Issue link: http://digital.nexsitepublishing.com/i/1309033
NOVEMBER 2020 36 It has been said that first impressions make all the difference and well, as our first PNWR tour, this one did not disappoint! We are perhaps like other Porsche owners where jobs, raising a family, and life's other exploits often compete for our cherished time behind the wheel. Until recently that had been the case for my wife Moira and I. We now find ourselves as empty-nesters and retirees. With more time to ourselves, doing the things we enjoy most is what defines our current action items. Although we've owned Porsches for years, life's pursuits have kept us from carving out additional time to become involved in PNWR activities, so our 'tours' had mostly been independent ones. The past seven months of not being able to do many of our normal activities had started to cause cabin fever. So, seeing a Spiel ad for the North Cascades Tour got us thinking it was time to get out for a road trip! We jumped to sign up for this one, knowing that the club's ability to continue with tours has been somewhat in question. We wanted to make sure we were able to get in at least one this year if possible. This being our first tour and also a Covid-19 year, meant we needed to get acquainted with the SmartWaiver and registration process, which both Tours Chair, Greg Halverson and Tour Leader, Curtis Broderson were quick to assist with. The saying goes, "It's not just the cars, it's the people." This saying certainly rang true throughout this tour. It started with Greg and Curtis offering to guide us through the process and make sure we were good to go. Thanks again guys! As the date approached, we received an email that there was a change to the route due to road construction. Tour leaders Curt and Samantha had taken it upon themselves to run the entire route a couple of days early and scout any issues, which led to the route changes. That attention to detail ahead of a group run really impressed us, so we knew this tour was going to be a great one before it even got started. Saturday morning, we met up at our group's assigned time at the Arlington Smokey Point rest-stop where we met Greg and the others in our group, and of course, checked out the cars. For this trip we decided to take the newest addition to our stable, a 1976 – 912E with 24,000 original miles on it that we acquired from well-known PNWR member, Nathan Merz of Columbia Valley Luxury Cars. We have owned this car for a little over a year and a half and decided it was time to take it out on the road for an extended trip see how she did on longer runs. It turned out that over the course of this tour there would be quite a bit of interest in its history, including a suggestion to write a few words about it in this article. Instead I've decided to write a future article on the car itself, as it really does have a great story. Itching to hit the road, everyone was masked-up as our group listened to a few last-minute route comments and from there we headed out for the weekend. Our Group-4 Leaders were Linda and Greg Halverson. They quickly had us up I-5 and headed east out Highway 530, past Oso to our first rest stop in Darrington. Article by Doug Whidby and Photography by Doug Whidby and Greg Halverson North Cascades Tour – First Tour, First Impressions