The Wanderings of busman7

My final Canadian trip had a couple Highs a couple Lows but mostly so-so same-same but different run-of-the-mill days.

It started with a so-so flight on a good airline

Followed by a horrid experience with Canada’s Fascists

Next came 11 so-so days on a short road trip & getting Scout on the road

Next came 4 mainly good days, firstly Leaving on the road trip

Leaving Ontario

CHS Homecoming first time I had seen classmates since 1989

BROME Fair

Leaving Canada for the L A S T  T I M E!!!

A couple more days Road tripping through the US

Springfield had a couple Highs

And LOWS

Day 24 had a bad  L O W!!!

But finished on  A  H I G H!!

Tuesday it’s up at 04:30 the nice night guy at the Super 8 had the brekky laid out as he had ordered my taxi for 05:00 to take me to the airport.

05:15 No taxi, night manager calls taxi “Can’t come cabs broke down” (Thanks for letting me know A$$****!) calls to a couple other companies, no drivers available.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Springfield,_Ohio a city of 60,000+ people home to a humongous Navistar plant & NO taxis available

at 05:30 on a weekday UnFlucking Believeable!

Now it’s on the phone to AA to cancel my 07:00 flight & figure out plan “B”. End up with an 11:30  DAY-DFW-MIA overnight then  MIA-SAL for a mere $240 extra (thanks so much AA) now call home to to change my pickup to Wed.

The hotel lets me keep my room until I have to leave, the 2nd taxi shows up on time & we make the 20 min. trip the airport. AA refuses to check my bags through because of the layover, go through the TSA rent-a-cop gauntlet then wait half an hr for the delayed flight (could have been worse, a 06:30 flight finally leaves 11:45). A so-so flight with a so-so crew arrives a half hr or so late in DFW, same with the next to http://www.miamiairport.com where I get my bags then check it to the airport hotel which fortunately is near the baggage claim exit.

After a night in a good & reasonably priced (for an airport) hotel, I find a ripoff exchange booth to get rid of my remaining Canuck money (worthless at home in El Salvador) then head for the AA check in counter Where I get the bitch from hell counter agent, first she rips me off for $60 excess luggage fee that DAY assured me was free, she then tries to pull the onward ticket scam on me I finally give in & show her my Salvadoran residency card before she calls the law on me.

Freaking Chapter 11 AA is doing all it can to alienate

it’s customers by ripping them off, it’s working as I

will  NEVER FLY AMERICAN AIRLINES AGAIN!!!

A final pass through the TSA’s NUDE scan done by their rent-a-cop

PERVS! it’s on to the hour late A$$**** Airlines flight to SAL

& home to             Rancho Las Brisas

Thursday morning dawned sunny once again as we headed west to Cleveland OH where we jumped over to I-71 southbound to Columbus OH where we picked up I-70 westbound for the last hour to Springfield OH home of the Navistar truck plant. http://www.navistar.com/navistar once known as International Harvester   a fully integrated farm machinery, construction equipment, school bus  & truck manufacturer that made the Scout in 1978, back near the end in 1985 when poor management brought the house of cards tumbling down with the sale of the Ag division to Tenneco oil.

I’ve been going to Springfield since the One Hundred Years of International Trucks Show, that was combined with the Scout Nationals, in 2007.

As 4 previous stays were fine at the http://www.super8.com/hotels/ohio/springfield/super-8-springfield/hotel-overview I had booked a room there, so checked in before going over to http://www.superscoutspecialists.com/store to get an estimate on an asking price, then over to the http://clarkcoag.com to register the Scout for sale & get my pass to enter in the morning.

One nice thing about the Super 8 is it’s next door to a http://www.bobevans.com so that after the show I could park the Scout, clean up a bit & just stroll across the parking lot for supper. Then in the morning it was just across the street & down a bit to http://www.crackerbarrel.com for my biscuits-n-gravy Yummyyyyy!!

I had really hoped to sell the Scout at the Nationals for somewhere near the 10K I had  then take the train up to Chicago, catch http://www.amtrak.com/texas-eagle-train   (sadly it wasn’t to be) At one point, before I knew what the final spurt to finish would cost, I had considered driving the Scout down to sell it in San Salvador but the extra costs plus import taxes made that not feasible.

