The Squamidian Report – July 15 / 06
Issue #215
Also in this issue:
The Ontarion
Hi All,
Some of you who check your Email regularly may have noticed that this week’s addition has come out a day late. Not much I could do about it. When I would have normally been publishing the Squamidian, I was in the process of driving Sue and her car home from Prince George. Her stint there is now over. For the ones who didn’t notice that we are a day late, just ignore this paragraph.
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On Friday the kids and I headed for Prince George. Ryan and Emily tagged along for the adventure. To avoid having to drive back in to the Vancouver airport to pick up a car after driving all the way down from Prince George, we had to figure out a way of getting to the airport without leaving a vehicle there. Our solution was the bus. There is a Greyhound stop within walking distance of Ryan’s apartment so we walked over from there and caught the 6:30 AM bus. This got us into downtown Vancouver about 8 AM. From there we took a taxi down to the airport. That’s probably the scariest part of any trip, riding in a taxi through the downtown of a major city. We see those guys all the time heading to and from YVR and they weave like made in an around the traffic as they speed along.
We got to the airport with plenty of time to spare for our 10:15 flight, then it was delayed for half an hour for some maintenance. The fight to PG was good and Sue was there to pick us up. For reasons totally beyond me she went back to work, so we had the rest of the day to ourselves. Not a whole lot to do there besides shopping and the like. It had been warm and sunny when we landed but by mid afternoon an incredible thunderstorm swept through and drenched the area with driving rain and lightning. Once it passed the temperature was about 20 degrees lower than it had been so any thoughts of puddling around at the little lake were dismissed. We waited around till 6:30 for Sue to come out of the branch and went out for dinner. After that it was a quiet evening in the cabin.
The next morning (Saturday), the B&B people fed us a nice breakfast in the main house where Ryan’s accommodations were and then we headed out for the drive home. Actually, the breakfast was quite incredible, but I digress. As I’ve probably stated before, the drive takes us from high on the Central Plateau area of BC down through the Caribou region with its rolling hills and ranchland. There are herds of buffalo there as well as cows and horses. The land becomes dryer and hillier as you get down toward Clinton and back to the Fraser. By this point the Fraser is at the bottom of a very deep steep canyon that it has carved over the eons. The forest fire situation has been reduced by the cooler weather and rains of the last few days but we did see the smoke from one west of 100 Mile House.
It is also here that you catch the top end of highway 99 and head into the Coastal Range and over the Duffy. That stretch of road sure makes the cars breaks heat up. Very disturbing thing, the pine beetle has killed the trees lining the steep sloped along the opposite side of Duffy lake. The damage is devastating. You come down off the Duffy at Mt Curry and then it’s a short drive on into Pemberton. From there it is into Whistler where we stopped for supper at a favorite place of Ryan and Emily. Then on home. Good to be home. As I’m scrambling to get this sent out a day late, I haven’t even had time to check and see if any pictures I took are worth posting. If any are, I’ll deal with them next week.
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We almost went dirt biking. But the whole thing got started off out of kilter and went down hill from there. Warren got caught in traffic as he was coming down from his place and was held up for an hour. They had closed the highway for a bicycle race. Then just as we were leaving to meet him by the Mamquam Main, my little Honda stalled and it took a while to get it going. Once it was running we headed out onto the highway but then Ryan’s little Yamaha started to wobble. We pulled over and found he had broken a rear wheel spoke and the rest were very loose. The rim was loose. Not a good thing on a motorcycle. So I headed home and brought the truck to bring Ryan’s bike home. We removed the wheel so he could take it in for repair.
We removed the spark plug from my little bike but it was Sunday and there was no place to get a replacement. But dirt biking wouldn’t have worked out anyway, I had forgotten to bring the camera.
doug
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Editor’s Note: I’ve added the pictures of Greg’s Osprey from last weeks column to the web page with his eagles. It is at: http://members.shaw.ca/doug_b/Greg/eagles.htm . You may have to hold down the Ctrl key on your keyboard as you click the refresh button of your browser to force it to download a fresh copy of that page if the new pictures are not showing.
