Upcoming Events

49th Annual Texas Tour sponsored by South Texas Regional Group # 71. April 1 - 3, 2022. “See the Hill Country View in 2022” Come and experience Blanco, TX, and enjoy your Flathead Ford or Mercury or Lincoln! We have events planned for Friday including seif-directed tours of the Rexrod Shop, owned by Keith Tardell, the Martin Brothers Shop made famous on "Iron Resurrection" as well as local breweries, wineries and distilleries. Friday night we will officially welcome you with a reception and activities for your pleasure. Saturday will be filled with a driving tour on back roads to various Hill Country destinations. The Banquet and Awards presentation on Saturday night will be held in the historic former Blanco County courthouse, used in the movie “True Grit” starring Jeff Bridges. Host hotel is the Best Western Plus Luxury Inn & Suites, Blanco, TX (830)-833-5697. Register before January 31st, 2022 to be entered in a drawing for a refund of one (1) Car & Driver Registration Fee! For those preferring a more rugged stay, Blanco State Park is located just a mile south of the host hotel. Their number is 830 833 4333. Finally, the overflow motel is the Blanco County Inn, 830-833-4502. www.BlancoCountyInn.com.
For more information about the Tour, email Terry & Sarah Baxter: sarahmwb5253@gmail,com

2022 Eastern National Meet - Franklin, Tennessee
Just announced!
Save the date!

EARLY REGISTRATION STARTS AUGUST 1, 2021

Once again, a great day to get out and enjoy your Ford, Mercury, Lincoln, Ford truck, or even your Ford Tractor. Enjoy by yourself or with a group, but this day has been selected to be National Drive Your V-8 Day. Always the third Saturday in June.
Don't forget you camera for photos of your adventure.

2022 Western National Meet - Wenatchee Washington
Wenatchee was chosen for its small city hospitality, ease of driving vintage vehicles and ample and affordable hotel rooms.

Drive, Arrive, Revive & Enjoy Wenatchee!
Registration information to follow.

Wisconsin has more than beer, cheese and cows. There are many links to transportation within its borders, and this National Driving Tour will stop at many of them. And there will be other places of interest also to keep all participants happy.
This will be a ‘spoke tour’, multiple days traveling, but always returning to the same overnight location. We will be traveling the back roads, the two lanes of rural America. Just what our Early Ford V-8s were designed for.
We will start on Tuesday August 23 with arrival and check in. Before the day is over, we will have the get-acquainted get together party with a review of the Tour’s activities.
Starting on Wednesday August 24 we will head into Milwaukee. The Tour starts with a company that is as old as Ford Motor Company — Harley Davidson motorcycles. Both were founded in 1903. The new museum complex opened in 2008 and has an outstanding display of motorcycle history and its place in transportation. From there we will grab lunch at the Motor Restaurant, or at another Milwaukee waterfront location. After lunch you will have the option of either a tour of the Pabst Mansion or a visit to the Mitchell Park Conservatory. We will end our day in Milwaukee at Miller Brewery. Dinner will be on your own. This day will be about a 50 mile drive.
Thursday we head to Green Bay to visit the National Railroad Museum and the Automobile Gallery. This will be one of two long days at about a 250 mile day. We will first visit the National Railroad Museum. This museum started in 1956 during the start of the end of the steam era and was officially recognized by Congress in 1958 as the National Railroad Museum. It is one of the largest rail museums in the United States. They offer train rides as a means to view the museum, along with several train sheds that house the Dwight D. Eisenhower Locomotive and Command Cars from World War II, a Union Pacific Big Boy, a Pennsylvania Railroad electric locomotive and the General Motors Aerotrain. Something for every train fan. We will next tour the Automobile Gallery, where we will experience ‘the automobile is the art’. This is a private collection started by the late William ‘Red’ Lewis in a former Cadillac dealership in Green Bay. There will even be a drive by the world famous Lambeau Field. Upon returning to the hotel, dinner will be on your own.
Friday we will be touring to East Troy to visit the East Troy Electric Railroad Museum. The depot museum is what is left from the original electric line from Milwaukee. Rides are available and you can experience riding on historic streetcars for six miles. Once we leave East Troy we will head north to Hartford and the Wisconsin Automotive Museum, the largest auto museum in the state. Hartford is the home to the Kissel Automobile, the second longest auto manufacturer in the state of Wisconsin from 1906 to 1931. The Nash Motor Company was the longest Wisconsin manufacturer. The Badger State Regional Group #35 has a nice display in the museum. The tour mileage for this day is 120 miles. We will also have our Farewell get together that evening.
Saturday we will head off on our second longest driving day. We will be heading to North Freedom and the Mid Continent Railroad. Mid-Continent is an outdoor living history museum and operating railroad that is recreating, preserving and interpreting the small town short line way of life from the “Golden Age of Railroading.” Plan for a 7 mile ride behind an operating steam engine (equipment available). There are over 40 train cars and locomotives on display within the museum. Once we have experienced Mid-Continent we will head back by traveling through Baraboo, home of the Circus World Museum. A most interesting place as it was the winter home of the Ringling Brothers ‘World’s Greatest Shows’ Circus. Why they wintered in Wisconsin is something to find out. Mileage for today’s tour will be 260.
Sunday we will say our goodbyes and head back to our homes. We hope that you will have learned about Wisconsin’s transportation history and enjoyed your touring time in Wisconsin.
Mark your calendars now, registration information coming soon!
Tour Chair: Bruce Nelson
Tour support: Badger State Regional Group #35

