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November, 13th 2007 - 11:59pm
In Victoria for the winter
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| Bye bye east! |
Victoria, BC;
Hey everyone, I safely made the trip to Victoria! I'm really stoked to be here again, Victoria is such a nice place. It was about time
I leave, because I could see snow at the top of the Bromont mountain for the first time. I got to stay away from this white stuff, I think
I'm allergic to it! hehe So, after packing up my van for 5 hours, you know just to make sure everything is perfectly, completely and
carefully placed to my absolute satisfaction... ;) I was ready to go.
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So many nice sceneries on the way
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The recipe
Completing the 5100 kilometers that separate Victoria from Bromont, means 43 hours of driving time. Add 1 hour and a half of ferry with
2 border delays, seasoned with road traffic, mixed with 7 gaz stops, add 2 power naps, 4 coffee, 2 Monster energy drinks, 1 Excel gum, 7 Juicy
Fruit, 3 Bubblelicious and you've got yourself a big motha fackn road trip!
US border
I left Bromont Wednesday at 2:30pm and after getting cut in the traffic in Montreal, I reached highway 40 and then 401 towards London. I got at the Windsor border at 11pm,
where I got pulled over and search for about an hour at the US border. Jeez, all this because I tried to get in through the truck
lane instead of the car lane! hahaha yeah, I screwed up big time! I didn't realize I was in the wrong lane until I got to the booth.
I stopped and noticed that no officer was in the booth. After a couple of seconds, I heard a strong voice from somebody being pissed
off... I pulled my head out of the window and looked up 8 feet above and this is when I realized I was in trouble. I gave him the "I feel sorry
look" (it worked with my parents) but no success.
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| Very nice |
On the road again
So, after making a fool of myself, I was back on the road and ready to attack the first night of driving. Because it gets dark early, nights
feel endless at this time of the year! You realize it when you drive long distance, it's so much easier during the summer. To keep me going,
I had a coffee and switched to trance music. I bought the latest from DJ Tiesto before I left (Ibiza, In Search of Sunrise vol 6) and I
waited all this time before first playing it. I was waiting for this special moment.... hahaha I love night driving!
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| Close to Seattle |
1566km later
Montreal, Toronto, Detroit and now Chicago. It was getting late, almost 5am. It felt strange to see all those people going to work. For them
it was tomorrow, while it was yesterday for me. My goal was to get through Chicago before the traffic and I did. I stopped near Rockford
at 6:30am (MTL time) for a little nap. I had done 1566km in 16 hours.
Good morning
I woke up at 8:30am, yeah a big 2 hours of sleep! Strangely, I didn't feel tired. I grabed a yogourt, some rasberries which I mixed up with Muslix
and an orange juice and it was time to hit the road again. Thanks to my electric cooler, it allows me to stop less while eating healthy. Anyway,
as far as I'm concern, mixing junk food and 16-18 hour of driving is just a good way to finish your trip in a ditch!
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Coffee, damn does this bad boy wake you up when you ain't used to it!
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1710km
I kept driving and driving and driving... until I couldn’t! So I stopped for a coffee... and kept driving and driving and driving! hehe that's the
way it is when you do such long distance. A deep fog had set in on this dark night and after fighting it and avoiding 2 dears I was exhausted.
Sometimes, when you drive for a while like that and you're tired, you start to get those road hallucinations, especially at night... Fortunately,
it didn't happen to me... well other than those schtroumpfs, but that doesn't count, I mean I see them all the time. Anyway, I had only 2 hours of
sleep, so I decided to stop 220km in the Montana after 14 hours of driving.
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| Road hallucinations? Nah... |
1750km
With 910km, Montana is the longest state of this trip. I had already gone through 6 different states so far: Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin,
Minnesota and North Dakota. It's without a doubt, one of the nicest state. With 1750km to go, finally seeing mountains give you this little extra
motivation you need at this time of the trip. I got to Idaho at 12pm and in Washington at 1pm which is the last state to go through before crossing
back to Canada in beautiful British Columbia. Unfortunately, when I got close to Seattle, the largest city in the Pacific Northwest region of the
US, it was 5pm! Talk about bad timing! I lost at least an hour and if it wasn't enough, I got stuck at the border for another hour.
Holiday
I didn't thought about it, but it was a Friday night before a long week end. I crossed my fingers that the officer doesn't pull me again, but this
time it was a cool lady. She asked me the usual series of questions and when she asked me when I crossed the border she didn't believe me! Wednesday
12am! How did you get here so fast?!?! She was actually impressed, so I took my shirt off and... what am I saying ?! haaha Anyway, I got through
the border no problem and drove as fast as I could, but still missed the 9pm ferry by a tiny bit. I ended up taking the very last ferry at 10:45pm and
I finally reached the island a little later then I would have wish. It basically took 59 hours to complete the trip from Bromont to Victoria.
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Tha place
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Great place
It's been a couple of days since I got here now and I'm comfortably installed in my new place. I live at Marty's house, my ex boss. I worked for him
last winter at the Russ Hay's bicycle shop. He's got a really nice house with a big garage in which I can put my bikes. I've got my own bedroom
in the basement, with my own bathroom, a shower and I even have a door that leads outside. The basement used to be a bachelor, so everything is
perfect. Oh and the best, his house is located just beside Mt. Douglas where there are bike trails. Mt. Douglas is approximately the size of
Mt. Royal. People go there to look at the view, walk and ride.
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| Men at work |
This week
I'll start to look for a job sometimes this week. We're going to do some downhills run on Mt. Prevost Thursday, we worked all afternoon on
the trails last Sunday and I can't wait to ride what we've worked on! Well, I hope everyone is doing fine, talk to you soon! Un p'tit bonjour
à ma maman ! ;)
Mail server issue
Oh by the way, some changes were done on the server where my website is hosted and we've lost what was in my inbox for the
last week or so. If you sent me an email during the last week and I did not answer you, please resend it. Thanks!
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