Quick hit - Inukshuk's

In case you didn't know an inukshuk is (The government of Nunuvat prefers it to be spelled inuksuk) it is a stone marker used as a directional marker or milestone. Since the unveiling of the Vancouver 2010 olympic logo it has become all the rage.

Well during my drive from Winnipeg to Petawawa I saw at least 10,000 of them along the side of the road. If you think I am exaggerating think about this; on average I saw 1 every 10-15 ft on both sides of the road for at least 700-800 kms.

I hate inukshuks now...please stop making them or I will go mad!

That is all

STRANDED part 2

*(If you haven't already please read part 1 first immediately below this story.)





When we left our zero- oops I meant hero, OK OK zero, he was watching in horror as his van died. Well feeling nauseous, I went in and asked if anyone knew about cars since I certainly didn't. The owner of the Timberland Motel (and restaurant, and liquor store, and mini-mart, and gift shop and gas station) Bill, was kind enough to have a look and make some calls for me. After 45 agonizing minutes the tow truck arrived. I still had troubles though, I had to get the van fixed but if I had to leave it behind what was I gonna do with all my stuff? Well the driver, Joe, was an excellent guy and wisely persuaded me NOT to go to a particular chain that specializes in rip-offs and instead pointed me to his 'go-to' guy. After a half hour drive we got there but the guy was unavailable. I was depressed but Joe said not to worry he would get me to a place in Thunder Bay that specializes in transmissions. He also was kind enough to stop at the hotel and help me unload some of my crap, and after dropping off the Burgundy Buggy of Broken Dreams, even dropped me off at the hotel. What a day.

So I ordered Pizza, watched TV and called and emailed the usual suspects. Finally I went to bed for a fairly restless sleep.

The next morning I woke up early and called the transmission place and spoke briefly with the guy and he said he wwas busy but would try to get to it quickly and that he would call when he had news...So I waited...

4:30pm I am in agony! All I can think of is that the van is going to be beyond repair or at the very least super costly and I'll have to wait for parts or something. Suddenly the phone rings and it's the garage. My heart is pounding, the moment of truth...IT'S FIXED! But they close in 25 minutes and I have to cab there. It's tight but I make it. He says it's fine and tells me that he just replaced a solenoid. Total repair bill comes to less than 200 bucks! Phew!

After profusely thanking everyone I headed back to the hotel and packed up my stuff. I decided to get a good night's sleep and head out early the next morning.

After another crappy sleep, I double-checked to make sure I packed everything and off I went at 6:30am. The first thing I notice is fog. Great. Fog so thick I couldn't see further than the distance of 1 telephone pole. Not good. It lasted for about two hours and was agonizing.

I stopped to go to the can in Wawa and nearly got in a fist fight with the owner of the gasbar since he didn't like how I parked...it's a long story but suffice it to say that I didn't get gas there and I expanded his vocabulary.

I eventually got close enough to Lake Superior to hop out and dip my toes. I have pictures too. After a brief stop for a bite to eat in Sault-Ste-Marie, (Home of Roberta Bondar, Canada's first female astronaut, so says the sign), I carried on to my final stop 3 hours later.

I wish I had an excellent ending for this story but hey this is real life.

I ended up in Sudbury, home of a really big Nickel....I guess that's an ending.

Until next time remember, no Payne, no gain.

STRANDED!

Well I have been really busy taking courses and preparing for my move to a new office just outside of Ottawa and haven't had time to blog. I told myself that I would wait until I was settled in the new place before I started again, but because of recent events, I sudenly have time.

Because of a number of circumstances I am spending the first year of my new job alone, leaving my family behind for now. After a whirlwind final week I was set to get on my way on the morning of the 23rd of July.

The morning started out terribly, saying goodbye to my wife as I headed off on my journey. It was scheduled to last 4 days with my first stop in Thunder Bay Ontario.

I got gas and Timmy's for the road and nearly met my end when I was cut off by an 18-wheeler. Thankfully when I spiked the brakes my van full of possessions, (including a TV and a bar fridge), but thankfully it all stayed in place. I was very pleased with myself. I remember thinking that this incident was probably my one 'big scare' of the trip and that everything else would go smoothly...nope.

For those that don't know, driving through Northern Ontario is pretty boring. People complain about Saskatchewan being boring, but at least you can get where you are going in a straight line...not so in NW Ont. curve, hill, curve, hill, construction, repeat. I was amazed at the gas mileage of my new van, (well used but new to me), and she seemed to be running well.

I bought the van a month earlier as I needed a second vehicle for my trip since I couldn't take our only vehicle and leave the family with nothing. The problem was that I am cheap and went for the bargain basement. Well you get what you pay for and I already had to replace the battery but I digress.

Anyway, my journey continued and I stopped in Dryden briefly to buy a disposable camera and get lunch. This would be my last happy stop. After Dryden there is nothing really until you hit Thunder Bay so I settled in and made decent time. As I passed Upsala (find THAT on a map) my radio finally ran out of stations. I would have listened to CD's except my 'new' van came equipped with a CASSETTE player! According to wikipedia a cassette tape is; "a magnetic tape sound recording format" They began in the mid 60's and were replaced by CD's. (My first music puchase was a Rick Springfield cassette! ha ha) Anyway, shortly after pulling out to pass a small moving RV my troubles began in earnest.

I checked my plug in cooler and noticed that it wasn't working. The accessory plug must be dead I thought. Then my glorious air conditioning died and I noticed the 'service engine soon' light...uh oh. Now those that know me know that I know NOTHING about vehicles. So I used my usual strategy, ignore it and hope it goes away. That's when I noticed the vibrations. I turned off my fan and realized that the automatic transmission was stuck in 3rd gear and wouldn't go into overdrive. BAD NEWS! I decided that since I was less than 100 kms from Thunder Bay I would press on rather than risk getting stuck in the middle of nowhere. My plan was working as I crept along at 90km/h (in hindsight, 60 would have been better, or stopping altogether), but remember my awesome gas mileage? Well stuck in 3rd uses more gas so I realized that I was down to 1/16th of a tank with 60 kms to go so I had to stop. That's when it went from bad to worse.

I stopped at the Timberland Motel in Kaministiquia Ontario (according to the business card) on my map it said Shapaqua. I started to fill up with gas when I heard a loud hiss. When I turned around steam was pouring out of my van and coolant was leaking out the bottom. My rad hose had popped and I knew it was all over.

Tune in later to find out the next chapter!