BAHCC Pumpkin Tour,
Oct. 18, 2009
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| The jack-o-lantern that Lynn carved after the BAHCC Pumpkin Tour. | |
The Bay Area Horseless Carriage Club (BAHCC), of which Lynn is a member, is holding a "Pumpkin Tour." Annie, Lynn's horseless carriage, is unfortunately still out of commission with a broken differential. Encouraged by the organizers to participate, Lynn uses Penny to follow the tour.
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| A string of horseless carriages stretch out before Lynn. Can you see the 4th, 5th and 6th cars in the distance? | Some of the horseless carriages in the parking lot of the pumpkin patch. One can see Penny in the background. | Some cars have holiday decorations such as this 1909 Patterson owned by Joe and Esther Sernach. |
Starting in Walnut Creek, the club drives the back roads to the G&M Farms "Cornfield Maze & Pumpkin Patch" in Livermore. Several children (grandchildren and great-grandchildren of the drivers) are along for the ride and add extra energy to the outing.
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| This is a small sample of the multiple activities at the pumpkin patch. | ||||
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| Lynn doesn't think that this "chick" is for sale. | ||||
Once at the farm, the club fans out across pumpkin patch. Lynn is surprised to find the large number of people that are here. In addition to the mandatory pumpkins, there a large number of other family-oriented activities available including multiple mazes, a dried-corn-filled "sand box", mechanized and people-powered vehicles, and other interesting. Lynn finds himself a suitable pumpkin for later carving.
After leaving the pumpkin patch and on the way to lunch, the tour passes the Duarte Garage and Lincoln Highway Museum, which is open only one Sunday a month. This just happened to be that Sunday. Noting the passing horseless carriages, docents from the museum rush out into the street and invite the tour to visit the museum. Some tour participants promise to return after lunch.
After lunch, the tour had planned to proceed to a local park to carve the pumpkins. However the day is overcast and somewhat cool and most people decide they'd rather do the carving in the comfort of their homes. Half of the tour splits for home while Lynn and others go back to the Duarte Garage. The staff keep the museum open past it's nominal 2 P.M. closing time just to accommodate the horseless carriages.
Later that evening, Lynn carves his pumpkin. The result is depicted at the top of this page.
Lynn is looking forward to getting Annie on the road so that he can participate in future BAHCC tours with a car of the correct period.
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Last updated: Oct. 19, 2009