Canadian Coasters make Westman pit stop

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This article was published 19/08/2022 (1285 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

SOURIS — On July 1, a fleet of vintage vehicles and classic campers departed from Cupids, N.L., marking the beginning of a country-wide road trip that’s scheduled to end in Victoria, B.C., by early September.

Last week, this group, known as the Canadian Coasters, made it as far as southern Manitoba, stopping by Morris on Aug. 12 before moving onto Souris for the next two days.

The Sun met up with the Coasters during their weekend stay in Westman to see how their journey has gone so far.

“We’re just loving every minute of it,” said Carol Taylor, a resident of the Oshawa, Ont., area, who has been travelling alongside her husband Joe in a heavily customized 1969 Ford F-350 fire rescue truck.

While the pair have taken part in this tour three times already — in 2000, 2010 and 2017 — Carol said there’s still something new to experience every time, since the convoy is committed to traversing the country’s many backroads and small towns instead of just travelling along the Trans-Canada Highway.

“Each one of our tours, they’ve tried to take us off into different areas to see a little bit more,” she said from the Coasters’ Souris campground on Sunday. “We stay off the beaten track, and that’s where we have the opportunity to explore.”

This year marks the eighth time that the Canadian Coasters have gotten together for a national tour, with their first official event taking place in 1967 to celebrate the country’s centennial.

The Historical Automobile Club of Canada managed to recruit 125 registrants for the inaugural trip, laying the groundwork for various antique car clubs to unify and flourish throughout the second half of the century.

While a lot has changed since then, Canadian Coasters lead organizer Fraser Field told the Sun that the group’s reliance on vintage vehicles to complete this coast-to-coast trip has remained a constant, even if that leads to some complications along the way.

“It’s a long journey driving an old car,” Field said standing near his 1962 Chrysler Imperial. “It’s not like you’ve got power steering, power brakes, air conditioning and cruise control. You’re really driving that car. It’s not driving you.”

One of the oldest vehicles registered for the 2022 Canadian Coasters tour belongs to British Columbia resident Dianne Townsend, who has been using a 1929 Ford Model A to haul her camper the entire trip.

Townsend and her partner, Bert Meilleur, accomplished this feat by enhancing the Model A with a 350-cubic-inch Chevy engine and a variety of other modern implements, although they still ran into some trouble during the Atlantic leg of the tour.

“We had to get the transmission rebuilt in New Brunswick, which was a shocker, and expensive, and we were out of the tour for three days,” Townsend said. “But then we played catch-up, and it’s been really good since.”

For event co-ordinator Maurice Debruyne, this year’s trip has also served as a great opportunity to put his automotive ingenuity to the test, since he has been working tirelessly over the last two years to get his 1949 Chevrolet truck ready for such an arduous task.

“I kind of cheated a little bit. I put a ’74 undercarriage under it, so I’ve got better brakes and I’ve got power steering. No air conditioning, though, but I’ve got the vents that open and that’s been good,” Debruyne said, also mentioning that he installed a motorhome engine to give his truck a little more zip.

“So it goes up the hills real good, but it burns gas like crazy.”

In terms of general mood, all the Coasters who chatted with the Sun in Souris seemed to be in good spirits, especially since the recent easing of COVID-19 restrictions allowed this trip to move forward unabated.

Even though the ongoing pandemic has had a cooling effect on the overall number of participants, with this year’s registered vehicles sitting at around 55, Field admits that this smaller group is a lot easier to manage, especially when it comes to campground accommodations.

“This campground [in Souris] is absolutely great because we’re all together … and the public can come around,” he said. “We’ve had maybe 100 local people drive through to stop and talk and find out what we’re all about.”

And having taken part in four of these cross-country tours now, Taylor said meeting people on the road is one the best aspects of being a Canadian Coaster, since this experience has allowed her to forge lifelong friendships and establish a strong network of fellow gear heads across the nation.

“It’s the most amazing experience travelling with what we call our family now,” she said.

“It’s an experience that everybody should have … that’s for sure.”

As of Thursday afternoon, the Canadian Coasters had successfully made it to Willow Bunch, Sask. They are hoping to cross over into Alberta by the beginning of next week.

If all goes according to plan, the group will arrive at Vancouver Island by Sept. 6 and officially conclude this year’s tour by dipping their vehicles’ wheels into the Pacific Ocean.

» kdarbyson@brandonsun.com

» Twitter: @KyleDarbyson