Event Coverage Three events, 4,552 miles in 2 weeks & 3 days!

Well, it's over, but it was fun and we're home.

What, you ask?

Three car events in two weeks three days and seeing this magnificent country thru the windshield of a Cadillac and cruising a lot of western Canada and our ULTIMATE destination would be GoodGuy's Puyallup, Washington event....oh, and Dan and I put on 4,552 trouble-free miles on our Cadillacs.

This is an after-the-fact trip report since I'm old school - I don't carry a laptop, don't have a cell phone and seldom stay in motels with guest friendly available computers and neither of us have a GPS,we prefer those old paper things called maps...!!!



My brother Dan, and I started out from our home in Aurora, ColoRODo on Friday, July 19th on a 10 day trip in our Cadillacs, at least, that's all the days we'd planned for and if you are interested, you can see the complete build of my '55 Cadillac, the lavendar one above. Go here: http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=329070&highlight=the best 55 caddy build

We left at 1:00 PM and drove 220 miles north to western Nebraska, Morrill, to be exact, by way of Wyoming. We’d been invited to the town's festival and car show by some friends we'd known for a long time. Since we were planning on going north anyway, we modified our itinerary and took in the event.



It took five hours to drive the distance as we weren't in any hurry, besides, we like driving two-lane highways-no one gets in a big hurry on a two-lane, not even us. We arrived about 6:30 and checked into our motel. Since the event wasn't until Saturday morn, we went next door for some grub and then took some time to clean the bugs off the cars and give them a quick bath, after that, back to the motel to relax.



Most of the 90 or so cars that showed up for a relaxing day in the park-no trophies, no awards but plenty of door prizes for the participants and a 50 mile poker run around the area.

The event was a good time, relaxing in the park after the poker run (which we lost-didn't even get close to winning a baggy full of money-coins only-about $50.00) and after the parade, until evening. Just before the Saturday night street dance, Dan and I decided to go find something to eat and hit the sack - we had a long drive in the morning. We were headed to Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada, to partake in the Western Canada Power Cruise (listed as WCPC from here on out) ,an event similar to Americruise - and this was to be their first one.

From Morrill, NE, we were looking at 721 miles so we planned on taking that in two small drives and didn't have to be in Regina before Monday evening. First stop for the evening was Miles City, Montana. The drive thru eastern Wyoming was nothing short of boring, there's not a lot to see out there on the rolling plains. Late afternoon, we dropped into Montana. Yep, that first drop was about 11 inches, we'd been warned, via road signs, there was road construction ahead but we didn't realize Montana would be 11 inches lower than Wyoming. Montana had decided to redo the road from the border north and the Wyoming asphalt simply ended. I watched Dan in his '54 Cadillac drop off the ragged edge and kick up the dirt and dust -thought both his hubcaps were going to go different directions, I'm quite sure his Lakes Pipes shrouds slammed the edge as he dropped off and scooped up some rock and dirt. I slowed as much as I could in such a short distance but hit it hard just the same, it shook my Cadillac hard. Figured I'd just knocked the front end completely out of alignment or damaged something... !!! Since there was no one behind us, I radioed Dan that we'd better stop to see if our whitewalls were flat and our hubcaps were still on. As I said, Dan and I are old school…we use CB radios to communicate with each other.



Bump...!!! Yeah, right, guess Montana couldn't make any signs that said "Grand Canyon drop-off" ahead...!!!

After arriving in hot and windy Miles City, we checked over our cars for any noticeable damage and could find none. We also checked nearly everything else we could on the car, needless to say, we'd never had either of the Cadillacs on such a long trip, and to that end, we made sure before we left Aurora that everything was in top shape. We checked into a motel and covered the cars with our car covers, but they wouldn't stay on in the wind and it was very windy there. So we removed them and went to our room and relaxed. Later that evening we went to find something to eat and found a video poker Casino next door. Five dollars got me a lot of "games" and I walked out with about $20.00 of their money - not a bad return on investment. About that time it was time to hit the sack...

In the morning, we gassed up and hit Interstate 94, I hate interstates. But for this part of the journey, we only had to drive it for 69 miles as we planned on getting off in Glendive and taking a two-lane north following the Yellowstone River . At about 3:30 that afternoon, we stopped at the Canadian border to show our passports. The Canadian border guard asked if we were carrying weapons, what we were doing this far north, how long we planned to stay in Canada, how much money we were bringing in, did we plan on leaving anything in Canada and if we had motel reservations for the five days we were in country...? I thought the last question was a little strange to ask, but the guy was dead serious. I had jokingly told friends that the Canadian border guards would probably want to search our cars since we are from ColoRODo, and ColoRODo passed a legalizing marijuana law last November...but they didn't even bother.



End of the road...!!! The U.S. road anyway, from this point onward we were subject to the Canadian Highway Departments.


