my family, and as you know, family comes first. If there are gaps or late entries in the journal, I will be sure to update it as soon as I can. Otherwise, I'll finish it when we get home. I do prefer to do these in "real time" for you guys, but I do not want to miss out on anything with Jane & Abby as well.

Today I spent the day washing vehicles, and getting the trunk of the '50 sorted out. I was storing the trunk mat of the '51 in it as well, so I took it out and loaded up the Coke cooler of spares and tools. Tomorrow it gets loaded on the trailer, and we will be ready for a Sunday 5:45am departure for Burlington.

I'll be looking for your reports as I will be absent this year.

!!!

Looking forward to hearing all about it!

All the Best,

Chip

we have been looking forward to seeing all of you and hope everyone enjoys the tours that we have planned.
Al

The '50 is all loaded up, my suit case is packed. I've got soooo much room in this truck that maybe we'll make a few extra stops at flea markets, the Hobby Lobby, or some other place that I can find toys for the garage. I took the truck and trailer for a 15km run just to make sure it was all tied up nice. Everything checks out good.



Now, to decide what to do with all of this extra room??!! (muffled shouting) Just a sec… that's Jane calling me… WHAT THE H-E-DOUBLE HOCKEY STICKS IS THIS MESS IN THE KITCHEN???!!!

Jane: "I have all of Abby's stuff ready for the back of the truck.."



"POOF!" Sound of my dreams of treasure hunting disappearing!

Sunday...

I did not sleep last night! Two hours, tops. I heard Jane get up with Abby both times, and lay there thinking about today the rest of the time. It was a 5:00 alarm with a 5:45 departure time. We almost made that time, until Jane decided to dump her morning breakfast shake all over the front seat of the truck. Ten minutes late, we hit the highway. We met Paul and Maggie (1931Roadster, here on Chat) in their '53 and Dave & Vermayle in their modern car in Burlington Ontario at 6:45am, and headed to the border.



The truck handled perfectly. I've always been a "drive 'em" type of guy, but with the baby, and the crappier of my two cars in tow, it was reassuring to know I was going to get us all there in one piece. Abby slept and coo-ed most of the way there, and when she started getting fussy Jane would jump to the back seat and have her smiling again in no time. A lot of nursery rhymes were sung! Abby did the right amount of screaming at the border… just enough to get us in because he didn't want to listen to her any more! If us Canadians ever do decide to invade, expect an army of screaming children. Seems to work every time! A stop for Paul to load up on cheap gas (I put $50 US into the truck and the convertible combined), a stop for breakfast at McDonalds, and we were away. So far Paul is beating me on unforced errors that result in a U-turn, 2-1!! Our lunch was terrific. Some really cheap Greek food restaurant with great food and service. I have no clue what town it was in, but have complete faith in Paul's Garmin since he figured out how to get it to direct in English! We arrived at LaQuinta Suites at 3:30pm, and mingled with the crowd. It's going to be a great week. All of the members are giving our kid the rock star treatment, and she's right into all of the attention with her smiles and giggles! Barry Staples came and helped me unload the convertible, then it was off to dinner. What a great spread that was! Mmmmmm, pulled pork!! Lots more socializing, then back to the hotel.
At dinner we were introduced to a special guest that is with us for the entire week. A warm Six Cylinder Welcome goes out to Kate Sullivan, our new G&D editor! Kate has gone the extra mile in her new job, and recruited her parents to join the club as well! They have borrowed a suitable six cylinder car for the week and have joined us as well. After dinner all of the people riding around alone have come up with a plan to pass Kate around like a hot potato from car to car, so she gets to do some on-the-job research from several different passenger seats. I think she has my dream job…
And now the part you've been waiting for… let's see some Chevys!!









Look familiar Gene??



And one for Charlie…

I followed that 1939 green Chevrolet for about an hour today. What a great car.

dtm

Good. Keep an eye on it as he hasn't paid me for it

Ha ha... Now THAT's funny!!!!

