Thread: Went to a really great cruise night--150Km away

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I was supposed to work yesterday, but some design approvals hadn't come through from my customer. At 1:00 PM I gave up on the prospect of working (It was 85 degrees and sunny), and decided to go over to Peterborough, Ontario for their Monday night cruise night. I have been to all the local cruises in Barrie, Orillia, collingwood, Bradford, Midland, and Wasaga beach, and wanted to see something different. Now its about 94 miles from my place to Peterborough, and since I am now an official "old fart" that goes to bed about 9:00 PM, I packed an overnight bag, and was going to take a hotel room for the night, over there. It was a beautifull afternoons drive, across winding country roads, over to the ball park at Bridgenorth (about 5 miles north of Peterborough). The quantity and quality of the cars was amazing. Their were 188 cars, ranging from model A Fords right up through to "new" supercars. The people were very friendly, and everybody loved the "Wild Canary". they gave out a whole whack of door prizes, and the show wrapped up at 9:00 PM. It was still bright daylight outside, so I decided that I would drive home. The first 45 miles were great, but then the sun went down, and it got really black, really quick---and pretty darn cool too. Luckily I had my trusty leather jacket in the back with my 2 mandatory fold up lawn chairs. (god, I love that tonneau cover). I made a pit stop somewhere in the country beside a field full of cows and put on the jacket. (Wild Canary has no sidewindows). The trip was great---my only concern was outrunning my rather anemic KingBee headlights and hitting a deer or a porcupine. Fortunately all the wildlife stayed off the highway and I arrived home at 11:00 to a rather surprised wife. It was just a great evening, so I thought I would share.---Brian

Brian, glad you had a good trip and got back home without taking on some unwanted critter fur (or pricklies). Sounds to me like you need to mount some temporary 100 watt driving lights to your buggy for those night time excursions. That or put in some high power 100 watt +, beams in your existing lamps. Illegal in many areas, but beats the hell out of hitting a big buck at 60 mph. Seen that happen and it wasn't pretty.

I really don't drive that much at night--like I say "now an official Old Fart" with an early bed time. If I plan on anymore night excursions, I think I will pick up a set of 7" halogens to fit in the KingBee housings.---Brian

Originally Posted by brianrupnow

I really don't drive that much at night--like I say "now an official Old Fart" with an early bed time. If I plan on anymore night excursions, I think I will pick up a set of 7" halogens to fit in the KingBee housings.---Brian

Funny how the temp drops when the sun goes down, huh?? I went to a show one January, and it was nice all day, but as the night went on the temp dropped real quick and got down to about 45. In Florida 45 is like minus 45. I did the same thing, put on my leather jacket, and started home. I was shaking so bad from the cold that I couldn't hold the gas pedal down, and the tires kept doing little chirps from my foot shaking up and down. When I got home I left a trail of clothes from the garage to the bathroom, where I filled the tub with hot water and soaked until I thawed out.

Sounds like you had a fun time though, and you are doing what cars were built to do...........DRIVE !! BTW, you are right, the halogen bulbs are lots better.

Don

Don, I can't say enough good things about that tonneau cover I built. I have zero storage capacity in the cab of the roadster pickup, except for a polishing cloth under one seat and a couple of CD cases under the other seat. With the tonneau cover, I can carry a couple of "lawn chairs in a bag" my old leather jacket, and a bottle of Windex and a roll of paper towels in the back of the truck without fear of them blowing out or being picked up by light fingered "walk throughs" at the cruise nights. (Yeah, we got thieves up here too!!!) The linear actuator holds the cover down so that it can not be lifted from outside the truck, and the switch is hidden so that only I know how to activate it from inside the truck. It absolutely boggles the gas station attendants when I pull in to gas up, and the tonneau cover begins to rise, seemingly by itself, so that I can access the gas tank in the back of the truck.

Originally Posted by brianrupnow

I really don't drive that much at night--like I say "now an official Old Fart" with an early bed time. If I plan on anymore night excursions, I think I will pick up a set of 7" halogens to fit in the KingBee housings.---Brian

Sounds like you had a great trip Brian. I have a set of Halogens in the Studebaker and they work great, really light up the road. Since I still have my 50+ year old windshield with the associated scratches and pits, having good lights is a must. I recommend them.

Pat

Don wrote:

In Florida 45 is like minus 45.

I know that feeling well. We go to Florida frequently and even though I live in Pennsylvania, I can honestly say that I have never experience cold as I have in Florida.

Several years ago, we drove from Tampa to Old Town for the Saturday nite cruise. It was the Saturday after Christmas that year, and we were joined by other family and friends, all expecting to have good time. But as the night went on it got colder and by the time we left at about 10 pm, it was a chilly 29 degrees. The car I was driving, a 39 Ford, had no heat, plus to make it worse it had a solid aluminum steering wheel. I had a heavy coat, gloves and knit cap and was still cold. Kept hearing a strange sound from the rear and it turned out to be my nephew's teeth chattering.

At a gas stop, he and my daughter got out of our car and got in his father's (heated) car for the rest of the journey. We laugh about it now and refer to it as the 1st Frost Bite Run. We've made the run several times since, but that was the coldest. I love Florida, but the cold down there goes right to your bones.

Sounds like a cool trip.

I'm ready for one of those since we just ended our heat wave.
Trouble is, now Monsoon season is here and the life raft won't fit into the rumble seat of the 32.

Anyhoo, Wally World has sealed beam Halogens that drop right into Dietz or King Bee re-pro's.
I think they're still around $10. US.

Made a big difference when I first got my 32 running, asphalt roads would soak up the light from the anemic original style seal beams.
Halogens made all the difference in the world and I've made some fairly long night runs in the car with no problems.

Thanks C9X---I have a "Wally-world" just up the hill from my place. I'll check it out tomorrow. I'll never forget, I was at a rod run about 15 years ago, here in Barrie. A beautifull 29 A roadster drove in, from Gravenhurst, about 60 miles north of here. I walked over to admire the car, and when I got around to the passengers side, the trailing edge of the front fender and the front of the running board were GONE!!! I asked the driver what had happened----He had been going home from a rod run the night before, and hit a porcupine. He almost flipped the car trying to miss it, but it had gone under the front of the car just inside the passenger side front wheel and totally disintegrated the glass fender and running board. I'm not sure if you have "porkys" down where you are, but there are a lot of them up here, and a big one can go 30 pounds. Next to rabbits, they are our most plentifull "roadkill".

The mountain roads about 6-10 miles S/E from here have Elk wandering across them.

Traveling the jeep trails - in my pal's jeep - we see Javelina every now and then.
Antelope are not too far away and deer are somewhat plentiful.
Mountain lions too.

Not roadkill, but last time we went shooting on the big dry lake about 20 miles away, when we left there was a really big longhorn bull wandering down the road to the dry lake proper.
I was hoping my pal's little Toyota pickup wouldn't choose to quit, the bull would have had it upside down in no time.
And me with only a 22 target rifle and 9mm semi-auto . . . either of which would probably just annoy the bull....