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/d3oxj5hmen...0Meet.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 ), 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.

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

[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!

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!

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... Let us know if we can help, hope you're able to make it for the cruise.