 On July 15-19, The HCCA's North Carolina Regional Group held their 62nd (!) annual tour in Hiawassee, GA, along the shores of beautiful Lake Chatuge which straddles the GA-NC state line. The NC Region allows cars through 1927 to tour and this year's attendees brought about as diverse a group of cars as can be seen in a group of 60 or so vehicles. Three Locomobiles, three air-cooled Franklins, a 1912 Oldsmobile Autocrat (with 38-inch diameter wheels!), a 1923 HCS (the car Harry Stutz produced after he was ousted from the Stutz company he started), a sleeve-valve Willys-Knight, two Marmons, a 1912 Cadillac touring (first car ever to carry an electric starter), and a rare 1925 White eleven-passenger touring car built for tours in Yellowstone Park, plus the ubiquitous Model T Fords that are the most commonly seen vehicles on HCCA tours. The hub and spoke tour radiated from the tour lodge right on the lakeshore, with daily jaunts that explored the lush and varied scenery of the Chattahoochee National Forest. Thursday's route on the unpaved Forest Service road alongside the noted Cooper Creek trout stream was especially beguiling... old car "time traveling" at its best! Kudos to the North Carolina HCCA Regional Group for their long and dedicated stewardship of this annual week-long tour, committed to demonstrating that cars more than a hundred years old can still be driven, even in challenging and hilly terrain. (text and photos Gregory Wells) |
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Tearing through the mountains... at 30 mph!
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