One of the great things about the 3 Rivers Region Model A Ford Restorers Club is that it is a driving club.  Twice a month in the summer people organize Sunday driving tours where we drive up to about 150 miles and go to a museum or some other attraction.  I recently went on a tour with the club for the first time.  It was awesome.

All lined up and ready to go

We met at a McDonalds south of Pittsburgh, and there were 13 cars: 10 antiques, and 3 modern ones.  As we pulled out and got on the road I had an enormous grin on my face.  It was just so cool to be driving in the middle of a pack of Model A’s.  I was a little giddy.

Elizabeth Bridge

We lost a few cars on the way to our first stop… twice.  Normally the group stays in touch with CB radios, but there were a number of new people on this tour, and the leader’s CB wasn’t working.  Eventually we got everyone together and took a group tour of Nemacolin Castle.

Nemacolin Castle in Brownsville PA

Waiting for some lost cars to catch up

At what was supposed to be a brief lunch stop at McDonalds we lost a couple of cars.  Carl Trimber has a couple of Model A’s and the beautiful one his daughter Sharon was driving lost its transmission.  Fortunately they had AAA 100 mile towing coverage, but we had to leave them behind.

We stopped at a little pottery shop that had some donkeys, including a couple of babies.  I had never thought about it, but I guess I have never seen a baby donkey.

The day finished up with a meal at Kings Family restaurant, which is a Pittsburgh area chain that is similar to Perkins, but with better deserts.

Left to right: Keith Waltower (on phone), Bill Hamilton, Chuck Schneider, Willa and Don Miller

I just love driving my Model A.  It’s so fun, and it’s so much better to drive with a whole group.  I love the connection to the past, both in understanding a little bit of what life was like before my time, but I especially like the connection to my grandfather.  He was the one who maintained this car, and my mother tells me that one of her main memories of her father from childhood was seeing his legs sticking out from under the Model A.  I think about that image a lot when it’s my own legs sticking out.  Very cool.