Oops!

What year were you in the Cascade Tunnel? Just last year we were standing in the mouth of one of the tunnels just out of Stevenson Pass, Washington. There's not much left.

 

Unless he's a hell of a lot older than we're giving him credit for I think he means the new (and current) Cascade tunnel which was opened in 1929.

 

It was in 1968. By the end (it seemed to take 30 minutes or more to get through the tunnel) I was on the floor in the front of the car breathing through layers of a folded sweatshirt. When we came out of the tunnel the inside of the car was like this, you could only see a few feet.



There was a great, big Indian that had gotten on a few hours before. He was a real nice guy, told me all about trains and the tunnel and what to expect. He drank a bunch of wine and passed out on his back, snoring heavily all the way through, when he woke up he was fit to die his head hurt so much and for awhile he was not such a nice guy anymore.

 

That reminded me of an encounter I had in a Quebec pub in my first year in Canada. Full of heavy-drinking French-speaking Canadiens there were no empty tables but one guy sitting on his own waved we over in a friendly manner so I sat down with him. He too was a great, big Indian, Mohican by the look of him, and also a real nice guy, at least initially. The more he drank the louder he became, and soon began assuring me he could handle all the "damn frenchies" in the room. The place was packed, there were about 50 guys answering his description - some of them starting to look in our direction and all of them looking bigger every minute. I excused myself, went to the washroom, out the back and back into my car. The problem likely goes back over 200 years, Quebec breeds long memories . . .

 

Always test on an inconspicuous area first

So pollen season is over and everything is coated in thick sticky pollen which is beginning to form its own ecosystem. I decided to wash and wax my rv, because it was rapidly turning black. After waxing the top half of the frontcap of my fifthwheel, I decided to conduct a little experiment on the lower half. There were some dark steaks from dead silicone of latex or vinyl, and I thought a little dilute muriatic acid might be a time saver. It works on fiberglass and cement. The cap is some kind of plastic, though, like car bumper material. After sponging on the acid wash I came right behind it with Meguiars cleaner wax and it instantly turned beet red wherever it hit raw plastic. It looks like a can of beet juice was pored on my rv.

Has anybody seen this before or know what to do about it? I buffed the crap out of it with my toy buffer (body work isn't my thing) and it isn't quite so garish now.

Oh, I got around to reading the Meguiars site on how you are supposed to put wax on. Apparently you are supposed to let it dry? Iv'e always worked with everything soaking wet. I soak the buffer pads in water and keep spraying down the surface with the hose.

 

In 1964 I took the train from Seattle to Ann Arbor, Michigan. (on my way to Univ Of Mich.) It went through the Cascade tunnel, but frankly I don't remember much about it other than it seemed to go on forever. I do remember going through Glacier National Park, and much later hitting very high speeds through the corn fields of Iowa. Frankly I spent most of that trip sleeping.

 

Phil, I have used Meguiars on my motorhome for about 10 years now. I does a great job. But yes, you are supposed to let it dry before wiping it off. I have not had the problem you had, probably because I clean the surface before waxing even though the Meguiars cleaner and wax would do that. I use simple, plain old, Windex. It does a superb job of cleaning. Even gets all the pollen and crap that falls out of the trees here in the PACNW. It doesn't do well with Douglas Fir tree sap though. That I take off with a sharp knife.

After I clean with Windex I go over it with a thin coat of Meguiars and it shines and makes the rain bead up. It also helps keep the pollen and other dirt from sticking.

If you have a problem with the black streaks, Camping World (and most RV stores) have a cleaner specifically for those black streaks. I have not tried it, but I have seen positive things about it on RV.net

 

Thanks Ike. The red is fading pretty quickly. I think it will be gone by morning. I also have got some good recommendations about the streak remover.

 

If you didn't rinse off the acid before applying the wax may have been some kind of reaction with an ingredient of the wax. The base wax is likely beeswax but that can be used as an etch resist with muriatic acid. Muriatic acid is used to clean vinyl pool covers, but there's vinyl and vinyl . . .

 

In '71 we went up through International Falls, took a left and went to British Columbia, driving a '49 GMC pickup with a tarpaper camper and a top speed of around 45 mph. Through Calgary, Banff Natl Park, Jasper Natl Park, all the way to Prince George.

Somewhere around Regina I wanted some beer and had to go to the govt sales place. I must have been at the back entrance or something, there was hardly anyone around, but when I opened the door there was a room that seemed about the size of a football field jam packed with hundreds of men sitting at small tables loaded with pitchers and glasses and bottles and cans of beer. You could hardly see the other side for the smoke and the talking and laughing was solid and loud. I was apprehensive, what few bars I had been in in the States were sort of unpredictable, but I wanted some beer and Export A's, so I threaded through the tables all the way to the other end and back. Not a bit of a problem, not one iota of BS or ugly looks from anyone, just smiles, friendly nods and greetings.

 

The route we always took followed highway 2, just beneath the Canadian border. In North Dakota and Minnesota there were sometimes oceans of sunflowers, on one side of the tracks they would all be looking at you, on the other they were all facing away, like a huge crowd at an event.

They had mile markers next to the tracks, I timed us heading East once at almost 80 mph.

Does anyone remember ever seeing the hobo camp/city just outside Cut Bank, Montana?

 

That would be the norm for just about anyplace in Canada in my experience.

Here in Ontario, back then the taverns had odd laws, there was a men-only room and a "ladies and escorts" room. The only visible difference was the chairs which were wooden with arms, whereas the men's room only had ordinary office type chairs. There were quite a few men-only clubs and the feminine movement of the day were quite vocal about it so laws were changed. Most of the clubs complied, acquired a few female members who didn't stay long when they realized how utterly boring the average mans club was, but it sufficed to kill off the clubs nonetheless.

Most of the taverns have evolved into family-dining or vanished. very few old-style sand-on-the-floor to be found now. I particularly remember one in Brampton which feature boot-dancing on the table tops; the guys - ordinary working folk - were quite good, bit noisy for conversation though. Here in Ontario we still buy our liquor from a government outlet called the Liquor Control Board. Got to love that name, right out of Victorian times. Beer outlet is a monopoly that handles all the brands. It all works rather well, but the convenience shops would love to get into the trade now the cigarette trade has shrunk.