So We’re starting backwards here – this is the Left Coast end of the Coast To Coast Caravan, with the cars lined up on the Marin Headlands just past the Golden Gate bridge. An epic journey by epic people in epic cars! Ok, I won’t use that word again!
This was the beginning for us, with the famous route 66 Summit Inn in the background, just over the Cajon Pass. For people from the Los Angeles area, this is the demarcation point that says ” you just left L.A, and have entered a strange, unfamiliar world !
Zion National Park beckoned us on the way to the Caravan
We parked on the outskirts of Zion and took the eco-friendly tour buses into the park.
This is, no kidding, the view from the Road out of Zion – it’s a tunnel built in about 1930 that was carved out of the mountainside, and they were thoughtful enough to include arched windows!
That yellow sign means business, it’s about 1,000 feet down the cliff!
Not very many people know that Pablo Picasso visited Zion National park in 1922, and was ejected by the park rangers and told never to return after taking hammer and chisel to these rocks ! However, Cal Coolidge stole his idea and commissioned Mr. Borglum to carve Mt. Rushmore, with more identifiable faces!
So now we’re in Park City Utah, where we saw this lovely ’35 Packard, with the optional chrome headlamps and grille shell. The “L” stands for “Lincoln Highway” , which was the theme of this tour. We stuck as close as possible to the original Lincoln highway route. Did you think “L” stood for something else? Well then shame on you!
And again in Park City, a very unusual ’31 Chrysler CG Phaeton, with even more unusual right hand drive.
So here is the beauty of the open road. I was so inspired by this view that I reached for the camera, and fired away. What could go wrong, with 20 miles of open road ahead and not a single car in the way? Well when you try to do too many things at once, quality suffers. In this instance, the little grooves between the yellow lines on the road , which are there to WAKE YOU UP when you cross the yellow line, caused the hubcap to leave it’s little retaining clips, and go rolling under the tire and skitter to rest alongside the road. It’s still a great picture though!
Anyone who thinks driving a 65 year old car across county is a crazy idea hasn’t met these people! Fortunately my earlier hubcap experience kept me from veering too far off in their direction!
The East Ely Train Station, home to the Nevada Northern Railway Museum, a very cool place.
The Classics lined up at the train station – we got a ride in the train, dinner, and the best part, a tour of the locomotive shops
If Edward Hopper had visited this place, he would have had a field day. It really is stuck in time, like it was still about 1925 or so.
They have 2 working steam locomotives, and some diesels, too. they also have a non-working restoration project locomotive that, for the low, low donation cost of $1.2 million, could me made to run again!
This bearded dude is the guy who runs the museum. He’s really good at PR, he’s been on the “american Restoration” show several times, and he is a very entertaining speaker, which, if you have been on other railroad tours, is quite a rarity.
Here they are loading Pizza on our train.
Here’s the Hotel Nevada, where the Club stayed. It was contemporary with our cars, built in 1929. at 5 Stories, the tallest building in Nevada at the time. This was viewed from the train window on the way up the hill.
And in, shall we say, “soft focus” is the Hotel Nevada at night, on the train trip back.
Here’s the original reason for the railroad – to take the product of the copper mines out to the world. Those tailing piles are the result of over 100 years of mining. The headlights at the upper left are the giant ore dump trucks picking up their cargo.
At the end of the line, they had a wild west show with cowboys and villains and dance hall girls. The old west town is off to the right.
Good guys? Bad Guys? not sure!
When was the last time you saw a 1930 Packard 740 Roadster in a coin-op car wash? Here is just such an event in Ely, NV.
The wild west people still at it!
The Hotel Nevada, “western hospitality”. I liked the place, although the gunshots and the drunk guy hollering at 4 in the morning did add a bit of, ahh, Western Character to the proceedings!
Clearly they’ve outgrown their quarters, and brought their perspective on the art of high quality auto restoration somewhere else. I understand there’s quite a wait to get into their shop !
Looking like a giant corrugated insect, the snowplow rests comfortably on the track.
A ’37 Packard 12 Formal Sedan . Larry is my new hero, since he inspired me to break my lifelong policy of “no bumper stickers”. He had several bumper stickers, including “Wall Drug”. For those of you who never drove through South Dakota on Vacation, Wall Drug was a giant tourist emporium alongside the road. If you went there, their employees would walk up and down the street, and install a “Wall Drug” bumper sticker on your car whether you wanted one or not!