Ian Curtis
Senior Member
This past Sunday my wife & I took our model A on a ~140 mile trip around Whidbey Island here in Puget Sound to kick off the touring season.
We left Snohomish at around 8AM in a heavy drizzle by way of the bait & tackle store to get a Discover pass as we couldn’t find our existing one. These $30 / year passes are required for parking at state parks here in Washington State. We also stopped at McDonald’s for breakfast burritos and coffee. This is the first time I’ve used the magnetic cup-holder I bought a few months ago, and that thing is worth its weight in gold! We cruised across the Snohomish river valley and through Everett to arrive at the Mukilteo ferry. We just missed the 9:00 AM ferry, so we sat at the dock for a half hour waiting for the next ferry. Conveniently, the rain stopped and the sun broke through.
As we had just missed the first ferry, we were the first off the boat in Clinton. We took a right on Bob Galbreath Road, and headed up along the east coast of the island to Langley. In Langley we took a walk along the shore, and wandered through a few shops and up to Useless Bay Coffee for second coffee. Langley is a great little town, it reminded me of some of the towns on the San Juan Islands, but much easier to get to.
Then we set off across the island, mostly on back roads, to Double Bluff beach. Thanks to the tiny-ness of the Model A, we were able to grab a questionable parking spot and had a nice walk on the beach. True to the name there were some impressive bluffs, as well as a great scenic view down the sound.
From there, we drove north along the west coast of the island, along Bush Point Road which becomes Smugglers Cove Road. This merges back onto 525, and then we took a left on 20 towards Fort Casey. We were pleasantly surprised to have 525 mostly to ourselves. The view on 20 driving down towards Fort Casey was pretty spectacular. At Fort Casey we had our one scary moment of the trip. This horrendous noise started intermittently in the engine compartment.
Luckily, it turned out to be a loose heater manifold. Certain engine vibrations would start it vibrating and it would make the most terrible racket. I tightened the two bolts, and it was fixed. It kept working its way loose again and again over the course of the trip, eventually on the way home I just took it off and set it in the bed. I also dumped in about a quart of oil here. We had left the house about halfway between empty & full, and were at the L here. I checked again when we got home and hadn’t lost any. Sometimes I go through a lot of oil, and sometimes very little… and there doesn’t seem to be much rhyme or reason.
After Fort Casey, it was north on South Engle Road to Coupeville. We stopped for lunch at the Oystercatcher, which was quite nice. Great oysters, wonderful mussels, fantastic bread – we also had some “””poutine””” which was interesting but not at all poutine. Lunch took a while, so at this point it was getting on in the afternoon, and we still had a lot of driving and exploring to do. We drove along Madrona Way taking in the sights of Penn Cove, and then merged onto 20 up to Deception Pass State Park.
We parked at the lower lot by the Deception Pass bridge. There was a short jaunt down the beach where you could look up to the bridge, and then a short trail up the bridge itself. You can walk across the bridge (quite an experience!) and then we wandered around a few trails on the Fidalgo Island side of the bridge down to Lottie Bay & Bowman Bay. Just a wonderfully scenic place. We headed back to the car at around 3:30, and were back on the road by 4.
Driving across the bridge was a real treat, the bridge is just a couple years younger than the Model A. Once across the bridge highway 20 continues across the southern part of Fidalgo Island. We took a right on Reservation Road through the Swinomish Reservation to get away from traffic, which was a nice road through the woods I had not been on before. This takes you through the small town of La Conner, and then out into the Skagit Valley.
At this point, our destination was Snow Goose Produce, farm stand and ice cream extravaganza. For $4.50, you get a homemade waffle cone with an ice cream scoop that is almost the size of your head. We were not the only people with this idea on a sunny Sunday afternoon, so we stood in line for at least half an hour to get our ice cream. It was after 5 at this point, and the sun was getting low, so we wolfed down our “dinner” and were back on the road.
We took 534 to 9. I had never been on 534 before, that was a nice country road as well. I really love SR 9 north of Arlington, so I enjoyed the next 10 miles. South of Arlington 9 becomes pretty busy, with rolling hills and lots of stop lights not timed with the Model A in mind. Particularly the intersections with SR 92 & 20th St SE. We made it home around 6:30, completing about 140 miles of Model A driving with several hours of wandering & hiking. A long day!
