Today was officially 100 + miles but we ended up making it more like 118 with all the extra driving around each of the small towns along the way. Awesome roads, typical of Texas county maintained blacktop highways. The parking lot of the hotel was full of interesting Model T’s as we all checked our oil and did our last minute maintenance. I liked the look of this little 27 roadster. The top had been repaired with that gigantic duct tape that you see on late night TV commercials with Phil Swift and the boat they cut the bottom out of. Check out the sealed beam headlights.
More photos from the parking lot before departing the YO Ranch. Ken has a very interesting early 14 touring with Beaudette body. Unfortunately Ken and his car rode home on the vulture wagon after his torque tube broke just forward of the pinion bearing housing.
On the road towards Luckenbach. Lots of interesting houses old and new. I love the old German traditional rock fences built in the 1850’s - early 1900’s. Some of the fences were 4 - 5 feet tall and were as much as 1 mile long.
Our T ran flawlessly except the Rocky Mountain brakes needed to be adjusted a couple times. We had them to tight at first, then too loose, then just right.
In the parking lot at an interesting state park we saw some of the usual suspects.
The park is the site of a tunnel built for the Fredericksburg and Northern railway in 1913. The line was marginally profitable and it was abandoned in 1942 with the rails sold for scrap. We walked down the steep trail to the road bed where the tunnel can be seen. Bats infest the cave. It is an interesting display of a very expensive mistake.
A few miles up the road from the park we arrived in Luckenbach Texas. The place is famous for being the site of the recordings of Willie Nelson, Hank Williams Junior, Jerry Jeff Walker, and several other lesser recording artists live album recordings. We got a really nice long neck root beer.
Just outside Luckenbach, on the way to our lunch stop, the brakes started applying themselves. I had the Rocky Mountain brakes adjusted too tight. Over the next 10 miles we stopped two more times to perform adjustments. Smart folks stop in the shade to work on their Model T’s.
We had lunch at the Old Segovia Saloon in Waring, Texas. A tiny little town with a great hamburger place. The vulture wagons were busy today. We had two broken crankshafts, a rear axle with noisy problems, and a broken drive shaft tube, plus another car went home on the trailer for unknown reasons. We got greasy but could not fix any of those problems.
Leaving Waring, Texas we went by the site of a now defunct town of Brownsboro which was washed away in the great flood of 1932. Only the cemetery remains today. Further down the road we saw a railroad trestle erected in 1886 as part of the San Antonio - Aransas Pass railway. The railway was sold as scrap decades ago, only the trestle survives.
Next stop is the bustling little town of Comfort, Texas. Lots of German history here, and lots of interesting Model T’s to look at.
The torque tube is repaired and I picked up the '14 from Ross Lilleker’s restoration shop in College Station, Texas, yesterday. Also, Ross and Jennifer’s shop is the home of the 2017 Stynoski winner 1921 Canadian Coupe! Ross repaired the broken two piece DB torque tube using both flanges from the original 104 year old part and the tube from a '14-'19 torque tube. Beautiful job and drove the touring today.
It was my first time to ride the vulture wagon in ten years of touring and at least I could drive the car up “on the wagon”. Anyhow, I campaigned for the “Hard Luck” award given at the final banquet of the Texas T Party Tour but I lost out to a new member of the Two Piece Crank Club. Actually, we had two new members to that prestigious Club and one shredded transmission so I really didn’t stand a chance. I’ll try to stay “off the wagon” at next years 41st Texas T Party that is going to be held in Schulenburg, Texas. The Tour in Kerrville, Texas will be a hard act to follow but it’s going to be great tour I’m sure.
Ken