The Squamidian Report – July 2 / 16
Issue #736
Including:
A Word From Lorne
The Ontarion
Hi All,
Well now, our eastern guests left on Tuesday morning, bright and early.
We drove them to YVR, leaving the house just after 6 am. I assume they
were happy, or perhaps even a bit relieved, to be headed back, after
all, we ran them ragged the whole time they were here. Their last few
days here went fast, as visits always do. A walk on ferry ride over to
Bowen Island, several more rides up the gondola and some local sight
seeing, the usual stuff. Suddenly it was Monday evening and their time
was up, gone, slipped into history. Time to get ready to go. Everyone
was up and ready to go Tuesday morning and away we went. The drive to
the airport is great, well, all the way to Horseshoe Bay. From there on
its not so great, its right though the center of Vancouver. By the time
you get to the Lions Gate Bridge you are into heavy traffic and it
never eases up from there on. We endured that traffic to and into the
airport and dropped them off at the departure level. Funny how that
works, you 'arrive' in order to 'depart'. No wonder I get confused at
times. Sue went in with them to make sure they found the right section
and to flag down an attendant to help shepard them though the
bewildering layout and procedures of a big metropolitan airport. I
waited in the car in the 'drop off ' zone and once she came back out,
we were on our way back up through the city and headed for home. We
relaxed for the rest of the day, until mid afternoon when we
jumped on the bike and headed back down to Horseshoe Bay to hook up
with my riding friends for our usual Tuesday get-together.
Wednesday was kind of busy because I had a little gig to play at the
gondola. It actually takes as long to load up, get there, get ourselves
and my equipment into a gondola, ride to the top, and then get set up,
as it does to play the gig. But, I do it for the fun and the experience
so thats all part of it. This time I was playing on the west side,
facing out over the Sound, toward the far mountains. That was cool.
And of course this is a long weekend and by Thursday evening and all
day Friday the tourist and vacationing traffic built heavily on this
highway. Thats the one drawback to living in a destination area,
traffic and people. They seem to pop up out of no where. On a
biological level I certainly know where they come from but on a 'they
are all over the place' level it boggles my mind. I did my usual Friday
afternoon toot down to Horseshoe Bay on the bike and the traffic
heading north was bumper to bumper. Horseshoe Bay itself was over run
by people. Many were from the cars parked in the ferry lineup. They had
time to kill, lots of time, because the ferries tend to get backed up
on summer weekends and long weekends and passengers end up waiting for
several crossings before they can drive onto the boats. Kind of takes
the fun out of traveling, congested highways, full ferries, and people
everywhere you look. There is a lot to be said for staying home on the
weekends, if one can.
But then our Saturday morning would be an early one as well because
'The Wife' is headed for KW to visit her family again. I've sent this
letter out well before we leave for the airport and at the time of
writing this, this has not actually happened but it should so there you
go.
doug
****
****
A Word From Lorne
Want to thank you and Sue for the greatest time. Coming
home we had row 6 opposite the sun. The sky over the Coast Range,
the valley and the Rockies was clear as well as into Calgary where we
left the plane for a short while then back on the same aircraft where
we then occupied row 7, still a good seat and on the shade side as
well. Clear sky into Ontario until clouds blocked out most of the
viewing, We were ahead of schedule so it seemed that the fellow
at the wheel circled around a few times before bringing us down.
As we were leaving, he bid us farewell and noticed me wearing Gondola
jacket and cap and commented about being there himself. Thanks to
Carol for taking us to and from the airports.
Driving my car I became aware that the AC stopped working. Then making
a left turn, no turning signal and loss of power steering. Arriving at
my destination, I kept the engine running, made my purchase, came out
to find the gear shift locked in park and cannot move it. I turned the
engine off, let rest then tuned the key to restart it, nothing,
no sound, no dash lights, nothing. Called CAA, they arrived
and boosted the battery and away it went. Everything worked. I
gave the tow truck operator the choice of hauling me home or
driving behind me in case. He said try driving with me behind
you. I got home, about 15 Km. Run fine. I called the dealer where
I bought the car from in 2006 and explained to the service desk what
happened. If you can bring the car here we will have a look at it
and give you a loner. Being 6pm June 30 and a long weekend, will
be closed until Monday. We will wait for you. I called CAA
again and this time they loaded the car on a flat bed and I road along
to get the loner. While explaining what happened, the sales
person I originally bought from appeared and offered to show me all
about the new Titanium Escape. It handles nice. Will keep
you posted.
Lorne
****
THE ONTARION REPORT
Hello everyone!
It’s a new dawn of a new day on the front end of a new month! Happy July everyone!
