this year.

On the final day of driving we only had some 530km to go. We decided to make a lunch stop in Kingston, becuase one of the girls had friends she wanted to see. It was another spectacular day weather wise, and I was behind the wheel of the freshly cleaned mini-van. We rolled into Kingston around 2pm, had lunch, and were back on the road by 4pm. It was a long break, but I’d rather sit in kingston enjoying the sun and frsh air, then sit in Toronto rush hour traffic.

We rolled into the Mosaic parking lot just shy of 7:30pm on Tuesday April 19, 2005. The cube van almost didn’t make it, as it seems the coolant levels dropped and the thing blew nothing but hot air into the cabin. The AC didn’t work, so Dan and Ali had both windows wide open, tryint to get some fresh cool air. A diesel truck driving along at 100 km/h with both windows open is not the quietest ride.

So here I am, back home after 19 days on the road. On the whole it was a completely enjoyable experiences. The long days of driving were less boring then most could imagine, and the similiarities between all the cities and towns we visited was obvious. The only downers I can place my finger on are: the less then fair weather we were faced with on the drive out, and the nights we were unable to run the promotion. I have never seen a group of people get along so well, for such a long time. By the end I’m sure we were ready to do another 19 days as soon as we got our laundry washed. The Ontario leg of the tour starts Friday, with a stop in Mississauga. This leg is mostly one night affairs, though we do have a few hotel nights coming our way.

Over the next few days I will be adding photos to the prevous posts, as well as composing a post with highlights from the trip, that may or may not have been included in previous posts.

What a spectacular day. The Sky was blue, the sun was out, and the temperature was up. I was very upset I didn’t pack any shorts or sandals, because I would have put them to great use today. The Drive to Fredericton was nice, along the TCH, passing flooded rivers, and many a person riding a ATV (aka – kawasaki, aka – kawi) through the many paths that dot the country side.

We rolled into Fredericton and headed right to the bar where we had to set up for the nights event. Turns out the bar was in the Tannery. This is the same little square that I hit up last summer with my two buddies on our road trip, and it is in this square that we had the (un)fortunate luck to meet a most entertaining local. As this is supposed to be about this trip, and not previous trips, I will not go into detail, those of you who know of this lady we met consider yourselves (un)lucky. The bar wasn’t open yet, so i grabbed a Juice Booster and cruised down to the river, taking some photos along the way. Again, I have discovered that last time though I didn’t give Fredericton a fair shake. It’s a lovely city, with character and life — we just happened to be in the wrong locations. We set up for the event, and had enough time to go for dinner at this lovely (read 100% attractive waitstaff) pub called Jesters Court. My gosh. Had Kurt, Brent and I gone to this pub last summer we all would have left town much happier, but alas we attended a bar much like the bar we were to execute in. They offered fantastic pub fair, a huge plate of nachos, and a satisfactory selection of draft (not that I was able to sample, since I was ‘on the clock’). A definite must hit the next time anyone cruises through Fredericton. The food was dynamite.

The clientele of the bar we ran the promo in was mostly students from UNB, with the typical sprinkle of old, drunk, funny/creepy locals. To those that know of the kawi loving friend from last summers road trip — I had a sinking fear that I may run into her tonight. I don’t think I did, but I can say that I met her mother/sister. And that’s all I have to say. We ran a random draw to decide who would be sent to Toronto for the finals of the Labatt Blue Chip Poker Tour, and this student from UNB was the lucky selection. It was another case of not knowing who was more excited, the winner or his buddies. When we declared him the winner, his buddies broke into a local rendition of, ‘here’s to brother (insert name here)’. It brought a tear to my eye as he drank the rest of his beer rather quickly.

This was the last stop on our Atlantic tour. We returned to our hotel and enjoyed the few remaining beers we had, and toasted a job well done. The following day our drive back to Toronto, Ontario would begin. Of the 7 team members on the crew, 2 would be flying back for various engagements, so only 5 of us would be making the road trip home — and only 3 of us will have driven the entire round trip.

It’s very near the end, and it’s been one heck of a ride. Who knew work could be this fun?

Next stop, somewhere in Quebec.

