Appreciating the past and enjoying the present are two mainstays of the Red Flag Horseless Carriage Tour starting in New London and ending in Brighton this Saturday.

This four-day antique car tour is inspired by 19th century England when the passage of the “Locomotives on the Highway Act” raised the speed limit of automobiles to 14 miles per hour and abolished the requirement of a man to lead the vehicle on foot with a red flag. This led to a tour from London to Brighton, England. For its sixth year the Red Flag Horseless Carriage Tour shows visitors what southeast Iowa has to offer.

Event organizer Jeff Krug tells how this tour stands out from a typical antique car show, “They want to tour with these cars, they don’t want to park them in the parking lot and look at them. They want to tour and drive them. So we hit historical sites, we hit cultural places. We try to work with nursing homes at times and make a lap through there, and the residents really appreciate that. Sometimes we tour some business and industry as well, and so we try to each year give them a taste of southeast Iowa.”

Participants will visit different points of interest such as the Old Threshers Museum, Airport Road Winery, Harvestville Farm, and Lake Darling State Park.