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Brockville (Ontario) Drivers

-for those who like group drives

Meat Cove
Meat Cove
-me just being hilarious

Next Drive

#32 – TBD

Usually depart 1000 Islands Plaza, Section F, 10:00 a.m (sharp!)

I don't think that we have completely settled the question of whether to do another December drive, or to wait until January.

I'm thinking drive. Please feel invited to weigh in.

Join us.

Ideas and suggestions always welcome. Contact me.

Let me know if you would like email updates.

Keep an eye here and on our Facebook page.

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Drive #31
Gananoque Cross-Country routes

Previous Drive

#31 – Laverne's, Gananoque

Thursday November 30

We had a lovely, meandering, cross-country drive to Laverne's in Gananoque. Two vehicles there, three back (it's complicated!), one passionate driver slept in(!). (I'm sure they needed it.)

We enjoyed the meal, the conversation was most pleasant, and we finished it all off with coffee at Richard's Coffeehouse in Brockville before heading for home; I just didn't want the day to end.

This was really our first drive this year with no thought of anyone using their fun- or summer-car, but i) there is no vehicular specification for these drives(!), and ii) those who come enjoy driving and are happy with their winter-vehicles too.

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MX-5 dawn

The Idea

Starting in June of 2022, Brockville Drivers exists simply for people who, like me (Charles T. Low), would like a group drive once in a while (cars, motorcycles, any road vehicle, really). In our short history to date, we have done shorter drives, longer drives, and no overnight trips (yet?).

Safety – the main thing will be safety, of course, completely on each driver's individual recognizance. This is not a club or any formal type of organization, the events not being sanctioned by any recognized body. The drives are nothing more than an offer to join others for an occasional motor excursion. I explicitly assume no liability whatsoever. I intend these, speaking only for myself, as 100% alcohol-free events.

Vehicles – there are no vehicular specifications. (I have said that I discourage unicycles, and yes, that is as humorous as I get.) We are tending to attract fun-vehicles, but ... come in whatever you like to drive!

Frequency – up to weekly in the summer, roughly monthly in the winter — no firm schedule.

Destinations – usually somewhere within 90-150 minutes outbound, shorter inbound, for lunch.

Routes – With help from other drivers, we have been finding back-roads routes, no major highways, and I have done my durndest to avoid badly bumpy roads, and strive mightily never to drive on gravel roads at all. Without pre-driving the routes, surprises can happen (and have done so) — all manageable so far. Road-condition websites (below) and Google-maps Street-View help immensely (if a bit tedious to wade through).

Starting point – we have been meeting informally, most often in the 1000 Islands Mall parking lot, between Gabriel Pizza and Staples, roughly between markers E and F.

Notification – Contact me if and when you would like to be on a (very private) notification list. I will attempt to contact interested parties individually, once, and anything further will only be with your explicit permission. Notifications could be through email, or potentially through an email list service such as MailChimp (could be necessary as numbers grow). As of August 2023, we have Facebook group, and I share some posts with a Brockville events group.

Weather – most drives are rain or shine (although I do intend to be intelligent about that), without a rain-date unless explicitly specified.

Some of the restaurants require reservations, and it also helps in general if you RSVP as early as you are able.

