A Festiva by any other name

May of us have nicknames for our cars and Festiva owners are no exception. Sometimes our cars are named by others, some names stick and others don't.

Here's a few of those names, and stories behind them, from friends in the Festiva community!

Ben in Kentucky:

It was my brother who named Frito. Shortly after acquiring the vehicle he was cleaning it out for me and found an empty bag of the Frito’s snacks in the interior. His brain connected that to the film “Idiocracy” in which one of the main characters names is Frito, and also features a white Festiva GL in a rather hilarious monster truck segment. I liked the name, particularly for its unique brevity, and for its similarity to the another white Festiva in the community called “Pedro”.

Frito: a very well travelled Festiva!

Gas prices in April 2020: a good news/bad news story.

The price for regular gas in Calgary is currently hovering around 60¢ per liter. It hasn't been that low since December of 2003!!!! The gas prices have been floating between $1.10 and 90¢ since June of 2019 so the drop is quite significant. That brings me to a couple good news/bad news scenarios.

It's April 12, 2020 and gas can be had for 58.9¢ per litre!!

Good news: gas is cheap. The bad news: there's nowhere to go! We are currently in a situation where provincial and national parks are closed, and we are required to stay home. One comment I've seen a couple of times asks the question "Is it just me or is anyone else getting three weeks to the gallon?"

It's show time!

Part three in a series:

You've picked your spot and parked the car, now what? I'll give the car a quick check to make sure its looking its best. Make sure you haven't missed any garbage, that the glass is clean and there are no obvious dirt on the outside. One thing I forgot to mention in the previous post is that any non-essential items that you might normally carry in the car should probably be left at home.

All set up at the Okotoks Show N Shine (August 2019)

 
Once the show gets rolling be prepared to answer questions about your ride. With our Festiva most people don't realize how different it is from a stock version. To help with that we have a poster made up that highlights the major changes. We've also have a sheet that goes into more detail which is laminated to keep it in good shape and dry if it's raining.

 

Show sign.

When you purchase personalized plates in Alberta they send you two but we only have to display one on the car. That allows me to use the other plate on the sign. The poster is in an inexpensive frame from IKEA to keep it out of the weather and it's all mounted on a piece of foamcore from the Dollar Store

The info sheet... printed on two sides and laminated!

Be sure to take some time to check out as many of the other vehicles in the show! Before leaving your car make sure anything of value is secured out of sight. I'll put a couple of extra cards under the wipers and have the info sheets in a conspicuous spot. 

Do you have any tips or suggestions for car shows? Let us know in the comments.

Show N Shine season is almost here!

Part one in a series:

So you've decided you'd like to share your automotive passion at a Show and Shine! How do you find them? Which show or shows should you enter? Are there different kinds of shows? Is your car good enough? Over the next few posts we'll try and answer these questions and more based on our experience over the last couple of years.
 

Westiva, a local meet for Ford Festivas held annually. August 2017.

If you plan it they will come... day one.

Friday September 27th.

The day started out a little chilly with the Calgary weather forecast calling for snow!!!!

Fluids topped off, luggage, tools and parts all packed. Ready to go!!

The roads were familiar as we have done this route a number of times in the past. It was raining on and off for the whole drive to Moose Jaw.

Alberta prairie views

Welcome to Saskatchewan

We made a detour to Gravelbourg SK. This prairie town is renowned for its brick  homes, the Our Lady of Assumption Cathedral and its Francophone heritage.

WESTIVA 2016

Plans are well under way for this year's edition of Westiva. This will be the 8th time we've hosted the event at the picturesque Wedge Pond Day Use Area in Alberta's beautiful Kananaskis Country.

Westiva is very casual, informal event originally geared towards owners, fans and fanatics of both the Ford Festiva or Ford Aspire with invitations extended to owners of other econoboxes from the late eighties and early nineties such as the Dodge Colt, Chevrolet Sprint, Geo Metro, Suzuki Swift and Nissan Micra.

The "official" start time is around 10:00am. At about 1:00pm we’ll cruise up to the Boulton Creek Trading Post in Peter Lougheed Provincial Park for ice cream, about a 30km drive. From there we'll continue to Upper Kananaskis Lake.

2010 attendees (This shot was taken before the tenth car arrived)

When Westiva was first held in 2008 there were four attendees. Two from Calgary, one from the lower mainland of British Columbia and the fourth driving up from Worland WY. Our best year attendance-wise was 2010 when we had 10 Festivas show up with the furthest being from Ontario. 

In keeping with our expanded area of interest we had the owner of a Suburau Vivio RXR come to the 2012 edition. There was no event in 2013 due to significant flooding in southern Alberta

The 2014 event saw a couple of Suzuki Swifts in attendance, one from Calgary and the other from Spruce Grove AB. We also had owners bringing the cars from as far away as Pasco WA and St. Albert SK.

Westiva 2014 attendees.

