Mt Hood Miata Club

Concours de Maryhill

Looking West—the Columbia River From the Maryhill Museum


 
Today was an outing with the Miata Club to drive around 100 miles east to the town of Maryhill, WA, for a car show. Not to be in it, but to enjoy it as a spectator. Most car shows separate the entrants into eras or types or manufacturers, but this one was set up so that as the cars came in, that was how they were lined up. And if you could think of any kind of car, it was probably here.

I bailed kind of early and made a stop at a Roadside America attraction, the Maryhill Stonehenge, just down the street from where the car show was before getting on I-84 to head home.

Maryhill Stonehenge

Dahlia Day Out

Did a run with the Mt Hood Miata Club today. Our destination was the Annual Swan Island Dahlia Festival in Canby, Oregon. We met in the parking lot of a Fred Meyer in Wilsonville that was 3-1/2 miles from our destination as the crow flies or 10 miles as Google would have you go. But our run leader had mapped out a 35 mile loop through some very windy backcountry roads. And amazingly enough, our 17 car caravan didn’t really lose anyone.

We were allotted an hour to take in the beauty before we headed back into town for lunch. I walked all around both fields of flowers of many colors and shapes for about 30 minutes and then found some shade and a soft drink until it was time to go.

No fancy extra driving to get to Backstop Bar and Grill, just 2 quick miles and then a couple circles of the block to find a parking spot. The conversation was and the food was pretty good. I had noticed a sign for the Canby Ferry somewhere on the the drive and decided that I’d see if I could take that on the way home. It is a neat little 6-car affair that crosses the Willamette River. There were only 4 cars and me waiting to take it. Once loaded and moving they came around to collect the $5 fee. Turns out they don’t take plastic and all I had was three whole dollars in my wallet. So I ended up riding for free. But I felt bad and I think on my way down to Klamath Falls this weekend I’ll take the ferry and offer up a ten dollar bill to make up for it.

Canby Ferry

A Day At The Races

I spent the day at Portland International Raceway with a small subset of the Mt. Hood Miata Club. We met for breakfast at a Holiday Inn close to the racetrack before heading over to over for the SpeedTour that incorporates several different classes of car racing.

It also included a Hagerty: Cars & Caffeine, which is a car show for all kinds of automobiles in about 7 or 8 different classes. This is how we got in the event, at a cost of $50. That might seem like a lot, and it sort of is, but it included admission to the track for all 3 days (Fri, Sat & Sun) of the event for 2 people and your entry into the car show. The Miata is in the “sports car” class for show judging, and there were too many much cooler cars than our relatively “new” cars for us to win anything. My only chance at winning a prize was if there was a category for most stickers on the inside of a trunk lid.

I enjoyed myself and will probably go again next year.

Pull Caffé Run

My second Run with the Mt Hood Miata Club took me into the wilds of southern Washington with a dozen or so Miatas and one Fiat 124 Spider (AKA: Fiata.) What they call a Run is what we called a Rally back in the Masters Miata Club realm.

We met in a Home Depot parking lot in Vancouver, WA and if you’ve ever been in a Home Depot parking lot on a Saturday morning you would know just how out of place our little roadsters were. Our destination today was a small specialty coffee roaster in the wilds of Clark County. Pull Caffé’s address is listed as in the town of Yacolt, but I didn’t see anything resembling a town. On a side note, Yacolt is derived from the Klickitat word “Yahkohtl,” meaning “haunted place” or “place of (evil) spirits”, so good thing it was daytime.

Pull Caffé’s opening time on Saturday is noon, but we had arranged to arrive at 11 so we could get the nickel tour before the hoi polloi. Very interesting place, they started out as a woodfired coffee roaster but branch into making woodfired pizza and in a brick oven and then added baking sourdough bread in there too. The coffee roaster they use is literally the oldest one on the planet. When the owner found the German made roaster for sale in Bulgaria he was told it was used in the 30’s. When he got it installed he discovered it might have been used then, but it was built in the 1800s!

Another reason to be there early was because the first Saturday of the month is the only time they sell the bread and it draws a crowd from around the area. I snagged a loaf and I’ve got two thirds of it in the freezer because it is going to take a while for me to devour something the size of my head.

After leaving the coffee and pizza and bread makers behind we headed back south for lunch at the Prairie Tavern with a stop at the scenic Lucia Falls for a leg stretch.

I’m Member Number 476

There probably aren’t 476 current members, this is probably all time and the club has been around since October 14, 1990. I think the leader of the run I did when I joined the club said there are still over 200 folks on the roll.

That badge says 2024 Blue for my car, but there is an addition Miata in the family that there have only been brief glances of so far, that changes tomorrow. I drive down to FTW Tuning in a rental car and return home to Fairview in a black 2001 Miata LS.

Now I’m going to be going back to having one car too many for the parking I have. From last September until just last month I had two cars and one parking spot. The Miata got the primo spot in the driveway under the awning while the Mini was outside up in a spot near the Community Center. After the Vertical Platform lift was removed both cars fit in the driveway under the awning, but now I will have two Miatas and the Mini will be back up by the Community Center. The rule here is that if you own a car, you must have a spot to park it. They kind of let me break that rule for a while because of my predicament, i.e. wife dying, but this time they might not be so lenient.

Just When I Thought That I Was Out, They Pull Me Back In… Once Again

This is the third time I have used this title, or a variation of it, the first time was in January 2006 and the second time was in January 2016. Both of those posts pertained to Gillian Anderson, this does not. Come back next January for the next Gillian Anderson installment, I’m sure she’ll be starring in something or other then.

This is about Miata Clubs. Back in October of last year I looked up the local Miata Club and either they had nothing going on or I just got a weird feeling, so I forgot about them. Well, last night I thought I’d see if they an event or something coming up in the near future. They did, the near future was a mere 12 hours away, there was a drive and eat thing for tomorrow morning, AKA today.

My people. This club is probably about 7 or 8 times the size of the Masters Miata Club, this day’s group was small for them but would be a big turn out back there in the CSRA. There were a total of ten cars and about 15 people. There were 5 NDs, 3 NCs, 1 Fiata and one non Miata. I even spotted a lot of similarities between the two clubs, there is one guy who pops the hood as soon as he parks (Jim Creer), there was another who drove to the event on the chilly misty morning with the top down (Rudy Wilmoth) and another who showed up in their Corvette (Tom Varallo.)

It was a fun day, but I don’t know how many events I’ll do with them…

In reference to my remark yesterday about having to join Facebook to get any club information, I was wrong, there have a website with their own URL…