Sunday, June 17 2012, Day 1

We got a fairly reasonable start today at 9:30 am. Our goal was about 400 miles away: Carbondale, CO to visit Nance's brother-in-law and his family. Packing a Healey for a long trip like this one (3 weeks or so) is quite a challenge. We have learned one trick: no suitcases or hard luggage. We stuff everything into small handbags and duffles. This way, every nook and cranny of the car gets filled. This is what the trunk now looks like.   Pretty messy, but there is a lot of stuff in there.  The area behind the seats looks pretty much the same.

How do we bring enough for three weeks of travel?  Well, we plan on doing laundry often and minimize what we bring.  We don't bring a lot of tools or spare parts either.  If we need anything, we can usually find it on the road or FedEx it to our hotel.

Today's trip was familiar but still beautiful.  It included the long clumb up the arable San Luis valley to Poncha Springs.  Nance drove most of this section, enjoying the blocks I recently put on the pedals to compensate for her short legs.  This valley is bordered by many 14000 ft peaks.  There was smoke and dust today, with very high winds around Alamosa.  The trip's climax was the amazing run up through Independence Pass.  This road is only opened in summer.  It is steep, winding, and beautiful.  It tops out over 12,000 ft, one of the highest roads in the country.  The Healey managed the climb rather well, keeping ahead of most traffic. 

Downhill was less fun and the Healey's brakes don't inspire confidence.  A few spots west of the pass are very narrow, not quite wide enough fit two cars.

Nance's shirt-tail relatives, John and Katherine Buchanan's and her brother in law Rob Chamberlain, graciously hosted us in Carbondale west of Aspen.  The Buchanan family has a beautiful home right next to the Roaring Fork River.  We had a great evening and they fed us very well.  It was great to see them and their friendly dogs (I wonder what our dogs and cats are doing at home -- no doubt they have figured out we are gone!).  We slept in their very comfortable guest bedroom after this very long first day on the road.
The Healey kept in the background on this leg.  She ran beautifully, never got over 180F, and enjoyed running up and down those mountains.  The only problem is a failed speedometer.  It was acting up before the trip, I think the cable has snapped.  We have a GPS that gives us speed and distance, so we don't miss the speedo. No wheels have fallen off -- yet.

Tomorrow, another 400 mile day hopefully ending in Pinedale, WY, on the southern end of Grand Teton National Park.    

Day 2: Up to Utah and Wyoming

Things were so comfortable at the Buchanan's that an early start was out of the question.  After enjoying more of their company and fine food, we didn't get on the road until 10 AM.  That would make 400 miles a tough goal, but the Healey was running well.  Off we went, starting West to Glenwood Springs.  Traffic and civilization are heavy here, but it could not hide the beautiful canyon that cradles this town.

We finally got on I-70 for a short ride to Rifle.  We headed north on CO 13 after filling up with some $3.99 per gallon gas -- the most expensive so far on this trip.  I expect this record will be broken later.

CO 13 left the congestion of the interstate system quickly.  We moved toward Meeker where we joined CO 64, heading west along the White River.  This area looked more like New Mexico, with splashs of red rock and sandstone.  Below and mostly visible was the green valley irrigated by the White River.  Traffic was minimal, this beautiful road is off most tourist agendas. 

Typical rock formation on US 40 near Dinosaur

We headed for Dinosaur, joining US 40 west.  This winding wonder skirted Dinosaur national Park with its towering rock formations.  We enjoyed learning the names of some of the geologic formations, identified by many easy to read signs on this route. 

Turning north on US 191 cranked up the scenery even more. This route had some incredibly long climbs that kept the Healey working. These climbs started at lower altitudes (around 3000 ft) so it was a bit hotter. I feared vapor lock, but it never really slowed us down. We managed to even pass a few turtleing RV's on these long hills.

The best part of the day was the drive across the Flaming Gorge dam, built in 1962. This beautiful lake and dam on the Green River is something to behold.   The route north on 191 to Pineview continued to amaze.  We encountered another bout of very high winds that buffetted the Healey.  Suddendly, the wind changed direction and the temperature dropped about 20 degrees.  No doubt, we had passed through a weather front.  But the skys were clear and the snow capped Grand Teton range was looming before us.   We stopped finally in Pineview and a very nice Best Western.  We now look forward to exploring Grand Teton and Yellowstone.