Westiva 2015 attendees

Looking forward to some long distance attendees this year! Festiva owners in Georgia, Utah and Montana have expressed an interest in coming up. If the exchange rate on the Canadian vs. US dollar stays anywhere close to where it is today it would make for an inexpensive trip! 

Speaking of distances... if you're thinking of coming here are some approximate one way travel distances:

Great Falls MT: 400 miles
Spokane WA: 425 miles
Portland OR: 775 miles
San Sioux Falls SD: 1250 miles
Denver CO: 1175 miles
Fransisco CA: 1300 miles
Los Angeles CA: 1600 miles
Kansas City MO: 1600 miles
Phoenix AZ: 1625 miles
Louisville KY: 2000 miles
Knoxville TN: 2200 miles
Raleigh NC: 2475 miles
Miami FL: 3025 miles

Edmonton AB: 400 km
Vancouver BC: 950 km
Saskatoon SK: 725 km
Regina SK: 875 km
Winnipeg MB: 1425 km
Toronto ON: 3500 km
Montreal QC: 3625 km

So consider yourself invited! I hope to have my new Festiva project car done in time for the meet.


8th ANNUAL WESTIVA

When: Saturday July 16, 2016
Where: Wedge Pond Day Use Area, Kananaskis, Alberta
Who: Ford Festiva and Aspire fans and anyone interested along with owners, fans etc of other econoboxes from the era.
Why: Why not?

If you'd like more information either leave a comment here or check out the "Meets & Events" section at FordFestiva.com

Update: It was a great day! Follow this link for a bit of a write up and some photos.

We've been everywhere... an update

I don't want to leave out the Canadian portions of our road trips so here's a map showing the provinces we've been in during the same time frame of our earlier post:

Provinces we've visited in the Festiva marked in yellow

Although over the years we've been in more than what's shown I've only included those provinces that we've been in with the Festiva.We hope to increase the yellow bits on both maps during 2015!

Another road trip report.... this time not mine.

One of the blogs I follow is Subcompact Culture. Andy and his wife, Mercedes, recently took a road trip from their home in Portland, through Washington, Idaho, Montana, Alberta and BC. Follow this link to read of their adventures.

From www.subcompactculture.com

Sharon and I have driven portions of their route, albeit not in one trip, and can attest to the reports of great roads, great scenery and great food. 

On a technical note... Andy did a single post for the entire road trip whereas I have tended to do day by day postings. This begs the question: which do you prefer, a single post for entire trip or day by day postings? Please let me know by way of a comment.

Enjoy!

Festiva Madness trip... day 14. Homeward bound

This is the last day of our road trip. In a way it's a bit sad but we are all looking forward to getting home.

Our drive took us from Billings Montana, through Great Falls, across the border at Sweetgrass and then home via Lethbridge and Fort Macleod. Billings was cold and and a bit overcast when we left and the weather got slowly worse as we headed north. Hit rain at Great Falls and it didn't stop until we got close to home. Thankfully it stopped just before we arrived at the house so we were able to unload in the dry.

Montana scenery

Contrast of the times: a roadside cattle drive past a wind farm. Boy was it windy!

Rain up ahead!

The drivers' side wiper decided to succumb to the wind, go off the side of the windshield and get hung up on the antenna! Stopped  just over the border and fixed it... sort of.

In line, in the rain, at the border.

Welcome back to Alberta.

You know you're back in Canada when...

Here's some info for the statistically minded:

5 people and their luggage
14 days

18 states, DC and 2 provinces
Distance traveled: 10167 km / 6317 miles
Lowest elevation: At first I thought it was sea level at Virginia Beach but my youngest reminded me that we went through a tunnel under a shipping channel to get to the beach. Checked it out and we were actually at 33 meters / 108 feet below sea level!
Highest elevation: 2946m / 9666 feet at Powder River Pass WY
Fuel consumed: 671.3 litres / 177.3 US gallons
Average fuel economy: 6.6 per 100km /  35.6 miles per US gallon
Lowest price paid for gas in the US: 79.2¢ per litre / $2.999 per US gallon in Troy Missouri
Highest price paid for gas in the US: 108.3¢ per litre / $4.099 per US gallon in Washington DC
Average price paid for gas in the US: 90.7¢ per litre / $3.433 per US gallon
Total fuel costs for the trip: $609.12
Total tolls paid: $1.00
Least expensive hotel per night: Travelodge in Williamsburg approx: $45.00
Most expensive hotel per night: Channel Inn in Washington DC approx. $142.00 per night (only hotel without an included breakfast). Surprisingly the next most expensive was in Bismarck ND at about $114.00
Average hotel per night: $81.00

So there you go... a nineteen year old well maintained econobox can make a big trip! I hope you have enjoyed following our journey as much as we enjoyed making it! We thank the Lord that we were able to make this trip and do so safely. Looking forward to our next adventure!