In a world where terms like “new normal” are becoming, well, the new normal…it’s so refreshing to return to what has been for years our normal. Yesterday 46 classic car enthusiasts gathered in a Vernon parking lot for the first driver’s meeting of the 2020 Hagerty Fall Classic. The majority of us are returning Hagerty Fall Classic entrants, veterans of this fall adventure that is normally held in Washington and Oregon. A handful, however, are experiencing a CCA event for the first time, or a fall event instead of the Hagerty Spring Thaw.

“I can’t believe how excellent the weather is,” one entrant told me as they reminisced about that time they had to drive their Mini Moke through a freak snow storm on our Spring event. “I had no idea this town was so incredible, I’ve never been here,” said another. “These roads are excellent,” I overheard, “why haven’t we done these on Spring Thaw?!”

While the 2020 Pandemic has certainly been challenging, if you look for it…it’s also brought opportunity. Smaller group sizes means we can travel to towns we normally can’t stay in. Hotel managers, excited to see their first ‘large’ group for the year, can’t wait to help. Parking lot party out back? “Nah, you need to park all the cars right up front and have your party with views of our historic main street.” Normally a town like Rossland would be our “eastern edge” for a Hagerty Spring Thaw, as we’d have to head back towards Vancouver for our finish. On a pandemic Hagery Fall Classic? Rossland is just our first night. We’re going east, and we’re going further east than any CCA B.C. event has gone before. And the weather? Well, it’s not pandemic related but we’ll happily take the excellent weather we’re forcasted!

It’s difficult to see the smiles, with all of us hidden behind a mask. But I’m learning to watch the eyes. You may be able to hide an ear-to-ear grin after a particularly great day of driving, but you can’t hide the eyes. The sparkle and excitement at the end of our first day was evident in each of our entrants. Twisty roads were fun, visiting some historic towns was interesting…but by far the thing we’re enjoying most is simply being back on the road, in our classic cars, doing what (for us) has been normal every September. The joy is palatable. We’ve still got two days to go.

Click the gallery below for some excellent preview photos by Andrew Holliday Photography.