A Mystery Solved!
June 25, 2005
It was decided to try a little something new this year. Instead of a Run to Renfrew as in the past two years, the June Island Event was billed as a Mystery Tour. We gathered at our usual starting place at the CanWest mall in Langford but that’s where the similarity ended. Bob thought he and Lucy would be first on scene with the grey 1800 which most folks would recognize. But Jan and Rosina Nilsson arrived in their 91 740T from Nanaimo with plenty of time to spare and were one car length ahead at the mall entrance. Also from out of down, Monica and Henning Kristensen drove down from Duncan and Bill and Blanche Paitson all the way down from Nanaimo.
On the local Victoria scene, Peter and Paula Landsman and Mike and Joan Tomczak looked almost like bookends with a matching pair of yellow 1800 ESs. Roland and Lydia deSchepper brought the 1800E this year and left the (big) dog home while son Clifford brought his recently beautifully finished 66 122S - the first one I had seen with an automatic! Maureen Mitchel deigned to let Bob drive her pristine blue 85 240. Bob Rolands was solo in his 87 740GLE as was Gordon Murray in his 68 123GT. In the heavily modified class, Rob Thornton was driving (piloting) and Kathy was navigating the “248” (a 240 with a Ford (Fjord?) 5.0 litre stuffed under the hood.
After a short driver and navigator meeting stressing safety, speed limits and not bunching up, host Bob handed out the route instructions and sealed panic envelopes. The envelopes, with the name and location of the final destination in case anyone got lost, had to be turned in still sealed at the end of the run or that team would be assessed and 100 point penalty. As there was no other scoring or prizes the only real penalty would be having to admit getting lost in the first place!
At 10:30 or so they were off. Bob phoned ahead to the destination restaurant with the numbers expected for lunch (assuming no one would be so hopelessly lost they would not find it) and Bob and Lucy were the last to depart so people wouldn’t be tempted to just follow the organizers. The route was a good mix of slow twisty turny, a bit of highway, some nice 60 KPH back country roads with nice views. The first interesting stretch was the Finlayson Arm Road, a rather twisting turning up and down little piece. And in some places as you crest a hill and can't see where the road turns to, it is also only one lane wide. But everyone had paid attention at the pre-start briefing and got through quite safely. After a bit of Malahat Highway the rest of the route consisted of sedate (read 60 KPH) country roads with lots of relaxing scenery. There were also a couple of curious signs at the approaches to the one lane bridges where traffic in both directions had to yield to oncoming traffic. Knowing some island drivers one could easily imagine the traffic jam with cars waiting for days lined up at each end of the bleeping bridge!
But to the organizers great satisfaction everyone arrived safely at the Riverside Hotel in Lake Cowichan with all Panic Envelopes intact! Inside, tables for 24 waiting in the Cedar Moon Restaurant. Also waiting inside were Bryan and Aude Volstad from Duncan/Maple Bay. The only missing entry were Hugh and Jenny MacLeod from Gabriola who had phoned in a few days earlier with regrets due to a balky overdrive. It must be a Volvo crowd thing, but it seemed no one wanted lunch to end. Good food, good conversations, meeting new people and renewing old acquaintances and the next thing we knew it was two hours later. The drive home straight down the Trans Canada Highway and the Malahat was very anti-climactic and almost boring. We reflected on the fun we had had on the drive up and before you knew it, home was just around the corner again. Hmmmm…. what can we do next year to equal or top this one? That might take some doing.