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The 63rd annual AAA Revival Glidden Tour will bring almost 200 “pre-war” cars — 1942 or older models — to the area Sunday through Friday, with the Radisson Hotel in downtown La Crosse serving as the tour headquarters.
Although there will be plenty of opportunities for people to look at the cars, this event is a tour, not a show. Participants will drive more than 500 miles of back roads throughout the Coulee Region to destinations that include a cranberry bog, a railroad museum, antique car collections, a houseboat manufacturing plant and Effigy Mounds National Monument.
“The thing I like about touring is the area you go to is generally an area you’ve not been to before,” said Ken Cvikota of Onalaska, who owns two Ford Model A’s and is a veteran of nine Glidden tours.
He won’t see much new this time, though. As regional director of the Veteran Motor Car Club of America and a key organizer for the event, he traveled the routes to check the directions for tour participants.
The tour’s name comes from the 1905 sponsorship of a magnificent silver trophy by early automotive pioneer Charles Jasper Glidden, to be awarded each year by AAA to the driver of the winning vehicle. The tour was revived in 1946 and the VMCCA and AAA take turns sponsoring the event.
Two years ago, Al Topel of Onalaska took part in his first Glidden Tour in South Dakota’s Black Hills area. “We enjoyed the company of the people who were there and some of the back roads,” Topel said.
He’ll be in the tour again this year, driving a 1928 four-door “blind window” Model A.
Cvikota said 183 cars are registered so far for the tour, including pre-war Plymouths, Cadillacs, Pierce Arrows, Hupmobiles, Duesenbergs, Packards and Kissels.
Other local sponsors of this year’s tour include Harry Dahl of Dahl Motors, Kwik Trip, Logistics Health, the Cvikota Co. and Web Team.
It’s not too late for area owners of pre-war cars to sign up for the tour. Cost is $550 for each driver and car and $210 for each passenger, which includes any admission charges, catered lunches and coffee breaks, and three banquets. To sign up, call Joanne Steele at (608) 788-5520.
The classic cars can be viewed in the parking lots at the three main hotels hosting participants in downtown La Crosse: the Radisson, the Holiday Inn and the Courtyard by Marriott.
Cvikota recommended La Crosse’s Riverside Park between 9:30 and 10 a.m. Friday as the place to be to see the maximum number of cars at once.
AT A GLANCE
WHAT: 63rd annual AAA Revival Glidden Tour, the largest and most prestigious antique automobile tour in the country
WHEN: Sunday through Friday
WHERE: Headquartered at the Radisson Hotel in downtown La Crosse
WHO: Owners of nearly 200 pre-war (1942 or older) automobiles from across the country who will drive more than 500 miles on the area’s back roads
REGISTER: It’s not too late to sign up for the tour. For more information or to register, call Joanne Steele at (608) 788-5520 or log onto www.vmcca.org.
