I'm privileged to live in one of the most beautiful areas of North America, a grand place of mountains, ocean, valleys, lakes and spectacular scenery. The province of British Columbia is also home to some fabulous roads, yet I never see them mentioned in "Great Roads" lists nor have I noticed any events similar to the famed retro-rallies that occur in the US and Europe and even, for goodness sake, in Canada's own Newfoundland. So it's a pleasure to make our viewers aware of the 2007 Grand Whistler-Okanagan Classic Tour, running from Saturday, October 6th to Saturday October 13th.

The 8-day tour starts in Vancouver, home to the 2010 Winter Olympics, then heads up the Sea-to-Sky Highway to Whistler, the alpine village where most events will be held. It next winds its way along the old Gold Rush Trail deep into cowboy country and from there to the Okanagan Valley. Personally I think the Okanagan matches any place in the US Southwest for scenery... and the wines are excellent. Almost three days are given to driving around the lakes before heading west for a night at Harrison Hot Springs and back to Vancouver. Covering over 1000 miles the event is for pre-1977 classics, limited to 30 cars.

Each entrant will receive a copy of a Michael Stockdale print similar to the one shown above. I've seen Mike's whimsical classic car paintings in a gallery near here and I'm a big fan of his work (though he doesn't know it); with so much serious stuff out there it's nice to see an artist have so much fun with his subject. Incidentally this is not a competitive event, which, in a way, is a shame as there are several challenging mountain roads where special stages might be set up. Western Driver magazine has more info plus photos and a route map. Even if you can't participate I recommend a look at the Western Driver site, if only to see why I'm so high on BC.