Today (21-Aug-04) was the British Motor Club of Utah's annual Apine Loop tour.
I think it was the 17th or 18th year in a row, I'll have to check. While
there was a Sunbeam on the drive, the trip is not named for the Alpine sports
car, but for a scenic highway on the east side of Mt. Timpanogas in Utah.
The worst part is getting to it from the Salt Lake valley. Back in the early
days of the run, it was pretty simple to motor little two lane frontage roads
and such to avoid the freeways. These days the south end of the Salt Lake
valley is under constant construction of new homes, new roads, new shopping
centers and such. Weaving hither and yon in a morass of construction areas,
new roads, old roads rendered unrecognizable can be a bit festive in a Little
British Car. I was actually at the wheel of an '87 Honda Civic, none of my
running Triumphs are suitable for the street. In truth, of the 30 or so cars
that usually participate about half a dozen tend to be someone's "other" ride,
today the only two non-conformists were a Miata and my Civic. Not bad.
The cars included the usual range of popular MGs and Triumphs, some new Minis,
a nice red Bugeye, a Land Rover, Lotus Esprit and a few more obscure cars. I
couldn't find my digital camera in the rush to get out of the house this
morning, so no pictures. It must be somewhere in the various piles of stuff
from last weekend's IVR races.
We made our way through the populated areas to the canyons around Timp, and had
a splendid drive. Lunch was behind the courthouse in Heber, Utah, sprawled on
the grass under some nice, shady trees. This event is also one of the club's
biggest fund raisers, as we collect items from various vendors to raffle off.
The raffle had some humourous moments and a bit of confusion now and then as
myself, Rob Green and our club president Gary Lindstrom tried our best to
conduct the raffle in the manner of three esteemed gents from the earlier days
of television, Larry, Moe and Curly.
After lunch was consumed and all the prizes awarded, I headed back to Salt
Lake, some of the others continued on through some of the scenic roads in the
area to Park City before heading home. It was a pleasant day's outing.
mjb.
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