Roy, Walt and many others.

September 20, 2010 Monday finds us packing up. Leaving the Lafayette Hotel is difficult, the beds are so soft. But we pack the car and head over to Dave’s for one last good bye. The Danville d’Elegance car show is over and we have had a wonderful time. We set our sites on San Francisco. We pay a $4.00 toll to cross the Bay Bridge. A thick fog layer covers the bay; it’s hanging low and all you can see are the very tops of the Golden Gate Bridge. Our destination is the Disney Family Museum. It’s a remarkable tribute to the Disney Family and the family man that Walt Disney was. The displays are informative and some are even interactive. Awe and amazement at the beauty of the museum and even tears of joy and sadness. Highly recommend you visit. We lunch with our friend and host of the San Francisco Ghost Hunt, Jim Fassbinder. We catch up and share stories and before you know it its 5pm and time for Jim to get ready for his walk. Another highly recommended San Fran attraction. Oli takes him for a quick ride around the block and he insists on making a donation. What a generous, kind friend. Back to the museum where the car has been parked and drawing a crowd all afternoon. We meet Josh Keppel (wearing a USA shirt) from NBC Bay Area and do a quick interview. Josh introduces us to Aaron Maestri who was actually responsible for designing the exhibits of the museum and just happened to be there this day! What a coincidence and an honor to be able to compliment the designer on his brilliant work. This was Aaron’s first visit to the museum since it opened. Our favorite part of the museum is as you turn the corner and look down upon the Disneyland section. During Aarons many meetings with Diane, she told him she wanted the experience of that room to be like coming down the stairs on Christmas morning. Mission accomplished. We both got goosebumps and our eyes bugged out. He happened to be there today having lunch with Diane Disney herself. When they exited the museum they saw the DeLorean and looked it over. I can’t believe we missed Diane by a fraction of a moment. We were probably walking right beside her while inside the museum and didn’t know it. -But she saw our car!! And if it made her and her daughter smile, we’re happy to have given back a small portion of what her family has done for us over the years. By request, we posed the car in front of the building for the crew of the museum to take pics. They made donations and we sat a few of them into the drivers seat. Now we’ll watch FB for their posts! Finished the day by getting a room at the San Remo Hotel and a sourdough bread bowl of clam chowder on Fisherman’s Warf. Tomorrow we decide if we explore San Fran some more or head for the Redwoods. I vote Redwoods!

A Parade and the car show.

Morning comes quick again. We drive to the intersection of Prospect and Railroad in Downtown Danville and set up the car. The shop owners are all happy to help with letting us run power to the car, we check the outlet first of course! Folks are from all over, earlier there was a heart walk so all those folks have filtered into downtown to enjoy the cars. All makes and models, there's an REO Speedwagon, a pic up truck, weren't they a band in the 70's? Jaguars, Astin Martins, Lamborginis and Range Rovers. And lot's between. Oli led the parade with silent auction winner, 'Mackenzie', as co-pilot in the time machine, and they blasted Huey Lewis' Power of Love all the way down the parade route. Mackenzie enjoyed the 'aooga' horn button! We had a great time sharing the tent with the Parkinson's Institute. Debi helped us set up the booth and then had to catch a plane. But before she left we took some pics with her in the car. She looks good in a time machine! Fun! The day was filled with kids wanting to climb in the car, some with blue tongues.We set the time circuits to their birthdays and just had a blast. Gale, my dinner partner from last night, cutie patutie, stopped by with her grand kids. It's a beautiful day for a car show, cool with cloud cover in the morning but by the afternoon we are enjoying the sunshine! The show finishes up with the awards and we all start to pack up. Good bye Danville! We have had a wonderful time in your quaint, charming town.
Now to decide where to next? Seattle? Yellowstone? Well first the Disney Family Museum tomorrow, then we'll decide.

Sleep, Bacon, and an ocean of Blue.

