Captain Obvious

You folks who couldn't make it were truly missed. It would have been great to have all you guys together with us and it would certainly have been trouble, but fun trouble, of course! The Captain Drinkable was very nice. I've been an IPA guy for a number of years, but I'm really enjoying a well done pilsner just as much. In fact, here's me enjoying it : Granny, The screw was a Robertson. I had to look that up as I always just called them square drive, but that's what it was. I've still got it to serve as a reminder to carry my tire plug kit with me next time I do a long trip. I had my fancy-dancy narrow always inflated space saver spare with me that I could have put on, but I wasn't going to try 500 miles at highway speeds on that thing. Would've got me to a repair shop if I had a complete flat, but there's no way I would have tried to make it home on that.

Next morning was the trek home and (other than the Toronto traffic) this was the only real bummer... Driving through the hotel parking lot to head home, we hear this click-click-click from one of my rear tires. Stopped for a quick look only to find a screw stuck in the tire. After trying to pull it out and verifying that it was in fact punctured all the way through, we drove to a local Canadian Tire where they pulled the rear wheel off to patch the tire: And here's my souvenir. My "screwvenir": Thankfully after that time consuming and frustratingly expensive false start, the rest of the trip was uneventful. Got to stop at Bullfrogs Brewery in Williamsport, PA, where I got to sample this: So I'm home, tired, poorer, and trying to catch up on the forum and other things. Great meeting new friends. Getting together with past friends, and missing all you that couldn't make it.

Next morning went to visit Grannyknot. We hiked through miles of wilderness to view one of his Z car projects: Mr. and Ms. Blue left early to do some additional sightseeing in the area, but Granny treated GGR and I to a fantastic Canadian surf-n-turf!! After leaving grannyknots, GGR and I went to Muddy York Brewing Company. Great microbrewery not far from the hotel. Here's a shot of the operation: Next morning was the Peoples Choice show and we tried to gather the ClassicZ forum guys for a picture. There were more of us at the show, but couldn't get in touch. We were able to gather about ten of us: Here's our ClassicZ table at the closing banquet:

Got home safe last night. It's going to take me some time to catch up, but I wanted to get some pics posted. Here's my travel report: Started the trip by performing a high tech metric conversion on my speedo: As I mentioned before, we stayed the first night in Niagara Falls. Went to the Taps Brewery for a great dinner and a beer and then the next morning we drove down to the falls to meet up with Nikola Tesla: Here's he is, looking admiringly down on some Datsun Z paraphernalia: At the risk of arrest and/or driving violation, with the execution of a well timed plan, here's a shot of my car at Horseshoe Falls: Went to The Flying Saucer for breakfast before finishing the trip to Toronto: Made it to the Toronto where I met up with one of my Fiero buddies. He brought his beautiful car over to the convention hotel: Sitting up on our deck overlooking the pool. Farthest to closest are my traveling partner GGRIII, my Fiero buddy Adam, Blue, and yours truly Cap O: That evening was the Distillery District social event and a bunch of us got together for dinner at Mill Creek Brewing. An international collection of enthusiasts: Here's the mischievous Blue "adjusting" the beer selection menu while the rest of responsible people tried hard to stop him:

Out for Italian dinner last night with the Jims from the west coast. Nice time! Great to finally get together. So we do have Jims here, but always have room for more!

So far... Taps Brewery in Niagara. MIll St. Brewpub in Toronto, and Muddy York Brewing in Toronto as well. That's Wed, Thurs, Fri respectively. Muddy York reminded of the first place you and I went where we walked right into the big room with all the stainless tanks. Big difference was they DID sell their beer right there. Took a couple bottles back to the hotel and enjoyed them out on our deck overlooking the pool. Wish you were here!

OK, So then where are you, my friend???

more later. Zup, just wanted to let you know I'm thinking of ya!!! just got back from a fantastic surf n turf lunch hosted by granny knot! Wish you had been there.

Well it's not like he went to breakfast with us... He's suffering from a bad case of the bronze. I did manage to snap a pic of him admiring some Z badging though. Don't think I can upload pics from here though. Might have to wait till I get home.

Was in Niagara Falls last night and just got to the Westin a couple minutes ago! Im going to cool off for a little and then stat looking for trouble. Errrrrr I mean entertainment. Went to Taps brew house in Niagara last night for dinner. Got some good pics of Nikola Tesla this morning and had breakfast at The Flying Saucer!!

Nice! I'm out the door tomorrow morning headed to Niagara Falls. If all goes according to plan, I'll be in Toronto on Thurs morning. I'm not sure what the internet situation will be, so this may be my last communique until I get there. Save some poutine for me!!

Done. If it's as simple as avoiding the 407, I'll just do that. Blue, Sorry that you couldn't quite get 249 to the show. Sounds like the good college try would have worked, but you just ran out of time. You needed a couple more days shakedown before you left home. Really looking forward to seeing you though. With or without 249!

That's how I roll?

Crap. I wonder if they ream you with extra fees if you aren't in their system. I think PA is going to that type of arrangement. If you have the foresight to sign up, you get one price. If you aren't signed up and they have to search for you, they punish you by charging you more.

You got a nice dark location to put my car during the day? I'll show you my dash lights. You'll never be the same.

Thanks for the input guys, but don't get me wrong... I'm probably willing to pay the toll, but I'm not sure I'm going to be able to. Steve, are you saying that the toll roads that are electronic collection only with no provision for cash? I've seen that elsewhere, and they have a "retroactive" payment scheme where they take a pic of the license plate and bill you later. But I'm not sure if that will work with international travel. Any input from the locals?

So what about road tolls? I'm planning to take highways from Niagara Falls up to Toronto and I'm not sure it the highways have tolls. Stuff like the QEW? And if there are tolls, I'm assuming there are still "cash lanes"? The reason I ask is that some places are completely doing away with cash and are going to wireless electronic payment only.

Returned the favor. I literally lol'd when I read that. I had a similar sports injury a number of years ago, but it was the finger NEXT to the driving finger. Anyone else ever seen the bumper sticker "Horn broke. Watch for finger"?

Nice pic.

You could easily get them to me before I leave and I could take them along. Only problem with that Blue will have to make it to the event on his old bearings because I'm not going to be there until Thurs. But if there is no other better plan we can do that.

Wow bud, You are cutting it beyond close! Are both of you riding in the Z, or do you have a chase vehicle? I'm planning to bring a small pouch of tools, and you know I'll give you a hand if you need it once I get there.

Thin piece of sheet metal with some black textured paint from the big box store? Might keep you satisfied until you get a better replacement?

Oh, and I added a third light bulb in the speedo to fix that 1:00 position dark spot up by 80 mph. My nighttime speedo is now completely awesome!! I think of reasons to go driving at night because I just like looking at it!

I've been working hard to get my car ready for the trip as well. This will, by far, be the farthest road trip this Z has ever made with me at the helm. I put in a new rear diff mount with customized easy to wrench hardware - I took lots of pics and I'll get to the details sometime when I get a chance. While I was back there, I also sewed myself a replacement upper strap - Again, lots of pics and details. I put in new fusible links - Old links seemed looked and worked just fine, but looks can be deceiving. I got voltage and current measurements to discuss later. The last project I'm trying to get done is some homemade bumper ends for my newly retracted front bumper. They are Dilbert quality beta units at this point.

That is just awesome. I love the camaraderie. Did SteveJ have oil of Aphrodite and the dust of the grand wazoo?