Crazy 'bout a Mercury

Took this picture at a car show in Monterey, California - the spiritual home of the Hot Rod and the Custom Car.

Cordoba Makeover

Rent a GEM in Spain. The BBC has it.

Satellite flapdoodle

The usual Canuck angst over satellite radio - you can't operate your Yankee satellite up here because a) it is a threat to the French language b) we can't guarantee that you will play superannuated Canadian bands like the Guess Who.
Having recently driven from Vancouver to Toronto in the car - the target market for satellite radio - I can tell you that you will be lucky to receive any radio station for large parts of the journey. At home I can listen to radio stations in any part of the world, in any language, on the internet. When will these myopic politicians and whining special interests wake up to the fact that the world is changing - and get with it!

Born in Austin

They are falling in love with hybrid vehicles down in Austin, Texas.
While this may be a good thing - betting the farm on one technology is questionable. Vehicles with two drivetrains are inherently complex and what about the disposal of batteries? I'm sticking with the 50mpg (US gallon) diesel smart car for the time being.

Chaplain Clive and the $25 Racer

This is Chaplain Clive posing, Lance Armstrong-style, with his new $25 racer outside Second Cup at Queen's Quay. The frame was scrounged with new handlebars and stem, bearings etc bought carefully at discounted prices. After much fettling the bike is ready for a few thousand miles yet and the owner is feeling twenty-one again - some of the time.

Back on the Brompton

Nice to be out and about on the Brompton folding bicycle again. The bike has come into its own now we are living in a flat. Fold it up and hop in the lift.
Yesterday we took a short run to Annette Street library and today we headed down to Queen's Quay for lunch at Tim Hortons. The weather was ideal with the sun glistening on Lake Ontario - about eight miles round trip. Cirque du Soleil were setting up at Ontario Place.
The climb through High Park is not as bad as feared and we are both feeling better for it. The Chaplain is here tomorrow for another ride so good job I've warmed up a bit.

Coming events: Motley Crue are at Molson Amphitheatre, Toronto, ON, Tue, Aug 23, 2005 06:00 PM
Tim McGraw is at Casino Rama, Orillia, ON, Tue, Aug 30, 2005 08:00 PM

Streetcar named 1231

This is a streetcar operated by the Vancouver Downtown Historic Railway - which runs weekends and holidays. At $2 round trip a great tourist bargain - free parking. The enthusiasm of the volunteers running the railway does them great credit. The #1231 car was built in St Louis and known as a "Louis."



While at the railway I couldn't resist this old rail inspection car, known as a speeder or jigger. This one appears to have been fitted with a modern Honda engine with belt drive.



For more on the hobby of restoring and running these old railway inspection cars visit NARCOA.

Kansas electric

In Galena, Kansas, while cruising Route 66, we pulled up to photograph this electric CitiCar out front of a car repair shop. Approximately 2,200 of these small, wedge-fronted 2-seaters were built in Sebring, Florida in the mid-1970's by the Sebring-Vanguard Co. This one was acquired on e-bay as a conversation piece. The owner said it was the first time he wanted to take a picture of the visiting (smart) car.

One Lap of America

The smart car tour 2005 completed 8,984 miles in 35 days - Toronto, Chicago, St Louis, Oklahoma City, Amarillo, Albuquerque, Gallup, Flagstaff, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Portland, Seattle, Vancouver, Regina, Winnipeg and back to Toronto.
Actually the best places were the small towns like Galena, Kansas; Texola, Oklahoma and Frank, Alberta. Route 66 is everything it is cracked up to be - I could do it again tomorrow. I was in kitsch heaven - Americana run riot - old cars, motels, neon signs and petrolenia (gas-station accessories). Do you want fries with that?
Thanks to all the well-wishers on the way, including in the UK, and for the kind hospitality we received from family and friends. More pictures to follow but this one from Mount Rainier (say it Ran-ear) in Washington state captures the spirit of the trip.

