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The North Texas Region of the Cadillac LaSalle Club, along with our
co-hosts the Gulf Coast Region and the Central Texas Region, held a weeklong
National Tour of the Plains in the Panhandle of Texas. Over the course of
six days, 28 Cadillac and LaSalle automobiles and 90 participants toured
historical and scenic places in the Lubbock and Amarillo area. The line of
classic, vintage and modern autos made quite a few stops in a short time
span, but there was ample opportunity to visit the excellent historical,
local, and auto – related items along the way. This was also the first tour
to be qualified in the new Cadillac LaSalle Club Touring Recognition
Program, with an award of 350 miles credit for this tour.This first Texas Tour has several first such as first Texas driving tour,
first Driving tour badge to be awarded by National with 315
miles to begin credit to earn the badge, and had several national
representatives---VP SW Regional director Phil Terry, Toni Huse, secretary,
Carl Steig Chief Judging director, Marsha Redman Tour director, and
Dirk Van Dorst liason from Belguim plus NTX Past National director John Foust,and Present National Director Duane Medley.
NTX Region President and Activities Director Rubye Musser, along with help
from club officers and directors, organized all aspects of the tour, which
included a complete tour book detailing the participants with their home
base and their cell phone number, the schedule, the routes, the mileage, a
list of cars and owners, sponsors, advertisers, and other informative
material and background material pertaining to the tour.
June 7, 2011 American Windpower Center Museum in Lubbock, Texas The tour started with an optional day, Tuesday, June 8th, 2011, for those who wanted to see the special sights in the Lubbock, Texas area. This optional tour day began with a trip to the American Windmill Power Center. Here we got to see the museum for the American style water pumping windmills and related exhibits on wind electric.,
June 7, 2011 Buddy Holley Museum in Lubbock, Texas From there we headed for a visit to the Buddy Holly Center, which is a historical site that preserves the memory of Buddy Holly, and also the music of Lubbock and West Texas.
June 7, 2011 Lunch at Gardski in Lubbock, Texas We enjoyed the lunch at Gardski. Good food and company.
June 7, 2011 Paul Bush Antique Cars in Lubbock, Texas
We also were privileged to see NTX member Paul Bush collection of 16 very impressive old cars at his place of business.June 7, 2011 Alderson Cadillac in Lubbock, Texas Then, to round out this first day, we traveled a short distance to Alderson Cadillac, one of our sponsors, for a big western-style barbeque and a showing of some fine vintage Cadillacs and clients cars plus the Lubbock media headed by and Janna & Zack. Alderson Danny Knox furnished and presented the colorful DASH plaques designed by our own Bill K. Of course, we had a few classics of our own to show, including Mike Stargel’s 1932 Cadillac 370B V-12 7-passenger sedan, Bill S. 1938 LaSalle 5049 5-passenger convertible sedan, and Whit O.’ 1941 Cadillac 60 special. 69 convertible White Shark and a hearse 1977 that stopped the traffic on the road at times.
June 8, 2011 Apple Country Drive
On Wednesday, June 9th, the tour moved out of Lubbock for a 215 mile trek
starting with Apple Country Orchards for an Apple Country breakfast.
The orchard is 29 years old and has over 30 varieties of apples that can
picked by the public when in season.
After this we motored past many
West Texas sights such as the farm lands and old tractors and combines and
pasture full of pickups to Silverton Texas for a pit stop and photo op
at the Brisco County stone courthouse and jailhouse. We then moved the
trail of cars through the east side of Palo Duro canyons stopping
for a group picture around Lake MacKenzie.
on through some beautiful scenery and views of the canyons and stopped in
Claude, Texas where the famous movie HUD was filmed. Then a little bit
of Route 66 to Groom and the Mile High Cross. The Mile High is called
that because you can see from a mile away and is second largest in Western
hemisphere.
June 8, 2011 Welcome Reception in Amarillo, Texas A few cars left from Claude going directly to Amarillo due to overheating problems. Finally arriving at our main hotel in Amarillo greeted by a vacant lot of Prairie Dogs, which is a colonial American burrowing rodent with course fur, a short bushy tail and very small ears. These little characters were quite interesting to many. Where additional participants were arriving for the registration and evening catered reception by the Stock Yard cafe. The tour was fully underway now. There were 80 participants and 37 Cadillacs and LaSalles, plus a few “foreign” brands that were going to make up the tour group. Ye-Ha! It was going to be fun
June 9, 2011 Cadillac Ranch in Amarillo, Texas
Thursday morning, June 10th, brought warm sunshine and a very minimal of mechanical problems. The ‘38 LaSalle needed a fuel filter, we had a blown tire on one car, and the ‘41 was having cooling issues – it was 100 degrees each day. But these problems were quickly overcome and we gathered everyone after a fine breakfast to start out with a visit to Stanley Marsh’s Cadillac Fins and Art Ranch, west of Amarillo on Interstate 40. Members of the tour spent time viewing the semi-buried Cadillacs and had fun adding to the graffiti and paint jobs. The Vintage Auto Haus was a show place of a variety of year models and makes of carsJune 9, 2011 Route 66 downton Amarillo, Texas Afterwards we had some free time to visit old route 66, tour the Amarillo area on our own, and enjoy a lunch at our own leisure.
Kicking tire and visiting at Comfort Inn Suites in Amarillo, Texas In the evenings, when the daily activities are finished. It is kicking tires and visiting time.
June 9, 2011 Vintage Auto Haus in Amarillo, Texas We were delighted to see his collection of cars from restored to rusted bodies. Rows and rows of auto related displays.
