Al Moss tour of the Palm Springs Air Museum
and the Bob Pond Private Auto Collection
November 6th, 2003

Bob Pond Al Moss arranged for a group of 50 to visit the Palm Springs Air Museum and also view Bob Pond's fabulous private automobile collection. The group of 50 included auto enthusiast from Arizona plus members of the TC Motoring Guild.

	A Stearman biplane, one of 3 at the museum that day, sits on the tarmac. The museum was preparing for a big air show on Saturday so planes were being moved outside in preparation.
	Mike Goodman climbs up into the B-17 for a tour.  Many others of our group followed.  Docents were inside explaining, and showing off the features of this large plane. It was interesting to hear that during the war, B-17's would fly in groups, or formations in the interest of safety.  If necessary, pilots were also encouraged to crash land, if possible, rather than ditch so that spare parts,which were in short supply, could be salvaged to keep other B-17's going.  Reminded me of our TC's which we drive in caravans for safety and how we cherish spare parts.
	Gorden Bundy, Gene Roth and David Coleman listen to one of the docents in the radio section of the B-17. Of the over 12,000 B-17's built, only 12 remain in flyable condition. This particular B-17 was scheduled to fly on Saturday for an air show. View museum web page of the B-17
	This motorcycle and sidecar was set up to let visitors pose on it.  David Edgar and Gene Roth take advantage.

Shortly after this picture was taken we had the wing move over us as we ate lunch.  The museum was moving the B-17 outside in preparation of the air show on Saturday.

A 1925 Rickenbacher. One of only 7 ever produced by the famous aviator. This automobile runs a straight 8 engine

After lunch at the museum we caravaned over to the Pond estate. These photos do not come even close to capturing the magnificence of this collection. The 6 garages (and they are not small garages) house about 100 cars with the overflow of the collection being shown off at the air museum. And while I say garages, they are more like showrooms being carpeted and with art gracing the wall.  As we drove into the 13 acre estate all I saw were 2 garages behind the main house and what I thought were many guest houses. Well a couple were actually guest houses but the rest were garages.  The tour began behind the huge main house and as we walked back we saw two multiple car garages.  When the first was opened up it consisted of nothing but Aston Martins and we all drooled.

As we gazed upon them the Aston Martins the curator opened up the second garage to reveal the large Rolls Royce, Packard, Cadillac, Cord, Lincoln, Isotta Fraschini and Pierce Arrow town cars and phaetons.	David Coleman and Mike Goodman look over a Cord.
Gorden Bundy and Gordon Glass look over a Delahaye in yet another garage. These garages were far enough apart that the curator provided golf cart transportation between them for those having trouble walking.  While I did not count, this particular garage held about 25 cars.	Suzie Coleman poses.  The Pond collection included large and small cars. See the Isetta in the background?
More small cars as evidenced by the lone MG in the collection, a TC.  Barry Briskman, Al Moss and Gordon Glass reminiscing.	And if small cars were not enough, models, art and other memorabilia were everywhere.  Here is an old model MG pedal car.
To the right is just part of the Ferrari collection (I think I counted 12). In the attached wing was the Lamborghini collection along with a three bay area for doing minor maintenance on all the cars.  Some of the cars not shown in photos include a '35 Chrysler Airflow, '59 Fiat Jolly, Ford GT 40, '11 Ford Speedster, '38 Bugatti Stelvio, several Jags including a D type, '03 Mercedes Maybach, '54 Kaiser Darrin, '48 Tucker, '64 AC Cobra and many, many, many more fine specimens.

You can imagine the problem of keeping track of all the cars and the maintenance on them.  To help out on that score there were 4 white boards listing all the cars.  Think I will make one for my garage only it will be quite small.

In the court yard between two garages our Guild members talk about which was their favorite car.

Our group taking in the beauty of the grounds of the estate which was just as impressive as all the cars.

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