The Squamidian Report – June 25 / 16
 
Issue #735

Including:
A Word From Lorne
The Ontarion

Hi All,

I was sitting here trying to think of something to write about for this week's addition when I remembered, “Oh yeh, we have visitors from back east here, I guess could write about that”. So, I guess I will.

They (Lorne, Gale and Cindy) flew in last Saturday morning. Their flight got them to YVR about 11:30 or so. That meant we had to endure down town Vancouver traffic for both the picking up and heading home sections of the drives. Being used to small town traffic makes driving in big city traffic a stressful pain but we got 'er done. Everyone was pretty tired from traveling so we didn't do much the rest of the day, just visited. Sunday morning found everyone rested and ready to go so we all headed down to Horseshoe Bay as I had my usual coffee meet with my biker buddies. On the way home we stopped at the gondola where they renewed their passes and up we went. That was kind of like 'old home coming' for them. Ryan and Lauren and the kids came up for the afternoon. Kyra remembered all of them and had a great time interacting with her geographically distant relatives.

On Monday we took them to Shannon Falls where they enjoyed seeing the ancient trees and stumps and the falls itself. From there we went to the gondola which is literally right next door. We all walked the 1.6km Panorama Ridge trail. It took a while and both Lorne and Cindy were understandably quite happy with themselves.

Wednesday we did a road trip, all the way to Fontaine in the Interior. That means we did the Duffy, twice, because once we had gone as far as we wanted, we turned around and backtracked which was the whole idea because those roads are totally cool and totally different in each direction. We left here shortly after 8 and drove up through Whistler and Pemberton, then onto the Duffy, climbing up the steep winding 13km section of road that delivers you into the alpine. I'm pretty sure none of them would have excepted an offer to take over the driving responsibilities but thats ok because I love driving, and more so, riding those roads and I'm pretty familiar with the route. The Duffy takes you through the Coastal Mountains and the change in topography is very evident. You also travel into a different climactic zone. We dropped down the other side and into Lillooet where we had lunch and then looked around a bit. Lillooet is on the banks of the Fraser River and its a very old and interesting place. We headed on along the Fraser Canyon and through sage brush and wild goats. We could have gone further but didn't want to get home too late or too tired so when the time was right we headed back.

The intent for Thursday was to take it pretty easy as we had travelled over 500km the day before and some were still a bit weary. So, we headed up the gondola in the morning and were home by lunch time. Now because they had not gone up the day before, their perfect attendance record was in peril and so the decision was to go back up in the afternoon, which we did. We left Lorne and Cindy at the lodge where they could wander around or sit on the deck and just chill out and enjoy the view and location while Gale and I walked the Ridge trail again. When we got back, Lorne and Cindy were no where to be found. Turned out they were happily riding the gondola cars up and down the mountain, racking up their count number for times up the mountain. Pretty cool when you think about it, and the lift attendants got a kick out of it.

That evening the weather was entertaining everyone by giving us rain and sunshine at the same time. Gale was sitting under the roof overhang on the back deck soaking up the sunshine as the rain poured down right in front of her. At the same time, it was dry and rainless out the front. That happens a lot around here. Then, with the sun low and shining from the west, and with showers between un and the high ridges to the east, the most brilliant, vibrant double rainbows appeared between us and those ridges. It lingered for over half an hour. Quite a display.

One Friday we all headed up to Whistler for brunch, then went into the village for a bit. Did a toot up the Calaghan on the way back in a fruitless attempt at seeing a bear, and then just kept on going down to the gondola. Sue, Gale and I did the usual walk while Lorne and Cindy had a beer in the lodge. Thats kind of the week in a nut shell. They fly home next Tuesday morning, and this being June-uary, we've had petty well every kind of weather you could think of.

doug

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A Word From Lorne

Day 7: And so far trips to Horseshoe Bay, the town site of Britannia, a drive up to Whistler for brunch, a journey over the Duffy to Lillooet and beyond, 7 times up the gondola to the lodge, hiking the Panorama Trail, and a return walk across the suspension bridge. A trek into Shannon Falls. Only a personal visit can anyone appreciate what its all about. All so wonderful.

