More on the Shogun...

I first wrote about Jay Leno's Shogun in this April, 2016 post. Grassroots Motorsports just posted this article about Chuck Beck's Shogun. Chuck is the co-creator, along with his friend Rick Titus, and I believe he still owns this car. Follow this link to read the article.

Photo from the article

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Full credit goes to Alan Caesar and Grassroots Motorsports for this great read...

Westiva 2017

What a great day!!!

Our drive out was in surprisingly heavy traffic on the Trans Canada Highway west of Calgary but once we turned onto Highway 40 it got a lot lighter.

Heavy traffic westbound on the Trans-Canada Highway

We were travelling with Jimmy Hawkins who had driven to Calgary from Macon GA. We were joined by Ryan and family just as we turned onto Highway 40 so the last 30km or so ended up being a three car convoy to the Wedge Pond Day Use Area.

Westiva 2017.... today's the day!

Weather has held... the forecast calls for partly sunny skies and a high of 32ºF/90ºF. Our car is ready to go and long distance attendees are getting closer!

All cleaned up and ready for Westiva 2017

Watch this space over the next couple of days for lots of photos and a full report. Also look for #westiva and #westiva2017 on Instagram.

Westiva 2017... hard to believe that it's only seven days away!

Westiva 2017 is shaping up to be an awesome event. The weather forecast calls for temperatures of 35ºC/95ºF, or as Accuweather puts it... "hot with sizzling sunshine"! Bring your sunscreen, bring your camera, wear a hat!

All of these will be at Westiva 2017 except for the red one.

Wondering what you can expect to see when you come to Westiva 2017? Glad you asked! Here's a small sampling:

Westiva 2017: only 14 days to wait now

The print edition of the on-line article I posted last week was published yesterday in the driving section of the Calgary Herald... apparently we "Festiva aficionados are having a love-in"! The text of the article hasn't changed but we all got a chuckle out of the headline

The weather forecast is looking great with a high of 26ºC (79ºF) and only a slight chance of late day showers; that being said the event is a go rain or shine.

Westiva 2017... three weeks to go!

As Westiva 2017 draws closer things are starting to get more exciting.

Greg Williams is a writer for Driving.ca (among other things) who published an article about our first big road trip back in 2011. I've kept in touch over the years and he has always included Westiva in the 'upcoming events' section of his articles.

His latest article, published on-line just yesterday, features Ben Rogers of Lexington, Kentucky as he prepares his Festiva, named Frito, for an epic 6000 mile road trip that includes a stop at this years edition of Westiva. Ben's route will take him through seventeen states and three provinces.

Ben on his 2016 trip; photo by Ben Rogers

This won't be Ben's first big trip.

Westiva 2017... four weeks and counting.

As I write this post Westiva 2017 is only four weeks away. What is Westiva you ask? Answers to that question can be found by following this link.

Some of the attendees at Westiva 2016

We are getting excited as this year's event is shaping up to be the biggest ever. We have confirmed attendees from Kentucky, Washington State, Georgia, Alberta and Saskatchewan. There is also a possibility of at least one Festiva coming up from Arizona! We have several of our "regulars" coming along with a number of first timers. 

If you have a Festiva, an Aspire, or one of many of the econoboxes from the late '80's and early '90's come and join us. If you don't and are wondering what all the fuss is about please stop by to have a look and ask your questions.

Watch this space for weekly updates!