Aug 25-28 - back up north

Yes, a lot of driving ...

We left New Smyrna Beach around 6:30, stopping at Blockbuster on the way to drop off some videos that Sandy had rented for the kids.

Our next stop was Savannah GA to pick up a trailer ... seems that I have not had enough of pulling trailers. I have been looking at box trailers for the last year ever since the demise of my little utility trailer that I built from a kit. Pep Boys had a reasonably priced 5x8 trailer that they were selling last fall, but it turned out to the priced that way because it was their last one, or so I found out when we got back to Florida. So ... looking online ... I found "Uncle Roy's" in Savannah. Actually the company is called Tramp Trailers and they make extra-heavy-duty units -- heavier gauge steel, taller (6 ft), better hubs and wheels etc. than your cheepie trailers. Roy had been in business for 40 years and I liked what I saw on the Internet and in person. So ... we checked it out ... we paid the price ... we hooked it up ... and we were off.

Being taller and boxier than the boat, the wind resistance was higher, i.e. poorer gas mileage by a couple of mpg. The trailer was quite stable though and while the hitch occasionally clanked because the trailer was empty, there is enough weight on the receiver that it rode better than the equivalent UHaul trailer that we pulled down and back last year. At the next rest stop I took the car-top carriers and bike racks off the roof to put in the trailer -- I was bringing up the bike racks for Aaron and the roof was the only place for them.

We opted to take the route up I81 this time to avoid the trip around Richmond/Washington/Baltimore. It adds about 100 miles but it is easier driving, especially since it is still summer and the traffic to Virginia Beach etc. is liable to be as heavy as our trip down. We stopped about an hour north of Lexington VA for dinner at an Aunt Sarah's Pancake House and crossed another chain off our list as possible places to stop for future meals. They could not even make a pancake that Lauren would eat ...

I called Linda Wilder along the way to see if they would be home if we stopped but there was no answer. I had not wanted to call in advance because a) we were not sure which route we were going to take north and b) were not sure what time we might be going by Lexington. Linda later sent me an email that they were at a party elsewhere in the county. We will stop at their place to visit another time.

We arrived at Stef's around 12:30 a.m. Kylie and Lauren were excited to be home. They were wonderful on the drive -- no complaints -- in fact Kylie told Sandy that she would rather do it in one straight shot rather than taking two days to drive. We will do this again but will have to re-think our our departure time. Clearly the shorter route is better (Baltimore/Washington/Richmond) if you can hit it at the correct time of day and correct time of year.

We were not in a hurry to get back into the car on Sunday. I went to mass in Downingtown, finding a closer church at the last minute than Uwchlan. Stef then decided that we should take their air hockey table to the cottage since we had the trailer ... so Aaron and I dismantled it and packed it into the trailer. We next went over to Jeffrey's to visit for a while ... then hit the road around 10:30.

Close to Buffalo an overhead sign said that there was a 45 minute wait at the Queenston/Lewiston bridge so we drove to downtown Buffalo to cross at the Peace Bridge. The wait was shorter, perhaps 30 minutes ... I'm not sure that we actually saved any time. Since I was bringing up my guns for hunting we stopped to compete the paperwork. The kids (they get younger every year) at the border checked the serial numbers on the guns to ensure that they matched my paperwork and commented that it was refreshing to see trigger locks on the guns ... isn't that the law ???

Once across the border we ran into heavy traffic around St. Catharines and by this point the Garmin Nav was predicting an 11:30 arrival rather than the predicted 9:30 arrival when we had left Exton. We stopped in Barrie for Swiss Chalet and arrived up north at midnight. Jason was standing in the driveway as we were driving down -- he had heard us on the road ... and Lorraine came over too and we had a glass of wine together. They had originally planned to be up until Thursday but now plan on leaving on Tuesday -- many things to do in Brantford before their kids and Lorraine go back to school.

Monday I slept in -- 7:50 before I got up. We had coffee with Jason and Lorraine, enjoying the great weather, the quiet and the last gasp of summer. Later on Jason went into town to return some pipe to Timbr Mart and two doors that I had taken delivery of last year. The new doors were in the barn -- 5 doors for the workroom, utility room, darkroom, bedroom and bathroom as well as the 4 bifolds for the bedroom closets. Not wanting to start tiling right away, I hung a couple of doors later in the day. They are pre-hung ... sort of ... the frame still has to be assembled ... so they are not quite as quick as the ones with pre-assembled frames that are braced square and ready to pop in.

Early evening we went over to Jason's for a beer / glass of wine ... and then the four of us moved over to our place to continue because they were running out of same. They supplied the munchies; I supplied the La Croix St. Andre 94 ... it was excellent. By 9pm it was dark, cooling off, and we headed to our respecting cottages for dinner. At that point, however, Sandy and I decided against a full meal and made our own snacks -- she a couple of scrambled eggs and me a sandwich and some boiled peas and corn with hot sauce (sounds like one of my lunches).

The lake is calm and the sky is clear with a little pink in the sky. It's just before sunrise. Sandy is going to Sudbury to buy food and pick up mortar. I will continue to hang doors and prep the games room for tiling, which I intend to start on Thursday. I'll help Jason pull his boat out of the water sometime during the day and Jason expects to head back to Brantford after dinner.

Time for breakfast for me and Abby ...