By John Gunnell

The Early Times Chapter of the Pontiac Oakland Club International (www.poci.org) is for 1926-1954 Pontiacs with flathead sixes and eights, 1932 Pontiacs with flathead V-8s, Oaklands with flathead sixes and V-8s and GMC trucks with flathead engines.

I drove my ’53 Pontiac Catalina hardtop to the Early Times Chapter’s “Flathead Reunion” in Mineral Point, Wis. in early September. However, I stayed in the tiny Badger Motel in Shullsburg, Wis. That was because Shullsburg is only 30 miles from Mineral Point and I have family living in Shullsburg who I only get to see a few times each year.

My normal 3-hour-one-way cruise to the meet became a 735-mile round-trip due to making the 60-mile round-trip to Shullsburg on all four days of the gathering. In addition to those 240 extra miles, I encountered a couple of unexpected road closings and detours. To make the best of the added mileage, I decided to take my old Pontiac “sightseeing.”

About a year ago, I met a young man with a ’48 Pontiac Streamliner Coupe at the Symco Rod & Kustom show. His car is on a Caprice chassis and has the “distressed paint” look that’s popular with hot rodders. I have a stock ’48 Streamliner sedan, but I like his car. He drives it like I drove my dark green $175 Chieftain sedan when I was young.

My friend likes to photograph his car by old buildings or roadside attractions. I figured I’d do the same thing during my journey to Mineral Point. On the way down I picked out places to take photos and, while at the meet, I thought about how to pose the car at differebt places. A few of the “photo ops” were still challenging due to traffic and weather. The captions on the accompanying photographs describe the attractions and adventures.