Monday…

It was an early rise this morning… 6am, for a 6:45 breakfast, then a drivers meeting at 7:30am. I gave my child away about 10 seconds after my arrival to the lobby. Apparently we have a lot of Grandma's with us that would love to look after her! We had a 64 mile run to Cooperstown, so everyone started early. Jane & I decided we need to start earlier, as we were one of the last few cars to leave. No problem though, with Paul & Maggie running the navigating in their '53, followed by myself in the '50 and then Jane and Abby in the pickup, we headed out. Paul is all about making time back up, so we blew through the two planned rest/fuel stops that were full of the early departures, and were one of the first cars to the Farm Museum in Cooperstown. We ran for about 10 miles down one side of one of the Finger Lakes. It was beautiful. The trees canopied over the road, and the entire left side of the road was waterfront scenery. The '50 ran well, and was able to keep up to Paul, even on some of the long grades.



The Farm Museum was great. The property was originally owned by the heirs to the Singer Sewing Machines family. There was a mansion on far side of the road which is now an art museum, and the original stone barn was the only structure from that farm to remain on the Farm Museum property. A small village was trucked in during the 1940's and 1950's of historically significant buildings from the local area. The barn was beautiful. I'd trade my house for it! Here it is…



Our group was split in half, and the other half went through the Baseball Hall of Fame while we were on the farm. This parking lot photo is half of our total group…




When we were done on the farm we headed across the road to the nicest resort I've ever seen for some lunch. It was fantastic! We sat on the Veranda overlooking the lake…



Then it was on to the Baseball Hall of Fame. We took over most of the down town area…







We even managed to pawn our child off on Dave Minor for a while. She had a great time with him, and was all smiles!



We headed in to see our own baseball hero's plaque in the Hall of Honour. Roberto Alomar from the Toronto Blue Jays was elected to the hall in 2012.



Abby! That's not a smile! Show them the nice smile you have… That's better!

Really nice write-up and great pictures!! Makes me feel like I'm there. Oh wait---I am! :-)

If only the '48 had made it all way... :-(

Dale, Is your 48 developing a pattern. I think I have heard this story before.

Probably driving over the prescribed 57 MPH.

We are having a ball this week, fixing 1950 Chevy convertibles!

Honestly, Barry… I expect comments like that from Paul!!

Tuesday…


This morning was a little more relaxing, as the driver meeting was at 8:45, with departure at 9:00 am. It was onto the street outside of the hotel, and into the morning rush hour traffic!



Our first stop was at Phaeton Motors, a private car collection owned by Mr. Rosenblum. He is rather private gentleman that only shows his collection by appointment, and prefers it not to be photographed for public consumption. I was given permission to use these few photos on our site, but his collection was so much more spectacular. A Duesenberg, a couple Auburn Speedsters, Maserati's, Cadillac's, Kaisser Darrin, 1957 Bel air convertible (near perfect!), a Flxible bus and on and on…! Maybe 40-50 cars in total, and tons of memorabilia in a beautiful shop! Even a project 1931 Chevrolet sedan…





Our group helped pretty up his parking lot…





Our next stop was at the Meyda lamp factory They manufacture custom made to order Tiffany style lamps for customers all over the world. Everything from small night lights to 20 foot diameter store display lamps. Many chandeliers as well.



Once again we filled a parking lot with a makeshift car show. The media was there for interviews, and some of the public even brought out their old cars to have a look.

Chuck Gibson's 1952 Wagon...





A big thank you to Al Gerisch, (a3alf on Chat), who is going to be running tomorrow's tour. Al's daughter was the one that suggested we go to the light factory, and stopped in for the tour today. Here's Al, Maryann & family in front of their 1953.



