September 15th - Day 0

The BSOLII is finally under way! Participants set out to gather at the starting point, Coeur d'Alene, ID this evening.

Lynn, Mary and myself set out from Boise early this morning

Earl is ready to go, and Pearl is being loaded in the garage. Emmy on the top of the lift looks jealous!

Our route took us north on Rte-55 to McCall and then then Rte-95 through Riggins, Whitebird, Grangeville, and on to Lewiston. It was an enjoyable ride on the sort of roads that the E-Type was designed for - lots of sweeping curves and elevation changes though spectacular scenery. We encountered some smoke from fires north of Boise and a couple of short showers but nothing bad. We stopped in Lewiston for lunch before heading our independent ways. I took the 195 to Spokane to meet up with Debbie who was flying in from Monterey, while Lynn and Mary headed straight for Coeur d'Alene. Many of the group stayed at the Coeur d'Alene Resort overlooking the lake:

The impressive Coeur d'Alene Resort by the lake

We met up for the traditional start-of-OL dinner at the Beverley's restaurant at the Coeur d'Alene resort.

The group eagerly anticipating their dinner (I think some of them are still waiting...!)

The setting for dinner was great, but the service was dismal. We waited 2 hours for our entrees to be served! Fortunately there was lots of friendships to be renewed, and stories to tell, so we had a good time. 

View over the lake from our dining room

Tomorrow the tour will start in earnest when we meet up at 8:30am for our first drive together. Earl is a little worse for wear after today's drive - the alternator is making the sort of noises that suggest that it may not make it to the end. Debbie and I have our fingers crossed...

PS: After a sleepless night worrying about the possible alternator problem I got up at 5am and went to the parking garage to investigate. It didn't take long to determine that the alternator was not the source of the grinding noise...

Fan belt jockey wheel floating around due to lost nut

The fan belt jockey wheel which keeps the belt tensioned was attached to it's spring-loaded arm by....well nothing actually. The nut had come undone and fallen by the wayside several hundred miles away. As a result the wheel was held in place by the tension in the belt and canted over such that it rubbed against the crank pulley. It's amazing that it didn't just drop off! Replacing the missing nut with a nyloc straightened things out, and peace was restored!