Kelowna Trip 2006

to the 8th Annual MX-West - MX-3 Precidia Meet

Recalled by James Gosteli

Well this year we made the choice to leave Calgary much earlier than usual. Our departure time was set to 5:30am and everyone hated me for it. The main reason for leaving so early is so that we have less traffic, less heat, and more time to do things in Kelowna.

Day1

We met up at 2 departure points to accommodate members from all areas. Our first meeting point was the PetroCanada station across from COP. Upon my arrival, Jen & Mark were already on site and waiting. And here I almost thought I was going to be the first to arrive. Just when it was time to go at 5:30, Darcy, followed by a non-member Collin "Hoodzy", trailed in and were ready to go. We soon hit the road and made our way to departure point #2, we called ahead to the Jesse and Jacki (the J-Team) and let them know we were near so that they could join the convoy. Jacki's brother Steven brought his teal GS along for the ride.

Last minute prep work on James' car

Ready to leave Calgary

Leaving the City Limits

Quickly approaching the Rockies

Much of the drive into the mountains went quite nicely. Seeing a nice line of MX-3s cruising through the mountains was a nice site to see. Somebody drank a little too much coffee before leaving, so we needed to make a little stop in Banff.

I love driving these roads...

they're fast and twisty

Mountains at last

A quick stop in Banff

After a little while longer of cruising and highway construction zones, we arrived in Golden to reload on snacks and use the washrooms. We quickly pulled into the Husky station and we were on the road again in no time.

The road construction was really starting to get annoying after a while. The rough roads and slow traffic really take the fun out of it. Good thing we left early or we would have really been delayed with additional traffic. Revelstoke was our next destination in mind. It's usually a good spot for us V6 drivers to fill up. My ZE still had just above half a tank, but I thought I should fill up because the Gas prices in Kelowna are much worse. We stopped at a Chevron station just off the road. Things were starting to feel alot more pleasant as the sun was beaming down on us. We stood around for a little while and played with Jacki & Jesse's puppy until everyone had their fill of resting.

Pit stop in Golden	Low Clouds	Still lots of snow on the mountains	Fueling up in Revelstoke
The J-Team's Puppy, "Nicki"	She has 5 legs for sitting	Chevron must have been happy to see all of us pulling in	A bit of visiting before hitting the road

Our next stop was supposed to be Kelowna, all until someone spotted a sign for a Dutch Dairy Ice-cream shop. Just the thing to cool you down on a warm day. We pulled into the shop, which was located around Enderby. The place was a bit of a zoo/farm with a nearby pen holding a couple donkeys, a lama, and a cud chewing camel. After some ice-cream and more stretching, we were on the road again. Everyone was really starting to complain about the blue smoke from my exhaust. I better check my oil when I get to Kelowna.

Cruising through the Okanogan Valley

Stopping at the Dutch Dairy Ice creme shop...err barn.

Video of us at the Ice Cream barn

From a distance, the bikes on the back of Darcy's car make it look like he has a big spoiler.

After a long twisty stretch of road through the Okanogan Valley, we finally arrived in Kelowna. The place was busy with Lunchtime traffic. We originally planned on arriving by 11:00am but the extra stops and construction slowed us down a bit. We lost each other between lights but eventually managed to regroup at my aunt & uncle's place, nested in the in orchards of SE Kelowna. I'm sure they were surprised to have a convoy of 7 MX-3s pull into their yard. Lady the dog quickly came out to greet us as we peeled our bodies away from the car seats.

While others planned out where to go for their accommodations and food, others helped Jen to troubleshoot her car. It seemed like a classic case of an overheated TPS senor. There isn't much that you can do with that but let it cool off. The temperature upon our arrival was 30 degrees, so the heat was expected to take a number on our cars.

After a little planning, some of us grabbed some lunch at the Wrap Zone and headed to their choice of accommodations to get settled. Tracy and I headed to the beach to cool off a little. We later on picked up Jen, who was stranded downtown with her overheated car, and headed to the J-Team's campsite for some fire-pit BBQing.

