Surrey, BC and "The Squareback"

The "Great Canadian" is another car show on the summer circuit, but as you probably guessed by the name, it's in Canada. Just across the border into British Columbia, it's known for it's large number of aircooled entries. Gayle was all excited because it gave her an opportunity to show off her 1969 Squareback with airride suspension that Martin at The DDB built. This of course requires getting the Squareback to Canada. 600 miles in a 40 year old car? I'll let Gayle do that. Thank you...I will drive the support vehicle, the afore mentioned TDI Jetta :)

Friday

So we are supposed to meet up at 8am to head north. Of course, with any car show gathering, there are a lot of last minute changes. Now instead of caravaning up...it's just us. That's fine, we'll cruise up, set up camp, and make an easy day of it.

Well...easy is a relative term.

A late start out of Portland, followed by spending a little too much time in Tacoma (seeing some friends, setting up court dates, etc.), hitting rush hour in Seattle, having to fix the brake lights in the squareback, and getting slightly delayed at the US/Canadian border...it took us 13 hours. Tired, hungry (we skipped dinner), we attempted to set up the largest tent in the world in the dark. And finally around 10pm, we were ready to get some grub. Gayle says she wants to change really quick before we go.

Gayle: Honey...where's my bag?

Gayle: Honey?

Ed: I love you Baby!

Yes, evidently somewhere along the way Gayle's bag didn't make up to Canada. It wasn't left at home, so the only thing I can think of is somewhere along the way we must have moved it from the car and not put it back. But that still doesn't change the fact that she now has no clothes for the weekend.

This is where I reached the breaking point. You would think Gayle would have been the one to lose it...but no. She was totally understanding and handled it great. I was not nearly as composed, and really frustrated with myself and felt like an ass for losing her clothes. More proof that this girl is somebody very special. Finally, at about 2am, we returned from dinner and crawled into bed. Exhausted.

Saturday

Got up, and cleaned the Jetta for the Pre show Pancake Breakfast at Westminster VW. This is a very cool thing for a dealership to do...let all the car show folks come down and hang out while providing coffee, pancakes, and oj at no charge. It was very appreciated, and the US dealers should take note- there are folks that care about the older VWs out there. The rest of the day was spent in a Canadian mall on a shopping spree for Gayle :) and cleaning the Square for it's debut. Since it was there, we also decided to throw the Jetta in the show as well. It is nowhere even close to show ready, but hey, why not? So 4 hours of cleaning on the Square and 45 minutes on the Jetta, we headed out for a nice steak dinner- we deserved it. The cars weren't quite up to standard- but were decent enough, considering we were camping and all.

Sunday

Do you know what the worst sound in the world is? Waking up to the sound of raindrops on your tent after cleaning your car for a show. It poured...but like they say, the show must go on. We rolled out 2 deep early to make sure we had time to get things set up and ready. But with the rain, there isn't too much you can do. However, that didn't mean we weren't busy. Gayle's Squareback is definitely an eyecatcher and we had many people stop to chat. It was great watching her talk about her car- she gets so excited and giddy around it. I also enjoyed hanging out and watching people check out the Jetta, since it still has my wheels on it and they attract quite a bit of attention as well. We also had some friends come up for the show, and got to spend the whole day catching up and having a good time. Probably the best part of the show was the engine blow. A popular event at many shows, they take an old tired engine, drain all the fluids, and then run it at full throttle until it blows up. Now normally this in done on an engine stand, sometimes in an acrylic case to protect bystanders from shrapnel. The Great Canadian organizers decided it would a good idea to just roll in a Ford Aerostar that was headed for the junkyard. Which works fine...until the van catches on fire. So we were treated to a fine show as well when the Coquitlam Fire Department showed up to put out the blaze. I don't think that they will be doing anothe engine blow next year:)

A great time and a fantastic show. Plus...we took home 3 trophies for our efforts!

Another long, long day in the books, I headed back to the campsite and got my drink on.

Monday

Basically, get up and drive home. Oh wait, that can't be right. Life just isn't that simple.

Getting back into the States is evidently a difficult thing to do. We pulled up to the border and the readerboard told us there was an hour wait. Yeah...it was a bit off. We waited for 3 hours to cross, and evidently we weren't the only ones getting frustrated. There was a time when cars needed to merge into one lane. I watched in the rearview mirror as the guy behind me wouldn't let a car in, flipped off the driver and yelled some nasty language at him. Of course, he was an American and the merger was Canadian. Great...yet another person perpetuating the American stereotype.

So I let the guy in instead.

Oh that did not set well. The guy got out of his car and called me a "world class asshole", among others. Then the guy behind him called me a "punk" and a "communist". I don't know how letting someone in line makes you a communist, but evidently it does. The funny thing is the dude that said it looked a little like early Castro...ironic.

So I let him go ahead of me too. Like it did any good...we still had to wait 2 more hours to get across. LOL.

The rest of the drive went pretty easy- just long.

A packed weekend no doubt. But it was a great time, and we have lots of great new stories to tell. I lost my girlfriend's clothes, ate pancakes in Canada, camped in the rain, took home some trophies, got called a Communist, and spent 26 hours in the Jetta. Sounds good to me!