Bill gets down and dirty fixing the sway bar bushing

The Healey ran great today except for one glitch.  It developed a heavy rattle in the front end near the Flaming Gorge dam.  I thought it might be a loose shock and was concerned about it.  After a couple of inspections, I found the rubber bushing on the front sway bar had slipped out from under its clamp.  This was an easy fix, and no more rattle. 

The Very Grande Tetons

Our start from Pinedale brought a new feeling:  cold.  Out came the jackets.  It was a beautiful mostly clear day, but all that visible snow from the Tetons seemed to refrigerate the air.  For once I was keeping my hands low in the Healey seeking a bit of engine heat.  This was a refreshing and welcome change from the heat back in New Mexico. 

A small part of the Grand Tetons

The opening leg from Pinedale to Jackson was one beautiful road.  It was smooth and interesting as it approached those towering Tetons ahead.  In the plains, there were many antelope to be seen.  There were some major construction projects to separate cars and trucks from the deer, antelope, and elk.  This included building massive overpasses and underpasses across US 191. According to one flagperson, the antelope won't go through a tunnel but they find bridges OK.  Deer and elk are the opposite. 

The Hoback river joined us a few miles south of Jackson.  The ice blue and white rapids against the lush green meadows and grey mountains looked like a Coors commercial.  Jackson popped this vision with its heavy traffic and suburban development.  But the town retains a quaint, mountain rendezvous look, especially near the town square.  We went to the official Grand Teton visitor center in Jackson and armed ourselves with enough brochures and maps to fill those few remaining crevasses in the Healey.

The Grand Teton park is really too much to grasp in a month, but we did what we could for one day.  We soaked in the views of the fabulous mountains and plains.  We stopped at the first major attraction, Jenny Lake.  The parking lot was packed, but we did manage to find a space.  Walking down to the lake led us to a small ferry.  We took it and ended up on a hiking trail to Hidden Water Fall and  Inspiration Point.  The climb to the latter was a bit much for us -- but the Hidden Water Fall was truly amazing.  The noise and amplitude of this water feature was quite a treat.  There was talk of a bear who was enjoying the trail with us.  We did not see the bear, but Nance managed to get face to face with a friendly marmot. 

Returning on the ferry, I realized I was starved and there was no food at this end of Jenny Lake.  We proceeded north to a fancy lodge at the north end of Jenny Lake -- they weren't serving for several hours and the dinner was $80 each.  We continued north to the huge Jackson Lake area.  The Signal Mountain lodge had a great cafe and we filled up with a mid afternoon meal.  We made some calls to various inns and lodges nearby and found that all were either fully booked or outrageously expensive.  The day was vanishing before us, so we decided seek lodging back in Jackson.  It too was rather full, but we did manage to find a room at Super 8.  We spent our last hours at Grand Teton driving up Signal Mountain for a view of the Snake River to the east.  A stop at the southern entrance visitor center did not disapppoint.  This center has fabulous architecture and lots of facts about the mountains inside.

We ended our day exhausted and ready to rest for the next adventure.  This time up north to Yellowstone.

The Healey?  I don't want to jinx her, but she has been just wonderful.  No problems and lots of compliments.  Who wouldn't want a woman like that?  Today was easy, only about 150 miles.  But she seems to run better every day.

Friday June 22 in Billings, MT

Friends:


Just a short note to let you know that all is well on this end.  We spent Wednesday and part of Thursday driving through Yellowstone.  We ended up staying Wednesday night in West Yellowstone at the very comfortable White Buffalo Inn.  Not fancy, but clean and much cheaper than the going rate of $200 in West Yellowstone.  And it did have a few rooms available.  We booked it on the internet from Jackson.

These pre-war White buses are street rods:  they run on modern
Ford truck chasses.  They are very well done.

Yellowstone was fabulous.  We enjoyed Old Faithful and the usual tourist gawks at buffalo, elk, and deer.  No bears yet.  The damage from fires is pretty evident, but this is still one of the prettiest places in the country.  Lots of geothermal activity, if only we could capture that energy!  Yes, it is sort of like Disneyland, but the park is huge and handles its crowds fairly well.  Don't miss it.

