Oregon Public Broadcasting

A group of Model T cars is on the last leg of a tour from New York to Seattle this week.

The antique auto enthusiasts take mostly backroads. They are reenacting a similar journey that happened 100 years ago called the Ocean to Ocean Endurance Run.

Correspondent Anna King caught up with the 50-car caravan in Sunnyside, Washington.

Steve Shotwell drives his grandfather's Model T. He calls the 1916 car Goosebumps, which describes the way he felt when his mother gave it to him.

Steve Shotwell, of Michigan, is driving his grandfather's Model T from New York to Seattle. He stopped in Sunnyside, Wash., for lunch with the 50-car caravan on Wednesday.

Shotwell is from Michigan, the down-and-out car capital of the U.S.

He says he faced many endurance tests since he left New York in June -- hard seats, lack of air conditioning and a top pace of 50 miles-an-hour. But he says the hardest challenge about a trip across the country in a Model T is what to pack in the small boot.

Steve Shotwell: "And then you have to figure I'm not going to take this, I'm going to take this, because I may need this. And then to find out that there is a specialty tool for a Model T because it was big and heavy, and I needed it twice, so that's the way it goes."

Shotwell says another problem is the risks of driving a nearly 100 year old car in the modern world. His wife's Model T had a run in with a garbage truck.

The Model T cars will be on display at about 10 a.m. Sunday at the University of Washington in Seattle, near the Drumheller Fountain.

Online:

Learn more about Model T cars and the trip across America

www.sshotwell.com