July 1st, 1975 in Glacier National Park after driving through the Highway to the Sun road. Idaho is in the background as Grant Dorosh and I take a break at the summit. It was day one of a six week plus odyssey across the US and Canada. 13,000 plus miles travelled with $302.13 spent on regular gasoline. Remember a gallon was on 55 cents no matter which side of the border you travelled.
On the road my well optioned Vega GT had only two minor issues; I replaced a clutch cable and throwout bearing when we reached Los Angeles. Overheating near Palm Springs cooked a couple of valves but wasn’t an issue that stopped us from enjoying our travels. The Vega never broke down and we never had a flat. A valve job was done when I returned home.
The fuzzy photo doesn’t show the twin chrome tips of the aftermarket Stebro muffler and you can barely make out the trunk mounted antenna for the radio scanner. The CDN sticker on the rear panel made sure we weren’t mistaken for local folk in the US.
While other young people were thumbing rides along the interstates, as a twenty year old I had always fancied a long road trip meeting interesting people and seeing places that were new to all my senses. I’m pretty sure such a road trip was influenced in parts as a kid while watching the television show Route 66. As a family we always took vacations for by automobile and trips into the US were most enjoyable as I saw cars we didn’t have in Canada; eye candy that couldn’t be found on our store shelves.
Have a good summer and enjoy your summer road trip where ever that takes you.
Any post with a Vega is a good one! Happy CDN Day to you!
+1
Happy Canada Day! When this Vega trip was taken, this holiday was called Dominion Day, to commemorate our 1867 founding as a semi-autonomous state within the British Empire.
That Vega is one pretty car. Despite its result as a failure prone economy car, its a refreshingly radical design, in my eyes, low, lean and muscular. Very nice.
And a happy Canada Day to you as well. That would be a great trip. I once took a long trip like that as a young kid, but have never taken one anywhere near this long as an adult.
You don’t say how old your Vega was when it started the trip. From that back bumper, it looks like it could have been no older than a 1974.
Ah, the good old days – when a 13,000 mile trip resulted in a failed clutch cable and throwout bearing, at least one overheating and the need for a valve job. And we can always tell a happy Vega owner when, after that experience, he can say that these were minor issues and was happy that it did not break down. It must have been a good feeling to know that you got one of the good ones. 🙂 Seriously, it is a shame that the Vega was so underdeveloped, because it was such a great looking car, especially as a GT.
JP, i It is a 74 which I factory ordered to my specs including the very comfortable Camaro buckets in Houndstooth pattern cloth. I had considered a number of other cars of similar size and it came down to a basic Mustang fastback and a well optioned Vega. Of course at the time it made sense to get the car with more options for the same amount of money ($3,800(.
I’ve often wondered if the Mustang would have been with me as long as the Vega. I had to give up the Vega in 1990 as its second engine was starting to have issues. 86,000 miles were on it but the body was still sold as I had it undercoated. It was also stored for a number of years in my parents garage.
What kind of scanner did you have? If it wasn’t a crystal-controlled type, was it a punch card type? Before keyboard programmables hit the market in the late 70s, a scanner was somewhat useless outside of your home area.
It was a Radio Shack crystal scanner which was useful as I was an up and coming broadcast journalist. Not surprisingly from time to time while we travelled I was able to pick up the occasional police, fire or public service broadcasts. Either in the US or Canada. The crystals in that scanner were set for Edmonton Police and Fire. Later when I worked in small town radio the crystals were changed out to pick up RCMP frequencies.
By 1977 programmable scanners as you know were quite the deal and I had on mounted in the 1971 Ford Custom I drove and later in my 75 Custom 500.
One trick I used to do when I ran my scanners in the car was to drill a hole in the rear panel and stick the end of a junk CB mike cord thru.
That way, it resembled a CB or a 2 meter, nobody ever gave it a second glance, even when pulled over by cops.
You sound like the kind of guy who’d get a kick out this site.
http://www.radioshackcatalogs.com/
Every catalog they ever put out, I had a good number of the equipment in them, too. But my favorite unit back in the day was the Bearcat 220, except for the audio output, which was crap. I fixed that by putting a horn-type speaker hidden under the dash, that made it audible at highway speeds.
Thanks for the web link.
Me and a couple of my old chums bought a lot of Radio Shack product. The manager of the store at our closest mall made a lot of money from us. No wonder he was always happy to see us in his store.
My current scanner is a Bearcat BC898T. No longer used for news tips just for entertainment as I work by my desk in the house.
Happy Canada Day!
I’ve found a nice cheap scanner (say, if you want one in another room where you’re using your computer) can be had with a $20 USB RTL-SDR stick (looks like a flash drive with a tiny antenna connector) and appropriate laptop software. Even a little whip antenna gets me Chicago public service transmissions.
If the Mustang II had been equipped with the 2.3 and stick shift Pinto engine and trans, you likely would have had no engine, overheating or clutch problems before 88k miles. But it wouldn’t have had the Vega’s good looks!
