I found myself on another astro road trip with the Fb this weekend. It was the club’s annual star party held under the very dark skies of Algonquin Provincial Park, a wilderness preserve 200 miles north of Toronto.

My friend Ken bailed so I now had a choice between a stealthily fast and spacious modern tank of a car (Audi A6 Avant) or a thirty year old vehicle that is the culmination of a dream and touches the soul of its driver. The drive up was nondescript as I was preoccupied with the things I had forgotten to pack and would have to buy at the next gas stop. With my mind finally settled and off of busy Highway 11, the two of us started to enjoy the twisty single lane road with frequent elevation changes. No effort had been made here to blast the rugged Canadian Shield to straight and level conformity as we weaved between and around the shores of hundreds of lakes hinting at the glory of the autumnal colour change. Traffic was sparse so without this impediment I let her loose hitting each apex at 8/10ths and never needing to reach for the brakes. I had forgotten how light and responsive the Fb felt and the grip was phenomenal, inspiring confidence. All she needed was to keep the revs up in the proper gear and boost was never far away as she lept happily from hill to hill as the valleys echoed with the boom of exhaust note.

Over 30 telescopes had been set up by club members and curious campers came to check us out when the sun set shortly after 8 pm. For city dwellers the truly dark night sky is a revelation at this time of year because a limb of our Milky Way galaxy is starkly visible stretching from horizon to horizon. Our galaxy is a pin wheel shaped spiral and we are located far from the central hub, near the terminal end of one of the pin wheel’s arms. We’re not even from the suburbs, we are the illiterate country peasants living in the isolation of the world’s edge. During the summer season in the North we can spy another one of these arms of our galaxy but of course it is impossibly far away. I’ve been wanting to take a high resolution image of this natural wonder for years, 2010 was a test run and 2011 was clouded out so this weekend the conditions were nearly ideal. I took about 50 exposures of different parts of the sky from the western horizon just above the tree line all the way up to the zenith and spent hours of computer time assembling them into a mosaic.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/4852049/MIlk...saic30%25b.jpg

Viewing time was cut short as dense fog rolled in from the lake by midnight. The amateur astronomer is always hostage to nature’s whims be they mosquitos, blackflies or bears. On the drive home the fog was so dense that visibility was barely twenty feet in spots. I slowed right down to under 30 mph, cognizant of the fact of roaming deer and moose whose torsos would conveniently crash right through the windshield of a car as low slung as the Rx7. Meanwhile a few SUVs blithely passed by me at full speed and were quickly enveloped. Really!?? Are you merely stupid or just so much in a hurry that you will risk a devastating collision not to mention the true injustice of killing wildlife in a protected preserve.

I actually enjoyed the relaxed pace and despite the late hour did not feel sleepy as I actively searched the sides of the road for those tell tale reflective eyeballs. I played the Beatle’s Strawberry Fields several times before moving onto Diana Krall singing old jazz standards and I let the surreal surroundings transport me to another time in the 1960s. A simpler time when cars sounded like real cars and in the rearview mirror for the first time I could see the light of the flames combusting off the tips of my tailpipe reflected off the fog.

 

Do you wrench as good as you write?

 

Hey thanks Karl! I would say I have above average wrench skills and did about 90% of the mods to my car in my own garage. That said I wouldn't tackle hard stuff like even a clutch change, leave that to the real experts.

 

I hate clutches I feel your pain. But your writing skills are damn good. That picture is awesome as well.

 

I enjoyed reading this...felt like I was winding through those twists and turns with ya!....and that picture is awesome, makes this world seem so small! As a wise woman once said, "The mind wobbles".

 

Wow, it's amazing what you stumble upon on this site. Great read actually. The 80's RX7's, for me at least, are just dripping with nostalgia. They're a treat to drive on the open road.

 

Thanks guys, glad you enjoyed it!

 

Great read as always Jim!

Always makes me want to jump in my FB and take a drive up to that park. Would be nice to see the night sky with no light pollution, or less of it anyway.

 

Thanks 82Transam, make sure you look me up if you are ever on vacation in Toronto.



Jim

 

Will do, looks like Algonquin is like 600 miles from me. A do-able road trip if I do say so

 

I used to make 600 miles every day. All I got at the end was to go to sleep. Take the trip, we Canucks aren't so bad, and our beer is awesome!

 

Excited to start taking my FB on road trips here and there. Seems like it's a reliable little car so far!

 

Always read your posts Jim, very cool. Sounds like you're having a ball with the car, hope everything continues to go well. Happy driving!