And now for the problems with my car !! I have a turn signal arm that wants to let the roller roll off of the end of it and jam on. Always on the right turn. I feel like an old man, driving down the road with my signal on! We stopped on the side of the road while I put it back together yesterday, and it happened again today as we were turning into the hotel lot at the end of the day. Barry Staples and Paul Rozon helped fabricate a bracket out of a washer that keeps the arm from travelling far enough to allow the roller to run off the end. If it fails tomorrow, Paul will hear about it! Barry is still on my good side, so Paul will take the blame! While we were fixing it, Doug Archer stopped by with his '50 hard top which is the same colour as my convertible. We compared cars, and stopped for a photo shoot. His '50 is beautiful…

Are there any Early Chevrolets on the Early Six Cylinder Chevrolet Tour?

Years ago there were a lot of the 1929-1932 models.

Jim, you know I'll catch them for you! Tomorrow's post will be "Early Cars" day. I'll get pictures of them tomorrow.

I don't want to hijack Bruce's great thread on the tour, but since you asked, about 100 miles from home on Sunday the engine started knocking and smoke coming out of the road draft tube. Had AAA tow it home and we started all over on our drive to Verona, NY. When Cousin Dave and I start tearing it down, I'll start a thread in the 46-48 forum. For now, Janice & I are having a great time riding in other cars!

Smoke coming out of breather indicates a piston problem.

That's what Bill Kohley told me last night!!! :-)

Bill is very smart. You can tell by the 1939 he is driving.
Did you use iron pistons?

And when I was following that 1939 Chevy down the highway, it looked like it has the optional fresh air vent on the passenger side cowl area.

dtm

Yes it does. The vent is worth more today than what I paid for the car 40 years ago.....and the car was in about the same condition then but with 45,000 less on the speedo.
A picture of the car that was taken at the 10th Aniversary Meet can be seen in 60/75 Years Of Chevrolet (the 1939 Master Deluxe Town Sedan rear quarter picture.)

Wednesday…

Today started with breakfast and an 8:00am start. I was without Jane & Abby this morning, as they spent the day "getting their feeding & sleep schedules back in order". I think that's longhand for "shopping"! They're plotting against my chrome budget! I left the back window zipped up since I wouldn't have to worry about the truck behind me today.
There was an optional Canal Side Tour that added 14 miles to the planned tour this morning, and we opted for it. It was nice to see about 25 of the cars did so. We headed out on nicely paved backroads that soon ran beside the original Erie Canal System. The traffic was light, and we were able to keep all 25 cars together. It was a nice little parade! At a rest stop, John Palmer gave a great history talk on the Erie Canal, and his own raising in the immediate area. I could listen to that guy all day! The folks that dressed in 1850's period clothing posed for a picture as well…

Our next stop was at Chittenango Landing Canal museum. It was built on the old canal system in a location that originally had dry docks for repairing river barges. We toured a reproduction river barge, and all of the stables and blacksmith shops that went along with supporting the canal. We learnt how the canal was instrumental in the building of America during it's expansion westward. The museum also hosted us for lunch.

I took few pictures of the museum, but did get some early car shots just for Jim…

After lunch it was time to get the tops down on the convertibles! I picked up a passenger for the rest of the day, as Kate Sullivan joined me for the ride home. As she put it, she "dumped Dave Minor for a man with a convertible!" Our ride together was great. She's been having a blast trying out all of the cars, and getting a whole bunch of stories about our club and touring. Yesterday she was even in Tony & Pat's rumble seat for part of the day.









Our next stop was at a local wind mill cooperative. The local farmers lease out their land for a wind farm. One of the farmers was there to give a talk on wind power, and what it is doing to stimulate the economy. He was very interesting and informative. The windmills were huge! We posed for a group photo against one blade.

Our final stop was at the dump. I didn't dump Kate off!!! We had a tour through a modern recycling centre, and learned how the county is doing it's best to reduce, reuse, and recycle as it manages it's waste. I made a purchase of a "vintage" Thermos from the Re-use store. I also managed to hold up a busload of tourists while I inspected a 5-drawer Craftsman tool box that someone had thrown out. From the bus it looked good, but up close it was rusted out, and one of the drawers was rusted open. Oh well, it was worth a shot! Our cars were on display out front for the public to view, and I believe John Pritchard even got us a new member!