Hello everyone!
The
weather was hot and somewhat humid. The day was calm and clear and the
anticipation was killing me! It was Friday morning and we were on the 401
heading for our first experience at an international Indy Car Race, the “MOLSON
TORONTO GRAND PRIX”! We could hardly wait to get there and begin our first day
of a three day weekend taking in the sights and sounds. We decided to stop and
take in a nourishing breakfast at the McDonald’s truck stop hear Milton. After
a couple of Egg McMuffins and a nice greasy Hashbrown or two washed down with a
12oz orange juice we were back on the road. We had a three day pass to park in
the grounds of the CNE on the “West” end lot. The only problem we could foresee
was finding the lot in all that traffic. As it turned out, the traffic wasn’t
at all what we expected. We were able to drive directly from The Gardner
Expressway onto Lakeshore Blvd and right into the lot of the Midevil Times
restaurant on the CNE grounds without a hitch. We were told by the gate
attendant that we would have to pick up our tag to hang on the rear view mirror
at the Rogers Centre formerly the Sky Dome. That would have meant a walk of
about an hour or more return just to pick up a blue tag to display for the next
two days. We already had the original ticket but were told that we had to have
the mirror tag. After a 10 minute walk just to get to the gate, I spotted a
booth selling Race Tickets. I said to Adam “I wonder if they might have the
parking tickets as well?” I walked up and showed my ticket for parking and the
girl responded with “Oh you need one of these!” and she produced the big blue
mirror tag. I said “YES!” and thanked her very much for saving us a whole lot
of shoe leather and time. That was the first break of the weekend and we were
grateful for the favour. We still had another 10 minute walk and climb (up and
over bridges crossing the track) to arrive at the main paddock and “midway”
area. I say midway because that’s what it reminded me of, a midway. There were
food concessions everywhere and some of the loudest speakers I’ve ever heard.
The race was only part of the weekend and the rest was filled with everything
from Mixed Martial Arts fights to trick motorcycle riding displays. Huge stages
contained a different band every hour and there were people everywhere wanting
to involve you in one activity or another. They were offering chances to win
“Gold” seat tickets for the main race just for filling in a 2 minute survey. We
said no thanks and politely walked away. I noted one couple that said yes was
still talking to the survey guy 20 minutes after starting the 2 minute thing.
Ya gotta learn to say NO! Within the grounds were fenced off areas that
contained the huge fleet of trucks and buses that carried the entourages that
accompany the drivers to the race. There certainly are big bucks in this sport!
For instance the Newman/Hass Racing Team which is half owned by the famous Paul
Newman, Oscar winning Hollywood actor had the biggest bus I’ve ever seen. It
also had a trailer attached to the rear that was identical to the bus but half
the length and of course had no windows. They had a full smorgasbord set up in
their compound for the staff and drivers of their team, all the comforts of
home and then some! We looked but didn’t spot Paul Newman over the three days
of the weekend. They say he is usually lurking around somewhere. Adam said he’s
probably spending his time in the pits and that made sense of course. We gawked
at the vastness of these vehicles and all the glitter for a few minutes and
then moved on. With so much to see we wanted to keep moving and not only take
in the sights but also find our seats on Thunder Alley. There are giant sets of
bleachers in different locations along the course of the track. Adam had
purchased tickets on Thunder Alley which is the main straight away along
Lakeshore Blvd. He figured that would be the best view of the longest and
fastest portion of the race and he was correct. We watched the first practice
run of 15 laps of the Atlantic 2000 series cars. These are open wheel race cars
that look identical to the Indy cars but are a little smaller and only have 300
horse power engines. They are driven by up and coming young drivers that range
from 17 to 21 years of age. One of the drivers in this group is the son of the
3 time Indy 500 winner Bobby Rayhall. His name is Graham Rayhall and he was
expected to pull off a win in the race on Sunday. Man, these cars may seem less
intimidating but they are every inch a race car! They weigh in at only 800 lbs
and with 300 hp pushing them along, they really scream around the track. These
young guys are so fearless and aggressive that they scare the audience with
some of the moves they made, even in practice. We thoroughly enjoyed this group
of racers. After this, we decided to head down from the stands and find
something to eat. Of course there are so many choices it’s hard to pick. We
wound up stopping at one of the half dozen Pizza Pizza tents for a slice.