Thursday 9/16/20 After the salt flats excitement of Utah we head for California. After a fill up and a bite, we leave town around 2pm, later than we had planned, but with only 9.5 hours to go, we figure we'll be o.k.
We make it to Reno around dusk and decide to push it one more hour. Oops, it's a very dark and dreary road through the Tahoe National Forest. There is construction most of the way and it's pitch black. Difficult driving so I start making hotel calls. The rooms are crazy expensive until I call the Colfax Motor Lodge. Affordable and get-to-able! It's the perfect place, sweet room that feels like California, arched doorways. Everything looks like the owners take great care and pride with their motel. The paint is kept fresh, the outdoor carpeting of the covered walkways is vacuumed, etc. For the first time on this trip, even the toilet has the little paper ribbon declaring it's sanitation! It is not fancy, but meticulously cared for and it shows. The morning comes too quickly, but up we get and pack the car. At the entrance's hill is a restaurant -and it's home cooking! Since we had skipped supper, we're both hungry and were thinking Cracker Barrel thoughts. This was even better! Eggs, home fries, pancakes, bacon. Mmmmm. Now let's get to Danville! Getting back on 80, the construction seems to end shortly, or at least easier to get through in the day light. The road is wide and very hilly, running like a giant rollercoaster. Our ears pop every few minutes, dipping down low, then rising up over the next hilltop. A strange looking plane flies overhead. Traffic is flying, and though we're not sure what the speed limit is, we're able to keep pace pretty well. The beautiful pine trees go whizzing by and we're so happy to be well rested and able to see the roads and be out of the construction! As we take a hill, we see a blue light off to the side of the road. Oli slows, then sees the speed limit sign after the blue light. 65 mph. Then, as we crest the top of the hill, we see something that puts our hearts in our throats. An ocean of blue lights, all up and down the highway. Travelers pulled left and right by a squad of police. It's a major speed trap! The first we've ever seen like this. And, as you might imagine, Oli looks in his side mirror and we have attracted a blue light of our very own. We pull over, as quickly as we can, trying to find a clear spot between all the others. The young California patrolman is not Eric Estrada, but has strong features and short brown hair with frosted highlights. He walks up smiling with a mouthful of perfectly white Hollywood teeth. "Good morning! Our radar plane read you doing 86 in a 65." (Ouch!) "If you had gone 2 miles faster, I might not have been able to catch ya!" The officer has a sense of humor but still gives us a ticket. It's obviously a well orchestrated operation and they will be very busy, all day long. At least we got our turn early in the morning. Oh, well. The state of California is in major financial trouble, and maybe this is helping them pay for all that road construction! :) Now to concentrate on Danville. We are so close. Oliver grumbles that if he had been able to drive just a few more miles last night, we would have been past where they set up the speed trap the next morning. Better a ticket than wrecked off the mountain side due to exhaustion. With a phone call we confirm our hotel and it's beautiful. Lafayette Hotel, old time Cali style! Very luxurious, with all the charming touches, including robes and overstuffed furniture. Even those fancy curtain boxes over the beds, that make you feel like you're sleeping in the royal bedroom. (No paper sanitation ribbon on the commode, however!) We drop the car off at Professional Automotive, where Dave, an organizer for the car show has graciously offers a full car detail. We apologize for the salt and other buggy 'road trophies' we've collected over the past 3000 or so miles, and he laughs. There is a 1954 Jaguar one spot over, a beautiful machine. I compliment it and Dave claims it as his own! He says that they just did some damage restoration on it and it's ready for the show. Also that we'll be seeing lots of classic cars, but that he's thrilled to see our little D! Back to the hotel for a nap and then maybe some dinner. We rent what Oli calls 'Freddy Fingers,' (Nightmare on Elm Street), and Oli keeps falling asleep!! When you lay down on these beds, you keep going. You just sink in and never want to climb out. A nice nap and we start a review of the days and weeks to come. We've got the map of America in front of us and a calendar. There is so much to see and so many miles and really so little time,. We want to make the most of it, with out killing ourselves. Exhaustion is acceptable. We have dinner at a Mexican restaurant down the street that seems to be birthday party central. It's so loud and the service is slow, but the food is good. It seems we're the only couple there, as most everyone there is in groups of 6 to 18 people and all of them have screaming kids! (It's a Friday night, so we accept the terms of the chaos.) We eat and leave with our ears ringing, like we just left a rock concert. Oli works on catching up the blog, I find a book on the shelf in the room about PT Barnum. Then sleep!

Ree Greenwood, fast and friendly!

