Antique car club touring in Kinston

Leaving New Bern on Wednesday morning at speeds of 30 miles per hour and traveling primarily on scenic country roads, the N.C. Regional Chapter of the Horseless Carriage Club will make its way to Kinston for a stop during its 57th annual tour.

Once arriving in Kinston, the 60-car fleet will park downtown to allow residents to view the vehicles around 10:30 a.m. before making their way to King's Barbeque for lunch. The caravan will depart from King's and head over to the CSS Neuse before arriving at the Visitor's Center to park for the remainder of the afternoon.

"We normally will travel anywhere between 80 to 100 miles each day (in the antique cars) during the tour and on average travel about 30 mph," said Janice Weaver, this year's tour chairman.

Each year, the N.C. Chapter of HCCA plans a week-long tour that visits varying locations. Previous tours have included stops in Charleston, S.C., Savannah, Ga., Ocala, Fla., Blowing Rock and Roanoke, Va..

Tour participants hail from six states including North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee, Florida and Virginia and range in age from toddlers to grandparents.

"The HCCA is very family-oriented; our tour participants have a wide age range," Weaver said.

Every vehicle involved in the tour was manufactured in 1927 or earlier.

The term "horseless carriage" was dubbed when the use of automobiles with gasoline engines became a popular means of transportation at the beginning of the 1900s, replacing the traditional horse and carriage.

According to the HCCA's national Web site, the goal of the organization is to "preserve originality or restore these automobiles to their original condition, use them for their original purpose of driving and completing tours and promote the preservation of their historical value."

"When I tell people an antique car group is coming, what they picture in their minds is rarely what truly arrives," Weaver said of the scene of the tour.

The tour will begin today in New Bern and continue throughout the week with stops in Lenoir, Pamlico and Jones counties.

For more information about the tour, contact Weaver at twagon24@embarqmail.com. Log on to the national HCCA Web site, hcca.org, for in-depth material about the organization.

Sarah Campbell can be reached at (252) 559-1072 or scampbell@freedomenc.com. Check out Sarah's blog at http://scampbell.encblogs.com.