CLUB TOUR PLANNING
When it comes to planning a tour, the cliché about there being no substitute for experience goes beyond mere advice to become wisdom.
“If you put it into days,” said Karl Darby, “I think I would say I’ve done probably 30 or 40 days’ worth of touring.”
That statement requires some explanation as when he says he’s “done” so many days of touring, it translates to “planned.” As a past director of the Horseless Carriage Club of America, he’s part of an organization that handles touring well, because it takes touring seriously.
“The one thing that you have to remember when you’re running a tour route,” Darby said during the HCCA Susquehanna Region’s Beautiful Brass Cars Tour in southeastern Pennsylvania, “is that you have to pick what I call ‘the hard points.’ The hard points are where you’re going to have a coffee stop, where you’re going to have your lunch, what museum you’re going to visit. Those are your hard points and once you’ve picked those hard points, then you create the route.
“That way, you can pick the roads that you want to get to those spots. A lot of people