Charles T. Low
Brockville, Ontario

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Drives

2023

  1. #14, Sat. Jan. 21, Almonte, route up fun but faulty (not shown), route back, 4 vehicles, ~300 km
  2. #15, Sat. Feb. 11, Coutts Coffee, route to Perth, 4 vehicles, ~170 km
  3. #16, Tue. May 9, Westport, Tangled Garden, 5 vehicles
  4. #17, Wed. May 24, Verona, Muddy Waters Restaurant, and Westport, Vanilla Beans Café and Creamery, 3 vehicles, ~250 km
  5. #18, Sun. June 11, Blue Anchor Pub & Grill (near Cornwall), Outbound, Inbound, 4 vehicles
  6. #19, Wed. July 7, Muddy Waters Restaurant, Verona, Ontario, Outbound, Inbound, 3 vehicles
  7. #20, Tue. July 18, Gananoque, Laverne's Eatery, pop-up drive, there on the Parkway, home more circuitously through Emery and Junetown, 4 vehicles
  8. #21, Sat. July 22, Fall River Café, Maberly, Antrim Truck Stop, Arnprior, Outbound, 7 vehicles
  9. #22, Wed. Aug. 2, The Swan on the Rideau, Outbound, (inbound on back roads through Kemptville, Oxford Mills, Bishops Mills, North Augusta, New Dublin), 8 vehicles (incl. 1 motorcycle), 10 people, 209 km round-trip
  10. #23, Wed. Aug. 9, Chaffey's Lock, The Opinicon, Ice Cream Shop, Outbound, Inbound, 5 cars, 6 people, ~200 km
  11. #24, Sun. Aug. 20, Muddy Waters (FB), Verona, Outbound, Inbound, 4 vehicles
  12. #25, Aug. 28, Carleton Place
  13. #26, WhiteFace, Lake Placid, NY
  14. #27, Fall River Café, Maberly (lunch) – Lanark – Coutts Coffee, Perth (coffee), Round Trip, 3 cars, ~235 km, ~3.5 hours driving
  15. #28, Melt Gallery, The Miller House, 2 cars, ~320 km
  16. #29, The Swan, Thu. Oct. 26, 4 cars, 4 people
  17. #30, Muddy Waters, Verona, Fri. Nov. 3
  18. #31, Nov. 30, Laverne's, Gananoque, Outbound, Inbound, 2 or 3 vehicles (complicated!), 162 km, ~2.75 hours driving

2022

  1. Sun. June 12; Gananoque, coffee, Tim Horton's, return, 2 cars, 2 people
  2. Sun. June 26; Kemptville (there and back), coffee, Tim Horton's, 2 cars, 3 people
  3. Sat. July 2; Smiths Falls, McDonald's (there and back), coffee, 4 cars & 1 motorcycle, 6 people
  4. Thu. July 7, Calabogie (there and back), Redneck Bistro, lunch, 6 vehicles, 6 people
  5. Thu. July 14, Manotick (there and back), The Swan on the Rideau, lunch
  6. Sat. July 23, Perth, light breakfast at Coutts Coffee Roastery and Café
  7. Sun. Aug. 07, Chaffey's Lock (there and back), lunch at The Opinicon, 9 vehicles, 13 people
  8. Mon. Aug. 22, St-Albert (Fromagerie at), there and back (legs one and two), 5 vehicles, 6 people.
  9. Sat. Sep. 17, Gananoque, Laverne's Eatery, 6 vehicles, 7 people.
  10. Fri. Oct. 14, Juniper Café, Kingston, Outbound, Inbound, 4 vehicles, 5 people.
  11. Sun. Oct. 23, Opinicon Road, lunch at Ferg's Cook House (Crosby), 3 vehicles, 4 people.
  12. Sat. Nov. 05, Bedford Road, Westport, actual route, snack at the Tangled Garden Café, 7 vehicles, 9 people
  13. Sun. Nov. 10, The Village Bean, Merrickville, route through Perth, 2 vehicles, ~150 km

Feel free to suggest dates, times, places of your own choosing (duration, distance, activity, frequency, etc.). Feel free to comment on the roads — looking for safe, fun and interesting, will not damage the vehicles or overly jostle the occupants. Feel free to comment on the durations and distances of the drives.

Starting with full fuel suggested; otherwise the group very easily gets separated from each other.

If the group would like a drive on a date when I am unavailable, then I will try to help to facilitate it, as able (and that has happened, and it went well).

Sunblock!

It has happened that some of us returned to the start-point, rather than head straight home, and that has led to some spontaneous and very enjoyable conversation with or without another restaurant patio-meal.

Attracting Participants

Feel free to comment on:

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Housekeeping

Non-rules

This is just a group of drivers going for drives, so no one has any explicit rules. Here however are a few useful ideas from formal driving clubs:

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MX-5 Dawn

Links

Route Resources

Road Conditions

Car Clubs

Several other wonderful local car clubs exist, their focus being elsewhere than on driving, to my knowledge. I hope that I'm not stepping on anyone's toes, and please let me know, if so. So far, the Brockville Drivers initiative seems to have found a very receptive audience!

This is a very partial list (suggestions welcome):

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Brockville Drivers © 2022-2023 ctLow – Brockville, Ontario
Privacy: this webpage itself does no tracking or information-sharing.
#ctLow #CharlesTLow #ctLowDrives -posted: 2022-07-13 -updated: 2023-12-02