The Healey is doing great and took us easily to Billings and the first day of touring here.  We went to the site of Custer's Last Stand on the Little Big Horn.  I was impressed with the quality of the presentation here.  Very respectful and special.  I felt badly for the Indians, but I guess we took their land fair and square.  How could you stop the crush of such a sophisticated civilization and should you?



Just a few of the tour cars.  They came from all over the country

We have taken many pictures.  I will try to get some of them integrated into these posts when I get the chance.  It has been hard to find the time to write this blog, our days are pretty full and getting fuller.  So posting will probably continue to be irregular.

I found a couple of broken spokes today on our right front wheel.  I will probably just deploy the spare and see how that works.  I did bring a few spare spokes, so I can replace the bad ones later.  Not all that easy, I need to remove the tire to do that. 

Miss you all!

Bill and Nance.

Sunday June 24 in Bozeman, MT

A few of the old cars driving the Beartooth Challenge

We started today with the VMCCA tour "Beartooth Challenge".  This consisted of a loop into the NE corner of Yellowstone on the famous Chief Joseph and Beartooth scenic highways.  This road is oft cited as one of the most beautiful in America.

We did not take the complete Beartooth Challenge.  It made more sense for us to break off the tour and proceed west through upper Yellowstone and head for Bozemen.  This put us a bit closer to our next destination in Vancouver, BC.  We did take the southern end of the Beartooth Challenge on the Chief Joseph Scenic Highway.  This beauty of a road climbed intensely into the Beartooth mountains.  The Healey managed it well, but a few of the old cars had various problems with vapor lock.  This leg ended at a great lunch at a small restaurant called The Outpost.  We were served a tasty spaghetti dinner and salad.

This MGB was the only other British car on tour

We did miss the spectacular climb into the high country snow drifts that are part of the upper Beartooth highway.  We'll never know how the Healey would have handled this.  So, it remains on our to-do list for our next trip to Yellowstone.

As we crossed upper Yellowstone towards Bozemen, we finally saw a bear.  Or we think it was a bear.  It was quite a ways from the road, big ball of brown furry material.  It did not stand up and roar or wave at us.  But everyone was pointing at it, so it must have been a bear.

The Healey is still doing well.  We are riding on the spare since the two spokes broke on the original  RF wheel.  I will need to stop at Home Despot to get a tool to dismount the tire and fix those broken spokes (we do carry spare spokes).

We really enjoyed the VMCCA tour.  It was well planned and many of our friends were there.  Billings is a great destination, it is clear that we only scratched the surface of this area.

Bill called Tom and Joyce Carne who now live in Bozeman.  We met them for dessert and had a great time enjoying their company.  They have a lovely home on a golf course.  We were impressed with them and Bozeman.

Bill and Nance.

Wednesday, June 27 in Parksville, BC

We made it!

The Healey continued to perform well for our last two days of driving from Bozeman, MT to Parksville, BC -- total distance is about 900 miles.

Our trip west from Bozeman was almost entirely on I-90.  This kept our average speeds high.  Our first day ended at 458 miles in the small aggie town of Ritzville, WA.  We passed through Montana, Idaho, and Washington on the way.

Western Montana reminded us a lot of New Mexico, though definitely greener and wetter.  The forests here look a lot better than in NM, Colorado and Wyoming where beetles and fire have taken their toll.

Nance poses on the dock at Coeur d'Alene

We had a pleasant break at a ritzy Italian restaurant on the lakeshore in Coeur d'Alene, ID.  This resort town was downright festive, packed with scantily clad young and old people finding fun on the beach.  I remembered staying here in the 70's to work on a Navy project.  Don't remember it being so touristy, but life was more serious then.

After enduring a slow drive through industrial Spokane, WA we finally ran out of steam in Ritzville.  There we found a clean and comfortable Best Western and crashed early. 