Worked in St. John last night. It was okay. The bar we worked in was uber tiny, and it was a real streach to fit all our stuff in. I didn’t get to see to much of St. John, but of what I did see, I guess it might be a fun town. It really smelt when we rolled in, and we think it was becuase of the paper mill in town (or sand factory as some folks like to refer to them). The one thing I did notice about downtown St. John is the large number of skateboarders. Every kid that passed us was on a board. People were grinding and jumping off the many stairs and rails that dot the hilly city.

We got out of dodge today and made the drive to Moncton. It was another clear, sunny day, and i suggested we talk a detour and swing down the Fundy Drive, and actually see some of the country. It’s been a lot of work, drive, work, and all we have seen is 4 lane highway. But I was out voted. I’ve seen it before, but I thought it might be nice for others to actually see what this province has to offer. C’est la vie. We are shacking up at the Chateau Moncton, that sits on the shore of the Petitcodiac River and provides a spectacular view of its famous tidal bore. I got a room with a river view (*note – turns out on later review, this is the same hotel that was the scene of a tragic incident a week or so back. A young boy was found dead as his mother jumped to her death from a 5th floor suite. I’m in 518).

Work tomorrow night in Moncton at Igloo, then Sunday night in Fredericton. The drive home begins on monday, and I should be back in Toronto, Ontario late on Tuesday.

I have been unable to post pictures with these entries, so when i get home I will be adding photos to these posts, so get ready to read back to see some shots.

Cheers.

What can I not say about Halifax. I love this city. We made a huge score on hotels, staying at the Holiday Inn Select, near downtown on Robie and Quinpool. I called them from the road, and talked to a wonderful girl Faith, who dropped the rate from $140 to $109 a night (with parking thrown in). They had a wonderful hot tub and sauna.

We spent 3 days in Halfiax (sat, sun and mon). To be 100% truthful, it was sort of a bust. It may sound contradictory to say I love Halfiax, and this visit was a bust, but it’s true. Saturday we had to attend the bar we were supposed to execute at and tell any patrons why the event has been cancelled. The bar, Key Largos in Sacville was unique.

We showed up at 7pm, and walked right into an auction, at which point we went for dinner and Steve broke the law.

It seems the auction was scheduled till 8m, at which point we were supposed to do our event. Only thing is, our event takes 2h to set up, so it would have been a logistical nightmare. Also, the auction was still going at 9:30 when we left. This put a giant hole in the night, and no one really wanted to go out, and my friend Sarah, who is doing her masters at Dal had to finish a paper. So in we stayed, took a hot tub and sauna, and called it a night.

I got up early on Sunday to a sunny, cloudless sky. It was to good to pass up, so i got myself out of bed and onto the streets by 10am. I just wandered around the city, checking out the north part of the harbour that I did not explore last time out. It was interesting to run across the Canadian National Navel Defence buildings, and see a submarine in dry dock.

Cruising the pier I grabbed a coffee, relaxed on a park bench, and made some phone calls (mostly to gloat to some friends that I was having a coffee, and looking out on the Harbour of Halifax). The pier is not as busy as it was last July, when i was out with a few buddies on a road trip, but it was still an enjoyable time. Brisk, cool, refreshing breeze, sun, some ships, and funny signs.

Sunday afternoon saw the group partake in the Keith’s Brewery Tour. I say partake because it is a interactive experiences. I was on it last summer and I recognized at least one of the actors from then. Having had camera experience since then, and knowing what was coming up, I was able to grab some photos I wanted to take the last time through.

Sunday night was to be the big night out, but as things go with large groups, it was a slow start. In the end we finally made it to Lower Deck for 11:30pm, and it was rammed. In this sea of people, that were only parted by smartly placed elbows, I was able to find Sarah. Me and the crew found a corner to the right of the band, got some ice cold pints of Keith’s, and took it all in. The live band was awesome, and the electricity in the air was stellar. It’s a shame the pub closes at 1am. However, we had to head up to The Palace to meet up with a girl that does some work for Mosaic (the company i work for) as she was taking us out on the time. It’s just not my style to travel all the way to Halifax, a city rich with heritage and character, to spend my time in a club that could easily have been transported off the streets of TO. To end the night me and some folks cruised down to Pizza Corner to grab some donairs. I walked into King Of Donair, only to learn they were out of meat. It was a shock, and an utter disappointment. Luckily it is Pizza Corner, so we had 2 other options, and they did not disappoint. In the end I’m not sure who was more upset, me or Brent Taylor who received a disgruntled phone call from me at 4am AT (3am EST).

