Club Cruise to Numurkah "Show Us Ya Wheels"
Sunday 1st Dec, 2019
Sunday 1st Dec, 2019
For the past two weeks the weatherman had been forecasting today as being cold and wet - with an 80% chance of showers of up to 6mm. Because we only ever organise Club Events for clear sunny days (except for last years Christmas Party...) I really thought the weatherman was wrong. He'd also forecast showers the day before, and Saturday had turned out ok - with no rain. So Sunday was going to be fine too. Maybe.
Today was going to be a "first" for us, as Nathan had just got his "P"s on Friday. He'd bought himself an RX8 several weeks earlier, but had only driven it on "L"s. So we decided it would be really cool if we took both the RX's out and we could cruise together in two rotors (would that be a quad rotor?). My RX4 has only been wet twice that I can remember since I bought it in 1989, and never by choice. But for this special occasion, I was choosing to take it out in the rain. Oh well, beginning to loose it I guess....
This run was never going to attract a huge number of members due to the weather, and members are hesitant when taking their club cars on long distances - however we only ended up with 8 cars - which is really poor. C'mon guys, surely even the daily driver would make it to Numurkah and back! Thanks to the guys that did make the effort. Trev was all smiles showing off his rabbit trap "Best Original" award that he'd been presented at the Tatura Show 'N' Shine last month. Nice work Trev.
Anyway, as we pulled out of Huntly - with some of us having trouble with traction (old tyres?) and Wayne in the lead - because he had printed maps and had planned exactly where we were going - the rain had stopped and there were patches of dry road beginning to appear. We've done the road north to Rochester a few times, and it's never exciting, but today with Tash alongside me in the RX4 , and Nathan and Tom behind in the RX8, it didn't matter where we were or what the weather was doing.
It began to drizzle again on the way up to Rochester, visibility not so good due to 30 year old wiper blades probably not performing their best - mental note to consider buying some new one's before taking it out in the rain again (That'll be never!). We turned right in Rochy, then zig-zagged our way on to the Kyabram road. Wayne must have mis-read his own maps as we drove through Kyabram, took a wrong turn and and then we all followed him in the wrong direction towards Echuca. We all pulled over and a discussion ensued on "where the hell are we", followed by a U turn and the accompanying loss of traction (must have been mud or oil on the road - the oil wasn't from either of the rotaries Hoota...). We finally picked our way through Kyabram, with Wayne getting lost again and taking a different route - and Adrian who should have been concentrating more on the wet off-camber round-a-bout who accidentally spun the Charger 180 degrees in a brief moment of inattention - or stupidity.... To see him on the wrong side of the road with his headlights suddenly pointing towards us was a laugh out loud moment. Not sure if he was showing us how to do a skid, but there was definitely some puckering happening down below as she swung around and luckily missed everything. And the three point turn to get the big beast pointed in the right direction while traffic waited was equally enjoyable. In response to your comment as we pulled over a few moments later to regroup "Shit, did ya see that??!!", yes we all saw it Adrian. Except for Wayne, who was now hopelessly lost somewhere else and nowhere in sight. So we waited for Wayne while Adrian explained how good a driver he was and how he'd planned not to hit anything. Nice save mate. Only it really wasn't a save at all.
Wayne caught up to us while we doubted Adrian's driving ability and Wayne had now decided he wasn't sure where he was, so he wasn't going in the lead either. Greg said "I know the way - I have GPS - follow me". So we did. Until, instead of turning right at Kotupna, we all went straight onto a single lane bitumen road that after a couple of k's turned to dirt. Ok, so more u turns and skids in the grass, and back onto the main road. We were kind of all split up now, so I found myself in the lead (of three cars, not sure where the others went) up to Nathalia and then along the Kalamatite road across into Numurkah. We found the car show - paid our $10 and cruised in. I noticed another Rotor - an RX2 - and thought this just keeps getting better. The other guys were already there and parked on the grass oval with a couple of hundred other classics - their owners not scared to take them out in the rain. Nice cars ranging from daily drivers through to the wildly bagged and stanced customs - lots of trade displays, market stalls, food vans ,12 cylinder 27ltr Tank engine startup that didn't start, and a display of old Mad Max movie cars. Not a lot, but the weather may have scared some of these off. There was the yellow XB police pursuit car, a black Falcon police car, the Mad Max Interceptor, and a Mazda Bongo van. we spent a couple of hours wandering around, while some of the guys thought the pub might be a good place to wander to. They missed out on one of the coolest things of the day was when the organisers announced we could do a "drive through the main street of town" with the Mad Max cars leading the way! About 50 or so classics took to the streets and did a couple of laps of the kilometre long main street - with plenty of shenanigans around the several wet round-a-bouts. What a great way to finish the day. The only thing left now was to fill up both the rotors at the closest service station and hit the long road back to Bendigo.
