Grove City Pennsylvania to Maggie Valley North Carolina

We rolled south out of Grove City at 7:30 AM under clear blue skies. The trip down past Pittsburgh was uneventful, although traffic was slow going up the big hill on the south side of the Ohio River.

The Ohio River bridge

 I-79/I-70 through Washington, Pennsylvania was torn up in a big way, but we made it through without much delay. Crossing into West (By God) Virginia, we stopped at the Welcome Center for a bathroom break.

Almost Heaven......

In Sutton WV, we pulled off for fuel at a Pilot station. As I stopped at the end of the off ramp, the low fuel light came on. That was perfect timing.  The temperature readout in the truck said 28C. Then we went over to the McDonald's for food and found a special lot for long vehicles. Sure enough, some twit parked their car crosswise in this space, even though there were many car spaces available in the regular lot. Note: this Mickey D's had the worst coffee I have tasted in many years.

Trailer and twit parking in Sutton

South of Sutton, we exited on US 19 and followed the Mountaineer Expressway through Summersville and Fayetteville to Beckley where we rejoined the Interstate Highway system on I-77. As we approached the Virginia state line, Sandy said she didn't need any more pictures of the tunnels but she took them anyway.

East River Mountain tunnel - welcome to Virginia

Big Walker Mountain tunnel north of Wytheville Va

Gas at the Travel Center of America truck stop in Wytheville was $2.319 but we didn't need fuel yet. We changed over to I-81 South (actually, more west) and found we still had a headwind. As we passed Mountain Empire Airport, with its ridiculously sloped runway, we actually got to see an airplane taking off for the first time. It was going up-slope and took a long time to get airborne after the front wheel came off the ground.

Take off at Mountain Empire Airport

 This fellow hauls his own pilot vehicles

 Rather than go all the way to the I-26 interchange, the GPS had us get off at Exit 3 in Bristol, Virginia. I decided to see what this would be like. The road took us directly past Bristol Motor Speedway to Johnson City, but there were a lot of traffic lights in Bristol, and every one turned red as we approached. I don't thing we'll go this way again.

Bristol Motor Speedway

In Johnson City, we caught I-26 east, which actually runs due south in this part of the country. We made another fuel stop at the Shell station in Erwin, Tennessee and then we got more food at the McDonald's next door. We shared the back lot with a Baptist Bible Bus from Kentucky, which explained all the well scrubbed, clean-cut kids and adults in the restaurant. Freedom Riders will recognize this spot as the rendezvous point for last year's President's Ride.

Photo for Diane - she will know why

As we started the climb up the hill to the ridge that separates Tennessee from North Carolina, large black clouds looked ahead. Part way up, the heavy rain hit and lightning flashed around us. Once again, I slowed to 40 MPH and put the four-way flashers on, but was down to second gear due to the grade. It was another good time to not be on a motorcycle. We crossed in North Carolina through Sams Gap with the rain pelting down.

Climbing to North Carolina

As we descended the other side of the mountain, the rain ended and all we had left was a fogged up windshield. On the outside. Rush hour traffic was heavy leaving Asheville northbound, but we negotiated I-240 and I-40 West with no difficulty.

Clear roads, foggy windshield

We arrived at A Holiday Motel in Maggie Valley about 6:10 and found Stewey, Lucky Al and Tbone sitting in rocking chairs waiting for us. It was raining lightly so I parked the truck and waited a bit for it to stop. Then I unloaded the bike, parked the trailer and unloaded the truck. We are in a king bed room at the end of the main part of the complex. Rob, who got us checked in, seems like a very nice fellow.

We are here

Stewey, Lucky Al and Tbone

After we were settled, the five of us climbed into the Avi and went up the road to the Cue & Brew (or was that Brew & Cue) BBQ, where we were the only folks in attendance. Al was told about this place by someone at the Shell station. They had a replica still at one end. Because Sandy and I had eaten in Erwin, we shared a Brunswick stew and hushpuppies.  The others had more substantial fare. The server was both pretty and funny, a winning combination.

