Volvo cruise...

[chad1966]

Ok Here are some details so far:

Cruise is open to all Audio/Volvo/VW Diesel powered vehicles

Cruise Date: April 26th Sunday

Cruise Meet: Between 9-10 AM, Winged Victory Cir, Olympia, WA (Capital Building), There are 2 one way streets on either side of the fountain, we will meet on the south diagonal st. We will then depart out Cherry LN SW to Sid Snyder Ave SW then to I-5 to Long Beach. I have included a link to a picture to clarify --> https://www.dropbox.com/s/d3oxj5hmen7tj0u/Diesel%20Cruise%20Meet.png?dl=0

Cruise Depart: Time: 10:00AM Olympia --> Long beach, WA

Cruise Route: 3 legs of the cruise are as follows:

1st leg, Start in Olympia, WA --> Long Beach, WA: 115 miles 2-3 hours. Have Lunch and small show and shine in Long Beach, WA.

2nd leg, we have 2 options. go over the Astoria bridge and take HWY 30 along the Oregon side to Kelso, WA OR take HWY 4 along the Washington side to Kelso, WA. They are both about 75 miles and 1 hour 40 minutes. I say we flip a coin during lunch.

3rd leg, Kelso, WA pit stop to say goodbye to anybody that has came from Portland and cruise home unless people want to meet some where between Olympia, WA and Tacoma, WA for dinner.

Cruising so far:
Me, (Chad1966)
Anders, (Anders)
George (V8Volvo)
(Redarrow)
Ryan Reich via VWDiesel

Any questions or comments please comment below, and if I missed some details that people feel need to be added.

[anders]

April 26th would be my first choice.

[anders]

Is this a diesel Volvo only cruise?
Do we have a start time in mind?

[v8volvo]

Sounds great!

April 25th or 26th would be my choice as well. As far as Volvo diesels only -- we could do that, or we could open it up to others as well -- what do y'all think? If we wanted to get a larger group together, we could consider inviting other RWD Volvo groups, or VW diesel groups (since our cars fall into both of those circles :p), or others -- ideas?

A larger group might involve more organizing and logistics, especially if it were large enough that it became difficult for us to be able to drop into a restaurant or brew pub and get enough seats, etc. If we're gonna be 10+ people it might be good to pick out some stopping points on the route ahead of time and make reservations, etc if we want to have a lunch stop. But it would be fun to have a good sized convoy... maybe we should see how many of our folks want to join us first, and then decide from there?

As far as route length; that's a beautiful loop but IMO 300+ miles might be a lot for one day, especially considering that many of us would have to drive a ways to get to and from the meeting point as well, before and after the cruise, and we'd want to build in time for stopping along the way too. I think Olympia sounds like a good starting point since that's far enough south that some Portland folks could join us also. My vote would be to start there and then do a loop that is slightly more compact, to allow plenty of time for photo ops, eating/drinking, hanging out, etc during the drive. However, I'm up for anything really, as long as it involves nice roads and a chance to find some good food and a beer or two along the way. :D

Thanks for organizing -- let's make this happen! :cool:

[chad1966]

Ok I say we just nail it down for the 26th and we are meeting in Olympia. Cruise route TBD and I think we open it up to the VW diesel guys and keep this a Black Smoke only cruise! :)

We could do:
Olympia to Raymond
Raymond to Long Beach
Long Beach to Kelso
Kelso to Olympia

That is 250 miles 4:40 hours aprox?

[v8volvo]

Sounds good. The 26th it is! :cool:

I think that sounds like a great route -- those roads out to and around the coast are really nice and driving along the river from Long Beach to Kelso will probably be a very pretty run too. This southern route may also make it easier for Oregonian members to join us along the way if they would like. And, 250 miles plus driving to/from Olympia should possibly make it doable on one tank of fuel from Seattle, just barely... Maybe those of us coming from here will attempt it! :eek:

Should we try to pick a spot in Olympia that we can meet up in the morning for coffee and a brief show-n-shine, then hit the road and plan for a lunch stop in Long Beach? Probably will be easy to find a good place to eat there.