Previous Trips
Olympic Peninsula
Sauk Mountain
Chuckanut Drive
Spada Lake
Mountain Loop Highway
We left Snohomish at around 8AM in a heavy drizzle by way of the bait & tackle store to get a Discover pass as we couldn’t find our existing one. These $30 / year passes are required for parking at state parks here in Washington State. We also stopped at McDonald’s for breakfast burritos and coffee. This is the first time I’ve used the magnetic cup-holder I bought a few months ago, and that thing is worth its weight in gold! We cruised across the Snohomish river valley and through Everett to arrive at the Mukilteo ferry. We just missed the 9:00 AM ferry, so we sat at the dock for a half hour waiting for the next ferry. Conveniently, the rain stopped and the sun broke through.
As we had just missed the first ferry, we were the first off the boat in Clinton. We took a right on Bob Galbreath Road, and headed up along the east coast of the island to Langley. In Langley we took a walk along the shore, and wandered through a few shops and up to Useless Bay Coffee for second coffee. Langley is a great little town, it reminded me of some of the towns on the San Juan Islands, but much easier to get to.
Then we set off across the island, mostly on back roads, to Double Bluff beach. Thanks to the tiny-ness of the Model A, we were able to grab a questionable parking spot and had a nice walk on the beach. True to the name there were some impressive bluffs, as well as a great scenic view down the sound.
From there, we drove north along the west coast of the island, along Bush Point Road which becomes Smugglers Cove Road. This merges back onto 525, and then we took a left on 20 towards Fort Casey. We were pleasantly surprised to have 525 mostly to ourselves. The view on 20 driving down towards Fort Casey was pretty spectacular. At Fort Casey we had our one scary moment of the trip. This horrendous noise started intermittently in the engine compartment.
Luckily, it turned out to be a loose heater manifold. Certain engine vibrations would start it vibrating and it would make the most terrible racket. I tightened the two bolts, and it was fixed. It kept working its way loose again and again over the course of the trip, eventually on the way home I just took it off and set it in the bed. I also dumped in about a quart of oil here. We had left the house about halfway between empty & full, and were at the L here. I checked again when we got home and hadn’t lost any. Sometimes I go through a lot of oil, and sometimes very little… and there doesn’t seem to be much rhyme or reason.
After Fort Casey, it was north on South Engle Road to Coupeville. We stopped for lunch at the Oystercatcher, which was quite nice. Great oysters, wonderful mussels, fantastic bread – we also had some “””poutine””” which was interesting but not at all poutine. Lunch took a while, so at this point it was getting on in the afternoon, and we still had a lot of driving and exploring to do. We drove along Madrona Way taking in the sights of Penn Cove, and then merged onto 20 up to Deception Pass State Park.
We parked at the lower lot by the Deception Pass bridge. There was a short jaunt down the beach where you could look up to the bridge, and then a short trail up the bridge itself. You can walk across the bridge (quite an experience!) and then we wandered around a few trails on the Fidalgo Island side of the bridge down to Lottie Bay & Bowman Bay. Just a wonderfully scenic place. We headed back to the car at around 3:30, and were back on the road by 4.
Driving across the bridge was a real treat, the bridge is just a couple years younger than the Model A. Once across the bridge highway 20 continues across the southern part of Fidalgo Island. We took a right on Reservation Road through the Swinomish Reservation to get away from traffic, which was a nice road through the woods I had not been on before. This takes you through the small town of La Conner, and then out into the Skagit Valley.
At this point, our destination was Snow Goose Produce, farm stand and ice cream extravaganza. For $4.50, you get a homemade waffle cone with an ice cream scoop that is almost the size of your head. We were not the only people with this idea on a sunny Sunday afternoon, so we stood in line for at least half an hour to get our ice cream. It was after 5 at this point, and the sun was getting low, so we wolfed down our “dinner” and were back on the road.
We took 534 to 9. I had never been on 534 before, that was a nice country road as well. I really love SR 9 north of Arlington, so I enjoyed the next 10 miles. South of Arlington 9 becomes pretty busy, with rolling hills and lots of stop lights not timed with the Model A in mind. Particularly the intersections with SR 92 & 20th St SE. We made it home around 6:30, completing about 140 miles of Model A driving with several hours of wandering & hiking. A long day!
Previous Trips
Olympic Peninsula
Sauk Mountain
Chuckanut Drive
Spada Lake
Mountain Loop Highway
