After a few days at home from my ride with Jim at the beginning of July, two days at the Vancouver Island Music Festival, I am in the road again, this time with my friend Jim Knight. We are heading to a state park east of Ashland, OR for the International Norton Owners' Association rally.
I pulled out of my driveway at 6:00 a.m. this morning with my 1974 Norton in the back of my truck. The plan was to drive to Sooke, load Jim's 1974 Norton, head for the Black Ball Ferry from Victoria to Anacortes, WA, and head south as far as we could get.
My 1974 Norton Commando ready for a ride.
!974 Norton Commando all tied down and ready to go.
I arrived at Jim's at about 9:30 and we immediately began to load Jim's bike. Putting a second Norton into a pickup truck is about four times more complicated than loading one. It took us about an hour to get the second bike loaded, get everything tied down and then to pack Jim's stuff. We left after 11 o'clock and arrived at the terminal in downtown Victoria at noon. Because all the reservations were taken we arrived three hours early for the sailing with the hopes that we could get on the ferry early enough to be able to make some distance before we had to stop for the day.
A brace of 1974 Norton Commandos. Note the tie job!
Nortons ready to head for the ferry
When we got on the Coho, we asked a couple if we could join then in a booth. They agreed and as we left the harbor Jim asked me to take a photo of a large sailboat that was tied up. When I got back I told him the name of the boat. The guy looked it up on his Smart phone and told us the boat, the 'destination' was a forty-two metre long boat with a width of nine metres, registered in Georgetown, in the Cayman Islands.
We got in to a conversation with him and when I told him I was from Campbell River, he said that he was too. It was Jason Beaulieu, a very well-known car racer. He has raced for thirty years and won pretty well everything in the Pacific Northwest on stock cars. He now races dirt track and is based in Bates, Arkansas. He races all the way from Florida, to Kentucky, to Nevada, and places in between. His base is within driving didtance of one hundred and fifty tracks so he can race wherever he wants. He had just come back from a tour of North Dakota and southern Saskatchewan. He was heading to Port Angeles to meet the driver of his semi that had his cars and engines and who was bringing it back to Canada.
He also owns about fifteen tugs, some up to a hundred feet long so he has the money to indulge in his passion for racing. During the ride he told us about some of the weather conditions his tugs have to deal with. I can only say that I'm glad I don't have to make my living on the water.
The ride was a bit rough with a 20-25 mph wind and up to four foot waves which caused the ferry to rock back and forth. The captain was kind enough to quarter the waves so the ship didn't roll too much but it cost us an extra twenty minutes sailing time and we weren't off the ship until about 5 o'clock.
After stopping for coffee in Sequim, WA we took Highway 101 south. The drive was quite smooth until we pulled up behind a car from BC whose driver consistently drove 10 mph below the speed limit and who wouldn't pull over in one of the many pullouts to let us pass. We followed this guy for about sixty kilometres before we passed him. The driver was either totally oblivious to the fact that he was being followed by a truck for mile after mile, or he was too ignorant to know that he should pull over and let us pass. I finally passed him in a 35 mph section of the highway and never saw him again.
We joined I-5 at the south end of Olympia and headed toward Centralia, WA, where we decided to stop at Motel 6. We checked in at about 9:30 ready for a good night's rest. I can say that I'm considerably less tired after driving all day in air conditioned comfort rather than being on a Harley in leathers in thirty-five Degree C. heat.
Tomorrow we'll try to make it to Medford or Ashland, OR, before getting a room for the night & checking in to the rally on Wednesday morning. The weather is beautiful, the roads are good, and the Nortons seem to be well tied in. Should be a good drive tomorrow.
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