Paul St. Pierre

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PAULITICS & PERSPECTIVES

(First of a series of columns ona cultus coolee drive across the con- tinent.)

IT HAS the feel of a thou- sand-mile day when I fire up the little riceburner in the pearly hour of the dawn. A day to make tracks.

My socks are wrapped arcund the toothbrush and there's aclean shirt or two, spare gas, a tool kit, a snakebite kit and a cooler that runs off the cigarette lighter socket and contains sandwiches and frozen cans of V8 juice.

It will be a cultus coolee trip, the finest kind, no special destination and no purpose beyond the joy of travelling.

_ “Why Boston?” asks the U.S. Iminigration officer at the Douglas Crossing.

“Why not Boston?” I say.

He laughs and waves me on.

Gas at Blaine. Low-test, because I'm going to be at high altitudes until I near the Adantic Coast and high test is a waste of money.

At Seattle I pick up Interstate 90 which will be my magic number all 3,600 miles to Boston.

Who put me on this road today? Not the clever Japanese who invented swirl chambers and other

engineering tricks. It was Henry Ford, a midwestern farm boy who built the Model T — cheap, strong and sturdy, a car for the common people, not the aristocrats. In 1927, one out of every two cars on this planet was a Model T.

Old Henry had other character- istics. He became rich by hiring more and more men, paying them record high wages and building ever more cars. Today's captains of industry are exactly the opposite,

Just past a town identified only as City Centre is Coeur d’ Alene, Idaho. Noon, and the ricebumer and I are in the Gulf of Mexico watershed.

Beside me at the pumps is a boat that looks like the slipper in which Winken, Blinken and Nod sailed on their silver sea.

The owner of the jeep that tows the boat trailer calls it a River Dory, for running rapids.

Sure enough, that’s what it is, a Down East fisherman’s dory in fibreglass, expanded to monstrous size and with an exaggerated sweep.

How much like a living creature acar is. Each one has its rhythm, its terms of response, its own impulses.

Even with Cruise Control, one of the great boons the engineers have given us long-distance dri- vers, you still recognize that every car has a personality that differs from all the other cars you have driven.

This Honda Accord is happiest on roads that iwist over hills where it swoops like a barn swallow.

Gas again at Missoula, Montana. The mileage seems alarmingly

pod, almost 48 to the Imperial gal- On,

Too lean a mix fries valves, Yet the car hasn't run lean, it has been quick on throttle, and we have aver- aged over a mile a'minute from Vancouver, even with stops for cof- fee and conversation.

There are several explanations. The car is tuned to the nines, The roof is clean, Most drivers will be astonished if they check how much roof racks reduce speed and perfor- mance,

It’s. grey blustery day and reads are almost empty. Therefore there's been no jockeying in traffic, no need for sudden acceterations or decelerations and most driving is in fifth geur.

The air is damp, so gas burns better. The car is light; it’s that kind of trip, just a rifle and a shaker of sah.

But it's surprising. This old buggy will pass the quarter-million kilometre mark on this trip and although the engine is still an intact virgin who does not smoke, the gears are ropey.

When does old age overtake a ricebumer? Has it something to do with the Japanese life expectancy being longer than ours? :

T was in Missoula 20 years ago and thought I had never found a place with so many delicate, long- stemmed violet-eyed young women.

Did they become these rump- sprung housewives banging shop- ping carts against one another at

66 The air is damp,

so gas burns better.

The car is light; it’s

that kind of trip, just

a rifle and a shaker of salt, 99

the supermarket?

! grab sandwich meat, V8 juice, return to the car and flee.

As every car has a personality, so has every state of the American Union. Montana has freedom.

I let a fast car go two kilometres in front so he can clear the road of radar for me and then match his speed. Never be the first fast car.

We two, later three or four in a widely spaced bunch, roll across the open grasslands at an even 140 km/h and occasionally the needie climbs over the 160 mark, the first time this car has done an honest 100 miles an hour north of Mexico.

7:30 p.m. Allowing for time zone change a bit more than 12 hours from home. We are in Bozeman, Montana, an unlovely town ina Jovely river vailey.

(My notes go on to say that this is a stupid thing to say. Some of the Grabbest towns have the friendliest and chirpiest people ii them, Femie, in the Kootenays, for instance.)

A wind has pushed me all the way across the Rockies and down into the prairies, beating on the trees and shaking out rain. Could a tailwind account for good mileages? Should [ haul up a sail?

Sundown is in Billings, Montana. Interstate 90 is being rebuilt and the contractors can’t be bothered telling you which way you

ec

should detour,

Forty-five minutes is lost seeing parts of Billings I never wanted to sec, [ hate Billings. Either that or it’s been too long a day.

At Harding, Montana, a few kilometres north of Wisconsin, we camp for the night at 10 p.m, ina motel that has a coffee percolator in the room,

Total distance travelled, 1,707 kilometres, a bit over a thousand miles,

Why Boston? Because, friend, Boston lies far away across the many hills of dreans.

SEPARATE ADMISSION FEATURES

LITTLE BIG LEAGUE 6:50 pm

MAVERICK 9:00 pm

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SEPARATE ADMISSION FEATURES

| LOVE TROUBLE 7:00 pm

WHEN A MAN LOVES A WOMAN 9:10 pm

SEPARATE ADMISSION FEATURES FOUR WEDDINGS AND A FUNERAL

BLOWN AWAY $:15 pm

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