This is moonshiner country

Lucky Al's half rack of ribs

Stewey breaking out the Jack Daniel's sauce

Back at the motel, we saw Borys (from Thunder Bay), along with Fly and Dick the Saddletramp from Iowa. They are regulars at the Boscobel, Wisconsin rally but thought they would expand their horizons.

I borrowed Stewey's smart phone and called TracFone. The nice lady transferred my number to the new phone and activated it, but she could not transfer my minutes because that department closed at 8:00 PM. I'll have to call back after 8:00 AM tomorrow.

They had a fire going outside but it started to rain again, so Sandy and I adjourned to the room where we watched the season finale of Castle and I read a bit before falling asleep.

Today's Route (546 Avalanche miles):

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Sudbury Ontario to Grove City Pennsylvania

The MS Society of Canada, Sudbury Chapter 2015 Carnation Campaign ended yesterday. We sold 4,000 flower pots and delivered 3,000 single stem blooms over three days and I was pretty well burnt out by the time it was over. I needed this trip to Maggie Valley, NC for the annual South East VROC rally (SEVROC). More to the point, I needed to see my VROC family, especially after we had to cancel Texas. Sandy felt the same way.

I had loaded the bike at 10:00 PM on Friday night and we packed last night and early this morning. There was a fine misty rain falling as we pulled out of the driveway at 7:40 AM.

Ready to roll

Lanes blocked for the annual Walk/Run For Diabetes marathon

The skies were clear and the ground was dry when we stopped at McDonald's in Parry Sound. They have these nice long lanes in the parking lot for trailers, RV's and buses. I don't know why some people find a need to park their cars there. Rebels without a clue, I guess.

Two ladies parked this crossover in the long vehicle spot

The rest of the drive to Toronto was uneventful. On Highway 400, I saw my first Porsche Cayenne diesel. I had no idea they were making these with that type of engine..

Porsche Cayenne diesel

We stopped at the King Service Centre and got a bit of lunch. Sandy had a Tim's grilled cheese panini but wasn't impressed. I had a chicken ranch wrap without the ranch. Much easier not to end up wearing some of my lunch that way.

I did have another question on this leg. Why do some people feel compelled to merge and then accelerate? If they would accelerate and then merge, traffic would flow much more smoothly.


There was blue sky all over Toronto. Since it was Sunday morning, there was no point in wasting the shekels on a 407 toll charge, so we moved on down to the 401 West. After leaving Parry Sound, I had given up trying to actively drive for optimum fuel economy. Instead, I selected Tow/Haul mode, set the cruise at 65 MPH and let the truck do its own thing. Surprisingly, I got some of the best fuel mileage I have ever had.

The 401 was good and the 403 to Oakville started out similarly. Then we met a wall of water. We could even see it coming. I slowed to 40 MPH and put my four-way flashers on. Despite the reduced visibility, this was a comfortable pace. We were out of it by Oakville, where we met the usual stopped traffic as the 403 merged with the Queen Elizabeth Way (QEW). They have added HOV lanes through that stretch, but every time there is an exit things ground to a virtual standstill while folks in the HOV tried to cross three other lanes to get off.

Rain on the 403

We made it to the Burlington Skyway at less than the posted speed limit. There, we encountered fog and some lighter rain. Traffic was also slow through Hamilton and Stoney Creek but picked up before we reached St. Catherines.

Fog off the Burlington Skyway

Stoney Creek

I remembered I had to call for a motel from the Canadian side since my US TracFone was stolen out of the truck last winter. The Grove City, Pennsylvania Super 8 was now our destination for the day.

There was another black cloud south of us as we approached Fort Erie. The trucks on the Peace Bridge were backed up to the Canadian side but the centre lane was clear for US bound cars. We had to wait in the plaza for a bit because it is awkward to take the trailer through the NEXUS line here. The agent asked two easy question. Where are you going and why? Then he wished us a good trip without even looking in the trailer.

