Lead/Acid Cookies and the Smelly Fish People, pt. 4

[John Wayland <dat1200@EUROPA.COM>]

Continued from pt. 3........

        We arrived in front of my house at 6:15, after towing Kermit
back from the body shop. I rushed in the house to get cleaned up for
dinner, while Mark disconnected the LUV from the trailer, so that he
could also make a run back to his place to do stuff, with a rendevue
scheduled back at my place around 9:30 PM. Cheryl and I then raced off
to meet our guest and take him out to an Italian dinner. When we picked
him up, one of his first questions was, "So, how' your week been?"
       At 9:30, Mark and I met at out place again, after Cheryl and I
had enjoyed our dinner and visit with our guest. As Mark reconnected the
trailer and loaded up the other body panels and such, I was back on the
phone with Gary Blidook to talk over the travel expense budget, and to
get his final word on what amount over the budget the club could or
would even want to spend. 
      I next went back to the shop and replaced the toasted 25 amp
bridge rectifier of the last minute Bad Boy charger, with the new 35 amp
job, and put the Beastie on a conservative 15 amp charge, figuring that
by 11:30 or so (the time I hoped we might finally be loading up
vehicles) around 30 ahrs could be stuffed back into the pack. This would
reduce the pack's deficit of minus 90 ahrs to a more reasonable minus 60
ahrs or so....even a couple of hours on charge would be better than
nothing.
     I helped see Mark off, as he left to take Kermit back home and get
some sleep before he and his wife would meet us in the morning to take
off on our train trip.
     Back on the phone....the last tow company I had talked with, had
now raised their price even higher than what we had talked about
previously.....to try to shorten this a bit, both Gary and I threw in
the towel at 11:30 PM Thursday night, and made the hard decision to give
up on my bringing any EVs this year. It was a bitter pill to swallow,
after all who were involved had put forth such a gallant effort to make
it happen, but alas, my EVs were going to be sitting at home, all in
running condition again, dressed to kill, but with no place to go!  I
went to bed feeling pretty bummed-out and that I had once again (last
year I failed to finish the heavy Metal Garden Tractor in time), let my
Canadian friends down.
      In the morning, Mark and Diane arrived and the four of us embarked
on what would turn out to be fun mass transit excursion. It all started
with a brisk, half mile morning walk to Portland's MAX light rail
station near our house. I was still pretty upset that I was leaving the
EVs behind, but once the electric train took off with the four of us
aboard, I began to realize that it was the beginning of a fun break from
being the 'EV show guy', to being the more of the 'tourist, under no
pressure guy.'
     MAX took us into the city core, not too far from Portland's
historic train station, and after a second half mile walk we were all
laughing and enjoying each other's company. Inside the classic
tile-roofed, marble building, my enthusiasm for adventure was building,
and I could hardly wait to get on the full-sized Amtrack train. 
    The train trip from Portland, Oregon up to Seattle, Washington was
totally pleasant, totally exciting, totally fun, and the scenery was
beautiful...for those of you who have never taken the time to ride the
rails, make time to do so!
    In Seattle, we transferred to a bus that would finish the run on
into Vancouver, BC. The bus ride wasn't all that great, but being in the
company of my wife and our friends still made it a fun trip, too. When
we arrived in Vancouver and walked off the bus, Gary Blidook's smiling
face was the first thing I saw, as he had patiently waited for nearly an
hour. On our way to the motel, I talked with Gary about this year's
change of venue from the BCIT School to the Coquitlam Shopping Center,
and I was the recipient of lots of teasing over the fact that my lips
and tongue continued to tangle whenever I tried to pronounce the name
'Coquitlam'...no one else had any problems with saying it, just me. 

"Fine Gary, laugh all you want, but the name is hard for me to say."

"That's because it's an indian term...it means 'smelly fish people',
given to the town because the majority of its settlers were fishermen."

