Shunpiker Mystery Tour

[Sniper]

Not sure where to post this, so the BS lounge is it. 39th annual Shunpiker Mystery Tour will be on Sun May 12th (Held on Mothers Day every year.) This is in Southwestern Ontario Canada, technically starting from London Ontario at the sponsor's location, The London Free Press. It's a free event, you can follow the whole route if you want, stop and see the sights that are set up for the Shunpikers.. or not if you choose. It's a family event, and a nice day cruise of approx 100 miles on average. The mystery part comes in from the fact that it's kept a secret until the morning of. So no telling what your about to do or see, or what direction your going to be taking until your underway. Used to be you picked up a large envelope at the Free Press building that had the map, the directions, and sights you'd encounter. Now you buy the Sunday paper, (London Free Press of course) and the whole works is in a special section of the paper. Now you can join the route anywhere along the way if you like. My family and I have done this for the last 25 years. My son's and daughters have grown up, and now their families have taken up the tradition. We've seen a lot of things over the years you don't normally get to see. R&M Classic Cars when they were still in Chatham ON, fish hatcheries, climbed lighthouse's, watched steam operating sawmills, old car collections, buggy and carrage works, (they were building some of the big ones for Disney, like the Budwieser Clydedales pull.) Been to "Uncle Tom's Cabin" the terminus of the underground railroad in Dresden ON. An airport, and seen agriculture spray planes being serviced. Thoroughbred horse farms, winery, bird sancuary, Pow-wow, and the list goes on and on. Most years it will have 10 or so major stops with these kind of sights. If you can make it great... if not, may be someone or a sponser (service club?) could start something in your area. It's a blast and nice day out with your family. Sniper

 

[Gastrick]

That sounds like a really interesting and fun thing to do. Do you ever take pictures of the tours?

 

[Tripper]

That sounds like a really interesting and fun thing to do. Do you ever take pictures of the tours?

Yep... what he said!!!

BoB

 

[Sniper]

Sometimes we get pictures, depends if I remember to take the camera. My youngest daughter is the photographer in this family, so I know she would have pictures from the past tours. The cool concept is all the gems that are hidden away in the little towns and villages. One place had a wooden speedboat with a V 12 Allison that had been raced in the late 40's and early 50's. It's in an old museum in Ingersoll ON that used to be the cheese factory in the town. Now it hardly ever gets opened for the public to see, but over 10000 people got to see it that day. (10000 is the average for the 1 day tour.) Been through the costume warehouse's in Stratford ON where the Shakespeare Festival is held. I've never seen so many sets of Knights armor and weapons to go with it. I found a couple of pictures of this tour, it was in 2005. This is the kind of stuff you get to experiance, off beat and random. The kind of thing you pass by, while thinking to yourself, " I should check that out someday." But never do! There's the steam train repair place in St Thomas ON. Used to be a roundhouse and the huge building had four different engines. One had a boiler so large, the coal was augered into the fire box. A pair of firemen with shovels would never be able to supply the amount of coal that was required, so it was 'automated'. The two old guys that were there answering questions, had worked on this train when they were in their teens. I asked what kind of HP it would put out and they guessed about "3800 horse power, brute torque, no ponies, just horses son!!" then they laughed. The one guy mentioned a run from London ON to Toronto ON where they left 11 min late, and still had the regular stops to make. After the last stop and a full train, "they pulled out the stop's". The last 38 miles were flat and straight and they were going to "make time". The miles per hour were figured out by timing the elapsed time between the mile marker posts. 90 mile per hour is 45 seconds a mile. They wouldn't say how fast they got rolling, but indicated it was over 100 mph. "The engine got to rockin from side to side at speed. Thought we were going to dump it." The whole time, they were giggling and cackling while remembering and reciting this. Talk about a pair of early day hot rodders!! They pulled into Toronto 3 min early, "the conductor was a bit steamed at us, but we got him there on time. Yeah, told us we better not do that again." Then they broke out laughing again! I could have stayed and listened to these guys all day. That was a good tour that year, that sight stands out. I'll get pictures for you this year and let you know what happens. Sniper

 

[earthman]

Quality memories. You are a fortunate man Sniper.

 

[Sniper]

Quality memories. You are a fortunate man Sniper.

Thanks Earthman, I would like to think so as well. My wife and I just got back from this years tour. Not much for the gearheads this year, ( but then it's supposed to be for "Mother's day".) but still alot of cool stuff just the same. First year that it was just my wife and I, none of our kids, or Grandkids could go. Boy it was peaceful!! Check out this years pictures, promised to get some so you see what it's about. Sniper

 

[Sniper]

Here's the pages that came in the paper for directions and the like. (In my first post I said it was the 39th year, well that's what the web site said. But the paper say's it's the 40th. I also got the date wrong, should have been the 10th, not the 12th. I screwed that up all by myself. Things should be correct from here on out. Sniper

 

[Sniper]

First stop is listed as an "Art Center and Peace Gallery". I'm thinking 'Oh Boy' But it's geared toward women, yoga classes, art classes, and things of that type. Looked to be a home at one point, but the rooms are now used for the various 'classes'... except the bathroom. It's all there, they just don't use the tub as a tub, it's now an aquarium with goldfish. Bet they don't let guys use that bathroom, you just have to know somebody would bring a fishing pole while on the can... after all, what else would you have to do, read women magazines? Nah.

Wouldn't you know it, the tub picture won't load. I'll mess with it later and see if I can get to work.
Got it!!

 

[Sniper]

Second stop. The Walters Family Theatre is a pretty cool place. It's a dinner/theatre/show in an old barn. Holds 160 people, the family run the productions and perform themselves as well. They bring in acts from the US and Canada and tour all over themselves. In October they will perform at the Grand Ol' Opery. Bit dark in there, so the pictures are a bit iffy.

 

[Sniper]

Third Stop. Was a Nursery, decided to skip that one. We were running a bit late and wanted to see some of the sights coming up.
Forth Stop. City of Woodstock Museum. Lots of cool stuff. Gun lovers, have a couple of pictures of black power guns for you. Check out the Wheel/tire/rim. Solid tire mounted on a steel rim, wooden hub. And the 'S' shaped flat springs are the suspension. Can't say I've ever seen one like it. No info on where it come from, or what it's off of. Tire was about 3 inches wide, and the whole thing is about 30 inches tall.

 

[Sniper]

Fifth And Last Stop of the Tour. Purple Hill Country Music/Auction Hall. This place is only about 45 min. away from where I live, but I had no idea it exsisted. Pretty cool place. The Taylor family have been here on this place since 1853. Not sure when they opened the farm up to the livestock auction busness, sounds like they've been at it for quite some time. This hall was built 5 years ago and is used for jambories, weddings, dinner shows etc. The pictures are some of the things going on while we were there for an hour or so. Performer, crowd, interior, exterior pictures. Check out the wooden indian and moose skulls/antlers up by the balcony. Hard to see the moose heads, theres ropes on pulleys draped across in front of them. The Chevy roadster was the only 'old car' I seen on the whole tour this year. Parked in the lot, so I got a couple of pictures. Sniper

 

[Sniper]

"Old Car in lot"