Wilma's Birthday Run
Rochester Motors 'N' Music Festival
Saturday 4th May, 2019. (May the forth be with us....)
Rochester Motors 'N' Music Festival
Saturday 4th May, 2019. (May the forth be with us....)
Bendigo had received what seemed like it's first rain for the year during this week, with Wednesday and Thursday seeing a couple of showers. I got caught in one while driving the work van and had to pull over in panic as I couldn't remember where the wiper switch was. Been a while since it has rained.
But of course - as we all know - the Events Committee never plan an event on a rainy day, so Saturday dawned sunny, although a little cold. We were going to take the Rotor today, with my son Nathan excited about driving with the 'L's on. That was the plan, but thoughts of that evaporated when just after we fired it up - it stopped again with no electric fuel pump. Being a rotary, and from the amount of fuel it uses, I'm surprised it doesn't require two pumps - one to pump fuel into the engine and one to pump raw fuel into the exhaust...... Or maybe it should have two in case one breaks. Anyway, the single fuel pump had obviously stopped and a check of fuses and a glance over the wiring didn't find any obvious issues, so a quick change of plans saw the Plymouth being fired up and the 'L' plates being left behind in the RX4. Nathan not happy.
By now we were late, but arriving in Huntly, it seemed others were later. Or not coming. There were only three or four cars outside the bakery, with Mal & Rose reverse parked a bit further down. As we backed in alongside Mal's F truck, Wilma pulled up too. Which was a good thing as it was her birthday today and the run was named "Wilma's Birthday Run" for good reason. There were numerous pies and coffees consumed outside the bakery and by the time we were ready to leave we had 17 cars. Including potential new member John, taking his '72 Cougar convertible for its first decent run out of Bendigo and also on their maiden run was Ron and Wes in their ZA Fairlane. Good job guys.
It was a wonderful sight and sound as we all pulled out of Huntly and cruised towards Rochester. We had the roof up in the Plymouth (pussy's, I know) but it was cold - and with roof down the heater only warms your feet. And besides, John and his mate in the Cougar had their roof up as well. (More pussy's then....). The road to Rochester can never be described as exciting - flashback to the road to Swan Hill - it's just flat and mostly straight. But anytime you can cruise in a classic, especially with a group of others is a good time. I reckon we all had a nice run up to Rochy, with the exception maybe of Steve in the Cadillac who was having a "water and sludge in the fuel bowl" issue, which probably wasn't a lot of fun as his speed reduced to below 60kph and he waved us all past. For those of us that know Steve, we know that nothing much seems to upset him, and today was no different as he caught up to us a bit later at the car show and just shrugged off the Cadillac's fuel problems.
We pulled into the Rochester Pub carpark and filled out the lengthy (unnecessary?) registration form, then tried to find a gold coin - who knew we'd need a gold coin? Do people still use cash? It was not a big carpark and lucky we were early as we filled over half of it with our cars. In the end, Custom Addictions had 20 cars turn up, and then there was an assortment of 15 other cars, rat rods and show cars - and 25 bikes. We checked out the other vehicles, had some food, sat around for a while, then hit the backroads towards Bendigo. First though, a small group of us drove over to the silo murals and took a photo opportunity. Someone mentioned how cool it would have been to come past the silo's first on the way up and have 17 cars in the shot. Yep. Would've been. Oh, well, next time.
The back way home to Bendigo is not usually a slow way, but Steve's Caddy was really showing signs of more water than fuel in the tank and the engine was not happy. With the old big block ingesting water mixed with fuel, coughing and spluttering, we stopped every 10 minutes, popped the bonnet and cleaned out the gunk from the fuel filter. Hoota and Steve are now experts in flushing Cadillac fuel bowls, but probably never want to clean another one.
So, all in all, a really good day. Nice to see most of the regulars on this run, and also some seldom seen members and their rides.
