6 Replies to “June Meeting: Road Trips”

  1. I just got back from a road trip to Natashquan. That’s the end of the road on the north shore of the St. Lawrence in eastern Quebec. My Saab covered 3995 km at an average speed of 84 km/h and fuel economy of 7.2 L/100km. Actually that’s what SID said, but really when I calculated it by hand, it was closer to 7.3 L/100 km.

    Basically, once you’re east of Tadoussac, which is at the mouth of the Saguenay, Quebec highway 138 is the sole choice. I followed it through Baie Comeau and Sept-Isles, right to the end. Well, not quite to the end, since there’s a bit of gravel highway beyond Natashquan, and the last couple of kilometres are closed for repair.

    It was misty and/or raining for pretty much the entire trip, but I did get some pictures which I will post. I also took the highway on the north/east side of the Saguenay on the way back, up to Lac St. Jean. I think that that highway, and the lake, are some of the nicest bits of Quebec.

  2. Well, being employmentally-challeged at this time (but in a good way, for now), my plan is to drive out to Natashquan, which is basically the end of the road following the north shore of Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence. Google says it’s about 1700km one-way.

    I’m pondering some detours, maybe Anticosti Island or up to Labrador.

    I’ll probably head out in September, some time after Labour Day.

  3. The internet is a great resource for learning about specific trips or routes. There are people who put up a great route or trip report, and I find those to be much more interesting than the typical tourist bureau stuff. All you have to do is search.

    For example, if you want to know what it’s like to drive the Dempster Highway (from Dawson City to Inuvik, crossing the Arctic Circle on the way), just search for “my dempster highway trip”. (The “my” gets at least some personal reports.)

    http://rebeccamcneese.typepad.com/journeys_of_the_heart/2006/12/dempster_highwa.html
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pjx7oidhNSI
    http://www.mvermeulen.com/yukon.html

    The same holds for any trip you might want to do, say around the Gaspé or along some northern Ontario highway. The trick is to get personal trip reports, not commercial or tourist info. While the commercial/tourist info can help, the personal experiences are, I find, much more educational.

  4. I missed the meeting but I read the slides. I realized a missed a good presentation. The slides are excellent. I wish I could make it. All of us have road trip stories. You showed us how to make it into a good meeting topic. Thank you.

  5. Rob Manger sent an account his on-the-road fixes from the pre-EFI days, and graciously granted permission to post here.

    I wanted to thank you very much for your wonderful presentation on Wednesday. It sure brought back a lot of memories of my road side repairs. I think I am one up on you. The carb in my 1961 Buick flooded, the engine stalled, I looked under the hood and fuel was nicely settled in the V of the intake manifold. With that car I carried a full set of tools. I let it cool off before starting the repair, soaked up the fuel with my Ryerson Engineering jacket. Then I dismantled the carb, road side, bent the float setting to close off the fuel sooner at a lower float level setting. The excess fuel was dried up, so time to try out the road side carb re-calibration. It worked and we made it to the dance only a few minutes late. You lost a catalytic fill bolt, I never had that happen, cause none of my ’50s and ’60’s junker cars had cats. Those cars you could road side fix. You could even fix a broken brake line with a hammer and be on your way. Did that once on a friends ’58 Pontiac. Also soldered up his leaking rad at the cottage.

  6. Fantastic meeting Ed! The meeting brought back great memories of past trips and reminded me of how much fun it is to just drive and explore….

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