Seven Healeys driven by an equal number of bleary-eyed gentleman, accompanied by bright-eyed navigators prepared in the Oregon dampness to depart  on a tour to The Dalles.   We met at the Fred Meyer at the junction of highways 205 and 224.  As warned, George began to lead us off on the tour promptly at 08:00.  I nearly had to leave Marilynne to wander in Freddie’s for the day as she had gone inside and when George says we leave at 08:00 he bloody well means it.  We traveled Hwy 224 to a junction with Hwy 211 that branched us over to Hwy 26 and on to the mountain.  We stopped at Government camp briefly and then moved on to a rendezvous (funny how that word keeps coming up in my vocabulary these days) with Kent Lambert and some of his colleagues from Hood River at the junction of Hwys 35 and 44 on the east flank of Mt Hood.  We followed Kent into Dufur, OR for a very pleasant visit at the Dufur Living History Museum (See the attached images).  By this point in our travels we had left the dank and mists behind and the day was turning into a spectacular one.

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Once we arrived in The Dalles went gathered at Spooky’s restaurant for lunch and the monthly meeting.  During the meeting Mark informed the members regarding the ongoing preparations for the 2010 Rendezvous planned for Eugene and the Valley River Inn.  Only one major segment of the Rendezvous Committee remained unfulfilled by a leader, i.e., the auction.  John Wilson promptly stepped up and volunteered to lead that effort.  Mark’s threat to lock all the meeting room doors until he had a volunteer may have had something to do with John’s enthusiasm.  John Carter announced that there are only five cars registered for the Historic Races next month.  Too bad.  that’s not a very good showing for the club.  John also talked about a trip to the Le May Museum in Tacoma in August.  And, George Koeber covered the plans for the July 18th meeting at Fort Vancouver.  See the Future Events for details of these activities.

After the meeting we mounted up and drove the short distance to the Columbia River Interpretive Center. We toured there for a couple of hours before departing for the Mosier, OR Ice Cream Parlor and Collector Porsche Dealeership.  Now, there is a unique business model if ever I have seen one.  It is not often I have walked around with a waffle cone full of chocolate ship cookie dough while discussing the merits of a twin screen Porsche.   The route to this fascinating place in Mosier was one of the best sports car roads I think I have seen in Oregon.  Hwy 30 from The Dalles to Mosier runs atop the bluffs above the Gorge.  and it twists and turns and ups and downs fantastically.

The last leg of the day was crossing over the Columbia at tHood River to pick up Hwy 14 for a moderately high speed run back to Vancouver and then into Portland.  Our good-byes were smiles and waves betwen Healeys as we entered into town on I-5, different cars going in different directions.