      We arranged to be picked up in the morning, so that we could help
set up and attend the VEVA show. In the motel, we stumbled into Randy
Holmquist, who was on his way out the door to take his slick direct
drive 192 volt Sprint (Metro) to a television interview, as part of the
coverage of the Saturday EV show. We hung out in the our motel rooms and
were able to see the TV spot not too many minutes later (the car was in
it, but unfortunately, Randy wasn't)! After the 'TV EV' spot, we walked
over to a Chinese restaurant and enjoyed a great dinner.
       Early Saturday morning, we had breakfast at the motel, then Gary
picked us up and we all headed out for the Coquitlam Shopping Center to
meet up with everyone. The Wilde EVolutions gang was there, and they had
brought their electric Land Rover and the bright yellow replica '29 Ford
roadster EV. I also met up with my friend Jason Hills, and we all
pitched in to help erect the Wilde EVolutions tent/booth, and helped to
polish and detail the EVs. I must say, I had fun Armorall-ing the tires
and polishing the alloys of the roadster, and it was good therapy for
me. 
   As the early morning hours passed by, more and more EVs arrived, and
it was a lot of fun just being a spectator. Al Godfrey showed up with
his beautiful orange Porsche 914 EV, and after more than a year on the
road, it still looks stunning. Randy Holmquist had both his cool postal
van EV and the 192 volt Sprint at the show, with both vehicles being
driven by all who asked. Alan Cumberlidge brought his tidy Mercury Lynx
EV, and he allowed me to drive it. Don 'Father Time' Crabtree had
Frankenbike there, complete with wheelie bars to keep it from flipping
over backwards from its tremendous hole-shot acceleration. I asked Don
to do a full throttle burnout, but when he hit it, the front tire pulled
off the ground, removing the front burnout braking and the machine
simply lunged forward with the front tire eventually coming back down,
locked and skidding...it was wild! Lawrence Harris had his miniature EV,
a remote controlled vehicle, and was expertly maneuvering it around the
parking lot...as always, it was good to see him again.  Axel had his
Ford Festiva back again this year, giving test drives to all. I was very
happy to see the 1912 Detroit Electric again, and I really enjoyed
taking a ride in it with my wife. 
        The four of us had planned to slip away from the show about
midday, so we could go off and explore Vancouver, but we wanted to wait
to greet Madman Rudman and Damon....OK, I'll admit it, I was going
through withdrawal and needed a hit of thick tire smoke! 
      By 12:15, Goldie and the tire-smokers still hadn't shown up, so we
hitched a ride with Gary's son, Carey, who drove us to  West Minster
Station where we could continue our mass transit excursion on
Vancouver's 'Sky Train'. This is Vancouver's light rail system, that at
first glance appears to be very similar to Portland's MAX, other than
the unique fact that nearly all of the track is elevated above the city.
However, as the train approached and dramatically reduced its speed to a
halt, there was the coolest accompanying sound...a series of declining,
downward-spiraling harmonizing tones rich in chordal structure, that
made my hair stand on its ends. I knew then, that this was no ordinary 
train. Loaded aboard, I was like a kid in a candy store, and it took off
with a powerful thrust as the symphony of sounds reversed their order
and spiraled upward, with three distinct choral arrangements passing and
intertwining one another until cruising speed was achieved....Warp 7 Mr.
Soolu!  I must have driven all the other passengers crazy with my
overflowing zeal, and I was amazed that I was the only one so
entertained and fixated on the train's obviously different power system.
Looking at the tracks as we sped along above the sprawling metropolis of
Vancouver, I saw what looked to me like huge laminations in a center
tunnel of the track, then noticed the absence of any overhead
catenary....Ah Hah!!!.....this thing's a linear induction AC train! As I
proclaimed my discovery to all around, other than my three traveling
companions, everyone else looked back with blank, bored faces.  
       Reluctantly, we had to disembark from the futuristic machine at
the end of its run at the bay. As we off loaded from the Sky Train, I
went to a fellow who was at the information booth to ask  about the
electrical-mechanical design of the train, but he seemed to be ill
prepared to answer any of my questions and was completely clueless. I
asked a couple more persons if they knew anything about the train, but
no one seemed to care.  
     We next hopped on the 'Sea Bus', a ferry system that is part of
Vancouver's mass transit. The Sea Bus transverses across the water body