Everything at these events is jacked up in price and the food is no exception.
A slice of pizza was $3.89 and a coke was $4.50 so it didn’t take long to eat
up a $20.00 bill between the two of us. We had a very good day and got used to
finding our way around the rest of the grounds. We found that if we entered the
“Automotive” building we could take the tunnel under the track and come up at
the bleachers along the Start/Finish line. This is of course where all the
racing elite watch the race from. It contains all the private grand stands that
are protected from the sun by huge tents and have their own food and
refreshment bars along with serving staff to cater to the big money crowd. As
we walked out of the building to the sidewalk behind the “Silver” seats (seats
along the opposite side of the Start/Finish straight to the Gold box
seats) we realized that we could just
walk up into these bleachers and take a seat. Nobody stopped us to ask if we
had tickets to be there so we enjoyed watching the Champ Cars with the “Real”
drivers practice for their 15 laps. We decided we’d come back on Sunday and
watch the qualifying from these same seats if we could. After the Champ cars
were done, we decided to start to head for home. This meant a half hour trip
through the entire grounds just to reach the exit gate. As we walked, we got
side tracked by the other attractions once more and it took another hour or two
before we reached the car. Once back in the Jeep, we were grateful for the air
conditioning and were homeward bound.
DAY II
With day
one behind us and a wealth of knowledge gained from that experience we were
ready for Day II. We were able to park in a lot that was a little closer to the
main gate on Sunday. One of the wise moves we made (Thanks to Carole) was to
take a back pack along containing 8 or so bottles of frozen water. As the day
went on and the sun got hotter, the ice melted and we would drink from this
stash rather than pay $3.50/bottle from the food stands. I carried the water
supply and Adam carried his camera bag with all the gear he used to photograph
the action of the weekend. He took some amazing shots of the cars and
activities that went on during the three days of the event. Sunday we spent
more time watching the different side show events than we did on the first day.
There were 6 young guys called the “Starboys” that were motorcycle stunt riders
and they put on a show for free. They had a fenced off area with a two lane
runway down one side and a trick jump set up on the other. You could see all
activities in this area from one spot so the viewing was good no matter where
you stood. Three of the riders were jumping from one ramp to the next and
literally flying separate from their machines and then rejoining them make a
spectacular landing in front of the crowd. They were amazing to watch! The
other three riders did tricks on “Crotch Rocket” style bikes. They rode
Suzuki’s that appeared to be about 650cc bikes so they were no sissy machines!
These guys did everything from regular wheel stands on the rear wheel to wheel
stands on the front wheel by applying the front brake at high speed. It was an
incredible thing to witness first hand! They would drive at high speed along
their 300’ runway and then do a stunt as they approached the crowd standing at
the chain link fence at the end of the compound. Sitting on the gas tank with
their feet hanging over the head light they would lock the front brake and
crank the throttle to make the rear tire spin and burn rubber to thrill the
crowd. It was nothing to see them standing on the hub of the rear axle while
doing a wheel stand with the bike turning in circles. As I said, amazing and
very entertaining!
Of course
we spent the day watching more of the qualifying for the big race on Sunday.
The local hero Paul Tracey was expected to do well if not win the race on
Sunday. He did well during the qualifying races but did not win the pole
position.