Friday I was optimistic but only had tire kickers with no big crowds at either the Scouts or http://ohioswapmeet.com

Saturday was cool, cloudy with small crowds, did meet a guy from Bowmanville but his wife had told him that if he came home with a Scout it would be D-I-V-O-R-C-E time! more tire kickers but no one serious, not a happy camper!

Sunday came & I was ready to severely discount but there was hardly anyone there. I talked to the guys at Super Scout & they agreed to take her on consignment for 1/2 my original asking price. Everyone was packing it in & pulling out by 2:00pm so I fired up the ole girl & waved bye-bye to the 2012 Scout Nationals & Ohio Swap meet (not knowing it was to be the last show they would do together)!

With everything that had screwed up on this trip I decided to make like the birds & flock off ASAP by breaking my vow not to fly in the US (little did I know that I would pay dearly for that decision) Back at the Super 8 (which had gone downhill a bit every year since 2007) I booked a flight for Tues. morning on  http://www.aa.com my favourite airline (little did I know that would soon change)   DAY-ORD-MIA-SAL flying out of http://www.daytonairport.com 

Monday I did a final circle check http://www.wosba.ca/index.php?menu_id=3465 (after 45+ yrs of commercial driving   

   trucks, school buses and even farm tractors {contracted to the MTO} requiring daily circle  checks, they’re as normal as breathing) after a road trip of 2,300+km (1,500+/-mi) all the fluids were still on the full marks (COOL!). Fired the old girl up & headed over to Cracker Barrel for one last feed of , then it was over to to turn over the keys/ownership for the Scout with no name. While there I learned that the powers that be of the swap meet had managed to piss of the owner of SSS so much that he said “Never again”!

Next year http://www.midnitestar.org will be holding the Scout Nationals at   Where there’s room to play with the Scouts, should be cool but too late for me.

Went out to say Goodbye – Adios to the Scout-with-no-name & take a final picture.

Getting back to the immediate problem of the blown tire (tires all looked good, haven’t had a flat in yrs so no spare) that would take the Scout on to his shop http://www.larosesinc.com   in http://www.villageofenosburgfalls.org where he would order (odd size tires) first thing in the morning & I would find a ride over there in the morning.

Turned out that the owner of   was going over to Enosburg in the morning & would give me a ride about 10 am.

First on the agenda in the morning was a walk down to the Laundromat,  then a ride to the Scout where the tire had just come in. Had the tire changed (cords had gone squirrely causing it to self-destruct) hat the gas tank leak checked (fuel gauge not installed properly) decided to carry on with not filling, had the brakes bled which cured the small problem with them.

Headed out about 2 pm with all going fine until about 6 pm when a shimmy started in the front again (Oh Shit, knew I should have ordered 2 tires) was close to the http://www.lakegeorgechamber.com/Home.aspx so got off I-87 & found a motel (can’t remember the name) got a room for the night. The next morning the manager led me a few miles down the state highway 9 to Queenston where we found a new tire the right size (different name but identical tread to the one I had bought in Enosburg) at http://queensburytireinc.com

  An hour later We’re back on I-87 southbound heading for Saratoga Springs & the State Hwy #29, a shortcut to I-90 W bypassing Albany/Schenectady.

An uneventful day where I figured out the gas gauge, drive 2 hrs the gauge says 1/2, put in $20, no leaks. Fuel mileage was $10 per hr . At a fuel stop a guy comes up to checkout the Scout, turned out he was from Vermont & heading for the Nationals also. He had a hard time believing that I was traveling to Ohio From Toronto via Quebec . Hit Erie PA about suppertime, Spied a Red Roof Inn http://www.redroofinn.com/property/Erie/PA/16509/-/RR1054 behind a  Mickey Dees so pulled in & crashed for the night.

As I have just left Quebec/Canada in my blog it is a good place to tell a bit of the truth about each that is hidden from the casual observer.

http://themacchoi.blogspot.com/2012/11/quebecs-pq-government-and-their-agenda.html now this may seem a bit over the top but, from the actions of the PQ government since last September’s election, it isn’t! The idiots are so far out of touch with reality, thay actually believe it’s actually possible!

http://oqla.org/en/discussion/blog/94-quebec-and-bill-101 a blog by self-delusional Quebeckers that think it possible to roll back the clock. Too many French in high places, it will never happen!

http://www.citcan.ca/main%20English%20page.htm (the link will come up Oops click on middle line ‘main page) As is clearly stated, the UN

found Canada in violation of basic human rights! As

‘Hereditary Privileges’ of the Feudal System, from Europe’s

middle ages, are still in vogue in Canada’s rogue province of

Quebec!