Plan to spend the third week of September, 2022, (Friday 9/16 thru Friday 9/23) in Colorado and New Mexico, driving the “road less traveled”. Please note the exact dates for the Tour will be forthcoming soon. This will be a full, seven-day+ motoring adventure, featuring lots of very interesting things to see, do, and experience. And you will certainly enjoy the awe-inspiring vistas and scenery that will magically be appearing before your windshield. Among other things, we will cross the Continental Divide 4 times during the Tour, and yes, there will be some serious elevations encountered. And did I mention great driving and scenery? Remember the road trip vacations back when you were a kid? This Tour will feel like a revisit to those days.
We will begin the adventure in Trinidad, Colorado, a major stop along the fabled Santa Fe Trail, and conclude the Tour in Chama, New Mexico, where we will enjoy an all-day excursion on the Cumbres & Toltec (narrow gage) steam powered scenic railroad -- think 1880’s state of the art rail transportation at its best, and you will be there. In between, we’ll experience the fun and joy of motoring down many of the less traveled roadways in both Colorado and New Mexico --- the kind of roadways for which our vintage FOMOCO vehicles were designed. Have you ever driven on a road cut thru a huge volcanic dike? On this Tour you will be able to do so, when we travel the “Highway of Legends”.
Want to visit a Cavalry fort, where Col. Kit Carson had his last command? You can do so on this Tour. Also note the part of south-central Colorado/north central New Mexico that we will be visiting has a very strong historical Spanish flavor. The very first (acknowledged) European explorer to reach this part of Colorado and New Mexico was Francisco de Coronado, in 1540, and the later (European) settlements in this part of the world predate the English settlement at Jamestown (VA) as well as the Pilgrims at Plymouth Rock. The native American settlements hereabouts are much older, and we will also be visiting one. Great Sand Dunes National Park will also be on our Tour list. What --- you didn’t know that Colorado is home to a huge dune field, now covering more than 30 sq. miles? Well, it is here, with some of the dunes now approaching 800 ft. in height. This is a great place to visit and explore, so plan on getting some serious sand in your shoes while romping on the dunes.
What else will we be doing? Driving thru mountains, and over Wolf Creek Pass will be one thing. Do you remember the country/western song by C.W. McCall? This is the place --- yes, there really is a Wolf Creek Pass. We will also be visiting small towns (some with very interesting histories), and (maybe) relaxing and banishing all your aches and pains, by soaking in natural hot springs (if you are so inclined). In addition to all of this, we’ll be visiting the newly designated Chimney Rock National Monument, which preserves a 1,000-year-old Ancestral Puebloan (Anasazi) village ruin, located high up on a mesa. And did I mention the great mountain scenery and the Continental Divide?
Finally, we will drive to Chama, New Mexico, for the fascinating, 64-mile, all-day journey on the Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad. The coal burning steam engines, which power the railroad, are a sight and experience not to be missed. And we will be able to get reasonably close to these metal monsters. This is a gritty and unforgettable encounter with technology from another time --- from the beginning of the industrial revolution --- that is very rarely experienced in the world of today. The Cumbres & Toltec is a ride that will be an adventure you will treasure and remember.
I’ve mentioned just some of the highlights that will be a part of the Tour. There is much more available. Colorado alligators anyone? If you explore the route and do a little research, I’m sure that you will be able to identify much more that will capture your attention and interest --- and that is OK. These tours were never intended to be nose-to-tail forced marches, with everybody necessarily doing exactly the same thing at the same time. Deviations that grab your attention and intrigue your interest are encouraged.
For further information, please contact:
Louis Mraz, Chairperson
11195 East Warren Avenue
Aurora, CO. 80014
303-755-4637 (Mountain Time)
lfmj60@aol.com

The 14th Annual Early Ford V-8 National Meet will be held January 8 - 13, 2023 in Lower Hutt. Sponsored by the Northern New Zealand Regional Group #103. The headquarters will be at The Angus Quality Hotel. Rooms are $160.00 per night for single or double rooms. Please mention the Early Ford V-8 Club to get this rate. The first 45 bookings are guaranteed a free car park on the premise. Make your booking today.
The hotel can be reached via email: hospitality@theangus.co.nz
No city driving other and 2 roundabouts. We are working on getting a Good Cook Strait Ferry discount.
Any questions: contact event coordinator Btyan Cossey
bcosseynz@gmail.com