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Classic 1919 Ford car suits its owner to a 'T'
Stafford man goes ocean to ocean the old-fashioned way
BY EDIE GROSS
Date published: 10/2/2009
BY EDIE GROSS
Drivers in the 1909 Ocean to Ocean Endurance Race faced a host of obstacles during their 22-day road trip across the country.
Summer rains and mountain snow. Pitted dirt roads and quicksand. Washed-out bridges and hail.
The going wasn't quite that tough when a group of Model T enthusiasts set out this summer to mark the 100th anniversary of that journey with a
cross-country trip of their own.
It helped that all the participants, including Stafford County resident Dom Denio, had AAA membership--just in case.
And that a parts wagon accompanied them on the 3,800-mile journey.
And that just about everyone in this day and age carries a cell phone.
But that doesn't mean the going was easy.
In Kansas and Oregon, Denio repaired two broken axles on his 1919 Model T. In eastern Kansas, he scrambled around in the brush on the side of
the road for a fellow driver's tire after it popped off during a downhill run.
Some of the cars had to be towed up hills. One was hit from behind by a garbage truck.
"Every night, in the parking lot, somebody was working on something so we could get across the finish line," said Denio, who has owned his Model T
for seven years.
Still, he said, the trip was the adventure of a lifetime.
"This is the way to see the country--on the back roads, seeing the people," he recently told fellow members of the Rock Hill Ruritan Club in North
Stafford. "The scenery was just so awesome."
A WARM WELCOME
Denio's black touring car was one of 55 to start the trip, organized by the Model T Ford Club International.
All but two finished the journey, which stretched from White Plains, N.Y., to Seattle, Wash., and crossed through 10 states in between.
The modern travelers stuck largely to the roads used by the 1909 drivers except in cases where those roads no longer existed.
Fifty of the cars represented each of the states, and five others came from overseas. Denio, who was raised in upstate New York, agreed to represent
Hawaii, donning Hawaiian shirts each day of the trip and attaching a hula girl to the dashboard of his car.
Along the way, the Model T's caused quite a stir. In Dearborn, Mich., they took a few turns around the Ford facility's test track.
In Bloomington, Ill., a man at a gas station talked several of the drivers, including Denio, into appearing on a local radio show.
In Pocatello, Idaho, they were invited to join the July Fourth parade.
In several communities, they were welcomed with marching bands. Everywhere they went, people snapped photos.
"We'd wave to people, and they'd wave back with all five fingers," said Denio, chairman of the board for the Nation's Capital Model T Ford Club.
According to a portable GPS device he carried, Denio's car averaged 26 mph over the 27-day trip.
"There's no finer way to see this gorgeous country than at 30 mph," said Steve Shotwell, a Model T mechanic from Detroit who rode with Denio
several times on the trip.
"Nice people have a tendency to find each other," he said. "The guy has an incredible sense of humor. He's a good people person."
INSTANT ATTRACTION
The Model T would be a difficult car to own if Denio, the second of 18 children, weren't a people person.
He attracts attention wherever he goes, with his ooga horn and his wooden wheels.
He loves to pull into grocery store parking lots and let curious kids climb around inside the car.
His favorite gag is to ask them to turn down the radio or turn off the windshield wipers--the car has neither.
He always points out that the dashboard and floorboards are actual boards. The "electrical system" consists of eight wires.
His obsession with Model T's started innocently enough. While cleaning out his late grandfather's basement, he came across an old Ford gas gauge.
Curious about the antique, which resembles a wooden paint stirrer, he hopped online to see what kinds of cars would've used it.
Within minutes, he was staring wide-eyed at a photo gallery of Model T's, including several for sale.
And a few months after that, he was the proud owner of a 1919 Model T.
"I had never ridden in, never driven in, never traveled in a Model T car," said Denio, who bought his car from a guy in Nebraska--then learned to drive it
in the parking lot of A.G. Wright Middle School in North Stafford.
He said what most surprised him about the car was "the beauty of its simplicity." He's now building one from the ground up, using vintage parts he
finds and refurbishes.
He spent about five years preparing his 1919 Model T for the rigors of the cross-country trip, including having its engine rebuilt.
The journey was his biggest adventure so far in the car, though he's hoping to do a Southern version of that in a few years.
His favorite part, he said, is seeing the smiles the car generates.
"My goal in life is to leave things better than I found them," Denio said. "If this is the vehicle to do that, so be it."