Thursday morning, 9/16/10

We wake up early and Oli wants to have a picture on the salt flats. We pack the car and head for the Bonneville Salt Flats Racetrack. We take the exit and there’s a State Park with trailers and tent campers. Oli considers taking the picture there, but decides to keep on driving. We stop at a tent and say ‘Hi’ to the nice greeters and explain what we’re doing in a DeLorean Time Machine when asked, and are given a couple of pass pins and directions to follow the cones. It’s more than a mile to the raceway, but we figure we might as well take a look. We stop where there are a lot of cars waiting in line. Everyone is so nice, they suggest that we go to the pit area and talk to the organizers. We meet Ellen and she calls Jim. They have been involved with the races since inception in 1976. Jim says that we should get inspected and IF we pass, we can race. Not really race, but rather time test, -so we race time! There's a special section called the 130 Club. It's for regular cars to have fun, and the goal is to get to 130mph. From a dead start you have one mile to drive as fast as you can. Kenny, who Oli met at the hotel the night before, inspects the car; he’s the one that suggested we “check out the races.” The car passes -with Kenny looking the other way on a couple of items. Fortunately, we have our fire extinguisher, which is required. The only thing holding us back is a helmet for Oli. Can’t race without one. As we are heading for the line up area a guy on a 4 wheeler stops us to say hey. He asks if we are racing and Oli replies that we want to, but must find a helmet to borrow. The guy just hands him his! "Here use this one!" and then escorts us to the line up. The guy’s name is Dalton and he is a real good guy. We start to prep the car; no loose items allowed, -and we’ve got lots. So I start packing and realize that we are in the sun and we’re going to burn. Ahead of us are 4 ladies and a Mustang. I ask if anyone has sun block and am offered some. While we are protecting our ears, 'Ree Greenwood', one of the ladies, starts talking with us. We do a basic intro and then she asks if we’d ever raced before? No. Well, she had and she was ready to give us some great advice. Ree loaned us her compressor to inflate the tires. 'Less contact with the surface, the better,' she says. Helps us empty the passenger foot well. Laughs as Oli tapes an 88 on the car using some electrical tape. That’s our registration number! He slips on some long jeans over his shorts and puts on a long sleeve shirt (both are requirements to participate.) And before you know it, Oli is racing. I hand a camera off to Dalton and run for the start line. Oli’s off before I’m really ready. But I shoot as he blasts down the salt flats. Dalton rides me out to meet Oli and Oli’s asking if he can go again? Yes, Yes! I say and head back for the line up. Oli got up to 88 and was lucky for that much because of him being squashed in the car wearing a helmet. He has to sit slouched as it is. He's bummed, because he shifted from 2nd to 5th accidentally. So he’s ready for the second run. Getting advice from Ree. We empty the bonnet of everything. Ree has brought her Meata that she raced earlier and we use it as a storage car. She is so nice, all the while she’s been telling folks about our mission. Much of the donations that day is thanks to her! Oli is racing again. I’m better prepared and there are 3 professional photographers catching the moment. They just walked up and offered. Okay! Oli is off and gone. Dalton is waiting to ride me over to Oli when he comes back. I wave Oli on to the photographers who’ve set up lights for a shoot. Great pics are taken and we are grinning from ear to ear. Ree has stuck with us and brought our belongings and sign and even suggest taking our shoes off to walk barefoot on the salt. All this fun and a foot treatment too. Life is good.

Oli’s second run is timed at 99.9 and he is happy!! We're allowed 5 runs total, but time is short, and we've got to get to Danville for the next event.

We finish up with Oli doing an interview and we pack up as the photographers take Ree’s pic in her sweet Meata!

We head back to the pit so we can say thank you and good-bye. Jim is there and I give him a great big hug. This was more fun than we could ever have imagined. We’d seen the movie, 'World's Fastest Indian,' starring Anthony Hopkins. It’s an amazing movie that had been filmed right there on the salt flats, and with many of the club's members. And Oli just raced time on the very same! The gang says goodbye and hopes we'll be back, now that we've 'had a taste of the salt!' What an unexpected adventure!

Now we are off to California. I keep trying to help, but I am still not confidant driving the D. At least I can give Oli a break, short one but it’s a break and we are still moving.

Windmills, Rainbows and Salt.

Wednesday 9/15/10 We made it well past Omaha yesterday, long hard driving. Stay at a Days Inn, wake early and hit the road. Nebraska, then Wyoming. We see windmills and then more windmills and hill tops covered with windmills. Alternative energy, that gives the landscape wonder. We notice the engine running hard and then see a statue of Abraham Lincoln at the top of the hill. We are on I-80, the Lincoln Highway and have just passed the highest point. We figure that the car is struggling with the thin air. Oliver says he feels like he did our last trip to Colorado, trying to take deeper breaths from the lack of oxygen! We keep on going and going and going. We start seeing jutting rock formations that turn to mountains. We see a cowboy on a horse, chasing a calf down the hill. There goes Wyoming, and now we are in Utah. More buttes, more mountains and then Salt Lake City. Then the Great Salt Lake. There’s the Morton Salt factory. Go figure! There’s an unexpected tennis ball tower sculpture that we’ll have to google later to find out what it is.

It’s more than 2 hours around the lake but its okay because it’s sunset and it gives us a beautiful show. Long desolate flat straight road with salt flats on either side. The mountains turn blue, there seems to be a fog in the air and we enjoy. The plan is to reach the first city, which just happens to be Wenton, NV. Nevada? The first sign of life is a road sign saying, “Races” with an arrow. Salt Flat races? This is where they run cars and motorcycles at crazy speeds! Oh how cool. The movie ‘World’s Fastest Indian’ with Anthony Hopkins was filmed here. We keep driving. We exit the highway and find ourselves in a small town, we drive through hoping to find a hotel near a restaurant. Out of Wenton into West Wenton, or as some might say, Little Vegas! There are blinking lights and neon signs, A neon dance hall girl kicking and a cowboy waving his hat. A bit of a shock after hours of such a blank landscape. I start calling hotels for rates and everyone is sold out. Oh dear it’s race week. A few more calls only to find out that the only rooms left are suites at $200 a night! Oh dear a few more calls and I find a room at the Rainbow, it’s a smoking suite for $70. Yippie! Pulling into the parking lot is a relief. A mustached man with a kind mature face and wearing a blue denim shirt with some club symbol embroidered on the pocket approaches. I figure he’s going to ask if we have a flux capacitator in there, or some other usual comment. Instead, he asks if we’re racing tomorrow. I don’t know what he’s talking about, and he says over at the Salt Flats. It only happens once a year and registration starts at 8am. We thank him, and decline politely. We’re too exhausted to even tell him about our mission. Turning the engine off, we experience a quiet stillness that was long forgotten. What a relief. So peaceful.

