I just returned from a 3 week sabbatical on the west coast with the Electra. The car performed remarkably well, no issues to report other than the cruise control I installed didn't work. I'll troubleshoot that over the winter. So I was driving home the other day, and the first lucky break was that I missed a serious accident by minutes. I got there just as the police were setting up roadblocks. Looked like a semi had lost control and taken out a couple of cars. From what I could see of the wrecks, it was bad, and it had just happened minutes before, the fire crews and the ambulances were still there. The next thing was about 40 or so miles later. I was cruising, making up for lost time. I was doing 80, speed limit was about 65. They had just resealed the highway and hadn't painted the centre lines on it yet, so it was a construction zone, speed limit of 50. It was getting dark, and I'd been driving for 11 hours or so by this point. You can see what happened next, I found the only cop on the whole highway. I got pulled over. So while I'm sitting there waiting for him to appear at the window, I'm thinking about the 50 Km over the limit and the Dangerous Driving charge along with the close to $1000 it'll cost me. I'm thinking my car might end up getting impounded. The cop comes up; "There are two reasons I pulled you over tonight, one, I like your car, two, you were going a little fast back there". I tell him I'm heading home, and am polite, no point arguing, he's got me dead to rights. I'm figuring I'm done for. He comes back, says, "I'm going to do you a favour since I really like your car, I'm only going to write you up for 10 over and save you a lot of money in fines and a tow. This is one cool car! Do you know how fast you were going?" I say I have a pretty good idea. He says, " I clocked you at 130 (km/h). Promise you'll slow down for the rest of the trip and take care of this car, have a nice day." "Yes sir, you too, thank you sir!" Just in case he decided to change his mind or something, I paid it the next day, $105. Thanked my stars for the luck. What I did was dumb, I'm not arguing for or condoning the behaviour. Speeding is dangerous, especially in a 50 year old car. I took the risk, and I got nailed. But, for the first time in my life, somebody told me they really liked my Electra. That was a first.
If you told me you were on the west coast, I would have told you I liked your car! Glad you made it back safely!
They actually are really cool looking cars, especially compared to the boring clone suv's that clog up the roads these days.
I ended up on the Island, my parents live in Sidney. I don't usually make it into Vancouver proper. This is probably the last time I'll drive the trip, simply because I know every tree on the way and to spend that much time sitting in a car is getting hard. I have sciatica which makes sitting anywhere over an hour difficult. This trip was particularly bad, I had to stop every hour on the hour to get out and stretch out the right leg, (that's why I was so bent on getting the cruise to work), so I would pass all the trucks and the slow motorhomes only to see them all go past again when I'm pulled over stretching out. I love driving, but at my size and with old age coming on increasingly quickly, I'm not sure I'll be in any shape to do any more trips.
