By the Sea Tour

 

This HCCA National Tour centred around Portsmouth, Rhode Island, my original intention was to ship the 1913 Rambler over from California, however with everything happening at home I did not get organised early enough so decided to go “swaggie” for the week.

 

After stopping off for a short visit to see a Thomas Flyer in Georgia I headed for Providence, Rhode Island. The images of Providence both Chris and I had seen over the years were mouth-watering with history, romance and a real culinary culture, so it was a shame that Chis could not make this trip as it was everything it promised to be. However with my fellow HCCA members I soldiered on!

 

This was a classic hub tour with a twist a progressive day & night to trip to Sandwich, Massachusetts in the middle and one of the highlights (low lights?) was the very unusual directions a point of discussion all week.

 

Day one saw me settle in the back of Bob & Nancy Ladd’s 1910 Chalmers Detroit. For visit to down town ?? And the A?? car museum that is dedicated to cars delivered new to Rhode Island, this is only a small museum but a quality building, cars & exhibit, the tablet presentation at each display was well done and very informative.

 

Just walking distance down the road was the famous Lawn Tennis museum, with tributes to many great tennis players including Australians, Lew Hode, Ken Rosewell, John Newcombe and Layton Hewitt to name a few. This was a real journey back in time and the croquet lawn was to die for.

 

View the video of the Lawn Tennis museum & croquet Lawn here:

 

Day two we held the HCCA Board meeting followed by lunch at a locally famous “Shutzly” dinner, fried shrimp & clam strips! I rode back to the motel in Herb Singe Jr’s 30hp Pope Hartford a light powerful nimble runabout. Before deciding to head to Providence with a number of other members to see Cadillac collector, Dick Shappy’s (see below) sales room, shop & parts collection.

 

I’ve done some buying and selling with Dick over 20 years, however only ever meet him once, briefly at Hershey to collect a payment for some Cadillac wheels many years ago. So while in Rhode Island for the By the Sea Tour I took the opportunity to visit his shop.

 

Dick is famous for his Cadillac collection and his business interest which until recently included 2 strip clubs (he is now back to one). Dick unashamedly acknowledges his business fuels his passion for cars, however he also acknowledges cars are part of his business so “everything is for sale”

 

Whilst Dick has a leaning toward Cadillacs he also collects any rare early autos and early high-end motor bikes. Of particular interest to me was the former Harold Coker 1905 Thomas 4-60. I had not seen this car for 15 years and Harold & I had discussed trading our Thomas for a similar 1905, 4-60 he had, but I could never part with ours. However the other cars Dick had were somewhat mind blowing also, Stutz Bear Cat, several V16 Cadillac’s, 1905 Cameron, 1909 Peerless, a Duesenburg that was famously purchased in a storage locker on the TV show storage wars, just to name a few.

 

Wondering around his parts collection is amazing, V16 blocks, 4 cylinder Cadillac Motors, (not to mention 5 1911 Cadillac’s) parts everywhere, fenders, bonnets, radiators, lights transmissions, you name it he had it form 1911 through to 1933.

 

I took great interest in a mechanically complete 1933 V12 Caddy which Dick said he had the Convertible Coupe body for off getting some work done on it. He said it was a runner, for sale & “cheap” I was still too scared to ask how much!

 

After the shop visit Dick invited me to the house Saturday before I flew out, an offer I was not going to miss!

 

That night we visited one of the many famous seafood restaurants in Rhode Island. As a chef I was never a big fan of lobster (Australia cray fish) as I always though there were shell fish with far better flavours, however I could not miss the opportunity to try my first fresh caught Atlantic lobster (complete with the big nippers) it did not change my thoughts on lobster or cray fish but you need to try to know.

 

Day 3 all the discussion at breakfast was about the rain pending the following day as we were to leave our motel and travel into Massachusetts for the night! So with a back pack in hand, I jumped in the back of Carol & Jay Simpson’s 1913 model T, now I’m not a T guy, but Jay really has that car running great! So we headed for Sandwich, Ma. via a few museums and a fantastic fish & chip lunch at a road side dinner. We took the opportunity to purchased some lemonade for 2 young girls selling from a pop up stall outside their family home, they were raising money for a kids project and we were happy to contribute in exchange for 3 cups of lemonade.

 

Day 4 saw the rain come in with vengeance. I comment to Carol & Jay in the morning that we had a family saying on tour “making memories” the rain was not too bad on the way to Plymouth Plantation a fantastic tribute to the pilgrims and their relationship with the native Indians, I was captivated by the talk in the “winter hut” by a local Indian native (in traditional dress) telling the story of the early villages and cultural & culinary history. It was the type of place you could easily spent over 1/2 a day at and we were decided late for lunch, that late indeed we missed it!

 

Well, the heavens were determined to ensure we were making memories and after getting to the lunch stop late the rain pelted down and did not let up. So after taking refuge in a gas station we planed a reasonably direct route back to Portsmouth, which much to Jay’s disgust (wrong word) included a couple of miles on the Interstates 195 & 24. It rained so hard at times I could not see the radiator cap from the back seat! However we made it back and certainly made a lasting memory.

 

Day 5 saw us travel to Battle Ship Cove which is situated very close to Plymouth Harbor and Plymouth Rock???, the landing site for the 1620 pilgrims from the Mayflower. It is a tribute to many of the Sea fearing craft that protected the US and their allies including Australia from World War ll through Korea & Vietnam wars. With 2 famous PT boats on display also a cruiser, submarine & and the battleship Mass?

 

With plenty to see and not a lot of time agin this was a wonderful visit that you could have spent more time at.

 

Friday night saw the final dinner a somewhat formal affair with good food a great fellowship.

 

Saturday I was due to fly out to California but not before taking up Dick Shappy’s offer to visit the house, so I arrived and we talked Cadillac’s and my interest in the very early 4 cylinders and his interest in finding, working on and selling collectable bikes & autos. He showed me his other Duesenberg and 2 more V16 Caddies, two rare Reece Duesenberg cars one an original racer the other a persevered touring car and his extensive early motor bike collection.

 

Dick’s extensive collection can be seen by clicking the button Below