Sunday, September 18, 2016

WHAT'S GREEN & TAN AND ZED ALL OVER?

Once again so much happened this week that there's too little context, too many pix...

Unusual even for us, we flew one-way to Winnipeg on travel points. Yup, "Winter-peg" or "Winnie The Pooh - peg", the geographic centre of Canada out-of-season. Cool and dampish but interesting for the massive Human Rights Museum, impressive riverside park, kid zone with all the Manitoba heritage icons, and the sobering monument to missing aboriginal women. Why Winnipeg?? --- keep reading below.





Sadly, we had to miss two important events back home. One was the long-delayed start of the asphalt paving job. The other was the planting of a heartfelt tulip tree at the home of some dear family members. May we all live long and prosper...


BUT. The real reason for Winnipeg has been hinted at for some time with all the "z's". A deal long in the making was finalized on my birthday the week before. Surprise! Not surprised?? A 2001 BMW Z3! (We say "zed", you might say "zee" or even "ts" in German, where the name refers to "future".) After many Americans, Japanese and Koreans this is my first German car. Originally from Newport Beach California, it has low low miles, low low price, and high high rocket ship DNA. And it's not red!! After the disappointment in Quebec, this was impossible to resist. Grinningly we toured the sunflower fields and lake district but turned homeward to get legal. The car had to be inspected and plated back over the border in Ontario. John the mechanic pronounced it was like new inside and out -- duh!




The drive home was a top-up, top-down 1,902 km. (Today is Terry Fox day and fittingly we passed the monument to his journey's end outside of Thunder Bay at dawn.) Also iconic Canadian symbols like the Wawa Goose, vast Lake Superior shores, and the endangered red-crested crane. Then the ferry Chi-Cheemaun took the Z3 and crew closer to home.






After all of us got cleaned up, the car feels at home. I love looking at car styling and the lines on this one are gorgeous. In town, main street was closed to display other classy cars in the inaugural Hill Climb. And today is also the prestigious Concours d'Elegance nearby, with classics and uniques not seen anywhere else --- but the rain yesterday dampened the preparations.




Another first --- a rare Canadian fisher ran around near the feeder. At first we figured it was a weasel. But there's no weaseling out of this decision: too many cars in the barn! Which beauty will be replaced by the new-zed-on-the-block??






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