Grants Pass, OR, is a city of 40,000, 244 miles south of Portland. The Rogue River, famous for its whitewater rafting, runs through it. But I wasn’t aware that it had a car culture that stretched back to 1988.
So when information about car show named Cruise the Rogue popped into my inbox, I was intrigued.
According to the organizers, Cruise the Rogue is “a four-day automotive festival spanning Historic Downtown, Riverside Park, and the G and H Street corridor. Twelve vehicle classes. Show and shine exhibitions. Scenic poker runs through Applegate Valley wine country. Live concerts. And the return of the Saturday Night Cruise back through downtown. Every vehicle is welcome. Classics, muscle, hot rods, exotics, JDM builds, lowriders, trucks, motorcycles. If it has wheels and a story, it belongs here.”
With the entire car community gearing up for the high-stress, competitive Monterey Car Week, Cruising the Rogue sounded like the perfect way to spend a few days just kicking tires with gearheads. It was also time to put some miles on our 2005 Porsche 911 C4S. Although it became a part of the SCM fleet in December (on my birthday) things just haven’t fallen into place for a getaway.
I dropped a note to the vice-chair of the organizing committee, Michael O’Coyne, asking if we could send copies of SCM for their goodie bags. They were delighted and invited me to the VIP dinner. Michael (who was the most calm, helpful and unflappable event organizer I have ever met) said the 4CS would be welcome. So would my son Bradley’s 1998 Volvo T5 wagon!
I enlisted my good friend and long-time SCM computer guru Scott Rainey (he installed Windows 3.11 on our network many years ago) as another co-conspirator, and we were ready. Despite it being a two-hour drive from Eugene to Grants Pass, Bradley said he would meet us Friday night and go to the car show and cruise on Saturday.
Scott and I headed out Friday at 11 a.m., and by 3 p.m. we were ravenous. As we passed through Roseberg, we spied an In-N-Out Burger. Soon enough we were enjoying an Animal Burger and Cheese Fries from the “secret” menu.
We were just 70 miles from Grants Pass, the 4CS was running like a top, and we were enjoying the classic CD, “The British Invasion” as we hopped back on Interstate 5 South.
I’ll continue the story next week.
Read my previous blog posts here.
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