After the tour, we headed for ice-cream, then went for dinner at the sports bar down the road. At 730pm we met in the hospitality room at the hotel to see a slide show of the work that Greg Hudson does at his restoration shop. We've all been drooling over his 1937 truck this week, and his 1962 Impala, and 1965 Chevelle in the photos are also real nice!

As Brewster mentioned, he was the lucky guy who got to drive Kate Sullivan, the G&D editor, around in his car yesterday afternoon. Below is a photo of Kate & Bruce.

Thanks Dale… we weren't going to show pictures of me picking up chicks though!!

Oh, that's right! :-) At least I didn't post all the pictures from the first 3 days. :-)

Thursday…

This morning we woke up to… rain! It's going to be a top up cruising day! Last night before I turned in, I witnessed a meeting in the hotel lobby between our tour organizing group. It was tense, and of concern because one of the stops on todays tour called them at the last minute, and changed a bunch of their scheduling. As bleak as it sounded, they were up working the phones and getting it sorted out to the best of their abilities. At the morning drivers meeting Ray Rice was issuing apologies for how mis-organized he thought todays tour was going to be. Apparently he was wrong! Everything seemed to come together, and we got 6 groups of 20 people through three stops at the former Griffiss Airforce Base in Rome NY. As difficult as the sites made it, our group organizers really came through!

We started by meeting at the front of the airport by a retired B-52H Stratofortress bomber. A welcome and an interesting history lesson was given by a former Crew Chief for this exact aircraft. We also observed a moments silence for the victims of 9/11, as it is Sept. 11th today.

Our next stop was the home of Midair. They do maintenance of large commercial airliners. We got to tour through a Boeing airliner that was in for service from Russia. It seems a lot like auto mechanics, but everything (including cost) is on a larger scale.





Next we shuffled over to Premier Aviation. They do the same thing, but on an even larger scale! They have three huge hangers and a large paint shop. We were not allowed to photograph there, as they do work on Airforce C5 Galaxies as well. I saw this nice 1936 Chevrolet out front though...



Finally it was a quick trip through the Mohawk Valley Community College's aviation school. They train students to become licensed aircraft mechanics. They had a neat collection of aircraft that are never going to see the light of day again as well! Paul found this 1/2 scale Navy biplane…

Hey!!! What are you all doing with OUR rain??? Here in Seattle, we've now had 40 days with temperatures over 80 degrees -- and 4 or 5 more forecast for the next week.

We loved the photo of everyone next to the windmill blade.

And -- all I can say about Kate... is.... well, she's going to have to come to Seattle to ride in my topless Corvette!!!

Next, it was a fast stop for lunch, then on to Fort Stanwix in downtown Rome. We were late for lunch… and another fight between Paul & his Garmin didn't help! We got to see a lot of Rome though!

We were given a tour of the re-created Fort Stanwix by a gentleman dressed in period clothing. It was a bit rainy, so we kind of rushed through. It was interesting though.



