Touring season not over yet for antique auto club

Summer may be the season for antique cars, but members of the Antique Automobile Club of America are not ready to park their classics in the garage just yet. Members of the Canton and Meander chapters of the Ohio Region of AACA have been gearing up for the 28th Founder’s Tour, which will see classic car owners drive around the Holmes, Wayne, Tuscarawas and Carroll county areas Sept. 14-18. Tim Mast, the day chair for Tuesday, Sept. 15, said the tour would include 111 cars and 226 club members, and cars will be from years 1935-1990. “To be a classic car, it has to be 25 years old at least,” he said. “But these aren’t old enough to have trouble with the heat.”Mast said that extremely old vehicles have more of a chance of overheating in extremely hot weather. He said it isn’t that they don’t start in the morning, but once the engine is hot and turned off, it is difficult to get them restarted. “It’s called vapor lock,” he said, “when the gas turns to vapor.” He said bags of ice were often used to combat the problem.Founder’s Tour members will park their cars at the Country Inn & Suites and the Comfort Inn in Dover for the week, and each day will visit a number of locations throughout the area. The tour begins Sunday with a “warm-up.” The members arriving early enough will be able to visit Warther Museum, the American Gas Pump Heaven Museum, the J.E. Reeves Victorian Home and Museum, and other sites around the Dover area. Members will also participate in an opening banquet that evening at Breitenbach Wine Cellars. Monday will see the members touring the Canton area thanks to tour chair Joe Gagliano. They will visit MAPS Air Museum, see the Goodyear blimp and eat at Glenmoor Country Club. Tuesday, members will take on the hills of Holmes County with a stop at Yoder’s Amish Home, Amish & Mennonite Heritage Center, Keim Lumber Company in Charm, and David Warther Carvings & Gift Shop in Sugarcreek. The group will be back in Tuscarawas and Carroll counties for Craig and Carol Bernard’s day on Wednesday, touring the Atwood Yacht Club, White House Fruit Farm Inc., TP Tools & Equipment car collection and more. Thursday — which is a favorite among members and tour volunteers, according to Mast — the group will see the Age of Steam Roundhouse in Sugarcreek, then visit Lehman’s, The J.M. Smucker Company and P. Graham Dunn, and will finish with an ice cream social at the hotel. Danny and Cindy Robish planned the day. Finally, the group will finish the tour with a day devoted to Dover, Zoar and Schoenbrunn Village. The club will eat lunch at Tuscora Park and have a final meal at Dutch Valley Restaurant in Sugarcreek. Keith Pretorius is the Friday day chair.Although the tour has taken years of work to organize and plan — Mast has a stack of carefully listed directions to each of his locations for just one day that he plans to pass out at the beginning of the tour — Mast said it’s all worth it because of the fun of the tour itself. “It’s like a big reunion,” Mast said. “There is never a dull moment. There are some practical jokers — the stories I could tell about that.”For more information about the tour or the club, email founderstour2015@aol.com or see the Antique Automobile Club of American Museum at Hershey Facebook page.