– by George Dyke….
Our CAC summer outing on Saturday July 19, 2014 was a well attended event with 30 people participating and an interesting mix of both new and long-time members!
View the full photo gallery here.
Outing participants included: James & Diane May, Suzie, Tom, Penelope, & Olympia Koutoulakis, Prakash Raja, Herns, Nettie & Herns jr. Pierre-Jerome, Chris Deja & John McCulloch, Lloyd McBride, Simon Walker & his friend Adrian, Jim Sciberas, Angela Fusco, Ken & Frances McGuinness, Fanny Gragor & Gord Linkletter, George & Marijke Dyke, Ruth Dyke, Roland Voegele, Larry Lewis, Steve Loria & Steve’s brother John and his wife Cathy,
What was supposed to a sunny and and warm day turned out to be overcast and on the cool side, but that made for perfect driving weather. We met at John McCulloch and Chris Deja’s home in Oakville. Actually Jim Sciberas, Angelo Fusco, my mom Ruth Dyke, my wife Marijke and I got a “head start” to the day meeting at the Patisserie D’or in Oakville for a coffee and croissants (real buttery french ones, the best we know of in the GTA).
When we arrived at John and Chris’s there was already a sizable gathering! (I had another coffee as I was up late the night before helping Simon Walker get his 2CV repaired for the outing. Simon discovered his voltage regulator had expired at 10:30 friday night and I drove downtown in Toronto with a spare that we installed).
Our destination was the Halton County Radial Railway Museum who that very day was celebrating their 60th Anniversary. We had done an outing to there back in 2005 and we thought is would be good to revisit the exhibit of antique streetcars and subways that the museum is famous for. We were pleasantly surprised to see that many enhancements have made to the museum since we were there last. And as much as enjoying all the activities of the day and taking rides on the historic electric railcars operating on two kilometers of scenic track throughout the property, we had even more of an adventure just getting there!
The museum, located just south of Rockwood, Ontario is a relatively short driving distance from our start point at John McCulloch and Chris Deja’s home. I wrote out turn-by-turn directions for the trip, but conversation on board a few vehicles (or perhaps it was the lovely scenery), ended up in cars missing a couple of critical turns and the convoy behind them going in the wrong direction! As I was leading the parade, I managed to turn around, cut back and chase down the offending driver and the merry brigade of followers, gathering them back on track while the those on the correct route stopped by the side of the road for continued socializing.
The route I had planned took us along some lovely country roads north of Oakville and Burlington over to the Niagara Escarpment at Walker’s Line. We meandered our way on some twisty and obscure roads to Campbellville, then over HWY 401 and along more country roads, eventually making it to the museum.
Steve Loria and Larry Lewis elected to meet us at the museum because of commitments that morning, but I intercepted Larry on one my wayward chases and he joined in the caravan for the remaining distance. Fortunately, as busy as the day was at the museum, we were able to park our cars together on the grass alongside the parking lot and create a formidable display for all the visitors coming and going.
Although the museum was our official destination, half of the group stayed together to venture onto Guelph (about 15 kms west) for dinner at the Greek Garden restaurant. Just as we arrived the weather changed to rain, but were inside and enjoying a lovely meal as we wound up the day together to go our separate ways until our next outing in August.
Return to Citroën Autoclub Canada Past Events page