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
****
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
****
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!
****
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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