Arriving at James' Aunt & Uncle's place

This place starts to get crowded after 7 MX-3s

Gyro Beach shore

The J-Team's campsite

The campsite area at Bear Creek area was quite nice. It is located on the opposite side of the Okanogan from Kelowna (Westbank area). We crammed all our cars together and out of the way as best as possible. We quickly got a fire going and started to prepare some food. Darcy began toasting some bread and fruit sauce sandwiches. They were hot and damn tasty once you scraped off the burnt parts. The filling was killer hot if it pissed out on your arm. I found that out the hard way. Dinner was excellent with a nice assortment of Chicken, Potatoes, and Veg. Maybe we'll all end up camping next year.

Darcy at the fire...	toasting his fruit filled bread thingies.	Jesse and Collin	Steven, Darcy, and Janelle - Chillin after a long day
Jacki, playin with da puppy	This is the most we saw of Collin that evening	Jesse chopping wood	Standing at the shore near the camp site

Day 2 (Meet Day)

It was a gorgeous morning. The sun was shining, birds were chirping, and the fresh Okanogan smell filling out lungs. It was supposed to go up the 34 Degrees C today. My cousin pulled out the car washing goodies so that I could get to work on cleaning my car for the meet. It almost seemed like a lost cause with all the rust on my MX-3. I had to really top up the oil on my car. I filled it just before leaving Calgary, so there is definitely something seriously wrong for it to burn that much oil. I started it up and took a quick video of my exhaust to show the nasty carbon clouds.

Lady the dog, escaping the morning heat

Never give my cousin a hose

I was giving the dog some engine pointers

Had to see just how bad my car was smoking

Tracy and I arrived at the Kelowna City Park at exactly 11:00am. We were amazed to be the first to arrive. Usually someone arrives before us. After about 5mins Tyler arrived on a Street-bike along with his friend with a ZE. Soon after Jen showed up with some of Washington members close behind. Clayton pealed in with a grand entrance of redlining his car as squealing his tires. I thought the park security was going to give us trouble for sure. Since Josh wasn't quite finished his AWD conversion, he showed up in their black RX8. In total there were 12 MX-3s at the meet.

First to arrive at Kelowna City Park

I couldn't resist shooting some pics of Tracy. Damn she's hot!

Tyler arriving and disrupting my model shoot

Everyone in the park sure knew when Clayton arrived

British Columbia: 3
Washington: 1 (+ 1 RX8)
Alberta: 7
Ontario: 1

Click here to see the photos from the meet.

After the Meet, the Cruise around Southeast Kelowna, and Dinner at Milestones, a few of us gathered at the beach for some fun in the water. The J-Team's puppy got her first experience with swimming. Had the water not been so cold close to the shore, she may have actually stayed in longer.

Here comes the wave

"Ahhhya! That's Cold!"

"Get-me-out!Get-me-out!Get-me-out!"

Cold and wet

As the sun went down, things started to cool off a little. We headed for the Campground again kick back for the evening. People from Washington and Vancouver joined us there for a few drinks.

Jesse goes for a swing

3 of our Washington friends

Kevin & Jesse

Mark & Jolene

Day 3

Today we had to get up bright and early in order to get the special deal during the morning hours at the Kelowna Marina. This might not seem like a difficult task, but for those who were up late drinking; they're hurting pretty good this morning. Mainly Jesse & Darcy. Kevin from Ontario joined us for our boat adventure as well. After a bit of paperwork and organizing, we were ready to hit the water. We set ourselves up with a nice powerful 9 seater boat and headed out onto the water.

I know it's just a duck, but I thought the colors were really cool

All of us at the Kelowna Marina

I'm going to take one of these out next time

Heading out sea... I mean lake.

The water conditions were great. We couldn't have asked for a better day. That's the thing with Kelowna; there's always a 90% chance of having a nice day in the summer. Everyone took lots of pics and video of eachother on the water. We were lucky enough to not have too many accidents on the water, aside from a few painful wipe-outs and Janelle loosing her bikini bottoms.

Jesse before	Jesse after	Getting the hang of it...	...maybe not
The look on Jesse's face is priceless	Darcy wiped out, right after this shot	Jesse having a blast	Racing back to shore