We walk in, through the smoked glass doors, and instantly, that peacefulness is gone again! We’re enveloped in a casino atmosphere where everything is neon and mirrors, with black light carpeting of rainbows in outerspace. Very dark, yet blinding at the same time. It is a shock to the system after the long drive of very little to look at. To get to our room, we have to carry our luggage throughout the entire casino. ‘Go to the end, and turn right after the craps tables.’ I suppose they are trying to entice us to drop our bags and play a round of 21, but the ploy somehow does not work it's magic on us. We’re beat and hungry, and are not really feeling like trying our luck. Food and bed is on our minds. Through the smoke filled cosmic darkness we tread, past endless stools filled with old people spending their retirement savings and the sounds of machines happily taking it, only rewarding them with cheerful chimeing ‘ding!’, ‘ding!’, ‘dings!’

The room has a Jacuzzi and a puffy soft bed. Huge flat screen, walk in closet. Mirrors and fake fur on the walls. Marble bathroom with non-matching marble accents. The doors are even covered in tacky marble linoleum! It’s smells of stale smoke, but we’ll survive. The dust ruffle on the bed is made of a similar color-changing material as Marty’s cap from BTTF2! (What a wild thing to notice.)

After taking the full tour of the suite, we head for the restaurant. The Over the Rainbow line is very long. Oli walks over to the Rainbow Buffet restaurant and it’s closed. I see that there are 2 seats at the counter open so we take those. We wait for service, and everyone just passes us by. We leave and cross the parking lot for the exotic wonderment of Burger King. Drinks, fries and burgers, the dinner of champions, or better, weary travelers. Back to the room, a hot jacuzzi and we collapse on the big puffy bed. A little over 9 hours left to Danville, we plan to sleep in, but here I am awake at 5. Well I can’t get on line so now that I’ve caught up with the blog maybe I can get a couple more winks in. California here we come.

Elevation!

Our ascent in Wyoming.

BACK -to chicago, and beyond.

Morning comes quick; we are less than 2 hours away from DMC Midwest. We hope to arrive early enough for the car to cool down some. GPS and Iphone want us to drive through the city, but we decide to stay on 80 and take the long way west. It works out great and we arrive at 7:30. Dave’s there at 8:00 and start working on the car. The new radiator has a defective weld and it’s decided that the driver side fan is faulty. Replacements are made along with a check of the left rear wobbly tire. It needs a new bearing and the bonnet needs new rods. It’s fallen on Oli twice in slight winds while he was tanking up.

Oli and I take advantage of the time to catch up on email, work and facebook. Oh yeah, Oli sets up the new hard drive, takes a call to tech support. Why is it so hard to write instructions in a working manner and not just in 15 different languages!

The car is repaired, hoses checked, idle adjusted and we are ready to hit the road. Thanks again Dave, Julee and Mike for taking such good care of us! With a stop at the Post Office, we are on the road to Cali by 3:30. Oli manages to drive with the sun in his eyes; we are heading west, people. The sunset is beautiful, I try to get a picture of the wide-open spaces and colorful sky, but the road is clogged with trucks. You'll just have to believe me that it was lovely. After a tank up somewhere in Iowa, he takes the passenger seat and I start driving. The sun has set and it’s open road and I hate stick. But it’s okay; I drive for 45 minutes and miss my exit. We are on 80 heading west, where the heck did it go? I take the next exit and Oli takes over. We should have had a training session with the D before I took it on the Highway. I’ll drive some more tomorrow, in daylight, so I can see where I’m going and I plan to turn the voice on the GPS. Tonight we plan to stop in Omaha, Nebraska. This is a tight run, we have to be in Cali by Friday, early would be nice. So enough for now, write more tomorrow.

