TOUR PARTICIPANTS DISCOVER THEIR COUNTRY
John and Koko Carlson planned their participation in the Canadian Coasters Cross Canada tour for five years. The Vancouverarea residents spent more than a year preparing their car and newly purchased travel trailer for the 20,981-kilometre journey from Victoria to St. John’s, Nfld. — and then back again. Back roads and side trips accounted for the extra mileage.
The car they chose was an alloriginal avocado green 1973 Mustang Grande, a top-of-the line pony car loaded with options. It was like new. But, just to be sure, the car was sent to Port Moody Wheel Alignment for a complete check-over and replacement of any worn mechanical suspension and brake parts. An extra leaf was put in the Mustang ’s rear springs and air shocks were added to handle the extra weight of the trailer. Many spare parts, including fuel pump, extra ignition parts and lights were part of the extensive backup package.
“We thought the car was bulletproof,” said the president and chief judge of the National Association of Automobile Clubs of Canada, adding, “What could go wrong?”
There were 103 vehicles — all at least 30 years old — participating in the tour with 83 of them pulling trailers. Many of the people drove to Victoria for the start of the 75-day tour from other parts of the country.
“I would call it the tour that discovered Canada,” said Fraser Field shortly after arriving home more than a month after completing the tour in Newfoundland. “We went to places, small towns and historical sites that most people wouldn’t know about.”
Car clubs and communities along the way put on special events, dinners and even a country hoedown for the Coasters as they passed through. Many towns included the Coasters in their Canada 150-birthday celebrations. The Lillooet First Nations welcomed the Coasters to the B.C. community with traditional dances and a salmon barbecue. The Coasters were bused to the Calgary Stampede for the chuckwagon races. The tiny hamlet of Patricia, Alta., where Coasters far outnumbered residents, went all out with a community dinner and car show.
In Ontario, Niagara Falls put on a huge car show and the Coasters were treated to a tour of Ice Culture in Hensall, where a team of world-renowned ice sculptors had assembled 5,000 kilograms of ice to create the freezing ice truck for a Canadian Tire commercial.
But there would be trouble along the way as some of the backroads were in bad shape. Huge potholes resulted in some bent or broken axles, worn-out axle bearings and other problems.
Fraser Valley residents Gord and Audrey Stebanuk put everything new in their modified 1955 Pontiac Starchief two-door hardtop — except a new steering centre link. It broke minutes after they pulled off the freeway in Niagara Falls. Gord welded it up and then gave up when the second link broke. He bought a pickup truck to finish the tour and shipped the Pontiac home.
It didn’t take many miles for things to heat up for fellow Fraser Valley residents Terry and Donna Johnson. The wooden bed of their pickup truck caught fire between Merritt and Kelowna, caused by a tail pipe that was too close to the pickup bed wooden planks.
“It took two fire extinguishers and five gallons of water to put the fire out,” Terry says.
His problems continued with the need to replace eight wheel bearings on the trip and one broken axle.
Johnson received amazing help and support from fellow travellers Gord Stebanuk, Donnie Krickemeyer and Joe Wright. Some shops along the way stayed open late and others refused money for their assistance.
As for John and Koko Carlson, they weren’t at all prepared for the bad roads that pounded their vintage Mustang and trailer. “These were some of roughest roads imaginable,” John says.
When they were derailed in Cardston, Alta., by a tilting trailer wheel, the mechanics at Crosstown Truck Repair determined the trailer axle had been installed upside down at the factory and that it was also bent. Shop owner Blair Hassett refused payment after having one of his mechanics straighten and realign the axle.
In Prince Edward Island, more trailer trouble when the spring hanger tore away from the frame. NAACC director Wilfred Moase contacted local car club member Doug Parkman, aged 80, who completed the welding in the rain and refused payment.
On the sixth day travelling in Nova Scotia, they were directed to the F&S Auto Repair shop in Bridgewater when a rear wheel axle bearing failed. The shop owner invited the Carlson’s to camp on his lot and loaned them tools to replace the bearing and use of his car to get parts. John changed the axle bearing in the parking lot.
After three hours of “the roughest road I have ever seen” — along the ocean loop outside Antigonish, N.S. — John Carlson was flagged down by a motorist. Two spring leafs had broken and half of one had fallen out. The trailer was nearly sagging onto its wheels and there was a ferry to Newfoundland to catch the next day.
Kim MacDonald, a motorist passing by, guided them to a parking spot at a nearby volunteer fire station where they unhooked the broken trailer. The Carlson’s drove to GCR Tires in Antigonish, arriving right at the 5 p.m. closing time.
Five calls and 15 minutes later, with the help of shop foreman Jody, a tow vehicle was flatdecking the broken trailer to the tire store. The next morning, the Carlson’s were guided by local tour participant Glen Tate to Custom Spring and Welding located in the tiny hamlet of Thorburn, some 45 kilometres away.
There, Ralph, who has worked there for 40 years, lifted two new springs off the shelf, complete with new Teflon bushings. He then made custom U-bolts. Shop owner Sheila MacDonald charged them a wholesale cost: $200. The Carlson’s made the overnight ferry.
Then they bent a rear axle on the Mustang in St. John’s that was replaced with help from local NAACC director Bob Ford Sr. at his home shop. Bobby Ford Jr. located replacement axles. During the axle replacement, no less than 17 other Coasters came by for help with their vehicles. “It was like a full-time repair shop” says Carlson.
The problems didn’t end there; back to see Ralph in Nova Scotia at the spring shop after they left Newfoundland with a bent trailer frame.
Six hours later, the trailer frame was rebuilt on both sides. Ralph fabricated and installed custom heavy duty springs and repaired the trailer frame for a total cost of $700.
After a warm handshake from Ralph and a hug from Sheila, the Carlsons were back on the road. “If we had been anywhere else, the bill would have been four times higher and the work taken at least a week,” John Carlson says.
That is echoed by New Westminster residents Roy and Susan Shull. It was their fourth crosscountry tour in an old car — this time in a 1950 Buick convertible towing a travel trailer.
“The country and the people are really something,” Roy enthuses.
For Susan, the most emotional time was at the final banquet in Newfoundland put on by local car club members where a huge Canadian flag was displayed. “All the Coasters wearing their red Canada 150 shirts stood to sing O Canada. It was such a moving moment.”
It was there that tour wagon master Fraser Field and wife Dorothy were presented with the National Association of Automobile Clubs of Canada Hobbyist of the Year Award. They had spent years planning and organizing the tour. Fraser, a retired paramedic from the Fraser Valley, drove his original 1969 Pontiac Bonneville ambulance on the tour without any significant mechanical problems.
“We are now getting letters and cards from the participants,” Fraser Field says.
“People are calling the tour the trip of a lifetime, having met so many wonderful people along the way.”
Alyn Edwards is a classic car enthusiast and partner in Peak Communicators, a Vancouver-based public relations company. aedwards@peakco.com