Kelowna FCA Trip
June 22-24, 2012

The Western Canada Region of the FCA held their annual meeting about half way between their two chapters (BC and AB), so members of both could attend.

The weekend was wine and dine with two dinners, brunch and breakfast planned.

I was originally going to drive the 330, but took it for a short drive on the previous day and found that the left front brake was dragging.  I'm pretty sure that it was caused by a collapsing brake hose, allowing fluid to go out under pressure, but not flow back easily, thus keeping the brake dragging.  So I ended up driving the 308.

The 308 wasn't error free either as the previous time I drove it, the horn would blow whenever the steering wheel was torqued.  I tried to fix it that night, but couldn't get the Allen flat head screws off to remove the steering wheel.  So I ended up wiring in a separate switch for the horn.

The trip itself was about 750 miles for me, a big loop over into Western WA, up into Canada and then home through Abbotsford and down I-5.

Unlike the rest of the country, the NW has been cool and rainy.  This weekend was not the exception.  I drove through drizzle, but only had to have the wipers on intermittent most of the time.  The trip up was uneventful except for a 30 minute delay getting through the border.  I had brought a lunch from home and hadn't stopped to eat it, so I had bites between moving the car up a couple of car lengths periodically.

I arrived at the Cove Lakeside Resort around two, before either the Vancouver or Calgary group.  They showed up around 5.

    

That night the dinner a short drive to The Gausthaus in Peachland.

Brunch the next day was a little farther, at the Bench Market in Penticton.  On the way down, we drove along the lake in Peachland for a photo opportunity.  A little later, back on the highway, a sudden stop had a 355 stopping pretty close.  Later I was told that my brake lights weren't working.  I check the fuse and relay, but that didn't fix the problem, so it had to wait until I go home.

On the way to the restaurant, we also drove through the Peach City Beach Cruise car show in Penticton.  After lunch, I stopped by and looked at the hundreds of cars from all over BC, Alberta and Washington.  There was everything from a lone Ferrari to a Plymouth Road Runner and a monster truck.

       

Dinner that night was at the Mission Hill Winery (did I mention that this was a wine and dine trip?) in Kelowna.  What a beautiful venue, on top of a hill overlooking the lake.

       

The next morning had a breakfast planned at a restoration shop in Kelowna, but I had about 300 miles to get home, so I left early.  The only interesting thing that happened on the trip back was when I got off of Canada 1 to go through the border in Abbotsford.  On the exit ramp, were two RCMP (Mounties for those of the Bullwinkle era), who were stopping cars.  They let a couple of BC cars ahead of me go through with a wave, but stopped my car.  I was asked for my driver's license and in the next sentence, where was my front license plate?  Once I got out my license, I explained that my car had Washington restored plates on it and a front plate wasn't required.  The officer took my license, went to the back of the car to see my plate, with its 1978 sticker, came back, handed my my license and said that I could go.  I'm sure that I ruined what he thought was a for sure ticket for no front plate.  I don't know if he actually knows about WA restored plates or just believed me, but at least I didn't have to dig out the page I printed off the DOL website that has the rules.

When I got home and washed the car, I noticed that the right front wheel had a lot more brake dust on it, so I think that that brake is dragging.

So now I have to fix the brake lights, replace the front brake hoses and get back to the horn problem.