WRITTEN BY MARIE AND JOHN
Woodward Avenue was much quieter on Sunday morning as we made our way to the Detroit CBD and the Detroit-Windsor Tunnel for the 1-mile journey under the Detroit River into Canada. Before leaving Oz we had purchased a Carnet de Passage (CdP) that would allow us, legally, to take the car into Canada and we presented the document to the Canadian border officials. After scratching heads and much discussion, they decided that they didn’t need to complete the paperwork (and who are we to doubt their knowledge of the legislation?) and handed it back to us with our passports duly stamped.
The decision to cross into Canada at this point was twofold. The journey to our next destination would be much shorter and it would give us the opportunity to see Niagara Falls from the Canadian side where the views of the Falls are reportedly (and we can now confirm) much better than from the U.S. (the Canadian lady at the Falls tourist office counter was a footy fan and Eagles supporter!)
Fortunately, we arrived at the Falls early and managed to get our photos before the hordes of selfie stick toting tourists filled every available vantage point. We then had to make it back into the U.S. and from our vantage point we could see that the popular “Rainbow Bridge” crossing was jammed with traffic, so we headed north to the Queenston-Lewiston Bridge, which was a little quieter, but not much. The young lady U.S. border official didn’t know what to make of the CdP and passed us on to a higher authority who was also a little bemused by it. Eventually this officer decided that he needed to fill out the CdP (even though it has no legal application in the U.S.!) and, duly signed and stamped, he handed it back to us and we were on our way.
Our next rod-related event was a week or so away in New Hampshire and we arranged to catch up with friend Jim who lives in upper New York State. Over a couple of days, we managed to fill in all the gaps of our respective lives and travels since we had last seen him some 5 years earlier. Carrying on our north-eastern journey we took another short cut from Plattsburg, New York State to Grand Isle, Vermont on the Lake Champlain Ferry and, 131 miles later, we were in Colebrook, New Hampshire.
Another of Marie’s discoveries, Colebrook and the neighbouring town of Canaan in Vermont are joint hosts of the annual Moose Festival. The title was intriguing enough but some of the attractions – maple syrup tasting, the moose calling contest and cow plop bingo also tickled our fancy. Best of all, the Festival had a car show and we entered Wyvonne in it. This mega event (not) begins on a Friday evening with a parade of cars through Colebrook with the main show and activities on Saturday held in Canaan.
As usual the novelty value of the “Vaarkshawl” and its Australian registration plate piqued the interest of the crowds and the officials resulting in a video interview by a journalist from the Colebrook Chronicle, a front-page story in “The News and Sentinel” and we carried home the second-place trophy in the Street Rod division (another 30 seconds of fame).
An early start next morning with a longish drive from northwest New Hampshire to southeast Maine and the top of Cadillac Mountain in the Acadia National Park to take in the panoramic views of the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Maine. Apart from tyre issues Wyvonne had successfully carried us 5,834 miles (9,336 kms) from the Pacific Ocean at Tacoma, Washington State to the Atlantic in 45 days with an average fuel consumption of 27.7 miles per U.S. gallon (11.1 litres per 100km).
The next stage of our adventure was to be a visit to the Canadian Atlantic Provinces to take in two more shows. We drove from Eastport, Maine to the U.S./Canadian border at St. Stephen where we had more fun and games trying to get the Carnet de Passage signed off by U.S. Customs and then signed on again by Canada but eventually they obliged and we headed off into the Province of New Brunswick.
St John is the largest city in New Brunswick and has quite a history to it, so we decided to spend some time there. We had parked Wyvonne on a side street near King’s Square and as we were getting into her to move on a man called out “you’ve made my boy’s day!”. He explained that the boy and his mother were having a competition to see who could spot a vehicle number plate from outside of Canada and the U.S., the object being to spot the one most distant from St John. Mum had seen one from Germany and had told her son he wouldn’t ever be able to beat that – guess what, she was wrong, and Dad had taken a photo to prove it.
Our next rod show attendance was on Prince Edward Island and on the way there we took on tourist personas visiting the Bay of Fundy (famous for its high tides) and at low tide walked on the “beach” that a few hours later, at high tide, would be under 40 feet of water. Our journey tracked north, and we crossed the 8 mile long Confederation Bridge that connects Prince Edward Island to the Canadian mainland. Ex-tropical storm Erin saw to it that we had an exciting and damp crossing with torrential rain and high winds buffeting the car. Mid-20th century convertibles are not watertight and the winds were threatening to tear the roof off.
Fortunately, the day of the 6th Annual Brackley Street Machine and Hot Rod Show dawned bright and sunny and we motored to the Brackley Beach Drive-In where the show was being held. There were quite a few local cars and many more had crossed the bridge or ferried from the mainland but once again we were the true outsiders. However, we weren’t the only Vauxhall there as we spotted one other, albeit a later (early 60s) model. No big awards at this show but Wyvonne did make the top 25.
Another discovery that surprised us was that not only is the drive-in flourishing in its 60th year it’s also expanding with an additional screen/facility being built on adjacent land. The existing theatre has double bills on screening nights featuring up to date releases with themed gatherings for holidays (e.g. “Trunk or Treat” for Hallowe’en). They even have parking spaces for large RVs!
