As you can read from Bill Sander’s minutes of the Saturday meeting it was just about 20 minutes in duration. My kind of meeting.
Saturday, July 11, 2009
There were 14 cars on the tour that went to Plattsburgh, NY for lunch at Geoffrey’s Pub and then on to the Champlain Valley Transportation Museum which is housed in several buildings on the east side of what was the Plattsburgh Air Force Base.
After the meeting, we arrived at the Ferry Dock and as I was the lead car, I told the ticket taker that we were a automotive tour and that there were 14 vehicles of various makes and models on the tour.
They managed to get us all on the same Ferry and we enjoyed a ride on the lake who’s founding we were celebrating.
In an effort to get a good photo of the cars, I asked the attendant if I could get permission from the Captain to come up to the wheelhouse in order to get an overhead view. He readily agreed. As I stopped by to thank him on my way down, what to my surprise should he pull out of his travel bag, but a current copy of Hemming’s Classic Car magazine. (Remember folks, they are out there, we just have to find them.)
We got to the Pub in good shape and were treated to a fine lunch at reasonable prices.
A short drive later, we were at the museum, where we met our tour guide Richard “Dick” Soper a very knowledgeable local volunteer.
After our introduction, we started the walking tour which last a little over 2 1/2 hours. As we were all standing outside commenting on how enjoyable and informative the tour was, in the not too far distance, many heard thunder. A harbinger of things to come – in buckets!
Hastily, decisions were made and plans were changed as a number of members decided to head back via the Ferry and not to complete the tour as planned.
An intrepid sextet, lead by 2nd. VP Wendell and Mary Noble in their 1930 Dodge Brothers roadster; Gael and Judy Boardman, in their 1917 Locomobile; David Stone in his 1930 Ford Model T Sedan, Don Lovejoy in his 57 Chevy, Joe and Judy Paradise in their Triumph and Clark & Isabel Wright decided to follow the original planned route and headed north into the ominous oncoming storm. In the meantime, Judy Boardman lost her hat so an unscheduled stop was made. Due to the design of the Nobel?s roadster‘s top, Mary had to literally hold the convertible top down while Wendell drove.
There is no doubt, that as time goes on, the rain story will be enhances and grow exponentially and sound something like the story of the fish that got away. As Gael pointed out in no uncertain terms, the 3 oldest cars did it! Congratulations to our intrepid drivers.
July 12, 2009
Seven cars met at the Shaw’s parking lot in Colchester and proceeded down Spear St. (to bypass Shelburne Rd.) toward Basin Harbor and the Maritime Museum.
Again your scribe lead the way and I was told that I was going too slow. True there was a parade of cars behind us so I went a little faster.
As we did the day before, we ate lunch first at the Red Mill located right on the airport of the Basin Harbor Club and enjoyed another fine meal at good prices.
As we had let it be known that we would be happy to join up with other like-minded enthusiasts. Our group was met by Dave and Joyce Silveira (members of the Vermont British Car List) with their sparkling white MGB.
We were also met by two former VAE Presidents who were dining at the Red Barn. Rod and Betty Jean Dolliver in their 1931 Model A Roadster Pick-up (Which by the way needed some human intervention to start it-the guys pushed it.) and Larry and Mrs. Johnson driving their Woody Station Wagon.
After our lunch we formed up and toured the Basin Harbor Club’s grounds and received may whistles and applause. Kind of a mini-parade. Then we were off to the Maritime Museum down the block.
A grand visit to some Vermont nautical sites. Another great day.
We are all back home tired but safe and sound after an enjoyable tour of the lake and celebrating the founding of Lake Champlain.
A very special note of thanks to Wendell and Mary Noble for putting this program together. Cheers and well done folks!
On the following page you will see some of the 150 photos of the tour, It was grand fun and we missed all who could not attend. We look for more tours in the near future. So, keep tuned and plan on coming even if your classic is not running.
Now for a surprise: Everyone who was on the tour will receive a CD of all the photos that I took (about 150), as well as an 8 X 10 photograph of their appropriate group. If you were in 2 groups you get 2 8 X 10’s, with my compliments. (gf)
The fun part of this project was listening to the ’Pevy stories’ from his friends, some I can not print. Doris Bailey told about the day that Pevy and his friend John Keefer was on a trip to Boston in his Model T (from Bristol no less). While driving through a village they spotted a neat pile of leaves on someone’s lawn and decided to drive the ‘T’ through them. The leaves went flying everywhere. On their way back the same leaves were again raked into a neat pile but this time an anvil had been hidden in them. Yes, you guessed it….they drove through the leaves the second time and the anvil did a job on the car while someone was watching through a curtain slit in the house. The car made it home but you could tell the ‘T’ has issues. Lloyd Davis tells about the day Pevy sold his 46 Caddy to Adrian West but found he had mistakenly agreed to sell it for way less than its value. While Pevy drove the Caddy to it’s new home with Adrian following he was still mulling over his mistake taking many detours on the way. Adrian finally took the lead and the Caddy made it to Morrisville. Bill Sander has the car today, a picture of it can be seen on page 16. Lloyd also tells about the used VW Beetle that was delivered to Pevy back when the car was first introduced to this country. It had stayed in the driveway for a number of days before Pevy figured out how to get it into reverse. I am told Pevy had quite an Irish temper. He had been known to ‘beat-up’ a car when it refused to start. In one mid-winter story the car actually started after its tires and hood got a thrashing. VAE member Joe Kailin is originally from the New York City area. Joe tells about the day he heard a recent story about some New Yorker running Pevy and his Model T off the road. Meeting Pevy for the first time, Joe pretended he was the New Yorker but seeing the Irish temper come across Pevy’s face Joe immediately told Pevy he was joking. Later when the two became good friends, Joe invited Pevy to go with him to visit family in the city. New York City found out what real snoring was that first night Pevy went to sleep!
Pevy owned a 28 Willys Knight and in 1957 he entered the car in the first Stowe Antique and Classic Car Show. The main reason, I am told, that he bought the car was because it had a ‘hot water heater’ and that was good for the Vermont winters. The car also has a 9 quart oil sump because it has a sleeve valve type engine and Pevy found out all that oil gets thick when it is cold out and starting the engine is a task. He could be heard a mile away when the car would not start. The car was passed around and traded among VAE members over the years and today sits in a barn in northern Vermont. Pevy paid $35.00 for the car in 1953 when he bought it from someone in New York, the present owner paid Pevy $12.00 in the early 60s for it. VAE names like Chuck Hill, George Farr, Gael Boardman and Lloyd Davis come up as either owning or ‘using the car a lot’.
The valve sleeve engine was invented by Charles Knight in 1905 with smaller engines still using the technology today. Mr. Knight was annoyed by the noise the ‘puppet valve’ type engine made and developed this very quiet engine. The 6 cylinder engine has a ‘vacuum operated oil rectifier’ that recovers the oil before it gets burned and goes out the tail-pipe. One VAE member remembers a picture of a Willys Knight with a caption asking how one would know if the car was running or not. The hint in the picture was the plume of smoke that billowed from the rear of the car. The rectifier worked great but would get plugged easily thus causing the blue smoke. The big question I have now is….will I be seeing this 1928 Willys Knight in any future Stowe Car Show? I hope I do.