Montreal Comic Con Photos

DeLorean Time Machine Photos are here!
http://www.Tinyurl.com/MontrealComicCon

Monday 9/13/2010 The Canadian countryside is very much like Indiana, corn farms. There are some trees that are changing to their fall colors. No billboards, just road information signs, one to three or four lines to announce the businesses at the next exit. It’s a long haul; we make a stop at Best Buy to purchase a new hard drive. With all the photos we have taken my computer and external hard drive are filling up. During the show we finished the photo paper roll and started taking email address so we could send the guest a digital copy. Great idea but it takes up a lot of memory on the scratch disc and we had to load the emails so we could send them the next time we had Internet access. Well, complications abounded and some emails dropped out, don’t know what happened. The solution was to post pics to Photo Bucket for guests to access. Thank you everyone who donated. Your generosity was fantastic, Montreal donation total, $5,000. Now to exchange Canadian money for American and send the $ to Team Fox. Not so easy, there is a new American law to protect against money laundering.

Oliver’s observations:

Canadian women do not normally take their husband’s last name. Perhaps the husbands don't offer it to them?

We saw no billboards in Canada, at least to Montreal, then from there across two provinces down to Detroit. They do have, however, standardized road signs that display three or four services with standardized symbols and brief text. I’m guessing these are purchased by the businesses that can afford them, because we saw everything from paintball to museums listed.

Apparently, Montreal has an entire underground network of city that is particularly used in the winter, as the weather is so harsh. I am told you can shop, eat, and get from here to there without ever seeing the surface or going outside. We never got to explore it due to our tight schedule. They have a small replica of Notre Dame from Paris, and I noticed a subway entrance copied from an art nouveu styled one in Paris. They love Paris here!

And the same with French fries. They love them frites. Big bowls of them served. And they dump curds on top along with chicken gravy and call it a Poudine. Terry is not a big fan of that dish.

Saw a guy in McDonalds sitting by himself playing chess. He had a shaved head and wore pink bunny ears. He wasn't very sociable. -Go figure.

Grasshopper in the car suddenly sprang out from hiding and terrorized the cockpit crew. We pulled off and released him, unharmed. We recovered shortly thereafter.

Took a coin op bath with the car. Raised the gullwing door to type in the coupon code, and when the entrance opened and green light lit, I quickly moved forward, lowering my door, -and immediately got sprayed by the blasting water jets through my little open window. I’d like to write that we laughed and made little soap mustaches on each other, but the moment was not that funny. Now, I can laugh. :) But I was soaked for an hour afterwards. . . .

Our drive westward on Monday ends in Michigan City, MI. We order pizza, Oli works on the computer and I fall asleep to Steven Cobert. I was laughing in my sleep.

Montreal Comic Con!

Terry’s Montreal Blog Saturday Sept. 12 and Sunday Sept. 13

Saturday morning starts with a walk to the convention hall, Plaz Boneventure. The weather is beautiful and we hunt sticks. We need something to hold up the banner, can't use tape or push pins on the walls. We reach the convention center with no luck, so I go in to set up the car and Oli continues the hunt. The hall is buzzing with excitement. Lot's of vendors set up and still setting up. I think our neighbors are doing henna tattoos. Oli arrives with 2 poles, which look curiously like scaffolding braces. I don’t ask him where he got them, and he doesn’t volunteer the information, (but there is a major construction site across the street from the convention center. . .)

And we start rushing to complete the set up, the doors suddenly open at 10am for VIP's! Whoops! Who knew, the Internet said 11:00? All is well, people start lining up and the fund raising begins. It's a constant rush, Oli at the computer processing photos and signing posters and me snapping pics and setting the time circuits. Oliver is interviewed by a radio show which also has video on their website. We meet one of our followers from our blog, which is a rare thing! Before we know it, it's 5:30 and we are out of photo paper. We still take photos and emails so we can send the guest the photo. I'm invited to do a radio spot, an interview that is translated into French after each discussion point. My answers sounds so much better in French! The show winds down enough for me to introduce myself to Elvira. She is the sweetest, and commented that we were doing a good thing. She even came over for a photo in the car. The show ends with a photo shoot, a very excited fan wants pics from all sides. I pack up and then we are off to the hotel to refresh and get ready for dinner. We've been invited to Phillo's a Greek restaurant. The food is served in courses, family style. We enjoy some wine, great company and good food, lots of good food. Our hosts for the show and dinner, Oscar and Alex are wonderful. Feddy and his wife keep us entertained and Jason and Julia tell us all about Montreal, or Mount Royal’ (the city is built on an inactive volcano.) They all give us suggestions of a good iconic picture for the car, but then warn of all the roadwork throughout the city. We'll do our best to find a good spot before we depart for Chicago. Yes, back to Dave's garage for some needed work and then zoom to Danville, CA for the Concourse De Elegance.