Smarter than the average bear

On the way to Wawa there is a forest fire with smoke billowing into the sky. A black bear emerges from the forest on my right and I manoeuvre to miss him, while flashing an oncoming car, which does likewise. The fear of the fire overcomes the bear's fear of the traffic. Fortunately for all he reaches the other side safely.
We overnight at the Sportman's Motel in Wawa, ON. Annette rustles up microwave noodles followed by ice-cream. I'm watching Speed Channel catching up with NASCAR from Indianapolis and a great victory for Tony Stewart. I'm whacked after another day of hard pounding.
An early start next morning and we are running short of gas in the forest. We reach the Northgate Service Centre at Montreal River. The gas station has a big closed sign but the lad there insists "we have been open since seven o'clock" and rushes to turn round the sign. We order the breakfast special at $3.99 [2 eggs, 3 strips of bacon, 1 hashbrown, toast and jam] at the friendly roadhouse.
We roll into Sault Ste Marie - known as "The Soo" - and stop at the Agawa Canyon train station. This scenic railroad heads back in the direction from which we have come, but the train is already gone for the day. I'll get on it one day.
Hurrying east we feel the call of home. We pass a sign for Leeburn, ON and wonder about a connection to Martin Leeburn back in the UK. We stop at the Broken Canoe Trading Post where the Mississauga Indians sell us some diesel. We turn off the main highway for Manitoulin Island, where the road follows a derelict railway line. We arrive at South Baymouth at 15:45 in plenty of time for the 17:50 ferry to Tobermory on the Bruce Peninsular.
After a welcome cup of tea reading the Globe and Mail and the National Post we board the M.S. Chi-Cheemaun, the 1¾ hour crossing costs $54.35 for two adults and the car (£25). Onboard we are first in the queue for fish and chips - $18.62 for two.
On arrival in Tobermory we have Toronto in our sights and after four more hours, mostly in darkness, we are back in Hogtown. A stop at Sobey's for groceries is a bridge too far and I am monumentally happy to shut the front door at 12:30 after an eighteen-hour day.
Coming events: Def Leppard are at the Molson Amphitheatre in Toronto, Monday 15th August.

Eastbound and down

We drive through Winnipeg in the morning rush hour traffic and pick up the Trans-Canada once more - a coyote crosses the road up ahead. We pass the longitudinal midpoint of Canada, we change to Eastern Standard Time and join the Atlantic watershed. The highway splits when we are back in Ontario and we take the southern scenic route past The Lake of the Woods for Fort Frances.
We decide to step it up for Thunder Bay stopping briefly at Kakabeka Falls on the approach to the town. We overnight at the Valhalla Inn by the airport for sentimental reasons - we spent the first night of our honeymoon at the sister hotel in Toronto. An interesting controversy arises at dinner ($46 for two) - wine is sold by the glass in 5oz glasses whereas it is half-a-litre in a carafe. Nobody knows how many oz to the litre or which is the better deal - I opt for two 5oz glasses at $5 each.
For old time readers Thunder Bay used to be known as Fort William-Port Arthur - it remains a blue-collar town. We have a picnic breakfast at the Terry Fox scenic lookout to the east of town, with a wonderful view of Lake Superior.
Many dread the three-day ride through Ontario, not least the truckers, to get back to Toronto - but the scenery compares with anything out west.
Now in Schreiber, ON for pitstop and blog at the town library. Hi to Jack Kellett.

Willmett Place

Early morning at Regina, Saskatchewan and back at the RCMP Museum to see Carmen Harry, the curator. She is delighted that I have found a photograph of Constable Willmett. The day before we asked where Willmett Place was but nobody on site knew. After a night to think about it they have located it as a circle in the cemetery - we have to be escorted to the site for security reasons and I quickly take some photographs as it starts to rain.
Listening to Tracy Byrd "Ten rounds with Jose Cuervo" on the radio - we head for Manitoba and camp eight miles short of Winnipeg. This is serious mosquito country down by a river so we retreat into the tent. We fall asleep to the sounds of an Indian powwow with drums and exotic cries drifting across the river. Up early next morning breakfasting at the campsite cafe, where the good ol' boys can't stop talking about the smart as gas prices hit $1 a litre - still about half UK prices.

Late lunch at Tim Hortons in Brandon, Manitoba. Now heading for Winnipeg. First rain in 3 weeks.