Edie Gross: 540/374-5428
Email: egross@freelancestar.com
Stafford man goes ocean to ocean the old-fashioned way
BY EDIE GROSS
Date published: 10/2/2009
BY EDIE GROSS
Drivers in the 1909 Ocean to Ocean Endurance Race faced a host of obstacles during their 22-day road trip across the country.
Summer rains and mountain snow. Pitted dirt roads and quicksand. Washed-out bridges and hail.
The going wasn't quite that tough when a group of Model T enthusiasts set out this summer to mark the 100th anniversary of that journey with a
cross-country trip of their own.
It helped that all the participants, including Stafford County resident Dom Denio, had AAA membership--just in case.
And that a parts wagon accompanied them on the 3,800-mile journey.
And that just about everyone in this day and age carries a cell phone.
But that doesn't mean the going was easy.
In Kansas and Oregon, Denio repaired two broken axles on his 1919 Model T. In eastern Kansas, he scrambled around in the brush on the side of
the road for a fellow driver's tire after it popped off during a downhill run.
Some of the cars had to be towed up hills. One was hit from behind by a garbage truck.
"Every night, in the parking lot, somebody was working on something so we could get across the finish line," said Denio, who has owned his Model T
for seven years.
Still, he said, the trip was the adventure of a lifetime.
"This is the way to see the country--on the back roads, seeing the people," he recently told fellow members of the Rock Hill Ruritan Club in North
Stafford. "The scenery was just so awesome."
A WARM WELCOME
Denio's black touring car was one of 55 to start the trip, organized by the Model T Ford Club International.
All but two finished the journey, which stretched from White Plains, N.Y., to Seattle, Wash., and crossed through 10 states in between.
The modern travelers stuck largely to the roads used by the 1909 drivers except in cases where those roads no longer existed.
Fifty of the cars represented each of the states, and five others came from overseas. Denio, who was raised in upstate New York, agreed to represent
Hawaii, donning Hawaiian shirts each day of the trip and attaching a hula girl to the dashboard of his car.
Along the way, the Model T's caused quite a stir. In Dearborn, Mich., they took a few turns around the Ford facility's test track.
In Bloomington, Ill., a man at a gas station talked several of the drivers, including Denio, into appearing on a local radio show.
In Pocatello, Idaho, they were invited to join the July Fourth parade.
In several communities, they were welcomed with marching bands. Everywhere they went, people snapped photos.
"We'd wave to people, and they'd wave back with all five fingers," said Denio, chairman of the board for the Nation's Capital Model T Ford Club.
According to a portable GPS device he carried, Denio's car averaged 26 mph over the 27-day trip.
"There's no finer way to see this gorgeous country than at 30 mph," said Steve Shotwell, a Model T mechanic from Detroit who rode with Denio
several times on the trip.
"Nice people have a tendency to find each other," he said. "The guy has an incredible sense of humor. He's a good people person."
INSTANT ATTRACTION
The Model T would be a difficult car to own if Denio, the second of 18 children, weren't a people person.
He attracts attention wherever he goes, with his ooga horn and his wooden wheels.
He loves to pull into grocery store parking lots and let curious kids climb around inside the car.
His favorite gag is to ask them to turn down the radio or turn off the windshield wipers--the car has neither.
He always points out that the dashboard and floorboards are actual boards. The "electrical system" consists of eight wires.
His obsession with Model T's started innocently enough. While cleaning out his late grandfather's basement, he came across an old Ford gas gauge.
Curious about the antique, which resembles a wooden paint stirrer, he hopped online to see what kinds of cars would've used it.
Within minutes, he was staring wide-eyed at a photo gallery of Model T's, including several for sale.
And a few months after that, he was the proud owner of a 1919 Model T.
"I had never ridden in, never driven in, never traveled in a Model T car," said Denio, who bought his car from a guy in Nebraska--then learned to drive it
in the parking lot of A.G. Wright Middle School in North Stafford.
He said what most surprised him about the car was "the beauty of its simplicity." He's now building one from the ground up, using vintage parts he
finds and refurbishes.
He spent about five years preparing his 1919 Model T for the rigors of the cross-country trip, including having its engine rebuilt.
The journey was his biggest adventure so far in the car, though he's hoping to do a Southern version of that in a few years.
His favorite part, he said, is seeing the smiles the car generates.
"My goal in life is to leave things better than I found them," Denio said. "If this is the vehicle to do that, so be it."
Edie Gross: 540/374-5428
Email: egross@freelancestar.com