On Sunday, back to the photo taking and poster selling. The show is extended 30 minutes; Brent Spiner and Peter Mayhew have graciously agreed to stay a bit longer. This was announced at 4:30. BY 5:00 both had left, so we start packing up and are ready to roll at 5:30. The elevator isle is cleared and Oli weaves his way to it. The elevator is locked on another floor so the hall manager Maryanna scrambles to find it. All is well, it arrives, Oli drives on and the elevator takes us up and down and up again. Yes, we passed the correct floor then back to the original floor and then to the exit floor. Away we go, down the ramp and onto the wrong highway, with a u turn correction we head for Ontario, then back to Montreal, then on the correct road to Toronto, Montreal. Both the GPS and phone route us through Canada as the fastest route. We drive 3 hours and have to rest. The hotel, is infested with flies so we leave, the manager offers a fly swatter. With a smile and a no thank you, I help him give me a refund! Credit card machines are so complicated;) We make our way to the next exit and stay at a Canadian lodge style hotel, with a billiard table for a buffet! Just like the Beverly Hillbillies!

Team Fox on NBC Bangor News

Here's a brief clip from the NBC News station in Bangor, Maine.

Team Fox on Montreal News

Here's a clip from the Montreal News station.

Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream, -and Stem Cells.

Up early for a dash to Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream Factory! Very nicely done, eductional and delicious sample of Caramel Crunch. They had a flavor graveyard up on a lonesome hilltop with a few trees and a white picket fence. It featured discontinued product names on tombstones, so guests could 'find closure', having mourned the loss of favorite ice creams no longer offered.

Driving onwards, the road suddenly. . . ENDS! Doc might say, 'Where we're going, there are no roads!'

Actually, the pavement ceases to exist with little sign of any being added in the near future. A courtesy stop light assists us when the dirt path is reduced to one lane. Perhaps a landslide wiped out the road, because there was a steep cliff to the right hand side. . .

Now on to Montreal where we have a date to meet Leslie, a cancer patient at the Royal Victoria Hospital. The hospital looks like a grand, medieval castle, sitting atop a hill; a huge stone edifice which is challenging to navigate around.
Leslie is a Back to the Future fan and his cousin Peter contacted us last month, by way of some DeLorean websites and mailing lists. Leslie has Lukemia and we're unsure if he would be able to come out to the car. It was raining lightly, but with some help, Leslie made it outside and down to where the car was parked! This was a big step for him and was a rare excursion, if not his first outside of the building. With his battery powered 'medical tower' of IV's in tow, he sat in the car and grinned from ear to ear.
The car was parked in the hospital's garage, lucky because of the rain! We all took pictures, played with the time circuits and hoverboard, quoted the movie and told stories. His girlfriend, E.J. was also there and helped.Leslie's knowledge of the movie facts was impressive. After a lot of talking and photo taking we make our way back into the hospital, Leslie chooses to walk through the parking lot rather than try the narrow/shorter pass we navigated earlier. Leslie makes the long walk well, but after the elevator ride up, we sit in the family room, closer than his room, for a rest. We all sit and chat some more. Leslie may have tired from the walk, but not the talk. His story is very interesting to us. He is 32 years old, was feeling tired in January and diagnosed with Lukemia. In Canada, stem cell therapies are available and he was given a stem cell transplant. This transplant came from an umbilical cord, (following a babies birth), and introduced to his system after 4 chemotherapy treatments. The chemo kills his diseased bone marrow and the baby stem cells are transplanted through intravenous drip. "The cells know where to go", he says. They travel to the hips where adults make most of their bone marrow and the cells get to work. Leslie said that he could feel them working, that there had been a scare that the transplant hadn't taken, but he could feel them. He has a long road for recovery, but the nurses and his family believe that he will make it. If all goes well, he will no longer be his original blood type, but rather the same type as the baby whose umbilical cord was donated! Incredible!
He went on to educate us about adults being able to donate stem cells too. We still have them, and produce them, and donating is similar to giving blood, but the recipients must be a particular 'match.' There is a registry called BeTheMatch.com where more info can be found.
Leslie was so kind to share some time with us, and we left him with some souvenirs to remind him of the visit.

Peter wins the prize as the world's greatest cousin. He and Leslie were born in that same hospital just two months apart and have a close relationship. He wanted to do something special for Leslie and found us. Since we are appearing at the Montreal Comic Con this weekend, it provided the perfect opportunity to make this happen! Peter explains that with socialized medicine, Leslie's treatment is paid for by the government. Injections, which can cost $1000. each, only cost a small dispensing fee for patients. He explains the downsides to us: Since the funds are focused on patients healthcare, the buildings/structures are not a priority. He pointed out that the hospital is a mix of old structures with new additions built as needed. (Though we are told that the hospital will become condos and completely replaced with a state of the art hospital in four years.)
Care is also prioritized with the most immediate needs being met, such as heart attack patients first, for example.
Peter also said the downside of public healthcare in Canada is that the government takes almost 25% in taxes from individuals income as well as a 17% tax on purchased goods, to help pay for it.
(I'm thinking the American government takes more of our income tax than that, then doesn't give us healthcare. . .)
As Marty McFly says, "It's been. . . Educational."

ABC BangorNews

News clip from the ABC Bangor news station.