After being OK’d to continue into Canada by the border guard, we stopped just inside Canada by this sign to shoot some pix…

The border guard told us the road ahead wasn't in very good shape and to drive slowly. He wasn't kidding...!!! The first 10 miles was decent but after that it was pothole city. I'd bet Dan and I looked like drunk drivers as we swerved and switched lanes trying to avoid the bigger holes. Several times we had to slow to 15mph because the asphalt was simply missing and the dirt was sticky soft. Fortunately for us we met no oncoming traffic, apparently Canadians around that area do not use this road to enter the US. Both of us noticed how wet Saskatchewan was and every small hill that intersected with another or two had a pool of water at the bottom, it appeared those pools of water had no place to run as I don't think we crossed one bridge or creek in the whole of the 70 miles to Regina, the water had no where to go but pool.

We arrived in Regina just before a rain, the clouds had been building as we drove north so we figured we were going to get wet. As luck would have it, the rain waited until we pulled into the motel parking lot , trying to find unfamilar places in a pouring rain isn't easy. We met up with several of the WCPC early arrivals from Winnipeg. Several of the Canadians walked up to us before we could even get out of our cars and said "We've been waiting for you, wanted to see if your Cadillacs were mechanically sound enuff to do a 1000 mile trip(from Denver)...!!!"



If bugs are badges , I win...!!! Two days of Wyoming and Montana driving will get you this...

The Majestics car club of Regina had arranged a hot dog roast for those of us that arrived in Regina-the first stop on the Western Canada Power Cruise (the cruise actually started in Winnipeg on Monday morning). While at the Majestics club house it started to rain and Dan and I didn't feel like touring downtown Regina in the rain so we hung around til almost dark (which was close to 10 PM Mountain time in Canada) and then headed back to the motel.

The Tuesday morning driver's meeting was short-See you all in Medicine Hat - our next stop for the evening, 284 miles away and no, I have no idea how many kilometers that is...!!! But first, let me tell you how flat Saskatchewan is. I thought Kansas was flat, but Saskatchewan is so flat you can actually see the curvature of the earth and all of it is colored by the yellow canola growing in the fields there.



Dan said something interesting to me as we were motoring along Trans-Canada Highway One -he said the highway reminded him of highways in the 1950's inasmuch as it really wasn't an Interstate as we know a U.S. Interstate. Trans Canada Highway One is actually a divided highway, two lanes each direction, but the strangest thing with that highway is that there are no overpasses, no underpasses, very few bridges (and very few creeks or rivers to cross), absolutely no highway billboard advertising signs, no on-ramps, no-off ramps and no merge lanes. The highway simply lets you know, via a small sign, there is a sideroad coming up. Those wanting to get on simply pulled up, stopped and then pulled onto the highway or off the highway. It was kind of unnerving to see a car pull onto the road instead of merging down an on-ramp. The speed limit was 100 kilometers, which is 60 mph ,mighty slow for traveling all the way across Canada to the west coast, as we were.



Canada's Trans Canada Highway One - the Canadian version of our Interstates, note lack of billboard advertising and lack of trees...!!!



Dan wanted to get more shots of state signs, called provinces in Canada. Our second Canadian stop was at the entrance sign to the province of Alberta , 280 miles from Regina.

We arrived early in the afternoon in Medicine Hat (not much to see on the way), time enough to get to the quarter car wash and clean off the dirt from the rain in Regina and the bugs from the last three days of driving. It was hot in the city and it didn't cool off until late evening (we got a great light show, with thunder around 2:30AM that night - woke me up). The local shopping Mall hosted a cruise-in at about 5:30, we got both cars cleaned up and drove over to the cruise where there were already about four dozen cars parked...



Most of those you see here continued to Calgary and Puyallup, Washington, with us, there was a good turnout of locals to wish us well, prolly around a 100 cars total for the few hours we were there.



Some locals wondering why two cars from ColoRODo were in the mix of local cars...



This was really neat trailer, the guy had just finished this and the trailer on the weekend before the cruise-in. This was its first time out, it was running an O/T LS1 with zero miles but he was brave enuff to join us on our trip…he did have a little trouble down the road, but got it fixed in the town we stayed overnight in...

The organizer and head honcho of the WCPC, Chris McMillan, came over to me and introduced himself to Dan and I, it was great to meet the guy I'd been e-mailing back and forth since November of 2012 when we'd read about the cruisein Rod & Custom magazine (Chris lives in Medicine Hat and this was the first time he was able to see what he put together)..!!! We hung around for awhile listening to all the comments about the two Cadillacs from ColoRODoand how people were amazed we'd driven all the way to Medicine Hat, Alberta, to be part of the event.

About 7PM Chris asked me if I'd do a TV interview with a local station…how could I say no...;??? The interview was short and sweet, the "personality" asked me what I was doing in Medicine Hat and on why was I on the WCPC...??? Simply told him we were "having fun" He then asked where I was from and where we'd end up,,,??? That was the extent of the interview. It was supposed to play at midnight on the local station, but the ol' eyes got heavy and I didn't make it to midnight so I missed it. Oh well...!!!