Monday was another laid back day. grabbed a coffee, grabbed and soak, and grabbed a sauna. The sun had left us, and its evil brother overcast took his place. To end our Halifax blitz we went for a wonderful dinner at The Keg. It was spectacular, and we were all on the verge or exploding. Most folks were tired, but Ali wanted to go out for some drinks on this last night in Halfiax. I was more then happy to oblige, so we went down to some Shoe Shop bistro type place a friend of hers recommended. It was quaint, and the live jazz was soothing. It’s on Arglye St. and connects to another place called Diamond. A relaxing night to a great city. The weather man is promising 15-25cm of snow for Moncton and PEI, right in our path of travel. We’ll see what develops.

Next stop PEI.

We blew across Newfoundland under veil of darkness and quiet of night. The ferry from NS took a little longer then scheduled due to fog and rain. We slept away much of the 9h crossing. Laying in my bunk, eyes closed, I could imagine what it was like to cross the ocean on a wooden ship. The roll of the ship, and the crash of the waves, and the creak of the wood was enough to allow me to slip in and out of sleep.

We rolled onto The Rock around 9:00pm. Having lost most sense of time, I have no idea what time zone that is reported in. We had about 576km to drive from Port aux Basque to Gander. We had talked about making the push straight to St. John’s — a trip of about 886km. It was my turn to drive White Lightning, and I was stoked.

Rolling off the ferry dropped us into rock. It is obvious where the island gets its nickname from. The air was thick with fog and rain, not ideal for night driving, but typical for the island. I was feeling right awake from napping all day, and didn’t want to have to make any pee stops. We were pushing though. Much of the drive across Newfoundland is 2 lane highway, with 3 lanes on hills to assist passing. The lines are faded, which makes it a challenge to stay clearly in your lane. With few cars on the road, it doesn’t pose much of a problem. The further east one travels the better the roads become. They have sectios of 4 lane divided highway around Corner Brook, a ski town. Because of dark and fog we didn’t get much of a view, just silhouetted mountain tops against a cloudy sky. We stopped in Gander and chatted it up with some local girls who happened to be hanging at our hotel.

The final 330km push to st.john’s was made in yet another cloudy/raining day. A few ice laden bays could be seen from the highway, but on the whole visibility was limited.

We had our first execution of the Labatt Blue Chip Poker Tour at ETOMIK on George St. The following are images of our setup in the bar, and of the bar itself. It was a pretty cool looking place.

It is at this point I had planned to write, “it is a shame to travel all the way to St. John’s — the oldest city in North America — and not stay and experience it.” Our original plan was to work, pack up, then try and make a 10h drive in a time span of 8h. Luckily smarter heads prevailed and we spent the night in St. John’s. I was extremely happy. I have heard so much about the hospitality of the Newfoundlanders, and after a night of socializing, I was not disappointed. They did more than anyone could ever ask, and more than any one group should deserve. My team and the bar staff of ETOMIK met up after the poker event at Greensleves. There is a series of pubs that are owned by the same individual. They had live music and great suds. I was overjoyed to toss down some Blue Star and Jockey Club — two fine beers from a great brewer. Being 1:30am when we arrived, we didn’t have much time till last call. In any normal town this would be a problem, but in Newfoundland they just open up another bar. So, off we went across the way to a 3rd pub owned by them. This pub was a more traditional George St. Pub — a bar, and a square room with a pool table. This tab was taken care of by the wonderful Labatt TM Jeremy. He even ordered us pizza. It was a wonderful night, and fun was had by all. I think St. John’s has one more roadblock then it had before we arrived.

Up and on the road at 9am after a 5am bedtime makes for a long drive back across 886km. Luckily it was the best weather we had seen thus far — sun with cloudy breaks. It truly is a beautiful province, and I thank the habitants for their hospitality and cheer.

Next stop Sydney, Halifax and the province of New Brunswick. St. John’s has set the bar high. I’d have it no other way.