Just back from a quick trip to Southern Ontario to pick up another 25 pounder chassis along with a twin BMG pedestal mount. These were some items from Dennis Walker, who is currently thinning out his collection.
I left Thursday morning a little before noon, and nearly got to Nipigon for the first night. The next morning, had a good breakfast in Nipigon, decided to go the lake route to Sudbury rather than the flatter Northern route, and overall was pleasantly surprised by the good condition of the roads. They do twist and wind a bit, and it can be quite a ways between gas stations. I made a mistake at Wawa Ontario when I missed the last gas station and decided to drive on rather than turn around. The Sioux was about 240kms away, and as I got further from Wawa, I was watching the fuel gauge plummet. At a little over 40 kms, I decided I had better turn around, so back to Wawa to fill. In the end, there was a station at about 140kms down the road, but it would have been very very close, and I would have been well past the low fuel light. I got out of Parry Sound and onto that dreaded 400 highway. It wasn't too bad until about Muskoka, and by Barrie had turned into some kind of race track, with guys making 4 lane changeovers at the speed of light. It was a little too much for me, so pulled in around Innisfail for fuel and called it a night in a carpool parking lot at about 11PM.
Next morning, a Tim Horton's breakfast (uugh
) and I thought I would try to stay off the 400/401 and go through Alliston/by Acton etc. I was supposed to contact Jordan Baker to act as my guide, but between the rain and the back country road system, I found myself going in circles. By the time I figured out which way was South, I headed for the QEW, and found myself on the toll road instead. I look forward to seeing the bill for that next 15 minuted of driving pleasre. Traffic density was more to my liking, and it twisted me over to the QEW, and into St Catherines.
Managed to find Dennis Walkers place, and after some introductions and a brief tour, we began loading. I was supposed to try and load a limber on the trailer for Rob Fast as well, but the logistics of loading a limber on first, then a 12 foot gun chassis, all on a 14 foot trailer, were not good. I had to leave the limber behind for another day, and after getting everything loaded, we headed to his barn to look at other things. Soon depleted of cash, it was time to head to Brian Asbury's for some quick dealing.
Got lost on the way to there, and after a couple of calls to Brian, finally managed to pull into his shop. I haven't been there in some 20+ years, and things are certainly thinning out. I had hoped to get up past Barrie that nght, but in the end slept again in the truck in Brian's shop parking lot. Up again in the morning, got breakfast in Orangeville, over to the 400 and headed up through North Bay and got to Longlac that night. I actually splurged for a $60 hotel, as I was starting to get pretty ripe.
I did find two very bad patches of road during that leg that will be memorable. Just past Kapuskasing is about 10kms of roadway that was more akin to cobblestone. When I pulled in to Hearst, I found that the security pin for the landing leg on the trailer had come out, and the leg had been skidding on the ground for an undetermined period of time. Thankfully I did not cross over any curbs going into the gas station. Then, before reaching Longlac, there was a fresh patch of pavement over a culvert with a bump sign. The bump sign should have been a ramp sign, as the sunken patch launched the truck into the air. Just as the truck landed, the trailer also went up. That was a very white knuckle moment, but fortunately all the chains held the load.
Last leg of the 2500+ km 5 day trip was uneventful. With a decent nights sleep in the hotel, and some of the highway actually divided, I made great time and was home by 9PM. Did have a minor event when, as I got closer to Manitoba and started into the mid 20 degree temps, I noticed the truck was running a little hot. Was trying to figure out why, and remembered I still had my winter cardboard in front of the radiator. Pulled that out and gauge went back to middle and the air conditioning started working even better. Overall, went through about $1,000 in fuel, which ranged from $1.23 a liter in MB to $1.46 a liter in Northern ON.
Did bring out some AMUs for Brian, and left some at Brians for Frank, who I was not able to contact. Unfortunately, due to a family issue I had to get home, so did not spend the extra day I wanted to to visit people out there. Busy now unloading the truck and trailer, and will shoot some photos of the new acquisitions in a bit. I do have some 17pdr ammo boxes here for Rob Fast, so we'll connect at some point.
Ontario: A great place to visit, but I sure prefer the peacefulness and open spaces out here.