Canadian Road Trip 2: Georgian Bay!

After a sucessful road trip in July and a nice local car show (Geneva's Crusin Night 11) that somehow dodged the rain drops yet again, it was time to take a trip up to Georgian Bay to visit with CedarCoast again and to see a waterfront development named (coincidentally) Cedar Ridge.

Photos above show the "top of the block" position for Trixie and the Mini. The 82' 323i was the only one to make it (Pixie is still in back of my office awaiting resusitation). The crowd grew to over 6K by 7pm. Got a few compliments and lots of "that's not an E30, right? What is it?"

This road trip took place in early August and showed just how rusty I was travelling Toronto way with avoiding traffic and all that. The day started out at 80+ degrees F and went up from there. No A/c and only the wind to help cool me kept things interesting! All that stimulus money shows on the NYS Thruway, when you can actually drive on it. Soo mooth.. Full tank o gas (55 litres, please!) and a shot of the Grand Island Bridge north of Buffalo.

Got across the border and headed on the QEW towards Toronto and points north. I hit Toronto during the afternoon (bad idea!) and missed my exit, winding up on the Don Mills Pkwy. Anyone who knows this areas KNOWS not to use the Don Mills. Crap! A 2-1/2 hour crawl in HOT weather and then rain. Did I mention no a/c? Oh yeah, my defogger don't work so well, either. All part of the E21 charm! I got so bored with waiting I took a reflection shot of the E21 in a tractor's metal side panels.

I managed to get back to the 404 north and started making good time until a paving truck decided to catch fire and the monsoon downpour stopped everyone just south of Barrie. A 4 hour trip turned into a 7 hour one.

Next Post Part two: the arrival in Kilworthy (home to CedarCoast) and the visit to Cedar Ridge in Georgian Bay.

Road trips to Kingston and then Georgian Bay, Ontario...

I got a chance to meet up with my old friends at CedarCoast Homes and talk some shop and future ventures in the timber framing end of things. The first trip was an invite to an open house for a client of ours who built their new summer place north of Kingston. The last 2kms was on a narrow gravel road. Trixie is not made for off-roading but did just fine. I took this trip on July 11, there and back about 190miles each way.

No, this isn't my car. I spotted this guy on the NYS Thruway with a Scion covered in all sorts of stuff.

I got my "pink" ticket for the Thruway (toll machine broke). From there I drove over to Kingston, hooked up with my contact at Cedar Coast and we headed up to the lake house. The stone driveway was a 10mph, seemingly never-ending trip through the woods. The last shot is of the inside of the house. I spent a dinner there and headed back home. I forgot about really late night summer driving: bugs!!!! Holy crap, some of those things were as big as bats and waay too juicy. Lots of scrubbing the next day...

More on the next road trip to Georgian Bay on the next post.

Wow, life does go by fast!

My last post was months ago but if you've been following www.bimmerforums.com you'd see me there under midlifebmw in the 3 series section.

Lot's of things have been accomplished. Among them are: swapping the rear diff, again! Salvaging the remaining decent parts off of the red E21 before the final curtain call in the scrapper; Travelling up to Georgian Bay on a HOT August weekend; getting a chance to replace the water pump and clean up the front end of the engine bay, finally installing the TopDec rear strut brace and battery relocation kit, and making final plans for the new air intake kit.

Follow the next few posts for each item. I'll try to keep it in order....