Having spent most of the summer working on an addition to our BC home, at it’s completion, we were ready for a cruisin’ weekend with the ’46 Ford conv. and our 17’ Boler trailer. With
everything loaded in the car and trailer (including the pups and cat) we left Chilliwack at noon.
We breezed through the border and drove our favorite ‘Time Warp’ route, Hwy 9 south from
Sumas, WA., Everson, Demming to Sedro Wooley. As usual, we filled the larder with ‘Specials’
from the local food mart and continued down 9 to the City Riverfront Park RV site on the Skagit River. Our reserved space was taken, so we parked next door. It was next to a nice tree
for the pups and next to a couple we soon met…ironic that he’s an old racer I am sure we ran
against in the ‘50s. They are expecting several more family for a reunion in the next 2 days, but we are invited to attend. For dinner, we cruised downtown to the Iron Skillet for dinner.
We relaxed, walked the pups, chatted more with the next door’s and retired for a quiet night and an early sleep.
Saturday morning, we slept late then tooled down town to the Hometown Café on the main drag. This ‘50s café has been in business here for many years, has overstuffed, plastic naugahyde covered pleat and roll seats across from a Formica covered tabletop in booths that ring the floor under a 25’ high center ceiling. At the rear is an open grille where from a line of stools, you can watch the cook prepare the food. It is served on 16” long oval platters, off white from many washings, a green pinstripe circles the outer edge and the silverware??? (Army and Navy much used S/S, bent and dull) placed on a napkin. The pleasant, but obese,
waitress brings menus, glasses of water with lots of ice in them, greets us to the café and says she’ll return soon to take our order. We both order the ‘Special’…OJ, coffee, an omelet with everything in it, hash-browns, toast, jam and endless coffee…all for $6.00, such a deal. Our meals begin to arrive after several fills of good coffee, a platter of omelet and taters, toast on the side with a container of jams, jellies and marmalades. More coffee fill-ups, do we want anything else til we ingest all we can, ask for a ‘take-out’ box and for less than $12, including a tip, we exit with 2 boxes, full as a tick and tomorrow’s breakfast too!!!
Back at the park, I washed the Boler, cleaned the car and got ready for the show tomorrow.
We had a plateful of BBQ dinner with our new neighbors, their family and found another buddy who had been a racer in the ‘50s to relate to, small world eh??? We drank a few beer together, swapped more stories as we bench-raced into the evening and relaxed about 11.
The JJ’s Cruiser’s early arrivals to set up the park for the more than 500 cars expected to attend, roused us from a good sleep, so walked the pups, hooked up the car to trailer and by 8am, had it sited under the trees, near to the playground where we were featured as one of the show attractions. We set out all the Route 66 accessories, the awning, the coolers, the table and rest of the items Chan has accumulated over the last 4 years. JJ’s always starts the morning with fresh coffee and donuts for a paltry fee, we filled a plate and settled down for the day. Over 100 Canadians attend this run where all the proceeds go towards local charities. We bought our 50/50 tickets, a couple arm lengths of prize coupons and spent the next 4 hours chatting with friends and meeting new visitors that viewed our display. During the day, ‘Wolfman Jack’ impersonator spun ‘50s music, we enjoyed a foot long dog, chips, drink and dessert lunch for $2. Dog was soooo good, (Costco I think) we each had seconds!!!
At 4pm, the ‘Wolfman’ emceed the trophy awards and we were again lucky to pick up an 18” award from a local sponsor who liked our set-up. We also won a couple of door prizes and at
6pm we were all packed up and ready to head north to BC. We said goodby to our hosts, fellow club member friends, gassed up with cheap AM/PM Arco and drove home as the sun was setting over the low hills up Hwy. 9. We got a quick pass thru the border and were home by 8pm. Some of the leftovers in the fridge was dinner and we hit the hay early.
It was another great cruise, all top down weekend, good eats, good friends good times, good travel, good weather and an overall good trip to remember. Our thanks to all the JJ’s Cruiser’s club members for another wonderful event with our car, our trailer and our menagerie, keep up the great events, thanks again, Bunny & Charlotte