June 9, 2011 St. Mary's Catholic Church in Umbarger, Texas Then, for the afternoon we toured to the town of Umbarger, Texas, passing one of the largest feed lots in the panhandle housing approximately 7,000 to 10,000 head of cattle and passing by antique tractors among cedar trees for a visit to St. Mary’s Catholic Church. There we were presented the story of how in 1945, during WWII, Italian prisoners of war at the prison camp in Hereford came to the recently built church and in return for some meals, decorated the very plain church with fresco murals, artwork, and carvings. The Fresco and stained glass windows were awe inspiring and beautiful sights to behold. Afterwards we had a fine German sausage dinner, and here Marsha Redman distributed the Touring Pins to each attendee and explained how you attain the Badge. See you self Starter for more detail in earning the driving tour badge that began with this tour.Then returned to the hotel by way of seeing a few buffalo grazing in a pasture. Friday the 11th was quite a full and fascinating day (especially for the “city folks”).
June 10, 2011 Cowboy Breakfast in Amarillo, Texas
We started early on a cool morning with a short parade
of our cars through bare grass and shinnery to the River Breaks Ranch.
We parked in their “parking lot” where some of the ranch’s horses greeted
our cars. One horse loved Jim W’s 1967 Cadillac Deville
convertible so much, that it began to nibble on the top material. Meanwhile,
we all got aboard the wagons provided by the ranch for a truly scenic
two-mile 20-minute ride through the canyon created by the Canadian River
Breaks to the dining hall and rodeo area on the ranch. Along the way,
following the wagons, there was a cattle drive of eight young Texas
longhorn steers and some cowboy riders managing the drive. It was very
exciting to watch them work. Upon arrival at the dining hale we were
treated to a big cowboy trail-cooked breakfast. After breakfast we
went out to watch and wager (“ranch bucks”) on a few horse races run by the
ranch personnel, showing off their fine American quarter horses. Then
there was some roping instruction and some socializing, and then back to the
cars on the ranch wagons. This visit was a truly a high point in the tour.
Back at the hotel we were privileged to have Carl Steig conduct a tech meet
on how to become a judge plus a question and answer session of judging
points.
June 10, 2011 Panhandle Historical Museum in Canyon, TexasAfter some free time and lunch, we got the cars together for a trip to Canyon, Texas to visit the Panhandle - Plains Historical Museum. This museum is the largest historical museum in Texas, part of the West Texas A&M University in Canyon, Texas. Everyone enjoyed the displays and features, mainly because of its uncluttered design, and wide range of topics and subjects.
June 10, 2011 St. Ann's Catholic Church in Canyon, TexasWhen all were collected again, we toured a short distance to meet some very friendly people at the St. Ann’s Catholic Church for a Czech dinner, and some awards .Drawing and auction were a source of enterainment touring participants. Thanks to Bill S. auctioneer. Ted R. donated the items and also Jim B. with some picture ad memorbilia. Long distance award went to John & Barbara M. from Conn. Longest distance traveling award - -Dirk Van Dorst from Belgium. Oldest car -1932 7 passengers LaSalle John S. & Mike S. along with booby prize cleaner for dirty white walls. Then it was back to hotel in Amarillo where the hosts kept the hospitality room open for the evening.
June 11, 2011 Warrick Body Shop in Amarillo, Texas Saturday the 11th greeted us with blue Texas skies and the threat of dry, 100 degree weather. Texas cool, ya’all. We started out with a visit of the Bill and Mark Warrick’s Body and Restoration & Memorabilia Shop. Several area car clubs brought some of their cars to mingle with our cars and we had a very fine car show for the morning. Tour participants also had coffee and doughnuts, and viewed the automotive trivia collection (amazing), car collection (impressive), lots of memorabilia ,body shop, hot rod shop, and salvage yard. We all were impressed how neat, organized, and clean it was. Warrick saying was" if we dont have it you do not need it." When we left there many participants went on their own to the Route 66 celebration on 6th Street, and visiting antique shops there during the noon time.
June 11, 2011 Palo Duro Drive And the best was about to happen for the afternoon. We put our car parade together and went on west side of Canyon, Texas to the Palo Duro Canyon, the second largest canyon in the United States. Because the roadway through the canyon is laid out as one continuous road, we could all take in the sights of the canyon at our own pace and leisure to see the monkey and lighthouse rocks. Palo Duro Canyon is 120 miles in length and 800 feet deep and was settled by Col Charles Goodnight who began the JA Ranch which is still a working ranch. He was very familiar and worked with Quanah Parker also. Most ended up at the canyon snack bar / gift shop, and all cars toured the looped road to the bottom of the canyon. I might add that although the temperature in the sun was over 100 degrees, we had no mechanical problems with any of the Cadillacs, the LaSalle, or any of the “foreigners.” Finally, by 6:00 pm everyone was in the theater parking lot, along with a gajillon other cars and tour buses
June 11, 2011 Big Texan Steak and "TEXAS"
For the evening we had a delicious outdoor steak dinner in the shadow of the
heart of the canyon, and then the best part, as the evening cooled to a very
pleasant 75 degrees, we sat in the audience of a number of groups of
travelers to watch and enjoy the play called "Texas." It is an outdoor
musical and historical drama written by Paul Green
in its 46th year of presentation. and about the bolt of lightning scaring
people. It is a awe inspiring show with the lights and all 6 Texas
flags against the background of the canyon.
Sunday was a clearing day, where everyone said their goodbyes and travel to
their homes. We had CLC members from as far away as Kontich, Belgium
(Dirk Van Dorst flew over- and from 14 different states. There were 10
people that continued on an added bonus tour to a private home, a double car
garage filled with a huge model train track running small
trains.
Rubye Musser
A special thanks to the members who took pictures. Minnie Bedrick