Rennsport Ottawa Coffee Run June 19^th 2010

  The weather forecast for Saturday June 19^th was less than encouraging with the threat of thundershowers developing late in the morning.  Regardless, thirty optimistic individuals arrived at the Starbucks at the IKEA Mall on Pinecrest in a total of twenty-two Porsches.  This was the largest number of cars to take part in a Coffee Run in the last seven or eight years as I can recall.  A wide variety of Stuttgart's engineering efforts were on hand ranging from the usual assortment of 911's, (964, 993, 996, 997), 944's, Boxsters, Boxster S's plus a single 951 and 928.  

At 7:45 Garth Gullekson (who made the effort of driving into Ottawa from Sharbot Lake) gathered the group together for the traditional group photo before we hit the road. Our route took us from the Starbucks at Pinecrest to the 416 south and we made for an impressive sight as twenty-two Porsches were strung out in convoy. We exited the 416 and headed west on county road 12 and to Ashton from where we headed for our first rest stop at the Tim Horton's in Smiths Falls. It was a stroke of luck that they have a very large parking lot behind the building which we filled up to the point where three cars were forced to park on the street.  The sight of twenty-two Porsches in the same place sparked quite a bit of local conversation.

After managing to extricate ourselves from the parking lot and getting ourselves turned around (no mean feat on a busy Saturday morning) we then headed out towards our breakfast stop at the Cove Inn in Westport.  Mary, the owner, had agreed to open the Inn's patio, normally reserved for guests, for thirty hungry Porsche owners. Having had our fill of French Toast, sausage and fresh baked scones it was time for us to hit the road again.

County Road 36 from Westport to Maberly constituted the most interesting stretch of road during the route.  It has more than the average number of challenging twists and turns. (Perhaps not the best choice for those who had taken advantage of the "All you can eat" breakfast buffet.)

Just as we arrived at the intersection of Highway #7 at Maberly we encountered a very large dump truck hauling an equally large flat bed trailer. As we pulled up to the intersection with the dump truck ahead of us, the driver could be seen in his side view mirror eyeing up the procession of "furin sports cars" behind him.  I assumed he was considering pulling off to the side of the road to let us past him. No such luck. He continued on towards Lanark.  He was a few kilometres down the road before we managed to get the pack across Highway #7 and close the gap on him.  It became evident that keeping ahead of "the furin sports cars" was probably the highlight of what promised otherwise to be a pretty routine morning. Jeff Norman and I were amazed at the pace he was setting. Who would have guessed that Michael Schumacher was moonlighting for Maberly Sand and Gravel Ltd.?  Thankfully within a few kilometres he pulled into a gravel pit before it became embarrassing.

After reaching Lanark we turned towards Perth and our last rest-stop at the Balderson Cheese Factory outlet store.  This was Rose's idea and I should have pre-warned the men in the group as they all exited the store with lighter wallets than they had entered with.  Unfortunately while we were parking the cars the weather forecast caught up with us and the rain began.  Due to the wet road conditions we decided to cut the run a bit short and set out for Ottawa via Highway #7.

It was great to see such a large contingent of 1st time Coffee Run participants show up for the run, all of whom professed to have had a great time.  Naturally, it's easy to have a good time with a group of Porschefiles.

Many thanks to Garth Gullekson for driving all the way in from Sharbot Lake to act as official photographer. Garth was his usual effervescent self and always creates a sense of fun for his photographic subjects.  Thanks as well to Bob Power for acting as "Tail Gunner" in the tail end car and Jeff and Elvira Norman who acted as mid-pack car.

The last thanks go to the great bunch of folks who participated and made this such a fun event.