Who is in? Chad, would you be able to add a list of participants to your first post, as folks sign up?

[chad1966]

Should we cross post for our event over at vwdiesel.net? to keep it all VW powered diesel's. I think it would nice to see some other diesel powered rigs rather than volvos from the 70's-2000's join us.

[RollinCole]

Sorry I'm late posting...

I have to solve a fuel consumption issue before the cruise. I'm getting sad mileage right now. Once I solve it, I should be good for the 26th.

[chad1966]

I invited the guys over on VWDiesel via there Facebook forum. So its going to be an all VW diesel cruise.

[v8volvo]

Sounds good. Will be fun to see what shows up!

RollinCole, what are the details of your issue? Not too many ways for these to lose MPG, unless you're either leaking fuel or the engine is way out of tune or the brakes are dragging. If you're putting a lot of fuel out the exhaust as black smoke, that could be part of it, just guessing based on your username... :eek: Let us know if we can help, hope you're able to make it for the cruise.

[chad1966]

Cruise Meet: Between 9-10 AM, Winged Victory Cir, Olympia, WA (Capital Building), There are 2 one way streets on either side of the fountain, we will meet on the south diagonal st. We will then depart out Cherry LN SW to Sid Snyder Ave SW then to I-5 to Long Beach. I have included a link to a picture to clarify -->
https://www.dropbox.com/s/d3oxj5hmen7tj0u/Diesel%20Cruise%20Meet.png?dl=0

Cruise Depart: Time: 10:00AM Olympia --> Long beach, WA

[v8volvo]

Sounds good, that spot by the Capitol sounds like a great place for a photo op!

Could we do a quick roll call to confirm that this date is still a good one for those who are involved so far, and check who is planning to come?

From the first post, it looks like we have:
Chad (chad1966)
Anders (anders)
George (v8volvo)
Ryan Reich via VWDiesel

Sounded like RollinCole was a maybe as well, depending on sorting out some problems -- any updates on that? Would be great to have you with us, since Chad and Anders are both in 240s and my 700 series is currently the lone representative... :D Any others?

Also, one thought: we originally planned our route to make it easily accessible if some members from Oregon were interested, but so far it looks like those of us who are planning to be involved are all coming from the Puget Sound area. If we don't end up getting any commitments from folks further south, perhaps we will want to consider rethinking our route again so that we don't have to slog back up I-5 from Longview for an hour at the end?

One idea for an option, if we do decide to stay further north: we could still meet up Olympia and start from there, as currently planned, and then could cruise out along scenic Hwy 101 up towards Port Townsend and have lunch there. From there we could either head back south, or explore more around the Olympic Peninsula, depending on timing and desires. Might make it a little easier and keep us off the major freeways, which I think could be more fun if it's possible. What do you all think about that, assuming our group continues to be coming from around here mostly?

Also, just an early heads-up, the date for the IPD Garage Sale has been announced and is May 16th -- we should keep that on the calendar too as another time to meet up!

[anders]

Well there is good news and bad news. I will be attending but not with my 244. Cole aka rollincole will not be attending in the 764. I'm the current owner of the 764 and will be attending the cruise with that. I would love to attend in my 244 but have not got a chance to install the fresh engine. Good news is, you won't be the only 7xx car there George! Chad might be the only 240 though..

[v8volvo]

Interesting news, sounds like some car swapping has been going on... :D

I'll be there in the 745, and Dan may come with his 244 TD as well, so we might have two 200s and two 700s (or more if other folks come too). Sounds like it could be an even mix.

[chad1966]

So far there is nobody committed that I know of coming from Portland. I started a Facebook event and there is somebody coming Vancouver BC. So I like the idea of Olympia to Port Townsendish area for lunch. Sucks for Anders though since he lives in Chimicum. But we an discuss more even the morning of the event. I think as long as we have a 2-3 routes planned we can come to a conclusion soon enough.

