I am returning to Carlisle again this time with my Belvedere convertible. My friend Merle Wolfer will be traveling with me again and we are planning a few stops along the way. Our first stop of interest will be the Gateway auto museum in Gateway, CO and then on to the Cussler auto museum in Arvada, CO. Then three days travel to Carlisle. After Carlisle we travel to Farmington, PA to the WPC National meet, Then back to Gettysburg for the remainder of the National DeSoto meet. Hopefully find time to see the AACA museum in Hershey, and on the way back home stop at the Ragtop museum in Michigan City, IN. and who knows what else we might find!
I hope to post to this page daily with some photos of interest along the way. Stay tuned.
FRIDAY JULY 4th
I loaded the car in the trailer this afternoon and we will be pulling out at 8am in the morning. We will travel around Mt Hood and pickup I 84 at Hood River OR. Our first overnight will be in Twin Falls ID.
That is really great that you will post along the way. I like what I see so far regarding your Belvedere and can’t wait to see it in person. I plan to bring my '59 Savoy up to Carlisle and Hang-out as long as we can make the trip (only two hours for me).
Have a safe trip - I am looking forward to your e-mails.
SUNDAY JULY 6th
Greetings from Grand Junction CO. We didn’t take any pictures today because it was hazy, probably due to the many fires out west. We traveled hiway 6 from Provo to I 70 and there were places I would have liked to have taken some photos, but the road was under construction in many areas and very heavy traffic.
Tomorrow morning we head southwest from Grand Junction on hiway 141 to Gateway and the auto museum there. We will leave the trailer here at the motel in Grand Junction and pick it up on the way out. We then travel to Arvada CO to the Cussler museum tomorrow evening and will spend the night in the Denver area.
I will take several pictures at both places and post them tomorrow evening.
MONDAY JULY 7th
Greetings from Arvada CO. Today we toured the Gateway auto museum. This is a new museum owned by John Hendricks, the founder of the Discovery Channel. He feels cars are art, and should be displayed as such, and has he ever accomplished that!
This is the the resort he is building in Gateway amid the high rock canyons.
MONDAY JULY 7th continued…
Afrer crossing the continental divide at 11,600 ft, we arrived in Arvada CO and went directly to the famous author Clive Cussler’s museum. John Quinn, fellow 59er met us there and joined us for the tour. John lives about ten minutes from the museum.
thanks for the great pictures. Too bad that I can’t come and join you this year, but maybe you have another car and show up next year for the 50st aniversary?
TUESDAY JULY 8th
Greetings from Kansas City MO. Today we traveled from Arvada CO to Kansas City MO, stopping along the way at Ellis Kansas and visited the Walter P. Chrysler Boyhood Home museum.
WEDNESDAY JULY 9th
Greetings from Columbus, OH. Today we traveled from Kansas City to Columbus, stopping in St Louis to see the Gateway Arch. We went up to the top. riding in a very small gondola that carries five people. There is eight in a series, and one series in each leg.
THURSDAY JULY 10th
Greetings from Carlisle. Yes we made it! We arrived at the show sight at 2:30pm with 3028 miles on our trip odometer. I registered the car and we looked around a bit and found a 59 Savoy four door already there, but no one around. We drove on to Mechanicsburg and checked into our motel. We will be posting a few choice photos this weekend to give you a glimpse of Chryslers at Carlisle.
FRIDAY JULY 11th
SHOW TIME! We were up early this morning and unloaded the Belvy and drove to Carlisle arriving about 7:30 along with about a thousand others. Got the car parked and hit the swap meet trying to beat the heat. Dan Morton and the Dutch contingent arrived about 10:30. Only about 2000 cars showed up today, with the big day coming tomorrow.
Here are some photos that caught my attention today:
SATURDAY JULY 12th
Very warm today, did most of our looking before noon, then stayed in the shade and visited with a lot of folks. These first photos show how much area is covered with show cars, vendors and swap spaces. It is several acres and nearly impossible to look at everything, even in two and a half days.
SUNDAY JULY 13th
We retured once again this morning to Carlisle, me driving the Belvedere and Merle driving the pickup and trailer. We left the pickup and trailer in Lowes parking lot in Carlisle, and continued on into the show. Not as many cars today but it was awards day, and I knew I had won a celebrity’s pick award, so we waited for the trip across the stage.
We left Carlisle about 2:30 and arrived in Farmington PA about 5:30 in time for the welcome dinner at the WPC national meet. We traveled through a serious thunder and lightning storm with very heavy rain. It has rained here this evening but it will be just fine for the rest of the week.
MONDAY JULY 14th
Greetings from the Summit Inn near Farmington PA. The weather was much better today for our driving tour to Fallingwater. This is a home in nature, and one of Frank Lloyd Wright’s most widely acclaimed works, and was designed in 1935 for the family of Pittsburg department store owner Edgar J. Kaufmann.
IT’S TUESDAY, IT MUST BE PITTSBURGH
We left at 8am this morning on a bus tour to Pittsburgh. Our first stop was
the Frick Art & Historical Center, a fascinating complex of museums and historical buildings located on over five acres of lawns and gardens in Pittsburgh’s residential East End. The Center is devoted to the interpretation of the life and times of industrialist and art collector Henry Clay Frick. Exhibitions of fine and decorative art, and a carriage and auto museum are also presented at the Center. We toured the house and visited the car museum. Photos were not allowed, but we can show some pictures of Pittsburgh.
We had lunch at the Grand Concourse restaurant, which is set in the Edwardian splendor of the Pittsburgh and Lake Erie Railroad terminal built in 1901.
Then we took a city tour on a river boat of Pittsbugh’s Three Rivers.