The UN finding was 20 years ago and is still being IGNORED!

S H A M E – S H A M E !!!

That’s my final say on the subject of Canada!

Sunday morning we head across the border to Cowansville http://www.ville.cowansville.qc.ca the site is in french as Fascist Quebec is not a democracy, in Quebec’s Eastern Townships http://www.easterntownships.org have to take the slightly  longer route through Sutton as the bridge is out the back way to Brome http://www.easterntownships.org/map

A buffet brunch had been planed at http://www.aubergedescarrefours.com this dilapidated 30 yr old former Days Inn wasn’t very inviting, especially with the lack of a sign for the restaurant. However there was a decent turnout, the food while nothing special was edible. Almost had a heart attack when it came time to pay the bill though $22.00 that’s right twenty-two dollars, ripoff those dumb Anglos n’est pas!!

We then adjourned to the Legion, that allowed to use their hall for the day, a mighty fine array of sandwiches, sweats etc were provided by a few of the local alumni ladies, a couple former students also provided some interesting entertainment. A silent auction was held of various handicrafts by former students there was also a raffle of a hooked wall hanging & a weeks stay at yours truly B & B, money going to the schools, now an elementary school http://heroesmemorial.etsb.qc.ca Also a talented alumni (who unfortunately couldn’t be present) donated the proceeds of a book she wrote from the comments on the reunion’s facebook page. http://www.amazon.com/Cowansville-School-Misremembered-Linda-Seccaspina/dp/1481810316

Also during the afternoon we were able to tour the old alma mater with some present students as guides where a group photo was taken of the gang attending the CHS Homecoming 2012  

Met a lot of old friends + a cousin that I think was a bit upset that I didn’t stay with them but I didn’t want to impose on then for four days. Sure could have used the 2 days that I missed but—-:( Saw 3 of the Brombys but Bob never made it more   C’est la vie!

At the end of the afternoon the legion served a lasagne supper, I passed on this as the lunch goodies were so tempting that supper was not needed plus as it was getting late & driving strange winding roads at night is becoming a challenge, it was time to leave.

Monday it was off to The Big Brome Fair for my morning shift at the homecoming booth. As expected it was slow enjoyed being at the fair after a 37 year absence, it was still basically the same fair only bigger.

After my shift & a look around the grounds I headed out to the cemetery to make sure the family stone had been engraved with mothers date. A leisurely back road drive towards Richford until a mile from the border (Oh Shit) a front tire blew, fortunately a nice lady gave me a ride to the border where the dudes were a ‘wealth of information’ (sarcasm), it is 4pm on a holiday so nothing in tabernacland is open, if I leave the Scout on the side of the road (well off on a wide shoulder not bothering anything) the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surete_du_Quebec   (QPP back in the day) would tow it back to Cowansville (thanks for nothing)!

Plan B I hoof it over to the US side where the civilized folk  http://www.cbp.gov make a phone call & find me a tow truck, they then call the Canadian side to make sure they will let him cross to pick up Scout, the answer is yes (wonder of wonders).

An hour later I’m watching Canada disappear in the rear-view mirror of the tow truck carrying the Scout!  

Bye-bye  Au revoir  Adios

  Canada

D A V E has left the country!!!

Saturday morning after pigging out on the free Brekky at http://hamptoninn3hilton.com/en/hotels/ontario/hampton-inn-by-hilton-napanee-ONTNPHX/index.html , where I slept in Canada for the very last time (YEAH!), did the circle check on the Scout, fluids all up, the oil leak from the rear main seal on the engine has dried up but the right rear tire is darn near flat. (shit!) However there’s a Wally-mart next door, drive over & yup the shop is open, a couple hrs later we’re mobile again.

While waiting, losing time again, I decide to just bail for Richford  & forget about visiting so seeing Bob is out, he’s likely down in QC by now anyway (or so I thought) Danika is too far off route for the time I have & cousin is likely gone for the weekend.