With the onset of hot beautiful weather it’s
not hard to enjoy the outdoors. We have taken to driving our MG
whenever we feel like it and last weekend we took a drive down to Port
Dover on Lake Erie. We enjoyed beautiful but very hot weather on the
weekend and it was Saturday when we decided to do a topless run to the
Port and enjoy a lovely Perch dinner at the Erie Beach Hotel. When we
arrived in Port Dover we fully expected to see a large number of
motorcycles even though it wasn’t a Friday the 13th. We cruised right
down the main street and to our surprise we only saw two or three bikes
through the whole town. I guess the bikers were elsewhere for a change
of scenery. I was excited to be taking our first summer drive in the
“B” in four years as it’s been stored in the garage for that long.
After installing a new battery two weeks ago it’s been starting and
running like a clock! Of course it needed an oil change but I didn’t
get around to doing that until two days after our drive to Dover. The
oil only had a few thousand KM’s on it but it had sat idle for the past
4 years so it was stale. On Tuesday I visited CTC and figured I’d have
a problem finding an oil filter to fit the British beauty. Lo and
behold, CTC had the exact filter required sitting on the first shelf I
looked at! It was missing the first letter of the filter I’d written
down that was currently on the MG but the attendant said that was just
a “stock” reference letter for their store use.
I had read the specs on the engine requirements and found it takes 20 W
50 oil and the book recommends the use of Castrol GTX motor oil. I was
also fortunate enough to find that CTC also carries that grade of
Castrol in a 5-liter jug and guess what, it was on sale and was $12.00
less than most of the other brands of oil. So my oil change only set me
back a total of $26.00 plus a little tax of course. To take it to an
oil change facility would have cost me around the $45.00 mark when
requiring the high-grade oil. I went merrily on my way! It only took me
an hour to do the oil change on the MG because it’s a very easy motor
to work on. I figured it would make no difference in the way the motor
ran but when I took the MG out for it’s first short drive, I was
surprised at how smoothly and quietly it ran! I could notice quite a
difference in the performance and was sure I had done the Little
British Car a good turn. I guess the old oil had lost its viscosity
from sitting for 4 cold winters. Anyhow, the car ran like a Swiss clock
only without the “tick tick” sound! LOL! I had filled up with the
premium gas on Saturday before leaving for Dover and of course the
engine thanked me for that as well. The old gas in the tank was almost
gone so I didn’t have to worry about poor quality of 4-year-old fuel
clogging my Webber two-barrel carburetor. After arriving home on
Saturday evening we had driven 180 miles exactly and the gage showed it
was just under half full. Of course I forgot that the lower half of the
Gas gage held much less fuel than the upper half! LOL! Some gages are
just that way I guess! Anyway, come Tuesday after changing the oil and
taking it for a little test drive, I realized that the gage was only
showing the top edge of the “Red” warning level of fuel. SO, I headed
to Petro Canada to put a little gas in once again. I figured, what the
heck, it’s only a small tank so I might as well fill ‘er up! I topped
it right up and found it only took just under five gallons. Being an
old guy, I do things in gallons instead of liters and miles instead of
kms. When I got home, I whipped out the calculator and converted the
liters to gallons and the kms to miles so I’d know my fuel economy in
“Real” terms! LOL! I was surprised to find that even running on the old
oil for that drip to Dover we still were able to attain a jaw dropping
36MPG! WOW! I was thrilled! I figured that with all the high
performance parts I had installed in the engine when I rebuilt it a
number of years ago along with the large dual throated two-barrel
Webber carburetor I’d be lucky to get 20 to 25 MPG on a good run! I’m
happy to say the LBC proved me wrong! It’s nice to know that putting
high test in won’t be such a wallet drainer after all! I’m sure we’ll
have a nice full summer of topless driving in our “hobby” car!
I know that Doug and Sue enjoy their summer rides
and trips on their Harley but I found that when I used to drive my
bike, two-wheeled travel required so much more attention and strain on
the rider that I couldn’t relax as much and enjoy the ride as I can do
in a four-wheeled vehicle! I just need to be able to relax more to
enjoy our pleasure drives I guess than I could on a bike. No offence to
motorcycle riders, I guess I’d just rather be able to enjoy the scenery
more than I found I could on a bike! Cars seem to drive themselves half
the time and with bikes the rider has to concentrate more on every
little pebble on the road! That is not to say that I’m not paying
attention when behind the wheel of a car but you got to admit one can
relax more when not having to balance on only two wheels!
Guess that’s about all 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>
Life is simpler when you plough around the stumps!
****
Have a good one..
the doug
The Fine Print!
The articles in these issues are the sole property of the persons writing them and should be respected as such.
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