Welcome back to the 2018 Darkside Adventures Saddle Bag ride through the Gaspe' Region of Quebec and a swing thru New Brunswick. New for 2018... we now have an official Facebook Page, so like and follow us there as well, as there will be updates thru out the day there as well.
The usual cast of characters are here, a couple new ones, and a couple of regulars that couldn't make the trip. The most notable that we are missing is our "bullet catcher/co-leader" Jim "Jimmer/Ole" Olender. Happy Birthday Ole, wish you were here, but I know you are following along with your helmet on as you read this!
9 riders and 3 trucks and trailers left Flint, Michigan on Monday, 1/22/18, at approximately 9am. We had an approximately 740 mile ride to get to our Launch Site of Bon Air Motel in Pont-Rouge Quebec. As usual, we laid over a little more than 1/2 way in Kingston, Ontario. Our usual location, the Courtyard by Marriott with a Boston's Pizza across the parking lot where plans and schemes are hatched.
The first exciting thing that happened to the Team was while gathering in the bar at Boston's Pizza to order dinner, the dining room began filling up with smoke. The drinks were comped and we were politely asked to vacate the premises as 4 engines of Kingston's finest fire fighters rolled into the parking lot and began climbing the roof and looking for the source. Fortunately we were able to book our reservations for Super Bowl Sunday before we got the boot!
A new plan was hatched, as we are problem solvers, so we went back to the hotel lobby bar, and promptly cleaned them out of their stock of beer. Being the problem solvers we are, we then passed the collection hat, called a taxi, and sent Vinnie the Truck Driver to the corner "Beer Store" to fetch more. While he was gone, the local Pizza Hut was dispatched to deliver us 3 large pizzas' for dinner! Problem solved, that's what we do.
The second exciting event of our evening occured at around 3am. Every fire alarm in every room, on every floor went off! We were told to vacate the hotel now. After 20 minutes of waiting for the hotel staff to determine the cause, it was declared a false alarm and we could go back to our room. However, the alarms in every room on every floor were still going off. They could not be turned off until the fire department showed up to turn them off! That was another 10-15 minutes. By 3:45 silence was restored and sleep resumed, mostly.
This morning, Tuesday 1/23/2018, we departed the hotel around 9am, Stick's truck went to the local bank for a currency exchange, while the others fueled up for the next leg of our trip. The Duty Free Store exchanged some money for us at 115% Canadian to the American dollar, and the local bank was 120%.
Now, pockets full with Canadian $$, we were on the 401 Highway headed east for Quebec. It was about 38 degrees with a misty rain. That misty rain would turn into frozen rain as we progressed North East. The roads were slick in places, Montreal was busy on the highway, but not unbearable at the noon hour as we went thru. The 3 trucks/trailers motored on, stopped for a quick lunch at 1:30 and made our destination by 4:30pm.
Tomorrow is a short ride to Quebec City, where we will be staying at the 4 Points Hotel, and visiting the Ice Hotel. Apparently nobody is staying at the Ice Hotel this trip (cowards), but we will be visiting it. (For the record, your writer has stayed overnight at the Ice Hotel, and I highly suggest everybody do it once, but only once was good for me!)
The 12 Darkside Riders are now all joined up, and enjoying an adult beverage while we catch up with friends that we haven't seen since we parted ways after last year's trip! This is a great bunch of guys that enjoy the saddlebag rides thru Quebec each year. I will do bio's on our new Team Members over the course of our ride, so stay tuned.
Bye for now,
"Stick"