We awoke to a steady, Northwestern drizzle.  We prepared the Healey for water travel.  Bailing buckets, dry towels, rags and side curtains were deployed.  We needed them all.  The windows fogged up constantly.  The wipers feebly wiped and the passenger wiper shredded in a few miles. We amputated its remains.  We could see just enough to stay on the road not be run over by semi trucks.  We finally left I-90 and turned NW through the Wenatchee National Forest and the Cascade mountains. This was a scenic shortcut to Everett, WA -- missing the hubub of Seattle.  The rain was easier to handle on this beautiful road.  It almost snowed at the highest elevations and heat was not a problem. The rains finally declined but we stuck with the side curtains.  It was quite chilly at the higher elevations.

The scenic driving ended when we hit I-5 N but the scenery continued. We moved quickly into Canada, losing a little time at the border to get our passports out of the boot (wrong again, I didn't think they were needed to enter Canada, only to leave).

Healey rests in the lower ferry deck while we enjoy the scenery

We hit Vancouver at rush hour, and began the torture of driving an old car in heavy traffic. But we endured and made it to Horseshoe Bay north of Vancouver in time to make the 7:20 PM ferry.  It worked perfectly, the lighting and weather was ideal for our hour and half journey to Nanaimo on Vancouver Island.  We had a relaxed dinner in the ship's cafeteria.

We found our friend Judie Gardiner's beautiful condo overlooking the ocean.  Judie is the widow of a classmate of mine from CalTech.  Amazingly, her place is right next to the Healey Rendezvous 2012 hotel in Parksville, BC.

The ferry is big, holds three decks of cars and lots of people

I have tried to ad some pictures to this posting and some of the earlier ones.  I will be off the air for a day or two while we enjoy the Rendezvous.....

June 28-July 1 Viva Vancouver!

We awoke late on Wednesday to discover that our friend Judie's townhome has a spectacular view overlooking one of the few beaches on Vancouver Island.  At low tide, Nance and Judie took walks on the wet sand. Nance's feet have been hurting on this trip, and the beach walks helped. 

Judie's hospitality was just wonderful.  She gave us great food, shared her friendly foxy dog Kitzu, and was a tourguide.  Her son and wife came Saturday and we really enjoyed their company too.

The amazing coincidence of this trip is that the 2012 Healey Rendezvous was centered at the Tigh na Mara resort in Parksville.  OK, being in Parksville where Judie lives is coincidence enough -- but the the Tigh na Mara resort is only 100 yards from her home.  So, we could easily take a short walk along the beach and mingle with either old friends or old Healey friends.  The other Sullivans from Belen and Bill Lawrence from Albuquerque were also staying at the Tigh na Mara.  There were about 60 Healeys on hand from all around Canada and the States.

On Thursday we toured with the Healeys in the rain (yes, it does rain here -- a lot.  Our side curtains, pitiful wiper and towels got lots of use on this trip).  We drove north to Comox, home of a Canadian Air Force aircraft museum.  We learned about famous Canadian milirary aircraft like the Argus, Buffalo, and Canuck.  They have a project to restore a WWII Spitfire to flying condition.  The airframe looks great but has a ways to go.  Beautiful work, with aluminum formed by hand using an English Wheel.

Judie, enjoying her own tour of Parksville

Judie came with us to the banquet on Thursday night.  The food and fellowship was all outstanding.  We particularly enjoyed dining with a couple from Alberta who won an award for their beautiful Nash Healey.

Our Healey friends left on Friday but Nance and I stayed to visit with Judie and go on down to Victoria for Canada Day. 

Judie took us on tour of highlights around Parksville on Friday.  Shopping at a mini mallwith a grass roof inhabited and trimmed by goats was unusual.  This was followed by a walk through a rain forest.  Although it was raining at the time, most of the rain was intercepted by a canopy created by the enormous Douglas fir and Cedar trees in this forest.  The oldest trees in here are 800 years old.  It was an amazing experience, with a little mud thrown in to cool off our feet.


Cedar trunk, big enough for two

After a great evening talking to Judie and her family, we packed up the Healey on Saturday and went south to Victoria.  We were able to get a reservation on-line at the old Huntindon Hotel in downtown Victoria.  It is walking distance from the downtown marina and Parliment building.  Great location and very comfortable.  There were many festivities downtown preparing for Canada Day on Sunday.  We enjoyed live music and a street fair. 

