I hosted a social event on Saturday. I’m not a social butterfly by any means but I felt the need to do this. I invited everyone I knew within driving distance who owns a Jaguar E-type. I “know” a lot of people via a mailing list/web forum for E-type enthusiasts over on Jag-Lovers.org, but there are many that I’ve never met. Being halfway between Seattle and Vancouver, I just trolled the list for people within driving distance and sent them an invite. I should have checked around a bit as it turned out the Seattle Jag Club was having a meeting that day, so a lot of club folks could not come, but almost half of who I invited DID show up and we had a great time. The weather, which had been typically miserable of late, even cooperated and became mostly clear and sunny, though rather cold. Surprisingly most people took advantage of the sunshine and drove their E-types! We had six E-types in my driveway (and one XJS and one Land Rover… it was a mini ABFM!) We all sat around chatting and I was able to meet a few folks for the first time. You can see pictures of the event here.
The only down-side to hosting such an event is that everyone ELSE got a chance to drive their E-type, unlike me. But we all agreed that we’d do this again sometime soon (after the weather turns) and we’d go for a drive. Inspired, and partially due to the weather Sunday, which was spectacularly clear and bright (though still quite cold!) I grabbed my son Nicholas and went for a drive to document a route for the future event. We drove an hour east from our house up the North Fork of the Stillaguamish River to Darrington, then north to the Sauk-Suiattle River road where it splits from HWY 530. We measured distances and I dictated the driving directions to Nick which we’ll type up and present to the folks who come out on the tour. We didn’t have time to complete the route (I envision a lazy-S shaped route, from our house east to Darrington, north towards Concrete, but stay south of the Skagit River, then down HWY 9 to Arlington, then east along the Pioneer Highway and up to La Conner.) It should be fun. I love to drive up the Stilly Valley, as the scenery is awesome. I actually drove this route a couple of years ago with my son Chris and photographed a few stops along the way.
Above: Nicholas chills out in the E-type under Whitehorse Mountain.
It was very cold, even though I had the Jag’s heater cranked up all the way. Our legs stayed warm, but we stayed pretty chilled out in the wind. Put the top up?? NEVER! Nick had a nice warm hat (you can see it wadded up next to him in one shot) and we both wore coats and gloves. Sunshine demands open car touring. We stopped and took a few photos but most of the trip was route-making and documentation. You can see the photos here. Nick & I will get the route-book done ASAP and then we’ll send out the invites and plan on a great Sunday drive with a bunch of cool old cars.