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Hi all Cruisers, Well this was a very last minute decision for us to attend. We were not planning to attend, it was cold and wet, and we were having a few drama's with the cars (well more than normal!). The mighty Nissan let me down for the very first time in six years with a suspected broken starter motor. So, by that day I had been nine days without a car at all, as we could not source a second hand starter from anywhere. After poor Paul, working on it every night (trying starters from different models) and having no luck, we decided to have my starter rebuilt! My coupe decided to have a hissy fit and run on only one Rotor when I really needed to go to the shops! Paul's RX2 was still up on axle stands and jacks at that stage too, after having a new clutch fitted. None of this may seem like a huge problem, except, that we live a ten kilometer WALK to the nearest public transport!!!! So Paul hurriedly put his RX2 back together so I had at least something to drive in an emergency. With the RX2 going again, and Keith having taken the night off work to come along, we decided to go. We drove down to Bunnings (through pea-soup fog at our end) and were nearly late. We had a few minutes to catch-up and have a chat before the word was passed along "Time to Cruise". Paul had an issue having walked in "dog poo", so I made him take a quick run through the wet grass before he got in the car! We all fired up our vehicles, well nearly, oops, that awesome Red Rockin' Torana of Grant's decided not to run. Brett and DC to the rescue and it wasn't too long before it was roaring into life. While we were waiting for the group to move, we, along with Keith in the Skyline moved up into Dorset Road to wait. As the group went past, we rejoined at the end and cruised at the speed limit through to Ringwood, where we saw Stormy with another Ford (Dale's) stopped at Ringwood Lake. We hoped that it wasn't too serious and they would catch up. The next stop, to regroup, was at Harvery Norman on Whitehorse Road, the Fords pulled in not long after, so whatever the issue was, they had fixed it quickly! We all headed off again, and remained in the last group, travelling quietly along with about half a dozen other members until we arrived at the Pancake Parlour. At least inside it was warm, so we all found seats (around 40 people I think), and had a quick peruse of the menu and ordered. Mmm I haven't had pancakes for years! They were terrific too! I think the quote of the night came from Dave J, "You can NEVER have TOO MUCH Maple Syrup", I agree! We all chatted away, ate yummy food (that was our dinner) and were very reluctant to leave, as we don't very often get to socialise in this type of environment, just relaxed and enjoying the company. We all said our goodbyes, and most people headed off at around the same time. Somehow we missed the Freeway entrance and ended up back on Whitehorse Road, so we drove along quietly with Keith through Box Hill, (boy has that changed since I was last there!). I went to Secondary school there, 150 years ago (LOL). We eventually got back to Canterbury Road and up to Montrose, where we waved goodbye to Keith and kept on going towards home, driving back into the rain, but at least it had washed away the heavy fog, we just had to dodge the wombats! The cruise was a great success, and the short ones are really good for a week night, and ending somewhere warm where we can all chat is great for the cold weather too. I had to cheat and use Brett's "car count", apparently 21, which is awesome considering the weather. Very nice also to see a great variety of cars including a couple of EH Holden's. Congratulations on the organisation of a very successful cruise, and a very pleasant social night out. It did make me realize that there are a lot of members I really don't know, so when the weather gets better I propose we have another one of those "getting to know other members/swap passenger/Swinger cruises". See you all cruising, - Helen. |