Monday, July 13, 2015

Monday July 13th - Lakeview, Oregon to Boise, Idaho

Today was the first day of the BCOL proper. Unlike previous years, several of the participants in this year's Oil Leak will be joining the trip at different points along the way. This allows more folks to participate which is great! On this, the first leg of the BCOL the participants were Jerry Mouton and David Drake in their Porsche Boxster, Lloyd Nolan in his Primrose S2 E-Type OTS, Greg and Dianne Mebow in their Ascot Fawn S3 E-Type OTS, Norman and Deidre Black in their Maroon S1 E-Type FHC, and David Langley in his Pale Blue S2 E-Type OTS. Having joined the California contingent for the Red-Bluff to Lakeview leg yesterday, Kjell Nelin left us this morning to return home. We greatly enjoyed his company, and hope he can join us again in future years.

Norman and Deidre had an eventful drive to Lakeview yesterday during which their alternator failed. They arrived with their car on a flatbed courtesy of AAA, so the first order of the day was to see what could be done. There was good news, when Lynn Gardner volunteered a spare alternator that he has in Boise. So, the challenge became how to get to Boise without an alternator. It was decided that by switching batteries with a healthy car along the way, we could keep everyone on the road, and recharge the depleted batteries in a car with a good alternator. Lloyd kindly volunteered to be the "donor" of the healthy battery.

However, before we departed Lakeview, breakfast was in order. As it turned out, this was more of a challenge than we expected. Our first choice of restaurant turned out to be closed for repainting, and when we arrived at our second choice it turned out to be closed on Mondays! Our third choice was open and served us a good breakfast, though this did result in a delay in getting on the road.
Dianne, Greg, Norman, Deidre, Jerry, Kjell, Lloyd and David D at breakfast in Jerry's Restaurant, Lakeview
We finally set out on the first leg of the BCOL at around 9:30am on US 395. This turned out to be a beautiful drive with little to no traffic, and plenty of opportunities for our cars to stretch their legs.

Photo Opp for the cars by Lake Albert on US-395
Lake Albert is the 3rd largest in Oregon. It dried up in 2014 for the first time since the 1930s
Spectacular scenery on US-395 and we pretty much had it to ourselves

We made good progress until we reached a section of the road that was under repair. When we were halted by a flag man, we were informed that there would be a 15 minute wait, so we had to shut down our engines. In the case of Norman and Deidre's car, this meant that to preserve battery power, we would need to bump start it - in this case in reverse due to the incline of the road. When the convoy of cars in the other direction had passed through, we immediately moved to bump start Norman's car.
Bump starting Norman's FHC in reverse.
It started right away, but at that point the flag man informed us that as we had allowed a gap of more than 20 seconds in the traffic, we could not proceed, and would have to wait another 15 minutes! It didn't appear to have occurred to him to let us know this beforehand...

With this frustration behind us, we continued to enjoy the drive on US-395 and after the slightest of rain showers arrived in Burns around 12:30pm. After refilling our tanks, and our bellies, we set off cross-country on US-20. Once again this proved to be an enjoyable drive with very little traffic. After around 200 miles driving Norman and Deidre noticed that their gauges were beginning to read low, and suspected that the battery was close to discharged. We therefore pulled over, and switched batteries with Lloyd again by the side of the road. The diagnosis proved to be correct, as Lloyd's car required a jump start with the discharged battery.
In convoy along US-20
Apart from a brake light failure on Norman's car, which was quickly resolved, and an unexplained clank from David's front wheel (probably caused by debris thrown up as we passed through another construction zone), the remainder of the drive was without incident. We arrived at the Dry Creek Merc around 6:30pm where Lynn Gardner had kindly set up a dinner, and invited the IBCC to join us. After driving 330 miles or so, it was great to be able to relax and meet some old friends, and make some new ones. We were joined by Lynn and Jan Gardner, and Drew and Mary Scherz who join the Oil Leak for the next leg tomorrow.

Meanwhile, Michael and Denise Jenkins on their way to join us from Carson City, NV
Once dinner was over, the next objective was to fit the replacement alternator to Norman and Deidre's car at Lynn and Jan's house. Let's hope it goes well...





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