It was dark when we left. A few racoons skitted across the road as we headed to the highway. Birds were beginning to sing in anticipation of the sun, the fellow was a little ticked off that we were ~ 30 min behind his schedule. Since we were a day ahead of my schedule, I was quite fine. Well, as fine as one could be with about 1 1/2 hr of sleep.
Clouds were along the horizon as the sun began to rise, which is a nice thing when headed east at sunrise. The fellow checked the weather forecast for the provinces and areas we’ll be passing through today, and it’s supposed to be a pretty uniform 26 and sunny, which is quite different from the heavy rain we drove through for most of our trip last year. The rain during which our wipers broke and we discovered that staying above 100km/hr does a pretty good job of keeping the windows clear enough for safe driving.
Can’t write for long as I’m very prone to carsickness, and typos are to be expected while blogging in a moving car, but I’ll update from time to time, as long as the iPad battery holds out. It’s currently trickle charging via the car charger, so it’ll be interesting to see how long it lasts. The goal today is to travel through 4 provinces, so there will be a lot to see.
When we passed Kingston, there were some cool signs to let me know that it was the home of John A MacDonald, our first Prime Minister. Didnt know that (and wasn’t fast enough to photograph). Mentioned it to the fellow. He’s seen the sign before. I said that I guess it’s usuallynthe time when I’m “resting my eyes”. The guy smiled and nodded. I think he may be a bit annoyed that I’m slowing him down by keeping my eyes open. And that 11/2 hrs is catching up with me, so…until later.
P.S. The WordPress mobile app has improved so much! A bit of glitch with images. Posting on desktop, WP automatically sizes images to width of panel unless text is added, but with app, it posts at full size which means it overruns, so I had to resize much smaller (limited options). I’ll keep that in mind for future images.
Quebec border! Notice the 0 km in the lower right. We’re at the beginning of the provincial highway. Now for Montreal. Heh, they did some road construction some years back, which means that in recent yrs we end up taking alternative routes into Montreal. The fellow has a freakish sense of direction, but this particular change throws him off. Which makes for some terse words, but it’s ok, as we’ll eventually end up wehere we need to be anyway.
The 40 through Montreal is not attractive, lanes are too narrow, people drive aggressively…and it is usually slow. Traffic can be very dense and sometimes it takes more than an hour to get through. Gas is pricey – $134.4! But it usually does cost more here. By the time we need to fill up, we’ll be where gas is cheaper.
The tunnel is a hoot. A hoot, that is, if one forgets personal safety. It goes under the St. Lawrence River. Over the years, more and more tiles were missing from the walls. Then, a few years ago, a few lanes were closed because some tiles had fallen on a car. Solution? The next year, all the tiles had been removed. That removes the problem of falling tiles. One hopes that the cause of the tiles loosening has been/is being addressed. The lanes here are no passing. Two speedy little buggers zoomed through, changing lanes many times – racing with each other or just two unrealtered jerks?
We made it through Montreal in record time. Passing some construction zones, traffic is increasing dramtically, but we are now in interesting terrain – flat land with random huge bumps of hills or rocks, lots of pretty farmland, communities marked by tall church steeples.
So far, I’ve been taking iPad photos. I do have the camera adapter so that I can manage DSLR images, so later, I’ll give that a whirl.