Lorne
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THE ONTARION REPORT

Hello everyone!
Sounds like the Brubacher clan or a good part of it is having a terrific time out in BC! Did you know that the three visitors actually climbed up the mountain rather than take the Gondola? LOL! Just kidding but they look pretty lively and happy in the pics from what Carole tells me. She saw them on “Facebook” but I’m not one to be on “Facebook” so I haven’t seen the pictures myself, yet! I’m sure I’ll get around to viewing them soon!

    Things have been busy around here this past week or two. With a new 77 Mini in the family and a project to get the MGB back on the road I’ve been keeping busy car wise at least. I’ve been looking for a hard top for the MG and finally found a few on Kijiji. I contacted the sellers and one was a mess and too much money. The other was in a small town near Mount Forest but the guy never got back to me and the third was in Nepean, which is part of Ottawa. As it turned out the one in Ottawa was only $100.00 but needs some refurbishing. The owner is a female police officer from the Ottawa PD. She phoned me after receiving an e-mail from me asking some questions. When she found out that I am a retired Firefighter she mentioned the kindred association between the two emergency services we represent and said if I was willing to drive all the way to Ottawa to pick up the roof for the car, that I could have it for FREE! Wow, now that was an offer I couldn’t refuse! So that being Tuesday evening, I hopped in the Jeep on Wednesday morning at 6am and Adam and I took a drive to Ottawa to retrieve my new roof. We spent 2 hours in the heaviest traffic in Canada trying to pass by Toronto. What a pain in the butt that was! We finally got through the inch-by-inch mess and got some breathing room on the 401. From then on it was smooth sailing! Once we arrived at our destination the owner was very kind and offered us a whole pile of used MGB parts for free along with the Roof. I decided to take her up on the Transmission she offered but the 5 buckets of spare parts and complete spare engine would have been of no use to me so I left the remainder with her in Nepean! We couldn’t fit the roof into the back of the Jeep even though she had assured me it would fit because it fit in her Hyundai Santa Fe. Oh well, we figured we could at least strap it on the roof of the Jeep for the drive home. We had to go to the nearest Dollar Store and purchase 6 ratchet straps. They cost me $8.00 instead of the $20.00 they wanted at the CTC store across the parking lot from the Dollar Store. I guess they were of a lesser quality but they did the trick and we managed to get all the way home without any problems! With the wind resistance from the roof on my roof, my fuel economy was measurably affected. I got almost 24 MPG on the trip to Ottawa and just over 21MPG coming home! Oh well, even with the cost of two tanks of gas the trip was still worth it!

The roof needs a good cleaning up and a couple of rubber seals but once I get it finished it’ll make a nice addition to our MG! It looks cool just sitting in place for now. I should have it cleaned up and on the car within a week or so. I’m looking forward to having a unique looking MG with a hard top! The drive I figured would take about 4 to 5 hrs one-way. We left Kitchener at 6am and with the Toronto slow down we didn’t arrive in Nepean until 12:30noon. It took us about two hours to load and strap down the roof after digging through the woman’s shed to see the rest of the parts. The transmission fit in the Jeep easily but the roof as I said was a challenge. We only left Nepean around 2:30pm and by the time we got home it was almost 8:30pm. I guess it’s farther to Ottawa than I figured! Oh well it was a lovely sunny day and a pleasant drive overall. Just made for a long day with all that driving! I can hardly wait to get the roof refurbished and on the MG to see what it looks like! I’m sure it’ll be an improvement over the soft convertible roof. I still have the new soft top in its box and will fit it to the car as well in the near future. It’ll be nice to have a choice of which one to use on any given day. Well, that was the exiting part of my week!

Guess that’s about it for this week folks!
Thanks for tuning in and I’ll look forward to talking to you all again next week in The Ontarion Report!

Bye for now … Greg

PS: Something To Think About>
Behind every great man, there’s a woman rolling her eyes!
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Have a good one..
the doug
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