Breakfast is found in the office lobby, where the morning newspaper has us on the front page of the State section! This snowballs into an email from the Bangor NBC station and we make a date to meet them at Central Bagel at 12:30 in Bangor. One interview turns into two, when CBS also shows up and we are visited by the fine folks of Bangor, ME.

We meet one young man who recently lost his grandmother (who had been misdiagnosed with P.D.) He says she had PSP, or 'Progressive Supranuclear Palsy' which we had never heard of before. Several others tell us their own stories of loss, due to P.D. Many donations are made and photos taken, even more than in Bar Harbor!
Then off to Boothbay to recover our camera battery charger. Then we take to the highway to make it as far as we can towards Waterbury, VT. We make it as far as Twin Mountains, NH, stop at the Cromley's Inn. It's out in the middle of nowhere and we're surprised to see a few other cars in the parking lot. Carol, the owner, told us her father had built the lodge and it had been a family business for years. It was so peaceful, the silence was deafening! After unpacking, we have to climb back in the car and drive several miles to find food! After a few false tips from our GPS's suggestions, we spot something open and dine at the Mountain Breeze, a small boutique cafe that doesn't accept credit cards. (!) The apricot raisin pork loin was presented in a most fancy way and was almost as delicious as the triple fudge chocolate cake we had as an appetizer. The cafe sits across from a very old movie theatre that was showing 'The Girl who Played with Fire.' (Only show at 5:30!) An image preserved in time, when it stood as the proud, exciting center of entertainment for this wide spot in the road. Back for a peaceful nights sleep.

Bangor to New Hampshire 9.7-9.8

We leave Boothbay Resort with big hugs and memories of hand picked lobsters, with directions to stop in Belfast, Maine. Lori has called ahead and set us up a meeting at the Welcome Center.
And welcomed we were! They had printed signs to greet us, including one being held by a bear!
Win and Lori's friends, Jim and Pattie are a wealth of information about the area. And Win took the opportunity to make a nice donation.(He did not expect the sound it would make as a result!)
They make some calls and a reporter shows up and we are interviewed by Abby Curtis of the Bangor Daily News! Photos taken and off we drive for Bar Harbor and Acadia National Park. Bar Harbor is busy, there's a huge cruise ship at port! We park the car on the street across from 'Oli's Trollies', and let her do her thing. We enjoy a walk to the pier and around town. We meet Larry a street puppet, quite a character. Larry is purple with blue hair. Oli asked him if he enjoyed blueberries? Larry said why yes! We enjoyed blueberries in ice cream, yummy. When we return to the time machine, a crowd of restaurant workers are lined up, taking photos, making donations and generally overlooking the scene from their nearby deck. We get directions from them, then drive through Acadia National Park. Finding the entrance, we decide to buy an annual pass for national parks since we'll be checking out several, later on, out west. The fresh air is intoxicating! We take a hike down to sea anemone cave that can only be seen at low tide, because at high tide its filled with water. No critters in the tidal pools. Tide is coming in and the sea gulls have had all day to dine on the captive lunch. We continue on around the island on a one way loop, stopping for some photos at a scenic overlook at sunset. Really beautiful. Then off to find a place to rest. We find a cute cluster of cabin/cottages that we saw on the drive in, and rest we do!

Boothbay Resort

Sunday evening, September 5: We arrived in Boothbay before dusk and met the Mitchell family and saw their beautiful resort. Their hospitality was immediate and Oliver took their son Cody for a quick ride before dinner.
The 'Lobster Dock' was recommended and we had Lobster rolls and some chocolate cake, then returned for some rest before the big event.Monday September 6th, 2010
The day starts quick. Shower and out to the car to get ready for the tent party! A big yellow tent has been set up, a movie screen and picnic tables at the ready for the guests to arrive. 9:50 and Oliver is taking pictures! The donations just keep on coming! There's blueberry soda and pulled pork sandwiches. Blue sky and cool temps in the shade. Cody operates a bunch of bluray and projector gadgets and plays the trilogy throughout the day on a bed sheet stretched tight. Families from the community come out, and though there is not a huge crowd, the attendees have big hearts and give generously. A great day of meeting the fine folks of Maine. With the cash, checks and CC slips tallied the total is ..... $1655.84. Thank you Mitchell family for hosting us, throwing a wonderful party and making us feel so welcome at your beautiful Booth Bay Resort! We hope the time machine appearance and publicity helped introduce some new folks to your place too! Just so you all reading this blog understand, this fund raiser happened because we met Win and Lori Mitchell in downtown Salem Mass. at our Halloween fundraiser there last year. They took one of our business cards and called us last month wanting to help. And help they did! They helped give us the boost to take this 2 month tour to a whole 'nother level! With the help of friends -and friends we have yet to meet, we will find a cure for Parkinson's Disease!

Happy Birthday Andy!