He had to
start the race on Sunday in the third position in the lineup. Sunday would come soon enough so as soon as
the qualifying races were over with, we started heading out toward the car. On
the way, they announced that there was one more race for the day and it was
starting as we listened to the speaker. This race was a race involving
“Classic” cars. There were Corvettes, Porches, Triumphs and BMW’s all souped up
and hitting very high speeds as they raced the same course as the super Champ
Cars. It was a lot of fun to watch these old, former “street” cars whiz around
the track and at the slower speeds than the Indy cars, you got to see a lot
more of the action. That race ended our day and we were on our way home to
Kitchener once more. .It was around 5pm and had been another long day at the
Indy.
DAY III
Race Day
Sunday
was here and we decided to head to TO much earlier than the previous days. We
were on the road by 8am and once again, we stopped for gas on the 401. Of
course there just happens to be a McDonald’s at the same stop. Once again it
was Egg McMuffin and Hash Brown time. There seems to be something satisfying
about a greasy quick breakfast not to mention it’s cheap too! Five minutes and
we were on the road again. In the blink of an eye we were in the parking lot at
the race and applying our sun screen for the day. That new spray on stuff is
really convenient and seems to last a long time.
We
figured the crowd would be a lot heavier than it had been the first two days.
There were more people there on Sunday but it was still not as busy as I
expected. Sunday is the actual “Race” day and by 10am the Atlantic 2000 cars
were into it hot and heavy. There was a minor pile up at the first turn and
that put a couple of the cars into the pits for a few laps. In fact, the
favourite Graham Rayhall was getting repairs and that cost him 4 laps.
Consequently he never did make up the laps so he lost the race.
It was
time to eat once more and the more we looked around, the more we decided that
Pizza was still the best way to go. Off we went to the closest Pizza Pizza and
loaded up on Veggie slices. Luckily we had packed another back pack of ice
water to wash the food down. We thought about having a quick beer with the
pizza but they were selling at $8.50 a plastic glass and they didn’t even have
the brand we liked. All they had was Canadian and when I have my one or two
beers a year, I like to have my old standby Export Ale. No big deal, we were
just as happy with the water anyway. We walked around for an hour and took in
the sights again. The main race was to start at 1:30pm so being it was 12:15pm
we decided to find a seat to watch the race from. I wondered out loud if we
might be able to sneak into the expensive seats once more. The only problem on
Sunday was, that security was a lot tighter than the other days. Adam and I
walked along behind the main bleachers and all of a sudden we happened onto an
entrance where the two ticket takers were busy and the entrance was wide open.
Adam nudged me and we turned into the gate and disappeared up into the stands.
We found seats in a section that had four benches that were about half empty.
We plunked ourselves down four rows up from the rail and crossed our fingers
that nobody would show up with tickets and make us move, not to mention
embarrass us all to heck! We got lucky again, people came by and sat all around
us but our bench and the one in front of us remained empty for the entire race.
Our seats were about 100 meters down stream from the Start/Finish line and we
couldn’t have picked better ones once again. The race was amazing and the
action in the pits directly across from us were a flurry of activity. The home
town favourite Paul Tracey placed second and a Californian by the name of AJ
Almandinger came in first. It took two hours to complete the race and Adam got
a load of great pictures from our “special” seats. All in all, the whole
weekend was a roaring success and it has made us both fans of the Indy Grand
Prix style racing for sure! In fact, we’re planning on attending it again next
year. Only this time we’ve decided to attend one day, Race Day and actually pay
for the Good seats this time.
We both
agreed that this was the best father son outing we’d had in a long time and
will definitely repeat it soon.
Thanks
for tuning in and I look forward to talking to you all again next time in
The
Ontarion Report!
Bye for now… Greg.
PS>
Something To Think About>
Things
are always at their best in their beginning.
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The Family and the Squamidian sites:
http://members.shaw.ca/doug_b/ and http://www.thedougsite.ca
Have a good one..
the
doug
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