Truck traffic on the Peace Bridge

Heading west on the NY Thruway, there were black clouds and lightning bolts ahead. We hit another wet wall and it was back down to 40 MPH with flashers on. I was surprised how many people were running in the blinding rain with no lights on whatsoever. This storm abated by the time we reached the Angola Service Centre for cheaper US fuel.

 Dark clouds ahead as we approach the Thruway

The worst was over

It was warm and dry in Erie, Pa when we stopped at WalMart for water and a new TracFone. Since I already have an account that needed to be reinstated, I will need to call them to get this one set up, hopefully from the motel land line this evening.

South of Erie, we encountered yet one more wall of rain. This went on almost to where I-79 crossed I-80, or about six miles from our destination. Once again, 40 MPH and flashers until it lightened up, and then I stuck to 55 because of the trailer.

You can see where the rain starts

We stopped at Subway and got a ham and provolone (no Swiss cheese down here) sandwich to split at the room. Then we got checked in and I started to work on blogs and other days end tasks. The one thing that didn't get done was getting the TracFone working because the entire motel phone system crapped out. Oh well, hopefully tomorrow.

We covered 500 miles today and have over 500 to go tomorrow. We'll get an early start and, hopefully (I'm using that word a lot), we will be having supper in Maggie Valley with some friends tomorrow night.

Today's Route (499 Avalanche miles):

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Sudbury Ontario to Bolton Ontario Return

It was below freezing most mornings recently, including today. Sandy and I were off to Bolton, just north of Toronto, to meet Kim and Jolene at Fairytale Dreams & Destinations to plan a fall trip to Disney World. We had an appointment for noon.

We took Sandy's little red Kia to save gas, leaving town at 7:15. The new GPS telling us we should arrive at 11:00 AM. The car is nice but I miss my satellite radio. There wasn't a cloud in the sky when we stopped at the Tim's south of Parry Sound for a bathroom break.

Sandy and her car

We could still see some snow in the bush on the north facing hills. Mount St. Louis ski hill north of Barrie still had a lot of the white stuff visible. The summers seem to be getting shorter as I get older.

Mount St. Louis

We arrived in Bolton at 11:00 AM, as predicted. We waited at the McDonald's across the street for Kim and Jolene, who arrived about 11:30.

Christina, the owner, arrived at noon sharp and we sat down to do some planning. Her outfit specializes in all things Disney. We ended up booking seven nights for the six of us at the Contemporary Resort starting November 1st. Tina will work out our itinerary, saving me the trouble of researching everything like I had to do on our three previous visits. We will fly out of Toronto direct to Orlando on West Jet, paying a little more for the convenience. Disney World isn't cheap, either.

Jolene was a little excited so I took her outside for a while. She picked up trash in honour of Earth Day and demonstrated cartwheels on the grass. We also had a good talk about all sorts of things.

Jolene is dreaming already

A lot of excitement for a little girl

With the trip planned, we stopped back at McDonald's for lunch and then went our separate ways about 3:00 PM. Sandy and I arrived back in Sudbury about 7:00 PM.

Today's Route (464 Kia miles):

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Sudbury Ontario - This Is Not The Way To Texas

Today was the day we were supposed to leave for Texas. If you looked in to see how far we had gotten, you may be surprised to see we are still in Sudbury.

On Good Friday night, we got back from visiting with Kim, Mike and the girls who were visiting for Easter Weekend. Everything looked normal when I parked and I settled into the rec room to watch some TV. After midnight, I heard a strange hum that I traced to the water pipe coming in from the main. No water was flowing into the house but I could feel a vibration in the pipe.

Whatever was causing it wasn't in the house so I went outside to have a look. To my surprise and, if I may say so, horror, the ditch in front of our yard was full of water and it was overflowing into our front yard and onto the street. Figuring I had broken a water pipe, I called the City emergency number and someone arrived within fifteen minutes.