Then it was back to the hotel to get all gussied up for tonight's big banquet! Our banquets are always fun! They are a chance to visit, reminisce, laugh, and say thanks. There were lots of prizes, and a silent auction as well. We also really witnessed the generosity of our VCCA family! At the auction was a beautifully refinished children's sled. John Palmer painted and varnished it up, then topped it off with decals for this year's tour. What a perfect keepsake for our daughter's first tour! I decided I was going to bid all of our remaining US dollars on the sled… and rounded up $29. I wrote Abby's name on the bid sheet. That wasn't going to do it, as the bidding quickly passed that. Our VCCA president saw this happen, and told me to get up there and bid again. I explained to him that it was all of my US $, and I was out of the running. Five minutes later when I went and looked at the sheet, "$35 - Uncle Dave for Abigail Pearce" was written down!! Now, Dave's a fairly smart man. He saw that a member from New Jersey had bid above mine, so he went to a table of New Yorkers and asked them if they were going to let a Jersey person take a sled from a kid?? He got them to pitch in a couple bucks each, and the bidding war was on! I think his own Ohio crowd also tried to squeeze a few more dollars out of him as well! In the end, my girl is going home with the nicest sled in all of New York, and her Mommy & Daddy are genuinely touched by the generosity of the folks of the VCCA once again. I want to also thank ALL of the Grandpa's and Grandma's (& Uncle Dave) that took a few minutes over the course of the week and held, cuddled, played with, sung too, complimented, or did anything else with our daughter. Abby really enjoyed the week too, and we really appreciated that you all enjoyed having her along as well.
Congratulations goes out to our friends Barry & Pat Staples on winning the VCCA Touring Spirit award. You are very deserving of the award, and it was great seeing you win it.
A big thank you to our hosts this year for putting on another phenomenal tour! John Palmer, John Pritchard, Ray & Eileen Rice, and Al & Maryann Gerisch worked really hard to pull together a great tour! We really enjoyed ourselves!

She's likely half way there already, Bill! Who would refuse that offer??!!

Was there any announcement about the 2015 tour?

Bruce- great photos and journal as always. Thanks for sharing the fun of these tours with us who couldn't get there. Safe travels and we'll have to join up one of these years!

In my defence the "rest/fuel stops" were only 20 minutes after leaving the hotel and anyone requiring a rest/fuel stop that soon into a tour is never going to make it through an entire day.

2015 Eastern Six Cylinder Tour will be hosted by Franklin Gage in the Richmond VA. area. Details are still pending, but will be confirmed soon.

Thanks for the info. Franklin always does a good job.

Friday…

It's always kind of sad getting up Friday morning. Most of the local people head home in the evening after the banquet, and the far away people head out nice and early to get a jump on the day. We came down for breakfast around 8am, and there were maybe 20 old cars left in the lot. I still had no trouble handing Abby off as I got my own breakfast!



I had loaded the car after the banquet (Thanks for the help, Nick Matlaga) the previous night, so we only had to load the small house worth of stuff that we brought for Abby, and our own suitcases. Don't forget Abby's new sled!



We pulled out of the hotel around 9:30am, and headed by backroads to the border area. A few stops to eat, and a couple Paul-turns, and we were in Lewiston by 430pm. We said goodbye to Paul & Maggie, who continued on, while our family did some shopping. The highlight for me was a couple repro tin signs from the Hobby Lobby. Abby takes after her Mom and went with all clothes. The border area was a breeze. It was the first time I've ever driven right up to the customs officer without having to wait in a line! We hit the Ontario freeways, 405,QEW, 407, and were home in Bolton by 8:30pm The truck ran great once again. I didn't write the gas milage down for the ride there, but the ride home was 317 miles, 24.7 gallons used for a 13mpg haul.

Brewster,

Really enjoyed your reports. Sounds like great fun. Thanks for letting us join in from afar.

All the Best,

Chip

Chip… I know a couple of guys from N. Carolina that really need to join us on one of these soon. In a completely unrelated vein… there were two cars broken down on the tour this year… both 1941's!! (and a 1948 that went home on a flatbed before even arriving… but I don't think Dale wants to talk about that…)

Thanks Brewster for a fine ride with you.

We hit the news…

http://www.cnyhomepage.com/story/d/...da-lighting/10712/reQCg9ii1Ue1Zx6wjPBbQw

Two years later, and I was doing a review of some past tours. I found this fantastic video put together by Laquinta Hotel management as part of their Public Engagement Highlights, to show their head office what they are doing with the public on special days of the year.

Of course, we were there on Sept. 11th... 9/11. They asked us questions about what 9/11 meant to us, and where we were, etc. It was a very moving half hour we spent with the videographer, and very emotional as folks recalled that dark day.

Out in the parking lot they gathered up the tour drivers, and offered the hotel staff some rides around the block while they filmed it...

Here's the link...