We aim for a little town where two good friends live. Andy and Kathy Probert are celebrating Andy's birthday today, and we're going to present our good wishes in person.
We have a great brunch with them, and return to the house to chat. Andy brings out a booklet of storyboards he drew for Back to the Future, and Oliver pours over them, inspecting each little line and curve. Andy points out a few of the inside jokes he often inserts into his work, and shares the resulting stories from his days at Amblin.
He hears voices in his driveway and we go out to meet some neighbors who are attracted to the car. They make a donation and then we're off to meet Andy's oldest daughter, who has planned a birthday dinner and wants to see the time machine. Kathy is excited to co-pilot the time machine, and says it will be her first time! We arrive, photos are taken, and donations are made by their two little girls. It's neat to see three generations around the car, with the designer of the 'Back to the Future' time machine being the patriarch of the family!

Traffic Troubles

(From Oliver) As we travel north, the sun coming into my drivers side window pretty strong, we get caught up in traffic just before the George Washington bridge. We had the choice of local, with lots of exits and on ramps, or express, which is straight through. We chose express.
Unfortunately, this was the route that quickly came to a stand still.
As we creep along in three lane traffic, the engine temperature needle slowly starts to move upwards. With only one of the two fans working (did we mention they are new?) to cool the radiator, we eventually have to pull over onto the shoulder and give the engine a rest.
There are few things that make you feel so conspicuous, than sitting in a DeLorean time machine, on the side of the road, in a major traffic jam. Normally with onlookers, it's a quick wave at 60mph and they're gone. But in this situation, everyone has several minutes to stare. And stare. The flexi-mesh shade screen offers little privacy and my stress needle was at the same level as the car's temperature needle. It doesn't help to feel the 'whoosh-whoosh' of the traffic on the other side of the guard rails, flying by, unhindered by the road work, or whatever is holding us up.
Things cool, as the sun is setting, and we risk pulling out into the molasses-like traffic again. Slowly, start and stop, giving the new clutch parts and my leg a real workout.After 15 minutes, the shoulder on the side of the road starts to disappear, and before long, we find ourselves trapped with no where to pull off as the engine temp creeps up again.
It's late. We're tired. And traffic and car troubles add to the excitement of the situation.
Suddenly, we see a break in the guardrail! There is no question we're going to make a run for it, regardless of the little sign that says 'Authorized Vehicles Only'. We may die trying, but we both agree it's better than dying at a stand-still.
Terry watches for a break in the high speed traffic whizzing by, then shouts 'CLEAR!'
I stomp the gas, release the clutch and we fly out into the stream. The night air starts flowing through the radiator and we avoid the engine cracking wide open. But 30 seconds later, we spot brake lights ahead. Another dead stop appears around the bend!
We can't believe it. But an exit arrives just before reaching the next jam, and we get the 'heck' off! We meander along local streets and roads, find a hotel and collapse.
Time traveling ain't all lollypops and rainbows!

Giant spiders, Apples, Clutch Fluid and a Wedding.

The next morning, the package has not arrived yet.

So, a slight change in plans: Oli heads to Tom’s to start with an oil change while I wait for a package that I don’t have a tracking # for! Oops! So, I wait.

Tom Sweeney is a talented guy who has a few DeLoreans as well as a couple of Bricklins! He's also a Halloween/Haunted House person, just like us. Several years ago he and Marc built a large metal warehouse with the help of Tom's son, (who operated the backhoe -at the age of 10!) and it serves as the service center for all kinds of automobiles. -Half of it also houses Tom's wife's (Rose Marie) antiques. In fact, she came in with a giant 10' black widow spider from the saturday flea market as we were working.

Meanwhile, back at Marc's, the parts arrive! Marc is off to Tom Sweeney’s garage -and Shari and I head for the apple orchard. It’s a beautiful day and the apples are wonderful. We get some apple cider doughnuts too. Then do some shopping, pick up some pizza and garlic knots, (wow are they good) and then head for Tom’s garage. Good news: the clutch is back in order. Replaced both the clutch master cylinder and slave units. Here's a picture of Marc getting a boost up with help from the hover board. (We got its batteries charged up while we were there.) The old clutch fluid had lots of black chunks in it. (the rubber seals were going bad.) Even though cylinders had been changed in 2004, they tend to wear out if the fluids aren’t flushed and replaced with new every two years, apparently.

More bad news, we discovered a leaky (new) radiator and a bad (new) fan. (Did I mention they are NEW?)

But we can travel if we are careful.

We clean up from the repairs and head to a wedding photo shoot, with Marc's nephew. Aaron heard the time machine was in town, and asked if it could make a brief appearance, so we figured 'What the heck!' It took us to the 'Jersey shore. The whole wedding party arrived in a big bus just after we pulled in, and lots of photos and video were taken! Best wishes Aaron and Deanna! Your future isn't written yet, so make it a good one.