While I was waiting, I saw that at least six peoples' yards were flooding and that drainage through the ditch was blocked by snow two doors down. The City had been cleaning ditches in the subdivision on Thursday but hadn't gotten to our street yet. In fact, I could see the big shovel parked at the playground as the water level rose ever higher.

The City worker took about 45 minutes to shut off both ends of the water main because he had to break through some ice to get to the valves, which are about seven feet down. In this time, the water rose another foot and started to overrun our driveway. When he did get the line shut down, the hum in the house stopped immediately. I figured we were home free, but that was not to be.

We have an outside sump in the garage due to a screw-up in installing weeping tiles by the previous owner. Over five feet deep, it has a submersible pump that takes water that flows in and discharges it to our inside sanitary sewer line. What I did not note was that, as the water flowed into the driveway, it ran down the far side, under the garage door and straight into the sump. When I went to check why I hadn't heard the pump in a while, I found that it was not working and the sump was full of water right to the brim. Bypassing the float switch didn't do anything so I assumed the pump had failed. Later, I found that the water had carried enough silt from our crusher dust driveway into the hole to plug the bottom of the pump solid.

When the water gets to a certain depth in the sump, it starts to flow into the basement. When it is full, it appears that where the pipe goes into the house to the sewer line isn't well sealed and a trickle becomes a flow. On the other side of this wall is what you could loosely call our rec room, complete with a carpeted floor that has been there since we moved in. The water soaked the carpet as it flowed diagonally across the basement to the real sump and then out. Luckily it did not build up any depth, but I spent the night (who can get a sump pump at 2:00 AM?) watching the water flow and the carpet get wetter and wetter.

In the morning, I got a new pump and some water line first thing and dropped the unit into the hole with the line going out to the back yard. It didn't take long for the sump to drain its contents into the duck pond that will become my back yard in a few more weeks when the frost leaves the ground.

A word about the recreation room. It is a curious kludge of wall coverings, floor coverings and ceiling bits that was here when we moved in. Not being too concerned about appearances, I never did much to change that. Sandy and I spend most of our time down here but, as my daughter Kim said, we would probably enhance the value of the house by gutting it and making it a basement again. We have a totally suitable four bedroom bungalow and moving to the main floor would be totally appropriate. Because we don't intend to rebuild the rec room and the current sump configuration is patently against code, I didn't want to deal with the City or put a black mark on my insurance record.

On the plus side, if I hadn't checked the odd noise we would have been under a lot more water by morning. And if we had already been on the road, the ramifications would have been a lot worse. So there was a bright side.

Sandy and I spent the next few days tearing out wet carpet and flooring and hauling it to the dump. We further decided that this would be the kick we needed to start decluttering the house because, some day in the not to far distant future, we will trade home ownership for a nice apartment somewhere. Then, when we go away, we can just lock the door. No grass to mow, snow to shovel or structure to maintain.

Anyhow, the Texas departure date was the 8th. The bike had new tires and was in the trailer. The noise in the truck engine was deemed to be not significant. Everything was on schedule except for the house. But I didn't feel that we would be able to enjoy the trip with that hanging over our head so, after speaking to Sandy, we decided to cancel. I notified Sherm and he was able to take on Lanny as his new room mate.

The cleanup and junk removal is proceeding well, and I expect we will be on our way to SEVROC in Maggie Valley, NC on Mother's Day as planned.

2015 Proposed Summer Travel Schedule

Rabbit again, dammit.

Some people are curious about out travel schedule this season and others actually need to know. So here it is the latest thinking. Most of the trips involve getting to or from Vulcan Riders and Owners Club (VROC) events, hopefully finding some interesting things to see along the way.

