Alaska Tour P2

This is the story of the Model A Touring Club members as they tour in the State of Alaska. The Model T’s are on their own schedule and I may not have contact with them on a daily basis. I hope that a member of the T Tour will be posting notes to the net. If so, I will publish a link. Keith Smith

The Great Alaskan MATC Tour has begun -- for the Smiths, at least! We took our 1931 Victoria to the warehouse in Torrance, California today. It is scheduled to be trucked with seven other cars to the ferry port in Bellingham, Washington. We will pick it up on the morning of Friday, 13 July and embark that evening on the MV Columbia for Skagway, Alaska! Accompanying us to the trucking company warehouse, were our great touring companions, Joan and Dennis Olson. Alan Bennett, Vice President of MATC, drove President Jim Baker’s Ford to the warehouse, as well. Now, maybe we can relax for a few days from the hectic pace of getting everything ready to ship. Our plane doesn't depart from Burbank until next Thursday!

We were fortunate that it was the Friday after the Fourth of July when we drove to Torrance. We had to drive by the Infamous LAX, the Los Angeles Airport, and any other week day would have seen a log jam on the freeway. As it was, there was considerable traffic. Joan Olson drove the car to bring us home. Joann, my wife (call her Jo for short) kept Joan company the 40 miles from the Olson’s home in North Hills in the San Fernando Valley. We left our home in the Santa Clarita Valley for the Olsons’ place at 9:25 AM and arrived back home at 3:00 PM; it was a full day, but of course, we stopped for lunch!

I suppose that there are some, even in the Model A World, who wonder that we would elect to take our Model A’s with us on vacation. If they would wonder, what of our friends who haven’t an inkling of the Model A “mentality!” We pondered this issue as we had lunch and discussed it some. Since then I have given it a bit more thought.

The Model A Hobby is comprised of many interests; from Restoration to “Showing” of cars, to Era Fashions, to Touring and just plain fun tinkering with the old things! Showing, Fashions and Touring share the desire to “show off” the cars and the clothing of the era of 1928 through 1931. In Touring, we don’t do this in a fixed venue, we take the cars to the people and the people with an interest respond to us and that establishes a closer rapport between the car owners and the observers. But Touring is more than just a museum on wheels. That may be what it is to the observer, but not to those in the cars -- far from it!

No, Touring is a Sport! The American Heritage Dictionary says, “sport, noun 1. An activity involving physical exertion and skill that is governed by a set of rules or customs and often undertaken competitively. 2. An active pastime; recreation”-- among other definitions. It may not be “competitive” in the sense that we try to “beat” someone, but we certainly try to get to the final destination in one piece and without a major breakdown! That is, in a way, a winning score.

I can understand someone being baffled as to why I would choose to drive an almost 80-year-old car on a tour of a distant location. I wonder somewhat the same thing about those who run the Marathon -- wouldn’t it be easier, I ask myself, to do it on a bicycle? But then, one would miss the challenge and the sense of accomplishment. It is the same with Model A Touring. Sure, we could fly to Alaska and take a bus tour and see the same things, but where would be the excitement, the sense of having accomplished anything and there would never be the same contact with the “natives!” This last factor is very important. Meeting and getting to know those who live there is a big pay off for Model A Touring. It is not only the “local” Model A people that we meet, but total strangers, some who don’t know a Model A from a Model T, who are entranced with a car of this age, driving so far to see what is common to them. This is a part of the “museum on wheels” part of the hobby that is so interesting. We always hope that when we have an encounter like this, that sooner or later, that individual will see a Model A and come under its spell.

So, that is why we do it, not just to see some grand view or a new country, but the sense of having an adventure, staking out a claim to a challenge and winning the “gold!” What better companions could we have than Model A People who love their old cars as we do and these old cars who will give their all to get us there and back if we will only take good care of them.