A steaming lake, but it was -27 so I wasn't going to dip my toe in..
Net is farting around. I will do more tomorrow.
Saturday, November 27, 2010
Just Pics from the last week or so.
A selection of pics from the trip.. Can you tell I am bored?
A steaming lake, but it was -27 so I wasn't going to dip my toe in..
Net is farting around. I will do more tomorrow.
A steaming lake, but it was -27 so I wasn't going to dip my toe in..
Net is farting around. I will do more tomorrow.
Thursday, November 25, 2010
Vancouver Island Trip..
Winter hit hard on November 18th this year. From cool and dry weather to a snowstorm in a matter of hours, with nice cool temps to boot. So I started out from home on Thursday night to go down to Roseau, MN, for 0800 on Friday morning. You have to be through the border before midnight as they close till 0800, so I had to head down there anyway.
All the way down, the roads were in a hell of a state. I was ploughing snow on Hwy 12, but I have seen much worse and it didn't slow me down too much. Through the border and parked on the service road by the Subway buttie bar so I could scab the Travelodge wifi.
Pulled into the Polaris place for 0745 because I still had to set the deck up. I hadn't already done it because of the weather. I wwanted shelter from the storm, you could say. Anyway, they had meetings till 0900, so I was able to do the floor and get the coffee imbibed before they loaded 9 machines onto me. Because one of them was a Bobcat, I had to manually clear the load at Sprague instead of South Junction, but they are good as gold there and it didn't take long.
the drive back to the yard was tricky. The snow was largely hardpack and that tends to kick the truck around a bit. Still, I was back there for lunchtime, but the snow as I appraoched Winnipeg was awful. Visabilty was down to maybe 50 metres, so I gave up for the day and went home.
Saturday, I was in the yard for noon. I filled the cans up, got some diesel treatment and headed out. I got maybe 25 kms. There was a farting sound from my compressor and the air wasn't building up.. Bugger!!
Now you have to bear in mind that these trucks are about as manoevreable as a supertanker. They will fit most places but sometimes it takes a little thinking about. So a U turn was pretty much out of the question. I popped the hood and looked. Sure enough, the compressor relief valve was popping away, which meant there was a freeze up in the earliest part of the system.
So I drove up Waverly street, turned on Bishop Grandin, then chose to go down St Marys because traffic was a nightmare and they were all driving like kamikazes, and I only had the air in the tanks. By now, my buzzer was sounding and things were looking bad. Got to the yard and borrowed the paint stripper hot airgun. This is an essential part of the Canadian toolbox. With that, I was able to defrost the air dryer and we were good to go, just much later than I intended...
So out onto the highway, hammer down. I stopped for the night in Regina as It was late, it was snowing and I had simply had enough.
Sunday saw me on the road nice and early. It had finally stopped snowing and was a beautiful day.
My drive across the Prairies was largely uneventful. I fuelled in the Flying J in Calgary, which was a complete farce. It actually took longer to get my coffee than it did to get the fuel.. That place is really crap! Then onwards toward the mountains.
My first drop was in Williams Lake, in the Interior of BC. I got there at about 0930 on Monday, which is very good going all things considered, only to find they were closed on Mondays. Still, I was tired, so I parked on the service road by the Super 8 Motel.. Their wifi was passworded, so I decided to go and see how generous they were feeling. The lady there was really nice. She gave me the ticket, then asked why I was having to sit there. I explained and she was very sympathetic. I wasn't bothered. i had the net to play with..
2 hours later, the lady came out and told me she had spoken to the owner and he would meet me there!! How good is that!!!!?? So I unloaded 3 machines and headed down to Langley, 520 kms south. The air had got so cold so fast that the lakes were steaming..
Tuesday morning, I set up the ramps and ran the 2 machines in. Then it was off to the ferry in Tsawassen. I was booked on the 1515 boat to Nanaimo, but at the window I asked the lady how long it would take me to drive to Victoria. The upshoot was that, at 1059, I was then booked onto the 1100 sailing straight into Victoria...
Onto the island and down to drop #3 in Victoria. This was the Bobcat.. Bobcat means loading ramps, so I only had to put the ramps inside for the upper deck then drive it straight out onto their loading dock. I was out of there in 15 minutes and off up to Duncan.. Hell of a pretty road.
Got shot of their machine in Duncan, and called the last drop, but they wouldn't wait. The man said the roads were bad and it was slow going. He was halfway right.. the roads were bad, but it wasn't slow going.
No biggie. I parked in the supermarket car park and went on to the drop for 0800 (which is 1000 central time.. a lie in) got that one off then headed down to the ferry again. I changed the booking again so that I sailed into Horseshoe Bay, which is north Vancouver, then I was on the right side of the river to get to the collection in Maple Ridge. Got on the ferry at 1030, and the driver behind me came up to me to point out that I had no brakelights.. Bugger! So half the sailing time was taken up investigating and fixing the dead short on the drivers side tail light, the other half was taken up with washing up and drinking coffee!!
Took a while to get loaded but was done in the end, then I met up with Steve Frampton in the Dirty Dawg, Chilliwack.
From there I really pushed the boat out and parked up in Sicamous as it was snowing like hell again.
Thursday, managed to go for just over an hour before the whole lot came to a standstill.
Bugger again!!
Still, a mere 5 hours later and all was rolling again, and I hammered back to the J in Calgary (I must be a glutton for punishment!). Had another falling out with the person at the checkout when some twat asked something from behind me and he went off to get him a map while still serving me!!!
