The Road to Victoria, 2007

It's time to hit the road again. The destination this time is Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. The reason (if one needs a reason for a road trip) is to participate in a car show entitled Northwest Deuce Day 2007. This event, pulled together by Al Clark and a host of dedicated volunteers, is held in the Canadian province of British Columbia every third year. I participated in Northwest Deuce Day 2004, also in Victoria, and couldn't wait till the next one. An indicator of my eagerness to return is in my registration number for this year's event - it's 25. Since there are 760 registrants (a full house, and 450 of them are 1932 Fords) I guess you could tell that I was somewhere near the head of the line to return. Also, since 2007 is the 75th anniversary of the 1932 Ford, this is one of several special celebrations being held across North America. I also attended a week long celebration at the Petersen Museum in Los Angeles last winter. The turnout for that event was spectacular, I think about 350 '32's, and this one looks like it will top the Pete's show.

I'll be leaving Valley Center, California on Monday July 23rd. My first stop will be in Fresno, California where I'll join up with good friends Ron Tanner, John Lawson, John Langford, Paul Gianoli, and I'm not sure who else. Tuesday we'll make for Redding, California; Wednesday to Longview, Washington; Thursday to the northern tip of Washington's Olympic Peninsula where, in Port Angeles we catch the evening ferry across the Strait of Juan De Fuca and into Victoria harbor on Vancouver Island. I'll be joined on Friday by my wife, Sue Ann who will fly in between work-related trips. The show will be on Sunday, then on Monday morning Sue Ann will fly back to the US, and I and great friends Paul and Melodie Crain will take the ferry to Anacortes, Washington which is only a few miles from their home in La Conner. I'll visit with them for a day and a half then kind of meander my way back south. Some of the places I intend to visit on my return include: the Cascade Mountain range, Mounts Baker, Ranier, St. Helens, and Hood; the Columbia River Gorge; the Umqua River, the Cascade Lakes, Crater Lake; northern California byways and eventually south on US Highway 395 through Reno/Tahoe and along the Sierra Nevada Mountains, and finally home to San Diego county. Yee ha, come on along!!


Day 1, Monday July 23rd

I left Valley Center at about 5am. It was sprinkling rain. I think that this was the first rain we've gotten in the southern California region since March (4 or 5 months). Oh well,no matter - I've packed the soft top in the trunk where it'll stay nice and dry. As I head north towards the Los Angeles basin, I decided to avoid the city and its' morning traffic altogether. I continued north on Interstate 15, thru Cajon Pass and onto US Hwy 395 through Hesperia, Victorville, and Adelanto. There I left the highway and head generally west towards El Mirage dry lake. El Mirage is home to an automotive competition called "Land Speed Racing." I belong to one of the clubs (San Diego Roadster Club) which is one of a dozen or so clubs that make up the Southern California Timing Association (SCTA), which in turn sanctions, organizes, and manages land speed racing on this dry lake bed. The other venue for Land Speed Racing is the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah. SCTA and the Bonneville Nationals Inc. host the grand daddy of land speed racing events, called Speed Week, there every August. See www.scta-bni.org for more on land speed racing. This aspect of auto (and motorcycle) racing got its' start in the 1930's, primarily at Muroc dry lake, which is now Edwards Air Force Base, and is no longer available for racing. It makes a fine Space Shuttle alternate landing site, though. I've been to El Mirage a lot of times for SCTA meets, but I've never taken the roadster. Today was the perfect opportunity. It was early in the day, it was overcast, I had plenty of time, and there wouldn't be many people on the lake on a Monday. I got some pretty cool shots of the roadster on the lakebed.












Then I got "buzzed" by an ultralight aircraft pilot. He landed nearby, taxied up to me and we "shot the shit" for awhile. He's a bit of an eccentric (won the Lottery a few years ago, lives near El Mirage, owns 23 ultralight aircraft, and flies around all day dressed like Darth Vader [kinda]).









In case you didn't know it, the Mojave Desert is home to a whole lot of flying creatures besides ultralights, and I don't mean bugs. Here's a famous watering hole.




This Boeing 707 skidded to a stop just prior to reaching the fence and my car!!!!!!!




I spotted this well-worn F-101 Voodoo on the grounds of Edwards Air Force Base. I don't know if it was reported missing, and the pilot was nowhere to be found, not even any footprints. Perhaps, he ejected?


Here's a picture of the same type aircraft in a much more flattering pose, albeit perhaps 40 years ago.



Another sight on Edwards that you won't see just anywhere is the rocket motor test site. These facilities are pretty remote, "just in case." My wife Sue Ann's grandfather Stanley Bennett worked at one of these sites in the 1950's/1960's.




I stopped at Mojave Airport for lunch. This location is known as the site where Space Ship 1 made its' historic flight into space in 2004. This was a product of the brilliant mind of Burt Rutan (who sat at the booth next to me this morning, lamenting to the waitress that he needed to cut back on his caffeine intake.) See http://www.scaled.com/projects/tierone/ for more info on this fascinating guy and his remarkable projects.



Also seen on the right of the billboard above are windmills for the generation of electrical power. These are not your backyard variety for running your TV "off the grid". These are the huge behemoths that dot the hills in certain areas of California, and I'm sure, other parts of the world. Some are as near as the Tehachapi Mountains, only twenty miles from here. Here's a couple of pictures of them in situ.