And crisis avoided, we fixed the RX4's fuel pump issue later that arvo too - after pulling the back seat out - dodgy wiring connection in the boot. And as we'd already filled out the log book, we slapped the "L's" on and Nath took it for a very enjoyable squirt around the back blocks of Bendigo.
Thanks Events Guys, lookin' forward to the next one!
But of course - as we all know - the Events Committee never plan an event on a rainy day, so Saturday dawned sunny, although a little cold. We were going to take the Rotor today, with my son Nathan excited about driving with the 'L's on. That was the plan, but thoughts of that evaporated when just after we fired it up - it stopped again with no electric fuel pump. Being a rotary, and from the amount of fuel it uses, I'm surprised it doesn't require two pumps - one to pump fuel into the engine and one to pump raw fuel into the exhaust...... Or maybe it should have two in case one breaks. Anyway, the single fuel pump had obviously stopped and a check of fuses and a glance over the wiring didn't find any obvious issues, so a quick change of plans saw the Plymouth being fired up and the 'L' plates being left behind in the RX4. Nathan not happy.
By now we were late, but arriving in Huntly, it seemed others were later. Or not coming. There were only three or four cars outside the bakery, with Mal & Rose reverse parked a bit further down. As we backed in alongside Mal's F truck, Wilma pulled up too. Which was a good thing as it was her birthday today and the run was named "Wilma's Birthday Run" for good reason. There were numerous pies and coffees consumed outside the bakery and by the time we were ready to leave we had 17 cars. Including potential new member John, taking his '72 Cougar convertible for its first decent run out of Bendigo and also on their maiden run was Ron and Wes in their ZA Fairlane. Good job guys.
It was a wonderful sight and sound as we all pulled out of Huntly and cruised towards Rochester. We had the roof up in the Plymouth (pussy's, I know) but it was cold - and with roof down the heater only warms your feet. And besides, John and his mate in the Cougar had their roof up as well. (More pussy's then....). The road to Rochester can never be described as exciting - flashback to the road to Swan Hill - it's just flat and mostly straight. But anytime you can cruise in a classic, especially with a group of others is a good time. I reckon we all had a nice run up to Rochy, with the exception maybe of Steve in the Cadillac who was having a "water and sludge in the fuel bowl" issue, which probably wasn't a lot of fun as his speed reduced to below 60kph and he waved us all past. For those of us that know Steve, we know that nothing much seems to upset him, and today was no different as he caught up to us a bit later at the car show and just shrugged off the Cadillac's fuel problems.
We pulled into the Rochester Pub carpark and filled out the lengthy (unnecessary?) registration form, then tried to find a gold coin - who knew we'd need a gold coin? Do people still use cash? It was not a big carpark and lucky we were early as we filled over half of it with our cars. In the end, Custom Addictions had 20 cars turn up, and then there was an assortment of 15 other cars, rat rods and show cars - and 25 bikes. We checked out the other vehicles, had some food, sat around for a while, then hit the backroads towards Bendigo. First though, a small group of us drove over to the silo murals and took a photo opportunity. Someone mentioned how cool it would have been to come past the silo's first on the way up and have 17 cars in the shot. Yep. Would've been. Oh, well, next time.
The back way home to Bendigo is not usually a slow way, but Steve's Caddy was really showing signs of more water than fuel in the tank and the engine was not happy. With the old big block ingesting water mixed with fuel, coughing and spluttering, we stopped every 10 minutes, popped the bonnet and cleaned out the gunk from the fuel filter. Hoota and Steve are now experts in flushing Cadillac fuel bowls, but probably never want to clean another one.
So, all in all, a really good day. Nice to see most of the regulars on this run, and also some seldom seen members and their rides.
And crisis avoided, we fixed the RX4's fuel pump issue later that arvo too - after pulling the back seat out - dodgy wiring connection in the boot. And as we'd already filled out the log book, we slapped the "L's" on and Nath took it for a very enjoyable squirt around the back blocks of Bendigo.
Thanks Events Guys, lookin' forward to the next one!
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Happy Birthday Wilma!
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We'll see you on a cruise somewhere!