Rather than making the return journey to the mainland by way of the bridge we took the ferry to Nova Scotia and visited the capital Halifax before making tracks to Sherbrooke Village to attend the “25th Annual Sherbrooke Show and Shine”. Unfortunately, Dorian was also heading that way – Hurricane Dorian that is. It was forecast to hit the eastern shore of Nova Scotia within the next couple of days and we got word that the show had been postponed. We started checking the local weather forecast and realised that if we didn’t move quickly, we would be directly in Dorian’s path. So started a 300 mile dash westward into New Brunswick to avoid the worst of the storm.
We took shelter at a country “Air BnB” property and our hosts, Doug and Ines moved their new tractor out of the barn so that Wyvonne could be stored out of the weather. We hunkered down for a couple of days while strong winds and heavy rain lashed the area but apart from a few broken branches there was no real damage. However, 300 miles to the east it was a very different story with uprooted trees, downed power lines and flash floods.
The country roads in Canada (certainly in the area we were in) are not the best and after crashing through a badly potholed section Wyvonne’s tailpipe decided to part company from the muffler. The break occurred right at the muffler outlet necessitating a 78-mile trip to the nearest large town, Fredericton, for a new one.
The border crossing back into the U.S. was pretty painless. The Canadian Customs staff were up to speed on the sign off requirements of the Carnet de Passage and unlike the previous border crossings we didn’t have to give them any advice on completion of the form. Their U.S. counterpart quickly dispensed with the formalities, and we were soon on the road in Maine. Our three weeks in the Canadian Maritimes/Atlantic Provinces had been very good and we had enjoyed warm hospitality wherever we travelled. We’ll be back.
Burlington, Vermont was the location for our next “big weekend”, the NSRA Northeast Street Rod Nationals. A slightly smaller event than the “national” Nationals with 1200 entrants rather than 12,000 but still plenty to see and do (including yet another wash and brush up for Wyvonne). We walked up and down the rows of cars on display and, in a fit of madness, spent up big at the NSRA merchandise stand - you can never have too many event T shirts!
We caught up with bearded Bob Balkow from Connecticut who was a co-roadtourian on the trip from Lincoln to the Nationals at Louisville. He told us that Mario, from Quebec, another co-roadtourian was also attending this event and we had all been invited to a barbecue at a property on the shores of Lake Champlain about an hour from Burlington. We felt a bit awkward as we didn’t really know anyone other than Bob, but the hosts, Charles and Patricia made us feel very welcome and we were introduced to Dave and Kathy plus John, Mario’s travelling companion. We had an excellent evening listening to Dave’s stories of car repossessions from recalcitrant debtors across the U.S. (amongst other businesses Dave owns a car dealership).
Ken and Ellie Butler, a couple we had met at the Moose Festival, told us that they were taking their car to Burlington, so we kept an eye out for their maroon 1933 Chevrolet roadster and eventually spotted it in a quiet corner. They were busily writing up notes about the car as it had won an award and was to be featured in an edition of the NSRA “Streetscene” magazine. Ken has turned the Chevy in a Ford thing on its head by fitting the roadster body to a shortened ‘40 Ford chassis and using a flathead powerplant.
We had nominated for the “Long Distance” award but, unlike our previous award in this category at the Nationals in Louisville, the rules called for the car to have been driven to the event, rather than trailered or shipped there, from a point within the United States. As we had started out in Tacoma, Washington State we thought we might be in with a chance but again we didn’t know whether there were any entrants from further afield. It wasn’t until 5 o’clock on Saturday evening that we were summoned to the NSRA officials booth where we were informed that we had travelled the furthest distance (2,959 miles/4,762 kms) and needed to be in the award winners circle at 9.00 am the next morning.
What was to be our last event in the U.S. was a few hundred miles south in Manchester, Maryland. The Harvest Festival Collector Car Show was organised by the Chesapeake Chapter of the Antique Automobile Club of America and a diverse range of vehicles were being exhibited from the latest model Chevrolet Corvette back to immaculately restored early 20th century “buggies”. Wyvonne received a lot of attention (again) and picked up a “Top 40” award. We were interviewed by the National Director of the A.A.C.A. (who, incidentally, also owns a street rod) and Wyvonne was to be featured in the club’s magazine.
On the morning of the show, whilst travelling to Manchester, Wyvonne’s brake pedal return spring went ping! and was never to be seen again. Luckily, there were three auto parts stores in close proximity to each other and on the second try we were able to source a suitable replacement which we fitted there and then in the store car park.
During the tour we had debated whether we should ship the car back home from Los Angeles or Baltimore on the eastern seaboard. The decision was made for us when we discovered that, if we shipped from the west coast then Wyvonne would have to be transhipped from one vessel to another in Panama (and would probably have to sit on the docks there for a couple of weeks). From Baltimore she would remain on the same ship until she reached Fremantle so no guesses as to which one we chose. We duly delivered her to the Baltimore port for fumigation and loading onto the Ro-Ro carrier.
Wyvonne’s Americas Tour had been a fantastic adventure. Apart from one or two minor issues along the way she performed faultlessly covering 9,275 miles (14,926 kms) in 84 days and we acquired a bucket load of great memories which, thanks to our travelogues and photos, we will be able to recall in our dotage.
Would we do it again? In a heartbeat!
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