It was hard to leave this celebration, but Nance wanted to go north to Butchart Gardens.  We left Sunday AM for Butchart, about a 45 minute drive toward Sidney to the north. 

I can't imagine adding to all the superlatives that have been written about Butchart Gardens. It is simply an international treasure.  You don't need to be a gardiner to appreciate it. It is just plain beautiful and beautifully done.  Don't miss it.

Our legs were starting to give out and we reluctantly left to catch the ferry from Sidney to Anacourtes, WA, ending our foray into British Columbia.  It was a long ferry ride through the San Juan Islands.  It included a stop at Friday Harbor and cruises past Orcas Island and a host of others.  It was nearly dark when we finally disembarked and dragged ourselves to a very comfortable Holiday Inn Express on WA Route 20.  Our next adventure would be a long drive through the Cascade Mountains looming before us.


Marina at Victoria, facing the Empress Hotel.

I have not mentioned the Healey.  Let me say she has been wonderful!  She is running well and feels mighty comfortable.  I have added a quart of oil or two, but all is well and we are half way there.  I hope this continues, it is still a long way from Albuquerque.

July 4 Green River, UT

Three days have passed since our last posting.  Today the heat forced us to quit at a reasonable hour, so there is time to write a few lines.

No shortage of snow and switchbacks on WA 20

Our trip through the Cascades on WA 20 was one of the best segments of this tour.  This road winds and climbs along the Skagit river for miles.  Beautiful views pass before you augmented with many well placed turnouts.  Not much traffic here, just the occasional RV.  Wonderful.

I enjoyed seeing the power plant at Newhalem.  This hydro plant was built next to the Skagit and fueled with a man-made tunnel providing pressurized water from miles upstream.  What's amazing is the tunnel was built in 1924 --- after years of haggling to obtain rights and money (mostly from the government) to build it.   More dams were added into the 60's.  We took a short hike to see one - the Gorge Dam.  This dam provided many engineering challenges and feeds the intakes for the Newhalem powerplant.  Great quote on one sign:  "A dam draws a line across a river.  The line between development and preservation is much more difficult to draw."  Washington used to not have a river it didn't plan on damming.  That has changed and some dams have been removed to help the Salmon and other impacted causes. 

We continued our trek up the Skagit, enjoying countless waterfalls crashing hundreds of feet into gorges.  No wonder these are called the Cascades.  After miles of climbs we ended up with very cold weather and icy snowdrifts along the shoulder. 

Healey poses in front of Grand Coulee Dam

Heading down, down down toward the east put us by the famous Grand Coulee dam on the Columbia.  We got there just in time to take a few pictures.  It is in incredible structure, and all the spillways were flowing vigorously.  Rainfall is well above normal here this year.  

We pushed on a bit further to Spokane, finding a comfortable La Quinta on the east side of town.

Grand Coulee is loud and lovely, just like Nance

Wednesday's travel was more mundane, we planned on sticking to interstates.  We needed to put a dent in the 1400 miles that remained between us and home.  We took I-90 east toward Missoula and Butte.  On the way, we did check out the Montana Car Museum in Deer Lodge, MT.  It was a very diverse collection, with about 120 cars from brass to muscle.  The car descriptions were well placed and excellent.  We learned this museum occupied the same buildings as former Towe collection.  The Towe museum was attached by the IRS and now resides in Sacramento.

This '50 Hudson, one of many in this museum

We headed south on I-15 from Butte, and planned to stay somewhere in Idaho.  This section of I-15 proved to be one of the most remote interstates I have ever seen.  It was easy to go a hundred miles without seeing a single gas station, motel, or cell phone tower.  It was very windy and the Healey was hard to handle.  For the first time on the trip, I felt a bit uncomfortable driving a 60 year old car -- a breakdown here would probably end up a sleep in:  surrounded by bears, antelope, and serial killers. The Healey did not pick up on these fears and kept humming along.  After a full 500 mile day we rolled into lovely Idaho Falls.  We had a great meal at the Sandpiper on the Snake River near the Idaho Falls and crashed for the evening.

