Month: September 2024

The first 497.4 km done

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Apple maps predicted 490 km in 5 hours and 3 minutes without stops. The actual 497.3 km took 6 hours and 12 minutes with three stops. All of the stops were at Onroute service centres. The first at Port Hope after a slowish trip through Toronto, the second at Trenton and the third at Odessa. Packing a sandwich for lunch really expedites lunch stops.

Highway 401 does not offer much of interest for photography but there was one head scratcher. As we were progressing eastward after lunch westbound traffic diminished to nothing and then we came upon the answer. Many flashing red, blue and yellow lights. One medium sized truck on the hook of a wrecker, a semi off the road in the ditch to the right of the highway, several OPP vehicles and a trail of debris littering the highway for several hundred metres. We were apparently looking at the aftermath of a fatal accident that happened late last night. I was able to find a news item on this accident. It is a bit ominous to see the highway void of cars.

Tomorrow will be a longer drive along the south side of the St Lawrence river. There may even be something worthy a photo.

Maarten Schafer, Around The World in 80 Brands

Quite some years ago, I started traveling the planet. I thought this would teach me something about the world we live in. I was wrong… It taught me something about myself. It changed me. And nothing will ever again be black-and-white again.

Here we go again

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Seems to me that is a song title. As it turns out there are a number of songs with that name but I’m partial to the Ray Charles song. Perhaps I’ll even add this one to my music library. We have that for entertainment on our drives. We also have XM radio to keep us company. One of our favourites is a channel called “Radio Classics” where the host, Greg Bell, rebroadcasts radio shows from the past. Another of our favourites is the comedy of Jeff Foxworthy. Anyone remember these?

After the road trip our journey continues with a couple of cruises on the Emerald Princess from Quebec City to Boston, return. Princess Cruises has gone techie, almost completely. Passengers are provided with an electronic device a little bigger than a quarter which is the key to our passenger stateroom and access to almost everything on the ship. From specialty coffee to shore excursions. We received our medallions in the mail today. They contain all of our personal information needed to authorize our boarding the ship. It was not certain that we would get the Medallions before we departed on the road trip but, surprise, surprise, here they are. For passengers who for some reason wish to display their device Princess sells wrist bands and neck wear into which the Medallion can be installed. The lanyard may not be elegant but it is functional. An interesting contrast is the fact that luggage tags are old technology. They are paper and printed from the computer. Not to worry, We add AirTag technology to our checked baggage.

Thursday morning we start this year’s journey. Our first stop will be Cornwall, for no particular reason other than it is not a long drive. We shall see if we arrive in time to investigate anything of interest. I shall try to find something of photographic interest to publish from Cornwall.

Commenting on posts

Thanks to those of you who have left comments on my initial post of the upcoming trip. I encourage you to make comments. Some of the friends recently added to my subscription list have sent their comments by replying to the email. I do receive them and if you wish the comment to be for my eyes only that is the way to do it. However, adding your comment to the end of the post contributes to everyone’s experience. Here is a bit of a tutorial on sharing your comments. Help adding comments to the post.

You can see small maps of our trip in the first two images along the right side of the home page and many other pages. If you have been to places along our route let us know about them. Clicking on them will enlarge the image.

Please do make comments. Feel free to ask questions. If you have any thoughts about things we could do on our trip, let me know. If you don’t have any comments when the post is first published perhaps return to the previous Journal post to read others comments. Should you wish to share my journal with others you know the subscription form is in the right column. Almost anyone can subscribe to the email distribution.

Viewing Photos

Having mentioned images, don’t overlook the menu bar at the top of the page. In particular, check out the Photo Gallery item. As the trip develops I will post photos almost daily and the most recent should appear along the right edge of the home page, below the maps. If you need any assistance navigating the photos there is a short tutorial available. Help navigating photos.

Thornton Wilder, Our Town

Only it seems to me that once in your life before you die you ought to see a country where they don’t talk in English and don’t even want to.

One more trip

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This is really a test to determine if my email distribution system is working. I suggest you “click” on the “Read the post” button and continue reading on the web site as the email is only a preview. Should you decide to stay with us I will try to provide a reasonably interesting narrative and a few photos. When you receive this you may decide you do not wish to follow our travels so there is a link associated with the email allowing you to unsubscribe. You won’t hurt my feelings by using it.

Having not used the journal for almost a year I never know what state the site is win after a years worth of software updates to all the pieces that make up a WordPress web site. It was a good thing I did. Things were not working well when I first logged in. Eventually, the problem was traced to my own computer system where my ad blocker was confused and categorized some of the WordPress pages as unwanted popups. Once discovered the solution was quite simple.

We weren’t sure we would be traveling again this year. The Alaska cruise last year was great, the airport experience, not so much. It seems that airport security is in such a state of paranoia that everyone is assumed to be a threat. We decided that any travel this year would be without airports. Since we had one of our granddaughters living with us during her working semester we chose not to travel until she returned to school.These circumstances led us to consider a cruise starting and ending in Quebec City.

Quebec City is within driving distance and we found back to back 10 day cruises between Quebec City and Boston. We found a Princess cruise starting September 27 and returning to Quebec City on October 17. This fit the bill perfectly. We had been using a Travel Agent at CAA Hamilton who, sadly, passed away just before our cruise last fall. We turned to our friends Chris and Marie who recommended a Travel Agent they liked and in no time at all we were booked. After we booked Gail had an idea. Why not start the trip early and do a Maritime road trip before the cruise. I took no convincing and began to plot a route with the major point of interest being the Cabot Trail. As of today accommodation is booked for a leisurely 10 say tour of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick terminating on September 27 at the Quebec City cruise port. Now all we need is good weather.

Arthur Frommer

At its best, travel should challenge our preconceptions and most cherished views, cause us to rethink our assumptions, shake us a bit, make us broader minded and more understanding.