We had decided to go north through Michigan and across the upper peninsula to
get to Green Bay, WI. It turned out that our time on the peninsula was at the
end of the big Harley Davidson Anniversary. For several days we were meeting
groups of two to forty Harley Davidson’s returning to the east. In the
motorhome all we could do was look, but we enjoyed seeing all of the bikes
anyway.
Our expectations were too high of the National Railroad Museum in Green Bay,
and we were somewhat disappointed. By any other name it is a fine museum with
a fine collection including a Big Boy, the largest steam engine in existence.
While in Green Bay, we got to meet Dave and Terry Woerpel and their daughter
Ana of the Wisconsin AHC and the Spridget news group. We spent a very nice
afternoon talking, having lunch, and looking at photos and our car. Dave and
family were on their way home from vacation so we did not get to see his photo
collection and car.
Our next Healey-related stop was in Minneapolis. This almost ended our trip.
It was normal Minneapolis weather with thunder showers most days. As we were
coming into the city for the first time it was apparent that the freeway was
headed into the thunder shower up ahead and everyone was turning on their
headlights and windshield wipers. That is, every one except a cab driver who
was busy talking to his passenger. When he realized that it was raining he
moved left one lane and stopped to try and find his light and wiper switches.
That one lane over was about 2 1/2 car lengths in front of our roughly 15,000
pounds of RV and trailer. Am not sure how we missed him but did manage to get
over one lane; thank heavens the traffic was not heavy.
While in Minneapolis, we met with Susan and Dean Toensing, President and
Treasurer of the AHC of Minnesota. We got a really good picture looking
session in with Dean the day we arrived (in the motorhome and trailer, as it
turned out). Then a few days later Susan’s schedule allowed time for the four
of us to have a very enjoyable evening and dinner.
While taking the Sprite out of the trailer I knocked the tail pipe loose at
the manifold. We still have the trumpet end manifold which acts more like a
ball joint than a rigid connection. The trailer ramp angle was off just a
little bit and caught the clamp in the middle of the two piece exhaust pipe.
I have to get this welded up and get rid of that d*** clamp! Now we had to
work fixing it into our schedule and without the Sprite our mobility was
seriously limited. Not having anything to get the Sprite off of the ground
made for an interesting time trying to work on the tail pipe. After several
attempts we finally got it fitted so it does not sound like it leaks but I
would not want to place money on it.
After Minneapolis we had almost two weeks to get to the next Healey event, the
West Coast Meet in Oregon. However we needed to get across the Rockies at as
low an elevation as reasonable so we went north into Canada to cross through
Jasper, Alberta which is the long way around. Along the way we found The
Royal Tyrrell Museum, an outstanding dinosaur museum in Drumheller, Alberta
and the Reynolds-Alberta Museum in Wetaskiwin, Alberta which presents a
history of ground and air transportation, agriculture and industry for the
Province. The latter came about from a donation from a regional auto dealer,
Reynolds, who would take anything as a trade-in for a car. He also apparently
never got rid of any of these trade ins. Almost everything in the museum,
except the airplanes, were donated by Reynolds. Even with an additional one
hundred or so cars plus farm equipment the museum has waiting to be restored,
Reynolds still has enough left over for a separate museum of his own and acres
of cars and farm equipment setting outside. In one field we noticed a Kaiser
rusting away on the end of a row, it seemed a shame as there are not too many
of these cars left. We drove the Sprite to the museum and surprise - - got in
free. They were having vintage car days and anyone that drove a 1960 or older
car to the museum got in free. In addition, we got to park just off of the
entrance and it was a great picture except we had left the camera back at the
RV.
As we started south after Jasper we were several days ahead of schedule for
the West Coast Meet and decided to use those days to relax in Vernon, British
Columbia. This would give us the opportunity to go up to Silver Star for
dinner since we had missed the ‘96 meet that was held there. The ‘96 meet was
a big part of the driver to get our car back on the road. It was a great
disappointment when circumstances prohibited us from attending. Well, best
laid plans and all of that stuff. On the way into the camp ground we were
unsuccessful in missing a very large chuck hole in the road. This hole
swallowed a wheel on the trailer bringing it to a stop which shattered springs
and shackles, then ripped the axle off. Looking in the rear view mirror there
were the axle and wheels spinning around in the middle of the road and the
trailer tilted up at about forty degrees. Fortunately I was able to get the
trailer to straighten up and the whole rig off to the side of the road.
Checking the trailer revealed that the car and hard top had stayed in place
and almost nothing had moved, absolutely amazing. So rather than several days
of sightseeing and having a dinner on the mountain we were on the phone to the
insurance, down at the trailer repair shop and trying to find a way to get our
car to Oregon, about 600 miles away. One evening before we left Vernon I had
taken the Sprite to town for gas and some groceries and in a parking lot
spotted a number of unusual cars. So of course I had to investigate. It
turned out to be Cruise Night and although most of the cars were hot rods
there was an Englishman with a MGB who wanted to talk my ear off. I was only
there for a little over an hour but had lots of people come by with questions
about the Sprite. As I got ready to leave the organizers came over and
presented me with a Vernon Cruise Night T-shirt for having the car from the
furthest away.
Bob and Annice
1960 Sprite
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