That is a great 70’s shot. Hard to believe I was as thin as you were in that time period. Happy Canada Day.
I have a vague memory of overheating in our 1974 vega sportwagon that may have been that same color on the way to or from Cape Cod from Connecticut in a summer traffic jam caused by one of the I-95 tolls (later removed). We always talk about the good old days, but it sure is nice to run air conditioning while sitting in traffic and not even consider being worried about overheating!
What a timely post; I myself was vacationing in Glacier Park twenty years ago this very week! For anyone who has never been, I can say it is an amazingly beautiful place. Going to the Sun Road is not for the faint of heart, but well worth the adventure for the stunning views alone. The day we went up the pass, it was record breaking 95+ degree heat, and towards the peak there was still somthing like two feet of snow on the ground! That trip is still my favorite one yet of all the National Parks after all these years.
Happy Canada Day!
I was at Glacier Park 19 years ago. Lovely place. I had just finished jamming a rebuilt and modified Olds 455 into a Cadillac Fleetwood. I thought a 4000 mile trip west across Canada and a return through the States was a reasonable shakedown cruise.
Glacier Park was our westernmost destination. We did have a few problems on the way, resulting in the purchase of a new Holly 750 carb and a transmission mount in Edmonton.
I love road trips, especially in an old car, which brings a real sense of adventure to the trip.
Happy Canada Day, Garry! This great photo couldn’t be any more 70’s – in the best way. Awesome. Like you, I have always enjoyed road trips. When I think about it, I wonder how much sleep my parents lost letting a 19 y/o me drive my new-to-me ’88 Mustang from Florida to Michigan in the early 90’s.
I was always fascinated by Canadian models of otherwise-familiar cars. With Michigan being just across the border, I had made several trips into and through your country, and I found cars like the Pontiac “Firefly” and “Tempest” (our Chevy Sprint and Corsica, respectively) very interesting.
I often plotted what I would do if pulled over for speeding. “I’m sorry, officer – you know, kilometers vs. MPH… I just got confused!” I’ll bet that never works.
Thanks for the great post… and *sweet* Vega!
You mention Florida which I really enjoyed top to bottom both sides.
Great memories of Cape Kennedy, a still very new Disneyworld, the Cuban area of Miami and an air boat ride through the Everglades.
If I ever go back to that state I want to drive the Florida Keys.
Driving the Keys is highly recommended. My wife and I traveled there for our honeymoon in 2013–flew into Ft. Lauderdale, rented a convertible Camaro, and drove from there to Key West, stopping halfway to spend the first three nights in Islamorada. We were lucky enough to have beautiful weather, though it was hot enough that we did put the top back up a couple of times to take an A/C break! Would love to make the trip again myself for an anniversary one of these days.
GARRYM writes ” … I’m pretty sure such a road trip was influenced in parts as a kid while watching the television show Route 66.”
You are not the only one. One of the original “road trip” shows.
Happy Canada Day to all of the Canadian folks on this forum.
I’m thinking about going to Glacier this summer. It’s only 10-11 hours away from PDX according to Google.
While I never had a Vega, I bought a one year old 1976 Pontiac Astre coupe. I had especially liked the Firebird like louver style tail lamps. Mine a had a five speed and never gave me any problems in the two years I owned it. My longest trip involved myself and my two brothers taking a weekend trip from the Bay Area to Tijuana Mexico. We left after work on Friday, swing shift ended at 11:00 pm. We arrived on Saturday morning just before noon. Spent the day, then left for home Sat. evening. Drove all night and arrived early Sunday morning. Slept as long as possible before going to work on Monday afternoon.The car ran fine at 70 mph. Swapping out drivers gave us time to nap. No A/C and it got really hot inside. The roof was the size of a card table and it seemed that direct sunlight was always streaming inside. The things that you do when you are young. I wouldn’t try a trip like that at my current age.
Happy Canada day! A buddy and I helped a coworker change out a radiator today on a 2001 Hyundai Elantra (we Canadians love cheap vehicles). And to our surprise the local parts store was open and had the rad in stock for $114 Cdn. I bet that store would have been closed in 1974 on Canada day. But that job is done and the cold beverages are flowing!
“…as a twenty year old I had always fancied a long road trip meeting interesting people and seeing places that were new to all my senses.”
Exactly my reason for making numerous road trips throughout the America West in the 1990s with my 1986 Chevrolet Celebrity.
The longest was from Dallas, Texas to Vancouver, BC, Canada. No problem with border control on either side. I never forget one flabbergasted reaction of Canadian girls when they saw the numberplate on my car and enunciated “Texas” slowly.
I loved it that Canadians really do know what the turn signal stalk is and use it more often.
By the way, Happy Canada Day (albeit one day late)!
Happy Canada Day Garry ! .
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Thanx for sharing your fun story and nice photo of what should have GM’s crowning glory car….
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Road Trips are fun and all young folks oughta do a few to broaden their horizons .
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I just got back from a nice one up to Lake Tahoe , mixed work and fun .
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-Nate