Though it doesn't make for much drama in the narrative, the simple truth is that the car ran great. We covered 1200 miles in three and a half days, much of it through the mountains. The worst thing that happened was that the heater stuck on when I was fussing with the controls. I'll keep this short and let the pictures do most of the talking.
Here's the hotel we found in The Dalles. Clean, great rates, and the 1950's bathroom was absolutely unchanged from the day the place opened, right down to the clear fiberglass toilet set with embedded flowers!
Multnomah Falls outside of Portland.
The park ranger at Big Trees was sour when we asked where the Tour Thru Tree was- turns out it's on private property. As we walked away the people behind us asked him the same question.
Strangely, no mention of the Georgia Bigfoot in the freezer.
We stopped at the Olive Pit in Corning a couple of hours from home. I pulled around the back to find some shade and encountered Mike Harrell and his
KV1 microcar, fresh from his 'Worst of Show' win at the inaugural
Concours D'LeMons in Monterey! Ironically enough, he beat a Crosley Hotshot for the honors.
The KV1 was a French microcar belt-driven by a 125 cc 2 stroke moped motor - and that's the
normal part. The abnormal part was that the drive was transmitted to the wheels via friction drive- a grinding stone that turned each wheel! I'm not sure I'd have believed this if I hadn't seen it... especially when i learned that this car was built in 1980! They were built to target a very specific market- a loophole allowed them to be driven without a license! 2000 were built over 12 years or so. Harrell has two.
Almost as impressive as the KV1 was the fact that he'd towed it down from Washington behind his 1974 1/2 MGB! He had a long way to go, and had to be back within 24 hours to teach his class at the University of Washington. We wished him luck and headed on home to Sacramento...
The park ranger at Big Trees was sour when we asked where the Tour Thru Tree was- turns out it's on private property. As we walked away the people behind us asked him the same question.
Strangely, no mention of the Georgia Bigfoot in the freezer.
We stopped at the Olive Pit in Corning a couple of hours from home. I pulled around the back to find some shade and encountered Mike Harrell and his KV1 microcar, fresh from his 'Worst of Show' win at the inaugural Concours D'LeMons in Monterey! Ironically enough, he beat a Crosley Hotshot for the honors.
The KV1 was a French microcar belt-driven by a 125 cc 2 stroke moped motor - and that's the normal part. The abnormal part was that the drive was transmitted to the wheels via friction drive- a grinding stone that turned each wheel! I'm not sure I'd have believed this if I hadn't seen it... especially when i learned that this car was built in 1980! They were built to target a very specific market- a loophole allowed them to be driven without a license! 2000 were built over 12 years or so. Harrell has two.
Almost as impressive as the KV1 was the fact that he'd towed it down from Washington behind his 1974 1/2 MGB! He had a long way to go, and had to be back within 24 hours to teach his class at the University of Washington. We wished him luck and headed on home to Sacramento...
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