Texas Hill Country
Apr 08 - Apr 10 Travel from Sudbury to Duncan Ok
Apr 11                Enjoy the HotSauce & Margot Mini-Rally & BBQ
Apr 12                Travel from Duncan Ok to Fredericksburg Tx
Apr 13 - Apr 16  VROC Texas Hill Country Rally (HCR)
Apr 17 - Apr 18  Travel Fredericksburg Tx to Murphysboro Il
Apr 19                 Visit Willi Wonka and The Lovely Carlene
Apr 20 - Apr 21  Travel Murphysboro Il to Sudbury On

SEVROC
May 10 - May 11  Sudbury On to Maggie Valley NC
May 12 - May 13  Explore the Smoky Mountains
May 14 - May 16  South East VROC Rally(SEVROC)
May 17 - May 20  Maggie Vally On to Sudbury On with sightseeing stops

Freedom Riders President's Ride and Boscobel
Jun 12 - Jun 15  Sudbury to the Michigan UP and back to Soo Mi
Jun 16 - Jun 17  Soo Mi to Boscobel Wisconsin
Jun 18 - Jun 20  VROC Midwest Great River Run 18 (Boscobel)
Jun 21 - Jun 25  Boscobel Wi to Sudbury On with sightseeing stops

Solvang/WWR Idaho
Jul 04 - Jul 14  Sudbury On to Solvang Ca with sightseeing stops
Jul 15 - Jul 18  VROC Aebleskiver Rally
Jul 19 - Jul 22  Solvang Ca to Mountain Home Id with sightseeing stops
Jul 23 - Jul 25  VROC Wolfman's Wandering Rally 9 (WWR)
Jul 26 - Jul 29  Mountain Home Id to Sudbury On

Freedom Rally
Jul 31 - Aug 03  22nd Annual Freedom Rally - Sudbury On

Interlochen/North Carolina
Aug 13                 Sudbury On to Interlochen Mi
Aug 14 - Aug 15  VROC Interlochen Rally
Aug 16                  Interlochen to Grayling Mi
Aug 17 - Aug 18  Grayling Mi to Bryson City NC
Aug 19 - Aug 22  Ride Smoky Mountains
Aug 23                  Bryson City NC to NC Outer Banks
Aug 24 - Aug 25  Explore the Outer Banks
Aug 26 - Aug 27  NC to Sudbury On

Eureka Springs Reunion
Sep 08 - Sep 14  Sudbury to Eureka Springs Ar with sightseeing stops
Sep 15 - Sep 19  VROC Eureka Springs Reunion 2015 (ES)
Sep 20 - Sep 23  Eureka Springs Ar to Sudbury with sightseeing stops

And that's all, folks........

The Bike Has Moved

I picked the trailer up from the trailer shop today. It's ready to roll. We brought it home, where I had to back it right up to the garage door because of the mini-blizzard last night. I hit the starter on the Wing and it fired up as if it had just been put away yesterday. Then I rode it into the trailer and tied it down.

Tomorrow, I will haul the bike to Northstar Recreation where they will put on new Stones, change the final drive oil and check the brakes. Then I'll bring it home and leave it in the trailer in the driveway until we head for Oklahoma and Texas next Wednesday.

OK, I'm starting to get a little excited.......

Cambridge Ontario to Sudbury Ontario

We woke up to blue skies and strong winds. It was -6C when we hit the road about 8:30, taking Highway 24 towards Guelph to avoid the Toronto Monday rush hour traffic. Highway 24 through Guelph continued to be ripped up. Again. We took back streets to get to McDonald's and then caught 24 on the other side of the construction. Guelph side streets were down to one lane in some places due to snowbanks. For the near future, I will go around the city on county roads.

Northeast of Guelph, blowing snow due to the high winds was building up on patches of the road depending on where the windbreaks were.

This is called a "bare to centre-bare" road

Then there was wind drift

We followed 24 to Airport Road, took that north and then followed Highway 9 to the 400 North. Leaving Barrie, the exit where 400 parts company with Highway 11 was still under construction.

Highway 400/11 split

The rest of the trip was uneventful. Overhead electronic Compass signs touted Arrive Alive, the provincial organization dedicated to combating impaired driving that our own Action Sudbury is affiliated with.

