NWRG Meet in Redmond, OR - Day 10 & Epilogue

Day 10, Fortuna, CA to Home, 297 miles; All are anxious to be home.  Our little band of 5 cars departed Fortuna shortly before 7:00AM and headed south.  We went hard, did not even stop for lunch and were home at 1:10PM.  Credit to the A's, no mechanical glitches today, just get me to the barn.  Amazing how the traffic changed from being the only cars on a two lane road to heavy traffic on four lane road from Santa Rosa on.  Where are all those people going on a Sunday morning?  Our group split at San Rafael, 4 cars taking 580/880 on the other side of the bay.  For us, Golden Gate was a welcome sight.

Ninteenth Ave was a bear, where are all these people going, shouldn't they be in church or something? Once we got to 280, traffic eased and we barreled on south.  Home at 1:10.  Rest of the folks had a little farther to travel than us and encountered a traffic accident which was a major delay.   Anyway, all home now.  

The end of a good trip, time to change the oil and get all the dirt off the faithful A.

EPILOGUE:  We drove 2054 miles and used 95.6 gallons of gas, which works out to 21.5 mpg, $377 worth of gasoline.  Lowest cost gas was $3.19 in Eugene, highest cost gas was $5.99 in Fortuna.  

The Model A's did well, most breakdowns were minor and quickly fixed and occurred in the first couple days. We mostly traveled at 50 to 55 mph, occasionally 60 mph.

You know these Model A's are unique, what other antique cars are being driven at the speeds we do for the distances we cover?  Not Chevies, not Buicks, not Packards, not Dodges.  We have a good thing going, keep on truckin' and see you on the next tour.     bob m

NWRG Meet in Redmond, OR - Day 8 & 9

  Day 8, Redmond. OR to Florence, OR, 256 miles;  Today was just a dash across the Cascades and the Willamette Valley to Florence, OR with a lunch stop with Mike Camicia in Pleasant Hill.  Started with Fifty plus miles of heavy fog leaving Redmond. Pat wants a windshield wiper on her side.

Finally broke out to sunshine.  Did I mention they have a lot of trees in Oregon?

And pressed on to the coast.   Before we quit for the day, had to go to the Oregon Dunes.  These dunes are high.  Ever try to climb in loose sand?

Worth it though,,,,,

End of Day 8,  not many pictures.

Say 9, Florence, OR to Fortuna, CA, 295 miles.  Day started overcast and misting, finally gave way to blue skies. Did I mention they have a lot of trees in Oregon?

Also, have a great rugged coast,,

Salmon are running in the Rogue River,,,, lots of fishing boats.

Going thru Bandon, folks thought we were part of the Cranberry Festival Parade,  fortunately, we escaped.  But we did discover that Goldilocks and the three bears have been kidnapped and are in western Oregon!

Also, Paul and Babe are alive and well here as well.  And have lived here for at least 30 years.

That's it, tomorrow the mad dash for home for our little pack of 5 Model A's,,,   ZZZZZ,,,,,

NWRG Meet in Redmond, OR - Day 7

 Day 7, Fourth Day of NWRG Tour in Redmond area. 73 miles.  Today, beautiful blue skies with some puffy white clouds, visibility unlimited.  We were off to the Erickson Air Museum in Madras.  This museum has quite a collection and is a warbird restoration shop to boot.  Just a couple pictures,,,

And I learned to fly in a Cub like this one,,,,

On the way back, stopped at the Crooked River Gorge bridge, which is used for bungee jumping.  Notice the three sisters peaks in the background.

One pic of the beautiful sky we had today.

Finished the day with a banquet, don't ask about that.   Tomorrow, heading for home.

Oh a fatal breakdown by Ford Ave. and home on a trailer. The members Dianna and Jack Richard are fine. 

Their car seems to have thrown a rod!

NWRG Meet in Redmond, OR - Day 6

Day 6, Third Day of NWRG Tour in Redmond area. 116 miles.  RAIN!!!  Today was the Grand Tour, all cars going to the same place.  All lined up and ready to go... Lee wiping off his car.

We got a police escort in Redmond and Prineville,,,,

Drove past the home of Les Schwab Tires, big factory, lots of trucks.

  We drove east thru a lot of pretty cattle country, lots of irrigated pasture and sprinklers going even in the rain, probably too much trouble to turn them off and on. We then followed the crooked river valley thru rugged country, lots of mesas, Reminded me of NM.

Major photo op in the rain at Prineville Reservoir, 46 cars, I think.  We discovered we need to pack a larger umbrella.  We had a local TV station and a local newspaper with us.

Back thru an area of big horse ranches, an enormous equestrian center and huge estates (fugitives from CA???) to Redmond for a BBQ lunch.  So dumbfounded, forget to take a pic.

In the afternoon, went to Bauer Electronics.  This company makes wiring looms for Fords from 1909 to 1972.  They are a major supplier to Langs, Snyders, Brattons and more.  

In the wire room,,,,

They make all their own wire, and terminals and plastic and rubber parts,,   amazing , this is the weaving room, full of machines making cloth covered wire.