[anders]

So the person joining from BC, will it be a Volvo or VW?

[chad1966]

He is in a VW. The only cars coming with volvos that I know of are from the D24t website.

[v8volvo]

Sounds good. We can meet up in Olympia and decide on a direction based on who is there and what everyone's preferences are.

Looking like I may need to be back in Seattle by afternoon -- does the 9:00 start time still work for y'all? I think that would give us plenty of time to link up, have a leisurely cruise with lunch in the middle, and be headed home by early afternoon, if that sounds OK to the rest of you.

[anders]

Sounds good to me.

[v8volvo]

Guys, I'm bummed to report that this weekend is looking increasingly complicated for me, and my time on Sunday is starting to be a little limited. It turns out I need to make a trip to Portland this afternoon until Saturday, and will need to be up near Bellingham on Sunday afternoon, so Sunday morning is squeezed and I'd probably only be able to join for part of it.

It also looks like the weather has a good chance of being wet on Sunday, which might make our plans and photo ops a little less fun.

Here's another idea. The IPD Garage Sale is coming up in about three weeks, on Saturday May 16, in Portland and goes only until 2 or 3 PM. If you guys are planning on going to it (I definitely am), would it make more sense to do our cruise either on the way down or on the way back from that event? We could make a trip out to Mt. Hood then, as one interesting option.

Or, alternatively, would you be up for rescheduling a more local cruise for sometime in May? Perhaps we'd be able to draw in a bigger group then, too.

Or, if this Sunday is still the best preference for y'all, I can meet you for part of the time.

Sorry to have these conflicts come up at the last minute -- I didn't anticipate this weekend being as busy as it has become. Let me know what you all think.

[anders]

That's a bummer, I'm ok with a rescheduled event. I would love to see more diesel Volvo's attend.
I will still attend this Sundays cruise if it's not rescheduled.

[RedArrow]

IT WOULD BE NICE TO HAVE A DIESEL BRICK-MEET ON THE EAST COAST AS WELL!

D24 & d24t owners, let`s get together some day (or two) in the Summer.
I do fishing, hiking, camping, dirtbiking etc quite often in NJ,PA,DE.
At 30-34mpg and a comfy 740 seat I`m willing to drive ~300 miles to see other D survivors. :)
I guess it would be a Sat (or maybe Sun) event.

Any ideas?
I like the May 23rd/24th weekend.

[anders]

A friend of mine will be attending the cruise also with my old 764.

[chad1966]

I think we should re schedule. Just being hônest. I know thîs is last minute but I want there to be more than just aprox 4-6 cars.

[v8volvo]

OK, let me know your preference. Sorry to bail; I am putting in 600+ miles of wheel time this weekend as it is, so, aside from scheduling issues, an extra couple hundred this morning for pleasure cruising didn't sound as attractive as it normally would...!

If you guys go ahead and do it, enjoy and take pictures... if you end up not, let me know when you'd like to reschedule for and I'm in. I agree, it would be fun to get ~10 cars together at least for the cruise -- maybe we can work the networks a little more and pull together a bigger group.

[RedArrow]

Did you guys make it happen?
I`d like to see pictures of the diesels. :)

[v8volvo]

I think we ended up doing a rain-check on it, or at least, I didn't go, unfortunately. Don't know if the others ended up meeting up or not but last I heard from Chad the plan was to do a different date.

You should definitely organize a Northeast meet! Seems like you might have nearly as many members in the NY/New England area as we have here.

Chad and Anders, either of you planning on IPD this year?

[anders]

Are we cruising to IPD swap meet?

[v8volvo]

Are we cruising to IPD swap meet?

I am planning to head down Friday evening so that probably won't be ideal for a cruise. However, Saturday afternoon on the way back north could be a good chance, and maybe we'd be able to round up some Oregon members or other diesel owners from the meet too. Any interest in that?

Looks like Saturday's weather may not be perfect, but that may not be a big deal.

Who's planning on being at IPD? Maybe we can try to find some spots to be near each other if there are a few of us.