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Classic Cars, Classic Cruising
A trio of fun fall drives you, too, can take – in any auto
By Randy Hallman
Central Virginia is one of those fortunate areas where geography and highway engineering make for pleasant drives to a variety of refreshing destinations. And if you really love your wheels, so much the better.
For this fall issue, Boomer looked for that combination of remarkable cars and memorable trips. Here are three examples we liked.
I DO THEE DRIVE
Gary Tyer really knew how to pick a wedding gift for his bride, Robyn, 34 years ago. He plighted his troth with a 1967 Mercedes 230 SL. The Tyers still have the classic two-seater with its removable pagoda-style hardtop. And they don’t just store it away. They take that champagne-beige bad boy and get out on the highway.
One annual outing is an October trip west on U.S. 33 and then north on the Skyline Drive to Big Meadows Lodge in Shenandoah National Park. There’s hardly a better locale for fall colors.
Glitzy the lodge is not. As Tyer explains, once the two-hour drive is done and the Mercedes is parked, the lodge and its surroundings offer serenity.
“It’s a beautiful place,” he says. “You’re right there on the Appalachian Trail. There’s a terrace overlooking Elkton, a beautiful little town on the other side of the mountain.”
He notes that the 71-year-old lodge’s interior and the surrounding cabins were built with wood from the majestic American chestnut trees, which were virtually wiped out by a pervasive blight in the first half of the 20th century.
“The lodge has a vast, vast dining hall about as big as a basketball court,” he says, “and a big living room with a fireplace — really beautiful.”
TIME TRAVELERS
Reggie and Cindi Nash appreciate your older models. Reggie is past president of the Richmond Region of the Antique Automobile Club of America where Cindi served as secretary for 12 years.
A favorite in their extensive collection is a stately maroon-on-maroon 1934 Pierce-Arrow EDL — as in Enclosed Drive Limousine. The seven-passenger car has a division glass behind the driver, adding to the sense of back-seat luxury.
“There’s so much room in the back,” says Cindi. “I love riding back there pretending I’m being chauffeured. Reggie has a chauffeur’s hat and everything.”
An excursion they savor is the drive to Virginia Beach. They prefer the genteel cruise down U.S. 460 to the grind of Interstate 64. “The Pierce-Arrow will run 60 miles an hour,” Reggie says, “but I don’t like to drive it that fast.” Nor does he want the periodic traffic jams on I-64. “When you sit there and idle, it’ll overheat,” he explains. “Not good for the motor.”
Besides, 460 has its own ample charm, most famously Wakefield’s venerable Virginia Diner, which had been open for five years when the Pierce-Arrow was sold to its first owner in Richmond.
Then it’s on to the beach and — where else? — The Cavalier Hotel. “We like to walk on the sand and get our feet wet,” Reggie says.
They mean the original Cavalier, opened in 1927, and not the beachfront one built in the ‘70s. Set back from the beach and now called The Cavalier on the Hill, it retains much of the grandeur that made it a premier hotel of its era.
THE FUTURE IS NOW
Bob Tarren is director of marketing at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, so he appreciates a thing of beauty. His red 2002 Lexus SC 430 hardtop convertible qualifies. Maybe it’s not a classic yet, but it’s on its way.
The Lexus has a back seat, he says, “but not one you’d put a human being in.” Though sure-footed, it’s not a true sports car — he knows: he’s had an Alfa Romeo and a Fiat Spider — but it’s “the edge of sports car.” And back then, he says, he didn’t “appreciate the creature comforts as much as I do now.”
The car has a first-class sound system, too, but maybe the best sound is that of the rushing wind. “There’s hardly any such thing as a bad drive,” he says, “in a convertible with the top down.”
Tarren likes the drive to Winchester, north on I-95, then onto scenic U.S. 17 and across. He has family there; but if you’re looking for a place to stay, you might fancy The George Washington, a 1920s hotel restored and modernized in 2008.
Winchester offers spectacular vistas of fall foliage, and the area is rich in history. “Take the time to stop at a local farmers’ market,” says Tarren, noting they still know how to grow a good apple there.
Randy Hallman is a Richmond-based freelance writer who often writes on Wheels and Money for Boomer.
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