We are back! Live from Riviere du Loop at the Best Western Hotel restaurant Hotel Levesque Salle a Manger. And enjoying our FIRST bottle of Cabernet. Can't wait to find out who's credit card gets pulled for this night of festivies, as mine got pulled for dinner & drinks last night in Kingston at the Boston Pizza! (some genius started this really smart game of running one bill all night for dinner & drinks, and everybody throws their credit card in the middle, let the waitress choose which one to run up, and BOOM, you bought the night. However, once your card gets pulled, your out until every card has been hit once.)
We left our home base in MIchigan around 9am yesterday, and crossed into Ontario via the Blue Water bridge around 11;30am. No real hiccups at the border, other than Oli not having his passport. But he has never had a bad day, matter of fact yesterday was his birthday, so he won't worry bout his passport until he returns to the US on February 6!
We over-nighted, as usual, in Kingston ON at the Courtyard by Marriott and dinner and festivities at the Boston Pizza next door. Nothing too exciting, just the normal routine. But wait for it, it always arises.
This morning, we awoke to a 1/4 inch of ice covering our vehicles, and many slip and falls accross the parking lot to load our overnight gear back into our rigs. We had 460 miles to go, so without haste we proceeded to nearby eastbound 401 and began our fun filled day of driving 10.5 hours in treacherous road conditions.
The roads were wet, slushy and just a blast. I now see why Truck Driver Vinnie cussed us out so bad the last time he drove us thru Montreal, in even worse conditions, when we wouldn't stop pestering him about his lousy driving (i.e. he was actually driving cautiously and with safety in mind, but it was to slow for our liking at the time).
Other than the lousy road conditions that were slowing our travels, things were pretty smooth. We stopped for lunch at the Chester Chicken shack at the Flying J around 2pm. Around 4:30 I looked in my rear view mirror and noticed my trailer running lights were not on. No big deal I thought, just pull over, the plug must've gotten loose, and we will be all set! It's never that easy tho. We pulled over on an exit ramp, messed with the plug... and nothing. Ok, check the fuses. Yep, burned fuse. No problem. Changed the fuse, the trailer running lights came on, we were back in business. For all of 18 seconds. Blew that fuse too. Ok now we have issues.
We still had brake lights and blinker lights on the trailer. Let her eat, we gotta go. Just turn the 4 way hazards on. It's never that easy. About 10 miles up the road, Ron Nicks, who was now following me as a blocker due to our issues, called and said now we don't have brake lights or blinker lights!
We pulled over at a gas station, messed with the plug, changed the fuses again, took out a rear trailer lamp that Ron thought may be causing the problem, still nothing. Action Dan, Craig & Ole cruised around town to see if they could find lodging somewhere, as it was now getting dusk. No lodging for 30 miles. Cool. Ok, put Ron behind him and lets hit it, Stay tight. As I was pulling out of the parking lot, Ron ran up to my drivers side window, knocked so hard I about sharted, and told me the brake lights were again working. Turn on the 4 ways and lets go.
We had about 100 miles to go for our overnight stay. The winds were gusting 30-40mph, snow squalls were squalling, and we were moving Northeast again.
We arrived at 8pm, was greeted by Connecticut Jim, and we quickly unloaded our gear, checked our rooms, and made our 8:30 dinner resies.
I'm having the Surf N Turf filet with shrimp and enjoying a nice Cabernet that I won't be on the hook for tonight!
Waitress bring us another bottle of wine!
We have a couple new riders with us this year, that I will introduce you to in a later edition. I need to get busy on my Ceaser Salad, as dinner is coming, and thy're drinking all the wine.
Cheers,
Stick.