LONG BEACH - Day 3 - 9/21/2025

 Cottage Grove to Long Beach, WA, 213 miles.  Awoke to a light rain, got moving before the moss started growing on us. We took Interstate 5 north towards Portland and then cut to the coast on OR26.  Rained for the first 125 miles, we just tucked in behind a travel trailer and cruised along at 55.  As we skirted the fringes of Portland, the traffic was incredibly heavy all directions, where are all these people going on a Sunday morning?  

Decisions, decisions, turn the wipers on or let the flat windshield disperse the water?

Broke out of the rain on route 26, bumpy rock and roll road to Astoria.  Went thru another cute little tunnel.

Lots of hidden away farms on rt 26.  In Astoria, saw this huge cruise ship,,, never catch me on one of those, obviously top heavy....

Over the Ilwaco Bridge over the Columbia River, that is one high arched bridge,,,,,

Like going down a roller coaster on the far side.

Arrived in Long Beach, got our tour book and settled in for the week.  We are very close to the entrance to the beach,,,

And quite a beach it is,,,   very broad, hard packed once you reach the high tide line,  cars everywhere driving up and down, lots of kites.  We made it a point to go back at sunset,,,,

Got to be a little careful, we sat and watched a van get stuck, when the driver goosed it, spun the front wheel drive and sunk in.  Anyway, very nice end to the day.

Pat's favorite sign for the day, SWEET CRON FOR SALE!

LONG BEACH - Day 2 - 9/20/2025

 Fortuna, CA to Cottage Grove, OR, 317 miles. Traveling up the coast on 101,  remember the Golden Bear Bridge?

Lots more big redwoods,,,,

And back to the coast,,,,

A brush with disaster, climbing up away from the coast, Will Lancasters A just quit on a blind curve with lots of traffic stacked up behind!!!! Talk about the worst possible place.

Some quick thinking, and some luck, Will managed to get off the road to the left without getting clobbered by using the starter to move the car.   Whew!  Luckily downhill traffic was not going too fast to stop.  Turned out the headlights had shorted out and blew the fuse, no more headlights and on we went.

Cool tunnel in the Smith River Canyon,,, by the way, we have a Smith on our tour, no relation, I guess.

Welcome to Oregon!!!

Made this little out of the way station's day,,,,   You know every station still has an attendant here in Oregon, lots of young girls doing that task.

I might mention that highway 101 was closed south of Coos Bay today, requiring an 80 mile plus detour making a 370 mile day for our pack which went to Florence, OR.  Pat and I splintered off at 317 miles (over my personal limit) and stayed in Cottage Grove.  And we had dinner with Mike and Nadine Camicia who live about 10 minutes from Cottage Grove.

LONG BEACH - Day 1 - 9/19/2025

Day 1: Los Altos to Fortuna, CA, 311 miles.   Off to state of WA for a Model A hub tour.  We have 8 Model A's, 1 modern, 14 people pointing north.   

Only way to go is thru the city, 19th ave is a bumpy overloaded mess.

Golden Gate was not too bad in northbound direction,,,

From the north side, overcast day in the bay, but still pretty,,,

Out of the bay area, 101 north, good day for the A's, no problems. 

Had to make a stop at the drive thru tree,,,

And take drive on the Ave of the giants,,,

Fourteen for dinner at the Eel River Brewery and to bed, drizzling rain now.

ALBERTA T TOUR - 2025 - Days 10-13 The Long Road Home

 This is the part where you are ready to be home and you have over a thousand miles to go.  Just gonna throw up a bunch of pictures. Click on any one for a larger version.

Home at last, 2861 miles on the trusty Bronco, one tough machine, basically flat out most of the time towing that trailer.  Only 300 miles on the T in Alberta, half of that in the rain.  time to sit back and relax........

ALBERTA T TOUR - 2025 - Day 9 - Buffalo Lake

75 miles today roundtrip. 

Headed for the countryside again,  canola was especially bright this morning,,,

Stopped at local car collection for ice cream, after all, all food groups are found in an ice cream sandwich,,,

Our first Alberta dirt road, 8 miles of it.  

Put us on the shores of Buffalo Lake for lunch and a few car games.

Tonight was the final banquet.  Awards and all, Ed won for driving the farthest.

Little sidelight, as I was getting ready to load the T into the trailer, a couple clean-cut young men came by and wondered about a ride in a T, more specifically for a bride in their group.   Turns out they were Hutterites, a religion that lives in colonies, basically communal living.  They do not believe in personal property, everything belongs to the colony. There are 15000 Hutterites in Alberta, and 150 colonies. They farm, but not wheat or canola. They generally do eggs, hogs, and milk and are pretty prosperous, the group that we met were all young folk traveling to town in a brand new van. Anyway, I said fine, let's go.  I gave rides to the bride and half a dozen of the young girls, and three or four of the young men. They were all quite curious about Model T's, so as I was driving, Patti was talking Model T's. As we finished, I took out my cell phone to get a picture.  The young ladies all ducked for cover.  One young man noted that they don't take pictures, second commandment in the Bible, "Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image."  I offered to delete the picture, but the young man said,it was all right.  Incidentally, Hutterites have fought and won to not have their pictures on drivers licenses. anyway, here is my picture.  Nice group of young people.  And two of the guys helped me put the T in the trailer.

Well,that's it, packed to leave early tomorrow,  see you at home.

ALBERTA T TOUR - 2025 - Day 8 - Reynolds Museum

 Canada has these premier museums, each out there in a relatively small town.  Today was the Reynolds Museum in Wetaskiwin.  Don't ask me to pronounce that, typical name for Alberta.  95 miles one way,we made it in two hours, pretty much flat out in the T through that great Alberta farmland, on nice backroads, little traffic.  The countryside is this pretty green (wheat) and gold (canola) patchwork quilt, you can't capture it in a picture,it's too pretty.  Click on any picture for a larger version.

Love the way the canola looks like it is flowing around the power poles.  Here are a few of the things that caught myeye in the museum,,,

The above are things on display in the main museum, then we walked thru their warehouse where things not on display are, shades of Raiders of the lost ark.  Click on any picture for a larger version.

The picture on the right is a dissembled Model T undercarriage.

Long day, ran the T hard all day.  All good.  

Yesterday, we saw 5 white pelicans, here in the middle of Alberta!!  How is that possible?  Googled white pelicans and turns out they are migratory, and return to Alberta for summer nesting.  Before winter sets in, they migrate to southern U.S. and Mexico.  Amazing.  Also lots of gulls, slightly different bill markings from the CA gulls.