2007 Texas to Colorado Model T Tour
June 20th thru July 4th, 2007
joining the "Search
for the Mohigans Tour”
and the Model T
Club of Northern Colorado.
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With all the cars serviced last night and
packed this morning, we set out from Loveland around 9:00AM.
Our destination was Colorado Springs and Garden of the
Gods, then a drive up Highway 24 to spend the night so we could
tackle Pike’s Peak early on Sunday. The most
obvious way to get from Loveland to Colorado Springs is right
down I-25 but not if you are driving a Model T. When they
are going 70 and you are going 30, you lose! So we
plotted a route down Hwy 287 and 121 which run parallel to I-25
but far enough over that you are out of the traffic they
generate. The road goes through one community
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after another so there are stoplights and
traffic but it is going a much more manageable speed. It
was at least three lanes each direction. We thought we
were going to have to get on I-470 briefly but managed to avoid
that and continued south of Denver on Hwy 85. I’m
mentioning all these roads to show that it is possible to get
almost anywhere without having to get on the interstate highway
if you have a map showing all the backroads. We use
“Backroads of Texas” regularly and on this trip
used “Backroads of Colorado”. If you are
serious about seeing the country, you need to own one of these
books.
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Just south of Denver, we met some of
my family along the roadside. I have a sister and brother
and their families who live in Denver and I switched cars for a
few miles of air-conditioned comfort. (Don’t let
them fool you; it gets HOT in Colorado!) We made a few
stops and caught up with the group again just as they were
making the two-mile stretch on I-25 in Colorado Springs.
Ben and I toured the Garden of the Gods with my family -
that is Pike’s Peak behind us - but the others all
stopped in the city.
The Garden of the Gods is a famous
rock formation in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains.
Their red
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rocks predate any recorded history, even
Native American legends. Jutting up out of the earth in
all shapes and angles, including the amazing Balanced Rock
below, they are well worth seeing. There are many
formations you can climb like we did at Balanced Rock, numerous
hiking trails, and a road running through the park that lets
you see everything without ever getting out of your car if
that’s what you want to do. The park belongs to the
city of Colorado Springs and the drive through is free.
It doesn’t get any better than this!
Click Picture to View Larger Image
Meanwhile, Austen and Nicky
had friends they wanted to visit. The others went
to see a Model T they had heard was for salebut decided not to
buy. After a quick run through the Garden of the Gods,
they were headed up Highway 24 to our motel when they noticed
that Martin was no longer with them. They found him off
on the side of the road with the car that wouldn’t run.
They pushed the car into a nearby parkling lot and began
to examine it. Ross quickly determined that the problem
was in the triple gears. A broken pin in one of the gears
had caused the transmission to stop working. Correcting
that problem involved finding an unbroken pin (not available at
NAPA), pulling the engine without an engine lifter, and tearing
apart and rebuilding an engine in a parking lot with only the
tools they had with them.
It doesn’t take long for
this crew to get to work. Soon, the parking lot was
littered with parts from Martin’s car. You can see
the radiator and radiator cover, the hood, and feet sticking
out from under the car. This is Martin’s first
Model T tour and he is getting the full experience.
Our motel, the Rocky Top
Motel in Green Mountain Falls, was 13 miles up a steep hill and
Ben and I had already gone up and checked in. That was
when we heard about the problems the others were having.
Since they were five of them working on it, we
didn’t go back down. They had tools, skills, and
they were already there. Ben started
calling to see if we could connect with some Model T people in
the area to locate the pin they needed.
This picture shows the
sheared off pin. The wobbling of the broken gear caused
some damage to the other two but not so much that they
couldn’t be used.
About three hours into the
process, the Bromley’s friends brought Patty and Barbara
up the hill to the motel. There was no place to sit, no
shade from the sun, and nothing really for the women to do.
After making a number of
calls and finding no one
home, Ben finally heard from a local man
who thought he had the pin. But by that time, they had
already put the engine back together. It didn’t run
well but ran well enough to get them back on the road and up
the hill to our motel. The car broke down around 4:00PM;
they arrived at the motel around 11:00 that night.
We are still planning to
attempt a run up Pike’s Peak tomorrow morning.
Martin and Patty will ride with one of the others and, if
the weather is good, we will achieve one more exciting mountain
peak before we head for home.
We have started speaking of
Mayor Mark Conlee as though he is on the trip with us.
His campaign poster has turned out to be one of the most
useful tools in the cars. Austen says he plans to vote
for him when he runs again. And they all want to meet
Mark when we get back to Bryan.
One more comment on the fun
of travelling in a Model T: Ben and I only have two seats
in our pickup. When it became obvious that the others
would not make it up to the motel at any reasonable hour, we
began discussing how we could get some supper. The
nearest restaurant was more than five
miles up the hill in Woodland Park.
Ben would have to take me up, then come back two more
times to transport Patty and Barbara. He would then have
to reverse the procedure to bring us back. Five miles is
a long way in a Model T.
Earlier in the afternoon, I
had talked with a sheriff’s deputy who was a guest at the
same motel. Deputy Nathan Williams has a home in Greeley
but a job in Waller County. He had been friendly and
enthusiastic about our Model T. So I went down and
knocked on his door. He willingly agreed to transport
Barbara and Patty and joined us for supper before giving them a
ride back. I would never have asked that had we been in a
modern car. And I’m not so sure he would have been
willing to be chauffeur and tour guide if we had been in a
modern car.