We arrived back in Sudbury about 2:00 PM to water running in the roadways. The higher sun is more intense and is melting the snow despite below freezing temperatures, especially where anything dark like sand is mixed in with the snowbanks.

Here's hoping March, which has come in like a lamb, doesn't go out like a lion.

Today's Route (281 Avalanche miles):

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Cambridge Ontario - Jasper's Birthday Party

Rabbit, rabbit. An reminder that another month of my life has slipped away. They go so fast these days.

The hotel has a fine breakfast buffet but they charge $12.00 for it. Buffets are my enemy these days anyway, so we slipped out and stopped at the Golden Arches to pick up the usual to munch on while we made the short journey to Woodstock to greet the Birthday Boy.

Jasper was his usual cheery self. We played with him for a while as Tom loaded all the things for the party in their Caravan. I wish we had Stow And Go seats when we had our minivans.

Jasper James in his natural habitat

No doubt about whose big day it is

We left for Cambridge a little after noon. The party was being held in the hall above the Duncan McIntosh Arena in Churchill Park. The rental was supposed to start at 1:00, but no one was there when we arrived to unlock the place for us. The lady showed up a few minutes later because she realized on her way over that she had forgotten the keys, and had to go back. Then there was a question about whether we would be upstairs or downstairs. The downstairs hall was cavernous, big enough for a party of 500 and lacking the warmth of the better appointed upstairs area. After a phone conversation with the boss, upstairs it was.

We set the tables and chairs up and laid out the food before waiting for the rest of the assorted family to show up.

All we need now are guests

Some of the food

Nice defensive move against the balloon attack

The guests started to arrive about 2:00. Another grandma, aunts, uncles and cousins. The kids played while the adults talked. At this point, there are no teenagers. The cake was interesting. Tom had taken a couple of Jasper's toys and had them replicated in a very rich confection complete with a marshmallow fondant icing. It was impressive, although the icing raised my blood sugar just looking at it. Jasper took it all in without comment.

Socializing

The gift table runneth over

Dad and Jolene

An unusual cake

Jasper is happy as usual

Cutting the cake

Robyn needs to work on her camera face

Jolene was in eating mode

Soon he won't need the lion

Dentally challenged in the short term

As the party wound down,we stowed the tables and chairs away where we found them and generally rendered the hall back to the same condition we found it. There were too many gifts to all fit in Tom and Heather's Caravan, so we loaded the overflow in the Avalanche and followed them back to Woodstock.

At the Flying J in Ayr, I fueled the truck at some very slow pumps. I scraped the salt build-up off the windows and headlights as well. It was a thick layer in some places. Then we visited in Woodstock for a while before heading back to our hotel in Cambridge about 7:15. The roads were now wet and the moisture in the air soaked up the headlight beams, but we made it without incident.

Once again, without the computer, it was an early night. I read some more on the Kindle but it was lights out before I got too far.

Sudbury Ontario to Cambridge Ontario

I got up after my second alarm went off at 7:00 AM. I guess I must have hit the kill button when the first alarm went off an hour earlier, no surprise since I think I finally got to sleep about 4:30. This wasn't the way to start off a day of driving, and I would have grabbed another hour except that I had a breakfast meeting with some MS Society people at 8:00.

Sandy and I would be heading south today to participate in the first birthday celebration for grandson Jasper tomorrow in Cambridge. Normally we would have gone down yesterday but a Symposium that our MS Society chapter was hosting today had some out of town folks attending. Although we would miss the presentations, the early meeting had been scheduled to discuss some inter-chapter business.

Despite never having any spectacularly cold days, the fact that we didn't have any warm ones either has made this the coldest February on record. Ever. Since they began keeping records. Let's hear it for Global Warming. It was -23C as we headed over to the Tim Horton's where we planned to meet the folks from North Bay and our Regional Director from Thunder Bay.

By the time the meeting was over and we had stopped by the Rona Ramsey MS Centre of Hope to look after a little paperwork, it was 9:50. The temperature was rising fast, all the way up to -12 as we turned our way south in the trusty Avalanche.

