(Special thanks to Harry Arends, Sharon Gooding & Marilyn Balduff
for recapping the tour and the swap meet and sharing these photos.)

    Spring in Bakersfield.  Wild flowers were blooming creating a gorgeous tapestry of color and fragrance.  The weather was sunny in the low 70s.  This was perfect weather for horseless carriage touring and touring is just what we did.  There were two tours to be exact, one for cars with lots of horsepower and the other for those with less.

            There were about fifteen small cars that drove around Bakersfield and finally arrived at a “bug” museum and manufacturing plant called Insect Lore.  Real live bugs were being processed for shipment to hoppyists worldwide.  After viewing these bugs and even playing with the tarantulas, it was time for lunch.  A delicious box lunch was served in the park.  There was much good conversation and as one tourist replied “the sun felt real good”.

            The larger car tour, which was comprised of a group of about thirty horseless carriages, drove approximately one hundred miles.  These were not your average miles.  They drove over many dirt roads and forded streams in pursuit of their destination, the Wind Wolves Preserve.  This is a private preserve of the Wildlands Conservancy.  It has elevations from 640 to 6,005 feet which our cars traversed.  Tule elk are being reintroduced to this area of grasslands and mountains.  The California condor is thriving.  A catered lunch was served amongst this wilderness and a good time was had by all.

            For the next two days, swapping was the order of business.  The swapping spaces were covered with grass thanks to the winter rains and were in perfect condition.  All of the swap spaces were full and there was even a waiting list for possible cancellations.  Lots of brass era merchandise changed hands as well as several horseless carriages were sold.  Buyers came from as far away as Canada, Argentina, France and New Zealand.  Jan Leno attended.  We even had fourteen Horseless Carriage Club of America past presidents attending. 

            On the final day of the swap meet, we went to education seminars in the big tent.  These seminars were very well attended.  First there was the ladies seminar.  Seven ladies brought their collections to share.  They told us about how to make lace and how to quilt.  One lady brought her very magnificent collection of silver napkin rings and explained how they were used in the Victorian times.  Another lady explained how a blanket lock worked when it was used on the blanket holder in the back of a horseless carriage.  Many interesting items such as a Victorian skirt holder, a posy holder, a hat pin holder with large hat pins were demonstrated. 

            At the men’s seminar, the Pope Hartford was the featured car.  Jerry Chase talked about his adventures with his Pope and how he has kept it running through the years.  Gary and Sheryl Hunter brought their award-winning Pope to show.  They demonstrated how it ran and some of its very unique features.