The station's call sign was CHAT, C for Canadian and HAT for Medicine Hat, Alberta. By this time we'd covered 284 miles from Reginaand had two days to continue to Puyallup.

Wednesday morn, we set out for Calgary, about three hours and 177 miles away, and the start of the Canadian Rockies. I was looking forward to traversing them in my Caddy and so was Dan. This was the part of the trip we were looking forward to. We were supposed to meet for lunch in a huge mall somewhere in Calgary, but Dan and I took a side trip - we headed for downtown Calgary, the "Wall Street" of Canada. We made a couple of passes thru downtown Calgary just to see what the city looked like.


Yes, those are some nasty looking clouds, but we never did run in any rain going across Canada. As we left downtown Calgary and started to climb the foothills, we simply ran out of the dark clouds.

Downtown Calgary is next to the huge Bow river, but we couldn't see any damage from the June flooding after the area had gotten so much rain. After we left downtown, we got back on Trans-Canada Highway One and headed for the foothills. We passed the Olympic village that was built in 1988 for the winter Olympics, looks like it's still used, especially the ski jump platform, from there it was up and up and up. I thought the Rockies in ColoRODo and the U.S. were gorgeous, but our Rockies pale in comparison to the Canadian Rockies. Talk about straight up and down. FWIW, it took three full six to eight hour days to drive the Rockies from Calgary to Chilliwack, BC., We drove out of them just before we entered the town of Sumas and crossed back into the US at the border but I'm getting a bit ahead of myself here.



We were looking forward to Banff National Park but we'd heard the worst of the June flooding and damage from their storm was from Canmore to Banff, a distance of about 50 miles. There were several places along TCH One that we noticed what the rains did to the mountains and the roads, apparently the heavy rain filled the creeks and rivers and pushed debris (dirt, dead wood, grass and river rock) all over the highway. Canadian road crews cleaned the highways quickly (before we got there) and most of the debris was pushed to the center of the road, sometimes to a depth of three or four feet. In several places round river rock completely filled the center part of the roadway and that river rock was at least the size of basketballs, that meant a lot of water came rushing off the mountains. There were also several sections that had just gotten new asphalt, apparently the water took out some of the highway.

To be continued...

R-

 

Nice tale... I can only imagine how comfy cruising in a custom could be. Gary

 

Subscribed,,, HRP

 

Awesomeness!

 

Cool - you make the saying "ya gotta drive 'em" real

 

What an adventure in dream car through the most beautiful country in the world

 

I think you two are the definition of HARDCORE...at least as it applies to the car hobby and actual driving in particular!
Both cars, well, ALL the cars you two have BUILT, are beautiful and finished to the hilt...yet you guys drive the absolute crap outta them.
Most other cars of their quality get a Sunday wash, a Thursday night cruise and spend the rest of their tepid lives wasteing away in a garage...sealed off from the world.
So sad...

You two just know how to live it guys!
Awesome stuff and looking forward to seeing the rest of the trip!

 

A great hotrod cruise thread..... How awesome is this !!!!

 

Great story so far, looks like good fun!!

 

Looking forward to the next installment!

 

Watchiing...Waiting....Wondering. Good one so far. Subscribed.

 

Great photos! Thanks for sharing

 

I am jealous Roger

 

subscribed! gotta see this one thru. thanks for sharing

 

Love the px!

 

Very cool!

 

Kool thanks for sharing.
Cheers Darren

 

subscribed: Great story. Keep it coming.

 

Beautiful. Love the blue highways. And paper maps.

I realized when in England that the billboard thing is American (especially the South). Looking forward to the rest.

 

Well done Roger, great read, will be following
Cheers
Rod

 

Wonderful story, well written, awesome pics, and absolutely beautiful pair of Caddys. Waiting anxiously for the next installment.

 

A great adventure. I'm looking forward to seeing your updates. Safe travels!


Posted using the Full Custom H.A.M.B. App!

 

Awesome trip. Thanks for sharing your story and pictures. Hope we can catch up one of these days. Take care.

 

Great pics Roger. Waiting for more. Thank you!

 

"I had no idea Montana was 11" lower than Wyoming." Classic! That's why you are the writer and I am not. Great trip, I look forward to reading the next installment.

 

Sweet, looks like fun

 

Great story so far. Looking forward to hearing the rest. LOVE your Caddy color as it really sets off the lines of the car nicely.

Please say hello to Dan from me.
Thanks for sharing your travel adventure story....reminds me of those Friday night reads.

 

Wow!

 

Great story!

 

Thanks for sharing your trip with us! I checked out both Caddys at the GoodGuy's Puyallup show. I recognized yours from your build thread, and I will say they looked great in person. The peaks look Cool! No one was around when I saw them to say hello to, mabey next time at another show....