Beam me up Scotty

To Vulcan, AB to see the Vulcan Hotel, formerly the Imperial Hotel at Frank. We call on the splendid museum where Walter McNiven produces a plate inscribed with "The Imperial Hotel, Frank, Alta." We learned something of how the Imperial Hotel morphed into the Vulcan Hotel in its new location.
Vulcan has turned its Star Trek shtick into a tourist attraction and Annette poses by the Starship Enterprise in town - she normally resists being photographed.
High tea at Tim Hortons at Lethbridge - a quick look-see at the High Level Bridge, a steel classic railway bridge crossing the Oldman River, an engineering masterpiece. We head for Grassy Lake, AB, municipal camping, $15.00, shower $1 (we shared). We prefer the "Cheap Charlie" campsites - no shop, swimming pool or crowds. We can play the country radio and disturb nobody. Listening to AM 1060 from Calgary - "City of New Orleans" by Arlo Guthrie, Ricky Skaggs "Cryin' my heart out over you" and Charley Pride "Is anybody goin' to San Antone?"
The honour system has died out at gas stations in the western United States - you pay first. Now back in Canuckistan we revert to more familiar methods and no longer have to guess how much diesel we need.
That old train whistle blows and the sun sets on the grain elevators. Tomorrow we head for Medicine Hat and I can't help thinking of those geography lessons at school all those years ago. My geography master advised "Why don't you take more interest in Europe? You are more likely to go there."
Now Stomping Tom Connors sings "Sudbury Saturday Night" - "The girls are out to bingo and the boys are getting stinko!"

Albert Street

We have really been trucking today and are now at Regina, Saskatchewan. We picked up the Trans-Canada Highway after breakfast at the A&W at Medicine Hat. Now staying at the Best Western after supper at the Red Lobster. We've been for a preliminary visit to the RCMP Museum and will be back there tomorrow.

Jackpot

Drove into Fort Macleod and headed for the Union Cemetery, down a gravel road. Sure enough the grave of Constable George Ernest Willmett is here and there is an added bonus - a photograph on a poster! I've been searching for a photo of GEW for three years and now hopefully can obtain a copy. I wonder if I'm the first family member to visit the gravesite in nearly a century. We also photograph the old RNWMP barracks on the outskirts of town - shortly to open as a heritage site.
To the Daisy May campground for overnight stop. Annette makes pasta and we sip a beer with Syd and Pat in their fifth-wheel.
Next morning to the Museum of the Northwest Mounted Police. They have the photograph of Constable Willmett originally deposited at the courthouse in Fort Macleod in 1912 in the case of Rex vs. Eberts. I am elated.
We proceed to the courthouse, built in 1902, and scene of the epic court battle in 1912. We head north for Nanton, via Claresholm and Stavely (where Reuben Steeves was drowned). Lunch at Aunt Alma's Country Kitchen - highly recommended home cooking. We are in grain elevator country where people ride horses and drive pickup trucks.

Back in Ontario - still 1200 miles from Toronto. Home Friday with luck and a following wind.

Crowsnest Pass II

Up early in Blairmore, AB and ride into Frank. Frank has had a bad rap in the guidebooks - I take to the place. Breakfast at the A&W in the gas station and then tour the old site of Frank, where Constable Willmett was murdered - now a wrecking yard and industrial estate. To the Frank Slide museum, where staff are friendly and helpful. Great view of this natural disaster where Turtle Mountain collapsed on the site of Frank in 1903. I find a plaque at the museum dedicated to fallen men of the mounted police - Constable Willmett is the first on a list of four - photographed for the archives. A search of the local cemeteries for the grave of Reuben Steeves, proprietor of the Imperial Hotel, back in the day proves fruitless. We ride on to Pincher Creek - more modern windmills than you can count - for a pitstop before heading into Fort Macleod tonight.