The trip was uneventful. Sandy didn't even take any pictures. We stopped in Parry Sound and grabbed a quick McDonald's lunch to go. It was probably the lack of sleep that threw me off south of there. I suddenly got choppy in the curves, something that happens more on the bike than when I'm piloting four wheels. As before, I noted that I was fixating on the centre line way to close ahead of us, so I  forced myself to unlock my eyeballs. Things got better after that. Driving is so natural to me that when I slip out of the zone, it scares me.

I mentioned how the trusty Garmin Zumo 550 GPS had been giving me some problems, not the least of which was a missing button. I recently found out that Garmin was no longer selling refurbished 550 units to people with problems. It was time for an upgrade and I had been doing some research. I played a bit with Stewey's Zumo 665 in Arkansas last year. It looked like it would do everything I had learned how to do with the 550, albeit sometimes a little differently, and more. Except for the XM radio, which I never used on the 550 and could not make a good enough case for now. So the Zumo 660 was my choice. Allowing for exchange rates (which will hurt us this summer), the price at Radioworld in Toronto was about the best around. Be advised that specialized motorcycle GPS units are not cheap.

We were north of Barrie when I called Radioworld. They had 660's in stock but they closed at 2:00 PM. It was 1:00 when I made the call and we still had about 55 miles of highway and Toronto traffic to deal with, so I poured on the coals a little bit more and we arrived in the parking lot with ten minutes to spare. I bought a new 660 and, as I was sitting in the truck figuring out how to install the battery in my new precision instrument (or toy, take your pick), the Closed sign lit up in the store window.

I called The Mighty Stonewall in Woodbridge to see if he was available for coffee. I thought we might meet him Monday, but our big city chore was now out of the way and I wasn't coming back to Hogtown during the Monday morning rush. Unfortunately, Gord was getting ready for his brother's wedding so we had to put off getting together until next time.

Comparisons are fun. I mounted the new unit next to the trusty old one and we set out for Cambridge on the 401. I know that texting and driving isn't safe. It probably isn't safe to be experimenting with a new GPS either while barreling down the busiest highway in North America, but we arrived in one piece. I'm going to like this new device. It did everything I wanted plus had lane assist and let me decide what readouts to keep on the screen. Things I had to flip to other screens for on the 550, like altitude, average speed and a host of other measurements. Any four, take your pick. Plus, any time we approached a major exit, it would flash up a picture of the route sign for a few seconds to augment the lane assist. The only down side will be that, while all the wires and plugs are the same, the configuration is a bit different. I have some cabling work to do to get this functioning on the bike.

We pulled into the lot at the Cambridge Hotel and Conference Centre at about 3:00 PM (which was, coincidentally, check in time). I wasn't that impressed with the Super 8 next door the last time we came down, so I figured we'd give this place a shot. Good choice. The room was nice and they gave us the WiFi password. It was right about then that I realized my computer was all packed up and sitting next to our coffee table back in Sudbury. I'm lucky that my head is screwed on!

We called Kim and Mike and dropped over to visit them. As usual, the granddaughters were either happy to see it or are on the road to becoming great actresses. We had a supper of chicken and salad, played with the girls and watched some TV before heading back to the hotel a little after 10:00.

We stopped at a convenience store along the way and a lady in a car approached us and said she was lost. This was at the corner of Myer and Water St and she was looking for the 401. I told her that we were heading to our hotel which was right beside the 401 on ramp, so she followed us up Hespeler Road to the interchange. She pulled up beside me at the last traffic light and told me she had a camp near Shawanaga. Almost Northern Ontario. And she knew someone that played hockey for the Sudbury Wolves. Too bad I don't follow hockey.

In the room with no computer, I read a bit on my Kindle. "Nature's God - the heretical origins of the American Republic". Nice light reading before going to sleep. At least it is for a Deist who studies the American Constitution:-) Soon it was time to roll over and go to sleep.

Today's Route (281 Avalanche miles):

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