2010 Rendezvous
June 27th Sunday. Carole and I decided to head down to Rendezvous a day early and stay over ½ way at the home of Phil and Beckie Daniels of the Cascade Club. We were to meet Michael De Wilde at the US Border and head down together.
We did not have an auspicious start to our trip. We were late getting away, and it was starting to sprinkle. We met Michael at the border, got out our Nexus cards and headed across the line. Unfortunately as the border guard said “Oops looks like the computer has selected you for a random compliance secondary inspection!” We pulled over to the secondary inspection area, got out our documents and went in. About 20 minutes later we were on our way again. The rest of the drive was uneventful. The weather cleared and it was easy driving. About an hour after we’d passed Olympia on I5, we turned off and headed east on a country road.
After going about 14 miles Michael called on the radio and inquired if we needed gas. We subsequently stopped at a very small country store with a couple of gas pumps. It was there that I learned a very valuable lesson! Never use a gas pump with cob webs all over the pump handle. Bothe Michael and I gassed up with premium and started out again. ½ mile later Michael’s car quit running. After doing the obvious things I pulled off the fuel line at the carb and turned on the ignition. The fuel pump pumped a murky looking gas into a plastic water bottle. I towed Michael with my now very poorly running car to Phil’s house. Fortunately Phil had a magnificent 4 car garage (with an additional work shop for his well under wa. restoration project).We worked until 1:00am drain the gas out of both cars. The gas was unbelievable – about 80% fuel and the rest was a murky looking water and mucky mess. Fortunately Phil had enough gas to get us to a gas station in the morning. Michael’s fuel filter had plugged virtually completely almost immediately, while my unfiltered car kept trying turn burn off the contaminants, which it did, but ran awful roughly in doing so. The next morning our three cars met up with 5 more from the Cascade Club, and we continued on en masse. Michael’s car was still running poorly and could only make 40-50 mph. At a lunch stop, a carb adjustment was required to get it up to snuff again.
From that point on, the trip was very pleasant. We arrived at the hotel in Eugene at about 4:30. There was a huge number of Healeys in the parking lot, all told about 130 including 8 Nash Healeys, which I’d never seen before.
A great welcome meet and greet was held that night around the pool. Ample food and drink was available and as usual renewing old acquaintances was the order of business.
Tuesday was show day. The Popular Choice show was held at Coburg Park which was quite a distance from the hotel. The workmanship on the cars being showed was very impressive and there were numerous absolutely outstanding examples on display. A park with over 100 Healeys is still a very impressive sight! Also displayed were the 8 Nash Healeys. A very impressive sight with obvious Healey Heritage.
The rest of the week was a series of Tech sessions, one of which was at a British sports car shop, tours (old flour mill, covered bridges, and a nice scenic drive), and the usual auction which raised over $5000, The tech sessions were unique in that they actually gave a lot of information that I found new and very useful.
As a matter of interest, the cars that travelled the most distance came from Florida plus there was a couple from Texas, lots from California, Oregon, Washington and of course B.C. I believe I saw one from Colorado and one from Idaho as well.
As is always the case with these events, it is the people that make the difference. It is a good friendly social time.
The Banquet on Thursday night was excellent and the awards reflected the Popular choices of the members. I am very proud to advise that our own, Michael De Wilde took first place in the BJ8 category, and there were quite a number of them. The overall winner was a Nash Healey!
On Friday everyone made their way home. For us the trip was almost anticlimactic with no crisis to mar the drive. We did run into a 20 second downpour but still managed to keep dry. That and a few other sprinkles on the drive did little to dampen our enthusiasm.
All in all it was a great trip. The Oregon Club is to be congratulated on an outstanding event.
Brian Drab, Secretary