Hidden Valley Model T Club, October 2019
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Hidden Valley Commutator Newsletter of the Hidden Valley Model T Club, October 2019 The Hidden Valley Commutator is the newsletter of the Hidden Valley Model T Club. Upcoming Events The newsletter is published monthly and distributed on-line to all connected Oct 2 HVMTC Dinner & General meeting at Charlies members. The 2016 thru 2017 Oct 12-19 MTFCSC Arizona Tour members of the HVMTC Board of Directors are: Oct 19 HVMTC surprise Tour in North County President Craig French Oct 26-27 MTFCSD Speedster Run Vice Pres Stephanie Terrell Nov 6 HVMTC Dinner & General meeting at Charlies Tours Stephanie Terrell Nov 16............ SDARR 100th Anniversary at Campo Treasurer Rail Museum Diane McPherson Secretary Dec 4 HVMTC Dinner & General meeting at Charlies Karen Pepe Editor Tony Bowker Editors Notes Vic Terrell felt unwell on the second day of the Big Bear Tour and Stephanie took Hidden Valley him home. On the was he had a seizure and ended up in a San Bernardino hospital. Model T Club PO Box 462314 He is currently at home but still not in good shape, please send his your thoughts Escondido, CA 92046-2314 and prayers. TonyB October 2019 Hidden Valley Model T Club Commutator Page 1 Presidents Message It looks like Summer is about to end and Fall will show up soon. Model T driving here is a yearly event. So get the old T out and drive it around. The weather is turning cooler now so we don't need to use the AC in our Model Ts as much as we did a few months ago. Please show up at the next meeting and on the next tours. We can use any suggestions you might have for the club. Please let me know what you want to do so we can plan events that you will enjoy. Thanks, Craig French Your Non-Elected President 760-727-5046 [email protected] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- October HVMTC Tour October 19, 2019 The destination for this tour is somewhat provisional as Vic and Stephanie have other concerns at the moment Craig suggests we save the date of October 19 with a start at the Performing Arts Center at 9am. The destination will probably be a local park where there is an ART display or the Miniature Museum in Carlsbad. Naturally we will find somewhere nice for lunch. Date October 19 Start Time 9am to leave at 9:30 Destination Surprise -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- October 2019 Hidden Valley Model T Club Commutator Page 2 Big Bear Tour September 17-20 This tour might be summed up by 2 direct quotes from participants: “That was the worst road we’ve ever driven on!” and “We wouldn’t have missed this for anything!” The interesting thing is that those 2 quotes were from the very same couple! On the drive up to Big Bear, about half of the group stopped off to make a short but rough hike in to Big Falls, the highest (135 feet) waterfall in Southern California. Beautiful clear water tumbled over granite boulders as we climbed to the big upper falls. Beautiful and well worth the hike. By late afternoon all 9 Model Ts and 18 people had arrived at the Best Western: Tony B, Janna L, the Pepes, the Stanfields, the Terrells, the Risings, the Klings, the Lambrechts, Marilyn and Kirby with their friends Kay and Doug. The motel turned out to be quite nice and quite reasonable (off season and midweek). Big Bear has quite a variety of restaurants including Andy Devine’s “Captains Anchorage” which felt like a step back in time to another era with dark paneling, red leather booths and old school waitress. After breakfast on Wednesday, the Ts all headed West past the Village and Boulder Bay with a stop at the historic Big Bear Lake Dam, dating to 1912. Continuing West for another 15 miles, we turned off to go up to the Keller Peak Fire Lookout Tower. We started climbing immediately and for the next 5 miles, the road got steeper and more narrow. As we neared the top, the road leveled off and provided a spectacular view to the South. It was so steep it appeared you could throw a rock and hit Redlands! At 7900 foot elevation, the lookout tower was open with an extremely steep set of steps and a very knowledgeable volunteer host. The 360 degree views were a little hypnotizing. We couldn’t stop looking! The trip back down the mountain was equally daunting until we hit the highway and headed back to the village for lunch. In the late afternoon, we boarded the Big Bear Queen for a 90 minute narrated tour of the lake with Captain Chris. Lots