There certainly hasn't been much posting this last 6 weeks or so. Lots has happened but of course time has been limited, and after the 14th of last month... I had no home phone or internet connection. Have we grown too dependent on technology? BIG Question that.
So, when I last left you I was in Dryden Ontario. A pulp town I remember from my very first foray across the country at age 20, back in '75. There was no internet in them thar' days me heartie!
Things seemed to be going well, cooler road temperatures and a rhythm settled into. I felt the worst was behind us (Phx and I) and we could be on the Island in a few more days. After a very expensive fill at Kakabeka Falls, a place that didn't even qualify as a hamlet in '75, where condos now sprout, we cleared Thunder Bay, famous really for the termination point of the very driven and subsequently famous, Terry Fox. TF inspired millions and Barb even got to do a TF run in Budapest when she visited in 2008.
Another fill in Nipigon, and east on 17 this time around. I took 11 through Hearst and Kapaskasing in April but felt the route was too bumpy for the big load. Maybe should have taken 11 after all. The Trans Canada via 17 climbs and falls and undulates around the north shore of Lake Superior. Several climbs were accomplished adequately but slowly in low gear.
At Terrace Bay, I pulled off for the night, 260km short of my planned stop in Wawa.
After checking into the Norwood Motel on September 3rd, a holiday Sunday, I find I am at the same place that Brenda and Anna occupied a week earlier. Apparently Anna left her camera behind in room 116, but it
failed to turn up.
That night, checking the rig, something I routinely have been doing, I notice in the gathering dusk, all four of my new tires on my new trailer are wearing badly on the inside edge. Very hard to spot. Being unable to accomplish anything in TB, I gingerly drove in wet weather to Wawa, where I am still holed up at the Wawa Motor Inn two days later. Why you may wonder... unloaded some gear at a storage facility and waiting for replacement tires for the trailer. The tire experts at Royal Tire, tell me blow out was imminent. Not a pleasant thought while driving and towing a major moving load. His comment when surveying the affair was, 'why would they place bias ply tires on such a heavy rig?' After all, they haven't been in use for decades really.
As I am finding out the further east I progress, cheap. The manufacturer builds these units as cheap as possible. Great... I pay thousands of dollars, and what do I get... cost cutting. Maybe that's why jobs are going to China, maybe that's why my electric brake lines cross between the axle and frame, a place where the poor quality lightweight springs are guaranteed to slice your brake lines if they contact the frame, maybe that's why my axles are deflecting causing premature tire wear which if not found, would result in a massive blow-out situtaion, with potentially, surely severe consequences.
Maybe maybe maybe...
I just want to get there in one piece and live to tell the tale.
 |
| leaving in good spirits |
So, when I last left you I was in Dryden Ontario. A pulp town I remember from my very first foray across the country at age 20, back in '75. There was no internet in them thar' days me heartie!
Things seemed to be going well, cooler road temperatures and a rhythm settled into. I felt the worst was behind us (Phx and I) and we could be on the Island in a few more days. After a very expensive fill at Kakabeka Falls, a place that didn't even qualify as a hamlet in '75, where condos now sprout, we cleared Thunder Bay, famous really for the termination point of the very driven and subsequently famous, Terry Fox. TF inspired millions and Barb even got to do a TF run in Budapest when she visited in 2008.
Another fill in Nipigon, and east on 17 this time around. I took 11 through Hearst and Kapaskasing in April but felt the route was too bumpy for the big load. Maybe should have taken 11 after all. The Trans Canada via 17 climbs and falls and undulates around the north shore of Lake Superior. Several climbs were accomplished adequately but slowly in low gear.
At Terrace Bay, I pulled off for the night, 260km short of my planned stop in Wawa.
After checking into the Norwood Motel on September 3rd, a holiday Sunday, I find I am at the same place that Brenda and Anna occupied a week earlier. Apparently Anna left her camera behind in room 116, but it
failed to turn up.
 |
| My buddy, making hisself at home. |
That night, checking the rig, something I routinely have been doing, I notice in the gathering dusk, all four of my new tires on my new trailer are wearing badly on the inside edge. Very hard to spot. Being unable to accomplish anything in TB, I gingerly drove in wet weather to Wawa, where I am still holed up at the Wawa Motor Inn two days later. Why you may wonder... unloaded some gear at a storage facility and waiting for replacement tires for the trailer. The tire experts at Royal Tire, tell me blow out was imminent. Not a pleasant thought while driving and towing a major moving load. His comment when surveying the affair was, 'why would they place bias ply tires on such a heavy rig?' After all, they haven't been in use for decades really.
 |
| Superior north shore, one mutha of a lake! |
 |
| Pretty relaxed even for a cat! |
As I am finding out the further east I progress, cheap. The manufacturer builds these units as cheap as possible. Great... I pay thousands of dollars, and what do I get... cost cutting. Maybe that's why jobs are going to China, maybe that's why my electric brake lines cross between the axle and frame, a place where the poor quality lightweight springs are guaranteed to slice your brake lines if they contact the frame, maybe that's why my axles are deflecting causing premature tire wear which if not found, would result in a massive blow-out situtaion, with potentially, surely severe consequences.
 |
| half a trailer load, the guy says. |
Maybe maybe maybe...
 |
| All four tires, 2500km and this is what I am faced with! |
I just want to get there in one piece and live to tell the tale.
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