These particular units are manufactured by General Electric. How do I know that? Well, I'm glad you asked - because here's some of the stockpile of components that make up these bad boys. The rotor blades are approximately 60 or 70 feet long, based on the length of my car at 15 feet. The generator housing is about the size of a van.




Well folks, I climbed the Tehachapi's and dropped down into the San Joaquin Valley at Bakersfield and headed north the one hundred miles to Fresno for the nite. I enjoyed dinner with good friends Ron Tanner and Don Barlow. Ron will join me on the trip tomorrow, as will his college roommate from med school days in the 1940's, Pete Schilder from Annapolis, Maryland, who flew in just to ride along with us. Unfortunately, Don has to stay home and can't drive his Model A with us.
Next stop, Redding, California.


Day 2, Tuesday July 24th

Ron and Pete and I met up at John Lawson's trucking company office to develop a plan together with John as to today's trip. One of John's dispatchers was keeping an eye on the National Weather Service website. There was a pocket of rain in the Stockton/Lodi area. A call from Mike Bosworth in Lodi, confirmed the weather report - it was raining pretty heavily there. Since that rainshower was in our path, we decided to wait a bit. We went over to John's "toy shop" to see what was new there. John has got some very nice "toys", as you can see.





We left Fresno about 10 am and we were scheduled to pick up more folks as we head north. In Modesto we picked up Greg Pavoojian in his '32 5-window coupe, in Lodi we picked up Mike and Janet Bosworth in their '32 roadster, and finally we met up with Gilberto and Leticia Parasgon and Jorge Zaragosa, all from El Paso, Texas.
The weather was in the 90's and the humidity was uncharacteristically high for this area, but it was a pleasurable drive to Stockton.






Tomorrow we leave the central valley of California, continue north through the Siskiyou Mountains, and enter Oregon. John Lawson has something up his sleeve for us in the Portland. Oregon area for tomorrow afternoon, and we will overnight across the Columbia River in Longview, Washington.


Day 3, Wednesday, July 25th

Boy, did I get bogged down! No internet access, no energy, no time, etc., etc. It's Monday nite July 30th and I'm just catching up. I'll do what I can tonite, and finish tomorrow.

This is where the scenery starts to get good. We start to climb out of the California's central valley and into the Siskiyou Mountains. We are first greeted by Shasta Lake. Then about 50 miles later, Mount Shasta.








We made Portland, Oregon by 2pm.





Jim Westrich, a fellow hot rodder from nearby Longview, Washington had advised John Lawson of a Wednesday evening car and motorcycle show and drag racing at Portland International Raceway. W went to the Raceway and were amazed to find that the expected show attendance on this evening and all other Wednesday evenings (during the summer) is about 1,000 cars and 300 motorcycles !!!!!!!!! That's a whole lot of vehicles for any event, let alone for a WEEKLY event !!!! Even in Los Angeles, the car and motorcycle capitol of the world, that would be HUGE - and this is Portland, Oregon !!! Holy Hubcaps, Batman!












Wow, what a neat deal: five bucks admission (which goes to local charities) got you cars, bikes, drags, food vendors, music, and a whole bunch of fun. These folks have got a great thing going every summer. Congratulations.

We crossed the Columbia River into Washington and head to Longview, Washington for the nite. The folks here in the Portland/Vancouver area are pretty big into "in your face" advertising. This sign was at eye level right next to the bridge crossing the Columbia River. (Sorry, no time to stop this time.)






Day 4, Thursday, July 26th

In Longview we stayed at the Monticello Hotel, which dates back to the early 1900's. It is very well maintained, and has a ton of ambiance - I recommend it for enjoyable stay.


We left Longview fairly early and our initial destination was the ferry in Port Angeles, Washington. This route took us north on the eastern shore of the Olympic Peninsula, much of it along the Hood Canal. Why it's called Canal, and not Channel, is beyond me. It is not a man-made passage, but it is what it is.


This part of Washington is typical of the western half in that it is lush and green, hence their motto, "The Evergreen State". We'll see the other side of that coin later in the trip.


Here is our first peek at the Olympic mountain range on, where else, the Olympic Peninsula.

We got to the ferry port and queued up for the next outbound trip. We would be crossing the Strait of Juan De Fuca to Vancouver Island on the MVS Coho.


We were directed onto the Coho and most of us ended up at the bow. The positioning is not as haphazard as it may appear, because, though we entered the ship at the stern, we would leave through a door in the starboard (right) side. Those of us in the bow would have to back up to reach the exit route. It was managed quite well by the experienced crew.

Another view of the Olympics, this time outbound on the MVS Coho.


The view in the other direction, north across the Strait to Vancouver Island. This Strait is a funnel for the waters of the Pacific to flow into and out of Puget Sound. I hear that it can be pretty excitng at times, but our crossing today was uneventful.



On entering Victoria Harbor there are a myriad of air and water craft using this sheltered body of water.



Victoria is a beautiful city and its' roots go back to the days of the early colonization of the western North American continent. The architecture is highly European-influenced. Typical examples are the Empress Hotel and the Legislative Buildings (their "state" capitol). These night shots were in Victoria, not Disneyland.



There's also a bit of the eclectic around the downtown area also, as evidenced by a fiddling Darth Vader. Anything to make a buck, anywhere in the world, huh?