Bucket List Road Trip (2023)

Back in May of 1985, a couple of weeks after I took delivery of my brand new 1985 Fiero SE 2m6, I took on a road trip.  I had this romantic notion, perhaps from my Corvette and BMW owning friends, that if you had a nice car, you needed to drive it back to the factory, from where it came, for a visit.  Two weeks after I took delivery of my Fiero, I attended a friend’s wedding and right after that wedding, got in my car and drove East from Vancouver BC.  I was going to head to Pontiac ,MI,  and look for the factory where the Fiero was built. I got as far Trail, BC and crossed the Canada/USA border and looked around Spokane WA.   I called some friends and they said they were headed down to Seattle for a weeklong music festival.   Why don’t I join them?   So I did.    The trip to Pontiac MI was never completed.  After the festival we headed back north to Canada and life happened.  The trip was never completed.  

 

Thirty-five years later,  COVID-19 arrived and everybody was locked up at home with nowhere to go.   Rumors on the car forums were that there would be some great car events happening when things reopened.   The Fiero 40th anniversary of the factory opening was in the planning stages.   My car, in its unrestored condition, was still in good enough condition to make the trip.  At my age, this may be the last major road trip I would make in a car I enjoyed driving (not a rental car) so I started preparing my car for the trip.   Test runs for the car was in 2022 to Northwest Fiero Fest and through Alberta and back.  

So my first stop was Stephen’s Pass, enroute to Leavenworth, WA. 

Met with Fiero friends at Northwest Fiero Fest (2022). 

Then headed north, crossing the border into Canada near Good Grief, WA.  After driving through Alberta,  I headed back into BC and followed the Fraser River down the Fraser Canyon back to Vancouver BC. 

Then in 2023, having learned the Fiero 40th Anniversary would be a Concourse show event, I felt the car needed to look kind of presentable.  So, as pre-trip preparation, I made a few maintenance repairs and restored the wheels.    The engine intake manifold gasket was replaced,  all coolant hoses replaced, cooling system flushed,  new distributor installed, and an overall mechanical and safety check done.   One week before I embarked on the trip, a headlight motor failed.  Joe, at Westcoast Fieros of BC gave me a spare motor and I R and R’d the motor brush and put it all back in. 

The trip to Pontiac 

In order to avoid the traffic lines at Blaine WA,  I drove the the Okanagan Valley and crossed into Washington state at Osoyoos. 

I met some fellow road trippers along the way.   A Harley Davidson Rally in Milwaukee WI had a number of motorcycle riders headed east along the same highway. They followed me through rainstorms, and I followed their convoy on the highways east.  We happened to be staying in the same hotels so I was great meeting them. 

The Pontiac Fiero 40th anniversary show was amazing.  It was announced there were 389 Fieros in attendance.   I met some amazing people and made some new friends from all over Canada and the US.   I thought the folks from San Diego had driven their cars further to get there than I did.   But it turned out, I had driven just a bit over 3000 miles (each way) and won the award for longest distance driven to get to the show.   

I made many new friends. Some fellow Canadians from Montreal having a great time.  

And offered little help to somebody who needed to do a fuel pump swap before he could get his car back to Texas.

For the trip home, I decided I would return from the Canadian side.   So I crossed the Border and headed for Toronto.  I would spend a couple of nights there and visit with friends and family I had not seen in many years.  I did had an oil change done and thenI headed back to Vancouver by going north over the great lakes and across Canada. 

Taking a scenic route. 

Going through the Kootenay Pass back into BC. 

I had never driven across either country before, so this was a fulfillment of something I had thought about, ever since I was a kid.    This, in 2023, ends a road trip I had started way back in 1985.  Pulling into my driveway, I could only feel, what a wonderful drive the Fiero is.  I felt relaxed and the car handled and ran smoothly the entire trip.   I have another car that is very fun to drive (a MINI), but the Fiero was a combination of great fun to drive and relaxing for a long journey.   I saw some amazing scenery and met some wonderful people across two countries.  As I turned off the ignition and patted the steering wheel of the Fiero, I said “now THAT was a drive”.   It felt satisfying.