It had been a remarkable day. Getting lost was fun, the rain was fun, lack of visibility though fogged up windows was fun, the wet roads were fun, watching Adrian was fun - yep, it had been a good day.
And it rained all of the way back to Bendigo. But it didn't matter.
Today was going to be a "first" for us, as Nathan had just got his "P"s on Friday. He'd bought himself an RX8 several weeks earlier, but had only driven it on "L"s. So we decided it would be really cool if we took both the RX's out and we could cruise together in two rotors (would that be a quad rotor?). My RX4 has only been wet twice that I can remember since I bought it in 1989, and never by choice. But for this special occasion, I was choosing to take it out in the rain. Oh well, beginning to loose it I guess....
This run was never going to attract a huge number of members due to the weather, and members are hesitant when taking their club cars on long distances - however we only ended up with 8 cars - which is really poor. C'mon guys, surely even the daily driver would make it to Numurkah and back! Thanks to the guys that did make the effort. Trev was all smiles showing off his rabbit trap "Best Original" award that he'd been presented at the Tatura Show 'N' Shine last month. Nice work Trev.
Anyway, as we pulled out of Huntly - with some of us having trouble with traction (old tyres?) and Wayne in the lead - because he had printed maps and had planned exactly where we were going - the rain had stopped and there were patches of dry road beginning to appear. We've done the road north to Rochester a few times, and it's never exciting, but today with Tash alongside me in the RX4 , and Nathan and Tom behind in the RX8, it didn't matter where we were or what the weather was doing.
It began to drizzle again on the way up to Rochester, visibility not so good due to 30 year old wiper blades probably not performing their best - mental note to consider buying some new one's before taking it out in the rain again (That'll be never!). We turned right in Rochy, then zig-zagged our way on to the Kyabram road. Wayne must have mis-read his own maps as we drove through Kyabram, took a wrong turn and and then we all followed him in the wrong direction towards Echuca. We all pulled over and a discussion ensued on "where the hell are we", followed by a U turn and the accompanying loss of traction (must have been mud or oil on the road - the oil wasn't from either of the rotaries Hoota...). We finally picked our way through Kyabram, with Wayne getting lost again and taking a different route - and Adrian who should have been concentrating more on the wet off-camber round-a-bout who accidentally spun the Charger 180 degrees in a brief moment of inattention - or stupidity.... To see him on the wrong side of the road with his headlights suddenly pointing towards us was a laugh out loud moment. Not sure if he was showing us how to do a skid, but there was definitely some puckering happening down below as she swung around and luckily missed everything. And the three point turn to get the big beast pointed in the right direction while traffic waited was equally enjoyable. In response to your comment as we pulled over a few moments later to regroup "Shit, did ya see that??!!", yes we all saw it Adrian. Except for Wayne, who was now hopelessly lost somewhere else and nowhere in sight. So we waited for Wayne while Adrian explained how good a driver he was and how he'd planned not to hit anything. Nice save mate. Only it really wasn't a save at all.
Wayne caught up to us while we doubted Adrian's driving ability and Wayne had now decided he wasn't sure where he was, so he wasn't going in the lead either. Greg said "I know the way - I have GPS - follow me". So we did. Until, instead of turning right at Kotupna, we all went straight onto a single lane bitumen road that after a couple of k's turned to dirt. Ok, so more u turns and skids in the grass, and back onto the main road. We were kind of all split up now, so I found myself in the lead (of three cars, not sure where the others went) up to Nathalia and then along the Kalamatite road across into Numurkah. We found the car show - paid our $10 and cruised in. I noticed another Rotor - an RX2 - and thought this just keeps getting better. The other guys were already there and parked on the grass oval with a couple of hundred other classics - their owners not scared to take them out in the rain. Nice cars ranging from daily drivers through to the wildly bagged and stanced customs - lots of trade displays, market stalls, food vans ,12 cylinder 27ltr Tank engine startup that didn't start, and a display of old Mad Max movie cars. Not a lot, but the weather may have scared some of these off. There was the yellow XB police pursuit car, a black Falcon police car, the Mad Max Interceptor, and a Mazda Bongo van. we spent a couple of hours wandering around, while some of the guys thought the pub might be a good place to wander to. They missed out on one of the coolest things of the day was when the organisers announced we could do a "drive through the main street of town" with the Mad Max cars leading the way! About 50 or so classics took to the streets and did a couple of laps of the kilometre long main street - with plenty of shenanigans around the several wet round-a-bouts. What a great way to finish the day. The only thing left now was to fill up both the rotors at the closest service station and hit the long road back to Bendigo.
It had been a remarkable day. Getting lost was fun, the rain was fun, lack of visibility though fogged up windows was fun, the wet roads were fun, watching Adrian was fun - yep, it had been a good day.
And it rained all of the way back to Bendigo. But it didn't matter.
We'll see you on a cruise somewhere!
