ON THE ROAD AGAIN - Day 5

73 miles, easier day. Off to Coral Pink Sand Dunes State Park. The pink color of this huge expanse of sand dunes was created by ferrous oxide. (Model T guys know this as rust.) Today was touring on a bonafide Model T road, some paved, some not.

Since part of this tour was on an unpaved and sandy road, Ray had to improvise a cover for his front wheel bearings since he does not have hubcaps. See the pictures below. Helen christened this arrangement as “hubcups”. We all made it through the unpaved, sand drift and washboard road without losing any parts.

After leaving the Sand Dunes Park, we went to Colorado City, home of the Fundamentalist Church of the Latter Day Saints, a polygamist community that has made the national news on occasion. Normally this community is suspicious of outsiders for obvious reasons, but they welcomed us by even cancelling school so that the kids could see us and get rides in our Model T’s. A lot of cars gave a lot of kids a lot of rides. It was very rewarding for the Model T’ers. We topped the visit off with an ice cream stop at the local dairy.

Headed for Pipe Springs National Monument, and then returned to Kanab via Fredonia and an antique shop that just happened to be on this road. Got pretty warm on the way back, daily temperature is definitely rising. This bodes for an early start tomorrow because we are going 130 miles and it will be warm again.

Lot more parking lot maintenance going on today, probably as a result of the washboard road. This evening we had a dinner at the local movie museum, and some of us poor souls were drafted to provide the “movie” entertainment for the crowd. Just look at the picture below and don’t laugh.

Quotes for the day:

“You know it cost us $6 to use the restroom today?” (The cost of admission to the Pink Sands Park, which was the official rest stop.) “That’s only $3 a person.”

“Look at all the grownups playing in the sand.” (It was the finest, coolest sand that you can imagine.)

Pat: “Slow down, construction zone!” Bob: “I am driving a T, I am already slowed down.”

Pictures for the day: SCVMTFC cars at Pink Coral Sands; a sand beetle making his track; Arizona state line on a back road; Ray’s Hubcup; Bill hauling kids (the record was 12 at one time); pulled over by a police car; “dummy” cop; the Indian chief and his tribe (I know, I know, how come they are all women.)