FALL COLOURS TOUR  2000

Our annual Fall colours tour was held on Saturday, September 23. It started out quite cool and crisp, especially for the folks in the open cars. Nevertheless, we had 6 Model A’s and 3 modern irons turn out for this event. We started out by having breakfast at Humpty’s restaurant west of town, near the Cochrane turn off.

After filling our stomachs with lots of warm food and our cars with gas, we headed west at about 10:00 am. We went to the Kananaskis turn off, and headed south on highway 40. A potty stop provided welcome relief to everyone at the visitor’s center, after drinking all of that hot coffee. The sights and colours along the route were quite impressive. We made a quick stop to see the golf course, and then made another stop just before the boundary to Peter Lougheed Park. This stop allowed for some picture taking, and allowed the folks in the open touring cars a chance to warm up.

We then proceeded up to the Highwood Pass, and nobody had to worry about boiling during this climb. However, we had to stop just a mile or so before the top because of a large herd of bighorn sheep on the road. Bobbie and I were traveling with a Japanese exchange student who had to get out and take some pictures of this. She hadn’t seen any before.

A stop was made at the summit for awhile to look around. Our cars got quite a bit of attention there. By that time, it was starting to warm up, and the scenery was great. There were lots of Larch trees in yellow at the pass.

It was all down hill from there, so we toodled along for awhile until we came to the Cat Creek picnic grounds. By that time, everyone was ready for lunch, but there was still a bit of snow to contend with on the picnic benches. However, it was really starting to warm up and becoming a beautiful Fall day. We all enjoyed our picnic and lounged around for awhile. The scenery was great, the sky was a beautiful deep blue and the company was good. Bobbie and I, plus the kids and our Japanese guest sat by the creek and threw rocks in.Then it was time to go as we still had a lot of driving to do.

My wife Bobbie, our Japanese guest Mina and my son Michael all decided to ride home in the rumble seat, since it had warmed up so much. This was a real treat for Mina, because she never even sees these old cars in Japan, except at the Toyota museum.

We all made one more pit stop at Longview, and then everyone headed home. There were no car troubles except Gord Watt’s phaeton had an electrical hiccup, which didn’t keep him from getting home, and it merely turned out to be a loose connection at the ammeter. All in all, this turned out to be a great tour, and a good time was had by all.

...By Gary Callander