July 4 was going to be a tough day for us.  From Idaho Falls South we would have endure the Salt Lake City complex of congestion.  And, it was rather warm, probably in the low 90's anyway.  We motored on, stopping often for water, ice, and snacks.  The traffic was mild due to the holiday.  But I-15 has lots of major reconstruction going on in south Salt Lake City and Provo.  We kept moving, but the lanes were full, narrow and often bumpy.  We were finally relieved to turn southeast on US 6 through the mountains east of Salt Lake City.  This climb to over 6000 ft did cool us off a bit. Smoke from several visible western slope fires even blocked the sun at times. In spite of many roads closed for fire, traffic was very light on this route and we sped onward to Green River.  As we descended into the river valley, it got rather warm.  We we were ready to quit after driving only 400 miles.  We stayed at the very comfortable and well maintained River Terrace Inn, right on the Green river.  We enjoyed the town's generous fireworks production from the hotel.

Tomorrow:  with good luck and a little time, Albuquerque!

 

July 5 - Epiblog

Today we drove 400 miles from Green River to Albuquerque:  via Durango and Bloomfield.  We have made this trip many times so I will not dwell on the details.

The best news was some sort of weather front came through Green River in the early morning.  It was much cooler and there was rain in the area.  We enjoyed thunderstorms and cool weather all the way home.  This day was expected to be a scorcher, but it was not the case.  The desert seemed to soak up all the rain instantly, it has been a very dry summer in this area.  We saw no fires, thank you rain.  Did we bring this from British Columbia? 

I must make a few comments about the Healey.  She continued to run perfectly, now many miles and days into this trip.  One of the few failures was the speedometer:  it quit 1.5 miles into this trip.  I thought I had fixed the cable but apparently did not.  The total Google distance I came up with was 4225 miles, give or take a few.  That makes this one of our longest Healey trips, about the same distance as our trek to Vermont several years ago.

Problems were few, but here they are:  I bought new tires just before the trip. I had a bit of trouble finding the right size tire and ended up with some Chinese tires (NanKing brand) that looked good and were reasonably priced.  I was not impressed.  The tires were squirrly on grooved pavement and also wandered on the many semi-truck wear tracks we encountered on this trip.  They handled these longitudinal features like bias ply tires.  I could see some wear on the outer edges of the front tires after a couple thousand miles. They were very smooth at speed, I give them credit for that.  I don't think they will be staying on the car for long.

The condition of our interstate highways is pretty bad, we hit many rough patches throughout this trip. We broke two spokes in Billings and I switched to our spare.  I have not inspected the car, but I'll bet I will find a few more broken spokes.  The secondary roads, which we prefer to use, were in better shape.  Still, we had to be careful to avoid potholes and bumps with our low clearance Healey.  The steering and shocks felt a bit looser than when we started.

Our hottest weather was in th low 90's.  The Healey rarely ran over 190F, most of the time it was under 180.  She did act funky on every hot start.  The engine would fire quickly but then barely keep running as gas fed into the carburetors boiled.  Keeping the revs up would usually keep it running and it would clear it up quickly.  The air and gas entering the carburetors would eventually cooled them and the engine smoothed.  At lower altitude the Healey has a lot more power, quite a pleasure.   I detuned this car on the last rebuild.  It has less power than it used to, but it is still lively and now runs on regular gas without pinging.  We got 18-20 mpg most of the trip.

We used 6 quarts of oil, or about 1 quart/700 miles.  I think most of this is leaked out the rear of the engine.

For the first trip in a long time, the overdrive worked throughout.  We used the OD constantly, we drove most of the time at 2800 RPM, corresponding to 65 mph.

The door latches have both gotten rather loose, the doors have been opened and closed so many times. 

The side curtains were great, we had a couple of driving days with them on all day.  Fogging of the windows is a problem, we kept rags and wiped, wiped, and wiped again.  Healey leaks water in as always.

Nance drove a couple hundred miles this trip.  I put blocks on the pedals that helped her reach them.   They helped a lot and I got used to having them there.  I will leave them in place.  The seat is still a bit low for Nance.  She can't see over the bonnet easily and if we use more pillows her legs can't get under the steering wheel.  The Healey is small but not really designed for short people.

No wheels fell off, we were delighted with that.  Hail to the Healey!!!

See you down the road,
Bill.