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Hospital
construction begins Monday
Newberg police in
Dundee `logical'
Something new for
the Old Fashioned Festival
Oregon attorney
general meets with county democrats
| Model
A tour takes a pit stop in Newberg |
Weeklong Portland convention draws enthusiasts from
around the globe |
By Andrea Olson, Newberg Graphic
intern
E-mail Andrea at aolson@eaglenewspapers.com
|
A tour of Model A Fords
trekked through Newberg Tuesday and Wednesday, carrying visitors from around the globe.
The Model A Ford Club of America (MAFCA) gathered in Portland for a weeklong
convention drawing participants from not just the United States, but from Norway, New
Zealand and Israel.
Some participants took a tour from Jantzen Beach to the Evergreen Air Museum
in McMinnville on Tuesday and Wednesday, drawing the cars through Newberg. Drivers stopped
at Newberg Ford Tuesday to rest and for refreshments, parking their fully restored Model
A’s, originally manufactured between 1928 and 1931, in front of a 2004 Thunderbird on
Newberg Ford’s patio.
Roger Kauffman of Brookville, Ohio, was one such driver. He and his wife
drove to the convention at 45 miles per hour with no air conditioning, no stereo and no
power steering. Newberg was just one of the stops on what would be
an eight-week tour, in which they planned to cover 8,000 miles and 28 states.
“We’ve been planning this trip for 10 years,” Kauffman said.
That’s how long it’s taken him to save up the vacation time from his job as a
road maintenance foreman for his home county.
From Portland they’ll travel down the coast of California to Los
Angeles, where his wife has tickets to “The Price is Right” and hopes to win a
new car — with air conditioning — to drive back home.
It took Tom Sage and his wife 10 days to get to Portland from their home near
Orlando, Fla. Sage has personally redone every one of the nearly 5,000 parts to his Model
A nearly 30 years ago.
“I’ve been messing with Model A’s for 40 years,” Sage
said. “It’s the only old car I like.”
The convention’s largest road trip, the Grand Tour, will be Saturday
when the over 750 Model A’s carry the nearly 1,600 convention participants from
downtown Portland to Mount Hood. After this tour the Model A’s will disperse across
the world. |
|
From July 17,
2004, Newberg Graphic
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