that divides Vancouver from North Vancouver. In North Vancouver, we
found a Greek restaurant and enjoyed a delicious lunch. The weather was
fantastic, and we were all having a great time, too.
    After lunch, we took the Sea Bus back to Vancouver and spent several
hours exploring the Gas Town district. We were walking past a small
model train shop, and Mark suggested that it would be a place where
surely, someone would be as turned-on as I was about the Sky Train, and
he thought that they could probably answer all my questions about it.
Once inside, it was clearly obvious that the fellow behind the counter
was the shop owner, and he was having an animated discussion with a
female customer about Vancouver politics. I waited for the lively
discussion to die down, and I jumped in and injected my questions about
Sky Train...the guy lit up with pride and spewed out all sorts of cool
facts about the train, the first of which, was the fact that it was
indeed, a linear AC induction motor. He explained that it didn't have
any conventional electric motors at all, and that none of the wheels
were turned by any motor, and that they just rolled. He said that the
train itself was the stator coils and the track was essentially the
rotor. I came back with what my observations had been, too, and we
really got into a deep conversation that led into the politics of the
whole thing.
     After the stop at the train store, we walked around for miles and
even took a tour of the Chinese rock and water gardens...Vancouver is
such a cultural city! After a fun afternoon, it was getting late and we
needed to get back to the Blidook's house for the big EV Barbecue. We
rode Sky Train to the New West Minster station, on our way back to 'the
EV zone'. Next, we grabbed a bus that took us very close to the
Blidook's home, where we were picked up by Carey Blidook. Looking right
at me, the first words out of his mouth were, "Boy, are you in trouble!
A bunch more EVers showed up, and they were all looking for you."
       As we walked into the front yard, I was greeted by chants of
"PLAZ-MA, PLAZ-MA, PLAZ-MA, PLAZ-MA"....I simply came back with, "Yeah,
that's how I want my steak cooked!" It was quite a gathering at the
Blidook's house, and I quickly learned that I had missed some fun
moments and a lot of other EVers while we were out and about (uh-boat in
Canadian lingo). Madman Rudman and Damon had shown up after we had left,
and according to all the assembled carnivores, they put on quite a
show.  Glenn Houston also showed up later, and he had brought his
awesome electric go kart....damn! My friend Steve Lough 'Rev Man' was
there, and his tale about towing his EV 'IN GEAR' made my heart sink!
     I snuck away from the pack for a while, and got to test drive the
coolest electric recumbent bike! This was a beautifully made, fun EV
that really scooted along nicely.
     Back at the food fest, Shirley Blidook was walking around with a
group 27 RV battery, and I was wondering if she was going to jump start
someone, but she then removed the battery's top, to reveal its interior
stuffed full of chocolate chip cookies! I guess I'll have to send her an
empty YellowTop Optima, as the hollow round cylinders would work perfect
for stacking the cookies! The Barbecue was fantastic, and as always,
Gary and Shirley cooked up quite a meal! 
       The next morning, Cheryl and I and Mark and Diane met Gary and
Shirley for breakfast, and afterwards, they drove us to the train
station where we would catch the tour bus that would take us into
Seattle. 
     We had a terrific trip home, that started with a much nicer
Trailways bus...a much more modern, comfortable, and quieter one than
the first bus we rode on. In Seattle, we transferred to the train, a
highly touted European style one, and we weren't disappointed at all. We
had special seats that faced one another, as there are only two sets of
them per car, with both sets of four divided by the aisle. There were
these fun  guys sitting in the four seats across from us, and the trip
to Portland was filled with great conversation and laughter. We got into
talking EVs and one of the guys worked at Toro, so he really focused on
electric garden tractors.
     On the last leg of the train ride, we enjoyed a delicious hot
dinner in the diner car, and the early nighttime dusk was gorgeous, with
breathtaking scenery.....it was one of the best times I've had in a
while (excluding the EV stuff!)
    Back in Portland, the weather was beautiful and the 1/2 mile walk to
the MAX train was fun, with a refreshing breeze to keep us cool and with
the city all lit up, it was good to be back home. We rode MAX in a new
type 2 car with four AC motors....nice and smooth, but nothing compared
to the Sky Train!
     Thanks to our Canadian friends for a wonderful time!

See Ya........John Wayland