Drive to the Hills Report, 2009

A GREAT BIG THANKS to manager Joe and his Sun Valley Co-op crew for making the kick off barbeque such a success. The staff helped us out with everything, and the day began smoothly. Gerald and Linda Toews brought their big barbeque out and did a fantastic job of cooking all of the meat patties for us. They donated their services and we thank them sincerely. I’d also like to thank Dennis Wiebe and  Brian Derksen for manning the registration desk in Altona, as well as Mary Friesen for helping with the food. Dennis and Betty Wiebe also took care of registration at Ninette and screened everyone for their wrist bands at Holiday Mountain. Thanks for a great job.

 We fed 75 “Cruise” people in Altona, 9 additional walk up customers,  and left at 1:00 for the day's tour. We picked up more people both in Winkler and Roland and wound up with 45 cars, 2 motorcycles, and 90 people. To put that in perspective, it was a mile and a half of vintage cars. On Hwg. 23, we stopped on the highway near St. Leon for a 15 minutes photo shoot of the Wind Farms and continued on all the way to Pelican Lake at Ninette. The colours of fall were not nearly as evident as in previous years and the temperature hovered around 24 C all day. One of the best travel days of this year! Thanks to Lyle and Kathy Dunsmore for being at the back of the pack, leading 8 stray cars out of St. Leon village,  and helping out the Mustang that had a flat tire.

Commodore Mike Cox and his daughter Erin were our hosts at the Pelican Lake Yacht Club where an additional 5 cars joined us for a 1 hour mini show and shine. Refreshments were provided by the Club and it was much appreciated. Our Club gave them a token donation of $100 to the Yacht Club for use of its facilities, and left at 4:00 PM.

We then headed south for a few K’s, until we reached PR243 and headed east. Reaching the Pembina Valley, we stopped for a 15 minute photo shoot, and continued on to the site of the World’s smallest Mall, located in Glenora. The whole village was waiting for us cameras in hand, and we spent about a half hour there. The Mall was teeming with our group, and everyone in our group was impressed with the variety of goods in the tiny store. Paul and Eva Freir bought their ingredients for an interesting supper there. The store was giving out samples of a delicious dry sausage and a number of people purchased it from the new owners.

Our final destination was the Holiday Mountain Resort located at La Riviere, in the Pembina Valley. We had a great banquet consisting of 4 kinds of salads, baked potatoes, roast beef, baked ham, and scalloped potatoes.  A couple from Winnipeg with a 1975 Imperial was celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary with us and were welcomed by our group with a round of applause. What a great way to celebrate their special day.

Through the generous donation from Sun Valley Co-op, we were able to raise $335 for The MS Society. Thanks again from all of us at the Legends Car Club for attending. Other clubs represented were, Country Classics, Wheels, Lucky Devils, MB Mustang Club, MCAAP,  as well as 22 participants who came who didn't belong to a Car Club. Don Elias (event organizer)