Anyway, I left Calgary and went on to Brooks. There is a hotel at the Shell there and the net is sound, so I parked up, but couldn't sleep. I finally left there and drove over to Swift Current. Unlike when Chris was here last week, the scale was closed.. I hit the freezing fog around Moosejaw, and was in that all the way to Portage, where I decided to call it a day. That may have been a mistake though. About ten miles further on, once I got rolling again, the fog stopped and the sun peeked out.
So it was back to the yard, drop the trailer (after adjusting the landing legs with my hammer as they were frozen solid), and home to the toils that await me.
6000 kms
View Larger Map
All the way down, the roads were in a hell of a state. I was ploughing snow on Hwy 12, but I have seen much worse and it didn't slow me down too much. Through the border and parked on the service road by the Subway buttie bar so I could scab the Travelodge wifi.
Pulled into the Polaris place for 0745 because I still had to set the deck up. I hadn't already done it because of the weather. I wwanted shelter from the storm, you could say. Anyway, they had meetings till 0900, so I was able to do the floor and get the coffee imbibed before they loaded 9 machines onto me. Because one of them was a Bobcat, I had to manually clear the load at Sprague instead of South Junction, but they are good as gold there and it didn't take long.
the drive back to the yard was tricky. The snow was largely hardpack and that tends to kick the truck around a bit. Still, I was back there for lunchtime, but the snow as I appraoched Winnipeg was awful. Visabilty was down to maybe 50 metres, so I gave up for the day and went home.
Saturday, I was in the yard for noon. I filled the cans up, got some diesel treatment and headed out. I got maybe 25 kms. There was a farting sound from my compressor and the air wasn't building up.. Bugger!!
Now you have to bear in mind that these trucks are about as manoevreable as a supertanker. They will fit most places but sometimes it takes a little thinking about. So a U turn was pretty much out of the question. I popped the hood and looked. Sure enough, the compressor relief valve was popping away, which meant there was a freeze up in the earliest part of the system.
So I drove up Waverly street, turned on Bishop Grandin, then chose to go down St Marys because traffic was a nightmare and they were all driving like kamikazes, and I only had the air in the tanks. By now, my buzzer was sounding and things were looking bad. Got to the yard and borrowed the paint stripper hot airgun. This is an essential part of the Canadian toolbox. With that, I was able to defrost the air dryer and we were good to go, just much later than I intended...
So out onto the highway, hammer down. I stopped for the night in Regina as It was late, it was snowing and I had simply had enough.
Sunday saw me on the road nice and early. It had finally stopped snowing and was a beautiful day.
My drive across the Prairies was largely uneventful. I fuelled in the Flying J in Calgary, which was a complete farce. It actually took longer to get my coffee than it did to get the fuel.. That place is really crap! Then onwards toward the mountains.
My first drop was in Williams Lake, in the Interior of BC. I got there at about 0930 on Monday, which is very good going all things considered, only to find they were closed on Mondays. Still, I was tired, so I parked on the service road by the Super 8 Motel.. Their wifi was passworded, so I decided to go and see how generous they were feeling. The lady there was really nice. She gave me the ticket, then asked why I was having to sit there. I explained and she was very sympathetic. I wasn't bothered. i had the net to play with..
2 hours later, the lady came out and told me she had spoken to the owner and he would meet me there!! How good is that!!!!?? So I unloaded 3 machines and headed down to Langley, 520 kms south. The air had got so cold so fast that the lakes were steaming..
Tuesday morning, I set up the ramps and ran the 2 machines in. Then it was off to the ferry in Tsawassen. I was booked on the 1515 boat to Nanaimo, but at the window I asked the lady how long it would take me to drive to Victoria. The upshoot was that, at 1059, I was then booked onto the 1100 sailing straight into Victoria...
Onto the island and down to drop #3 in Victoria. This was the Bobcat.. Bobcat means loading ramps, so I only had to put the ramps inside for the upper deck then drive it straight out onto their loading dock. I was out of there in 15 minutes and off up to Duncan.. Hell of a pretty road.
Got shot of their machine in Duncan, and called the last drop, but they wouldn't wait. The man said the roads were bad and it was slow going. He was halfway right.. the roads were bad, but it wasn't slow going.
No biggie. I parked in the supermarket car park and went on to the drop for 0800 (which is 1000 central time.. a lie in) got that one off then headed down to the ferry again. I changed the booking again so that I sailed into Horseshoe Bay, which is north Vancouver, then I was on the right side of the river to get to the collection in Maple Ridge. Got on the ferry at 1030, and the driver behind me came up to me to point out that I had no brakelights.. Bugger! So half the sailing time was taken up investigating and fixing the dead short on the drivers side tail light, the other half was taken up with washing up and drinking coffee!!
Took a while to get loaded but was done in the end, then I met up with Steve Frampton in the Dirty Dawg, Chilliwack.
From there I really pushed the boat out and parked up in Sicamous as it was snowing like hell again.
Thursday, managed to go for just over an hour before the whole lot came to a standstill.
Bugger again!!
Still, a mere 5 hours later and all was rolling again, and I hammered back to the J in Calgary (I must be a glutton for punishment!). Had another falling out with the person at the checkout when some twat asked something from behind me and he went off to get him a map while still serving me!!!
Anyway, I left Calgary and went on to Brooks. There is a hotel at the Shell there and the net is sound, so I parked up, but couldn't sleep. I finally left there and drove over to Swift Current. Unlike when Chris was here last week, the scale was closed.. I hit the freezing fog around Moosejaw, and was in that all the way to Portage, where I decided to call it a day. That may have been a mistake though. About ten miles further on, once I got rolling again, the fog stopped and the sun peeked out.
So it was back to the yard, drop the trailer (after adjusting the landing legs with my hammer as they were frozen solid), and home to the toils that await me.
6000 kms
View Larger Map
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