of history, nature, houses from shacks to mansions made for a very enjoyable boat ride. Thursday morning we drove part way around the lake to the Big Bear Discovery Center which had lots of information on the local natural history, a terrific exhibit on the CCC and a 1/2 mile nature walk. October 2019 Hidden Valley Model T Club Commutator Page 3 We headed up what seemed like a steep dirt road (that is until we came back down the other side!)leading to Holcomb Valley. This valley is the site of Southern California’s biggest gold rush in the 1860’s. There is not much left other a few piles of metal and wood and some holes in the ground. But the scenery was beautiful with lush meadows, big stands of trees and wildflowers. We stopped at most of the sites and had a lunch of make your own sandwiches, etc. near the Metzger Mine. We then headed down the rest of the 12 mile dirt road which was quite steep, rocky and very slow going. A true Model T road! After returning to the motel, a few of us headed off in the Ts for an optional tour to the Champion Lodgepole Pine, one of the world’s biggest Lodgepole pines. This involved an even rougher 5 miles of dirt road and a beautiful 1/2 mile hike into the spectacular tree. All of us went to a delicious dinner at the 572 Social Restaurant where we had a large room all to ourselves. Very enjoyable evening! Friday morning, we all packed up and headed home. We gambled a little and ran without a trouble truck and it turned out we didn’t need one. No breakdowns, no flats! There was quite a lot of discussion about which road was worse, Titus Canyon in Death Valley or this tour. Guess we’ll just have to compare them when we tour Death Valley next March! Only 4 people completed all of this tour including the 2 options of Big Falls and Champion Lodgepole. Can you guess who? A word of appreciation to Janna Laughon who has just recently got her 1911 Touring running and has had little practice driving after no Model T driving for the past 30 years. This trip was a little bit of an “initiation by fire” but she handled it like a pro! We will finish with one more quote from a participant: “I don’t want this tour to end!” So, for better or worse, hopefully this tour will be remembered for a while. Kirby and Tony October 2019 Hidden Valley Model T Club Commutator Page 4 Minutes for HVMTC General Meeting August 7, 2019 Held at Charlie’s, Escondido Attendees: Mac & Diane MacPherson, John & Karen Pepe, Tony Bowker, Craig & Barbara French, Dale & Eleanor Stanfield, Ken & Merleen Magers, Virgil & Sharon White, Les & Barbara Von Nordheim, John & Jane Ailing, Vic Terrell, Anne Tunnell, Dell Pound (20) Start Time: 7:02p.m. Craig started the meeting, Tony led the pledge of allegiance. President and General News Report: Dell Pound purchased a 1924 Touring that belonged to Lee Chase. It will be up and on tour soon. Congratulations! Hope to see you soon on tour! Tony went on the Billings/Yosemite tour (which did not go to Yosemite) and gave us a recap of his tour there. There were long tours each day, and the country is beautiful. It sounded like an interesting few days, with a wide variety of tours, including the Little Big Horn battlefield, and a stop at someone who buys and sells Model Ts. Total mileage on the official tour of three days traveled about 620 miles. He then visited Yellowstone, but lots of traffic especially for a Model T at the peak of the tourist season. Howard Gingrich’s (long time Model T participant) wife passed away. He is wanting to sell his Model T. Secretary’s report: The minutes were approved. There will not be a formal newsletter in September as our editor is heading to vacation in London. Safe travels! Treasurer’s Report: Diane reported we had $1,400.58 in the bank. Tours Report: There will not be a tour in August for this club. There will be a San Diego Model T club tour September 17th- 21st and tour for two days, some dirt roads, boat trip, to Big Bear, trailering there on a Tuesday and home on Friday and driving around there for 2 or 3 days. Also another San Diego tour to Death Valley in March of 2020 is in the planning stages. For future tours, please let Craig know if you have any ideas or would like to plan a tour yourself. We all have interests that others might want to learn about. Saturdays are better days to tour rather than Sunday, and keep in mind we all like to eat lunch out! Also keep us posted if you have a T that needs work and you need an assist or need to borrow tools to do the work.