Crowsnest Pass I

Now in Pincher Creek, AB - picnic lunch under shady tree after shopping at Sobey's.
Rode from Princeton, BC to Cranbrook, BC in one day through the mountains - 337 miles in one day. From the wooded hills to the high desert at Osoyoos and on to Cranbrook, home to the Canadian Museum of Rail Travel. Set our watches forward one-hour to mountain time.
Arrived at Cranbrook about 17:00 - nightstop at Mount Baker RV Park, $19.26, at 1501-1st Street South. A shady spot by a creek, a bit noisy but handy for town. Walked to the museum to check out opening times and supper at Heidi's Restaurant and Gallery, 821C Baker St. A contender for best restaurant on the tour.
Likewise the breakfast at Swing Street Coffee House, double egg and sliced tomatoes, and a welcome change from mountains of fried spuds. A yellow fifties Cadillac is parked outside and the good old boys want to know all about the smart - "we'll pop a nickel in the meter for you if we need to!"
We make the rail museum in time for the first tour of the day - I'm particularly taken with the coaches from the "Soo-Spokane" train that was running through the Crowsnest Pass when Constable Willmett was stationed at Frank.
On to Fort Steele, with many old buildings from frontier days, some in situ and others relocated. Some useful tips for my researches into the Royal North West Mounted Police.
To Sparwood and the Elk Valley Cemetery in New Michel, where the murderer of Constable Willmett is buried - after much searching we find the grave. I make a promise to myself not to blaspheme. We find out more about his family at the local library.
On through the Pass to Fernie, a town much cheered by the tourist business, now contributing 50% to the local economy. A stop at the small museum yields useful background on the Trites-Wood Company which figures in the story of Constable Willmett.
The real high Rockies are now in view with jagged peaks high above the tree-line. To Blairmore for a nightstop at a motel which is very quiet after a couple of noisy nights.

Now in Blairmore, AB on the trail of Constable George Ernest Willmett. Great day on the case.

Destination Cranbrook

Now in Castlegar, B.C., at Tim Hortons heading for Cranbrook in the Kootenay Rockies. Endless sunshine.

Rocky Mountain High

Shopping in Princeton, BC at the "Overwaitea" supermarket. Watching the Dixie Chicks sing "Goodbye Earl" on CMT, not totally banned obviously, also Gretchen Wilson, the latest Nashville chick who is all over everywhere.
Now in Osoyoos, BC after early morning ride through the south Okanagan, close to the US border. This is wine country and also with many types of fruit growing. Plenty of vintage tin by the side of the road to keep old car buffs happy.
I forgot to mention that while in Vancouver we saw a couple of bald eagles, who were nesting in a tree near the maritime museum and feeding their young. Now I know why they call them screaming eagles. Heading for the Crowsnest and Alberta; tomorrow with any luck.

Streetcars and smarts

Up for breakfast at The Dutch Dog with communal breakfast of pancakes. We plan to take the Skytrain elevated railway into Vancouver but there is no parking at the stations so we drive. We circulate round Stanley Park seeing the totem poles and are early enough to miss the crowds on B.C. day. We go in search of the Downtown Historic Railway which is a hidden gem not in the guidebooks. Parking is free and it is $2 to ride the 100-year old streetcar to Granville Island, which is a busy resort area. The railway runs close to where the Molson Indy cars used to race and the future site of the winter Olympic village.
We cross the Lion's Gate Bridge to North Vancouver and spend the night, taking supper at a Vietnamese restaurant. Next morning we take the smart for 8,000 km service in Burnaby before starting the trip back east. Out of town via Hope and now in Princeton, BC in the Okanagan for early overnight stop and essential laundry in this charming western town.

Back in Canuckistan

Before leaving Seattle we head into town and take a coffee-of-the-day at the original Starbucks at Pike Place Market. Funny to think this hole-in-the-wall coffee shop spawned a worldwide chain. We take to the backroads heading for the Canadian border, passing VWs, hot rods and scooter clubs out on a holiday run.
We make a gas stop spending our last US$ at Acme, WA.
We reach the border at Alderwood, which is a small and not-so-busy crossing. Nevertheless we spend 35 minutes in sweltering heat queuing at the border.
We stop for the night at New Westminster at The Dutch Dog B&B (recommended at $85).
Being my birthday we walk out to dinner at La Rustica, where the waitress tips a glass of red wine all down me, made up for by a lady playing the spanish guitar and a free glass of port.