This year’s edition of the Motor Ioway One-Thousand leaves today from Dubuque and will spend much of its time in Wisconsin before concluding in Dubuque next week. The vintage vehicle tour features 127 vehicles which date back some eight decades. Organizer John Swanson says while past tours have trekked all across Iowa, this one is decidedly different.
Swanson says "We feel we need to make a little bit of a balance between focusing on Iowa, which will always be the center of our plate, but also getting into some of the surrounding territory." He says many of the participants have asked, over the tour’s 12 years, to head into Door County, Wisconsin. Swanson says about 250 people are taking part in this year’s tour. They’re from about 70 communities in Iowa and six other states.
Swanson says it’s a collection of people with vintage motor vehicles — mostly cars, but also trucks and motorcycles — who enjoy spending time together and touring around in their older vehicles. The tour runs today through next Friday. He says most of the cars are from the 1950s, ’60s and 70s, but they only have to have been made before 1982 to enter the tour.
He says the oldest vehicles include several Model-A Fords and a 1927 Buick. The tour will start and finish in Dubuque and visit 14 other communities via pit-stops, lunch stops or overnight stays. For more details or to take part in future events, visit www.motorioway.com .