Making yellow with black,,,

Also, machines to make woven covering on wire bundles, metal weaving sheathes, and taping machines, fascinating.  Thousands of drawings of wire looms.  This was the taping machine for later Ford looms.

Fascinating, keeping track of literally thousands of individual wiring looms.  Huge storage area with bins for each car and each loom.   Great finish for our touring day.  And the rain left us with blue skies and clear air, silver lining, ehhh?

NWRG Meet in Redmond, OR - Day 5

 

Day 5, Second Day of NWRG Tour in Redmond area. 138 miles.  Smoky this morning, ash on the cars.  We are touring anyway. As it turned out our tour took us out of the smoke for the day and smoke was much less when we got back in the afternoon.  Our destination today was the Newberry Caldera, an ancient volcano.  

As we entered Newberry, we climbed up above the smoke layer, wonderful!  Enjoyed the cool fresh air and Paulina waterfall.

Actually spent some time searching for the cabin we stayed in 45 years ago, but all is changed.  Pat found a bear friend.

Had a great lunch at the little cafe at East Paulina Lake,,,, Table with a view,  loved it.

Berry cobbler ala mode,,,

These cycles were in the parking lot, just came in from the back country,  just how much stuff can you carry on a dirt bike?

Then off to explore the 1300 year old obsidian lava flow.  Huge chunks of black glass embedded in the flow.

The flow spread over about a half mile, there was a trail up thru it, tough walking, lost a little skin on one of the rocks.

This evening, Hubley races,,,,,

Our entries,,,,

Don't know the results yet.  

Pat's sign for the day,,, "Don't pass snowplows on the right.",   Now who would do such a thing, but I guess if you did, keep your window closed.

NWRG Meet in Redmond, OR - Day 4

Day 4, First Day of NWRG Tour in Redmond area. 61 miles.  We (SCVC) opted for a shorter tour today to start the week, Tumalo & Cline Falls.  

After a kickoff drivers meeting, we headed out. I might mention, all the tours except the Grand Tour are self guided.  So, anyway after traveling about a mile, we find our tour book route is closed for repaving.  Plugging our destination into our phones just kept looping us back into the construction zone.  Last resort, a paper map gave us a way around, although by this time, our little group was completely scattered.  Anyway, we finally regrouped at Schillings Garden Market, and had some refreshments.

Next stop was Tumalo for a food truck lunch at the Bite, which is a novel idea, Big pavilion/picnic area with half a dozen food trailers.

Across the street was the Tumalo Cider Co.  

Some folks did tasting..... I opted for a can of plain old non-flavored apple.  The guy had a machine to seal the can on the spot,  clever.

After being lost again for what seemed like an eternity, made the stop at Cline Falls.  Took a bit of hiking, but a very pretty spot on the Deshutes River.  I suspect it is really spectacular in the Spring.

Couple interesting sights along the way,,,, a Model A 2 cylinder air compressor...

And a little roadside engine, unfortunately, the for sale sign did not apply to the engine, Patti was glad about that, but wouldn't it be fun to make something like that run?

Seems like every time we visit Oregon, the place is on fire.  It was pretty smoky by days end, and they are calling it unhealthy to hazardous.  Drat!!  This is how many fires are burning, the red areas are fire zones, the green triangles are commercial air liners. Beginning to wonder how this is going to affect the scheduled tours.  Throats are getting scratchy.

With multiple self guided tours to choose from each day, and only 65 cars, we went all day and only saw 2 other cars.  Taking a longer tour tomorrow, we will see.

NWRG Meet in Redmond, OR - Day 3

 Day 3,  Florence, OR to Redmond, OR, 191 miles.   Today we went looking for breakfast in Florence.  This little cafe was the only one open in town, and it was SRO with a line.   I believe this guy could be open on Sunday mornings and take the rest of the week off.

Leaving the Hen, first three cars missed the turn to Redmond which put me in the lead for the rest of the morning as we cruised up the lower McKenzie River canyon.  Arriving in Eugene, we split off from the group to go visit several of my cousins.  Annie's significant other is a custom car builder (retired).  So this final project is in his garage and for sale.

This wall was a gallery of cars he has either built or restored.  Notice the vintage racers.  Outstanding.

Nice lunch for us wayward travelers, and off we go. This time in the upper McKenzie River Canyon.  Look at this fine example of a covered bridge that  we just had to turn off and drive through.

Lots more salmon fishermen again today,,,,  and lots of trees, lava and smoke.  We kept getting notices on google maps that our road was closed,  but,,, fortunately, the closure was lifted just before we got there.  Straggled into Redmond about 4:00pm, tickling with vapor lock at every stoplight, 90 degrees outside, 3000 elevation not so high, but the density altitude has to be 7 or 8000 feet,  idle is crappy, also.   Lower temps tomorrow, stay tuned.

We lost one member in Eugene, Bill Cilker. He went to visit his daughter and grand children in Eugene. But we did pick up another Model A member in Redmond, Jack and Dianna Richard!