On the road again, they just had to beak the tire down, clean up the rim & put it back together again. We (the Scout & I) hit the 401 heading eastbound & down, do to the late start & all the displaced Quebeckers heading home for the weekend I decided the sane thing  to do would be to skip Montreal with all it’s crazy Frenchmen, cross the http://www.sibcr.ca   the bridge at Cornwall & head straight to   http://thecrossingvt.com

An uneventful drive to Cornwall, Scout ran like a dream, typical IH fuel gauge not working properly after the 1/2 mark though, no biggie. At the bridge it became evident that 1/2 the population of eastern ON was heading stateside, took an hour to get across the bridge where US customs was a breeze with courteous officers, night n day compared to the CBSA a$$holes entering Canada.

A few minutes from the bridge we were on reserve lands complete with casinos & cheap gas (the main reason for all the bridge traffic) a fill up of both Scout & myself (in US so cheaper food to) we’re eastbound once more, on the south side of the river’s scenic New York state two lane roads, heading for http://www.rousespointny.com    and the border of Vermont, back in familiar road running territory from back in the day. From there it’s only a couple hours on Vermont’s twisting country roads that haven’t changed since we were kids going to the drive-in movies (horrid immoral things banned in Quebec back in the day) until I’m in Richford  http://www.richfordvt.com where my room, a good meal & a cold beer await, at The Crossing.

13 is a lucky number after all.

Friday Sept 31, 2012 the start of the Labour Day long weekend (hell of a day to start a road trip) pack my pack as I’m determined to hit the road today, come hell or high water!

According to the original plan I should be working the CHS Homecoming booth at the Big Brome Fair  now but— as Robert Burns wrote “The best laid plans of mice and men/often go awry“ 

Had neglected to pickup an air cleaner element, NAPA doesn’t have one so shall try Parts Source on the way to Oshawa, surely they’ll have one in stock. (ha-ha not)

So instead, after a  couple hours to install a set of   ‘Bully’ side steps, I head out to return the rental car, Scout-man Dan will pick me up in the Scout, the round trip Castleton – Oshawa making for a good test drive. After stopping at Parts Source & ordering the air cleaner element for delivery about 1:00pm,  I stop at the Newtonville service area to call The Crossing   to let them know I’ll be a day late checking in. (it’s a bitch not having a cell phone)

Dan picks me up we stop for junk food & an ATM so I can pay him & Leon for their work then head back to Orono as I need a couple things at http://www.durhamfarmersco-op.ca  I am nearly out main component of any first aid kit (the greatest invention since sliced bread) http://www.bagbalm.com  also I have a hankering for some 5 yr old cheddar cheese http://www.mapledalecheese.com   Walking out of the co-op we run into an old tractor buddy but only had time to say hi.

Stopped at the Dutch Oven to top up the tank, still leaking when completely full, no time to mess with it, just won’t top it up any more. Take County Rd #9 across to #45 arriving back at Castleton with no problems.

Yeah she’s good to go! Almost

Still one last thing, install the bikini top!

18:00  SO LONG – SAYONORA –

HASTA-LA-VISTA-BABY!!!

Sunday, putterin’ day at Scout-mans, his father who worked out of my Pontypool shop stops by to visit, we spend most of the day reminiscing & catching up on things.

Mon/Tues are occupied by parts chasing at good ole Crappy Tire, http://www.napaonline.com Colborne store & http://www.partsource.ca 

We also discovered that the original serial number plate that matched the ownership, had grown legs (F U C K!!!), a couple days of phone calls turned up a solution that bypassed the hoop jumping that the MTO relishes in. Simply take a sample plate to http://www.millvalleytrophies.com  along with the serial #, return the next day, voila, a perfect replica of the original.

Next glitch was deciding what to do about the  exhaust without busting the bank??? Time was running out, everybody was busy or didn’t want to fab one up so when http://www.midas.com Cobourg said to bring it in Wed morning, I bit the bullet (fluck the bank) & had Scout-man tow ‘er in

Wednesday with Scout in shop was finish up odds & ends in Bowmanville, account to pick up final tax papers from mothers estate, lawyer for my revised will, over to my bus guy for a safety on the Scout, stopped by the MTO to get a license plate sticker for the Scout . On the way out of town stopped by my old tire man’s house & found him home, had a good visit + was invited for supper. A productive day, for a change!

Thursday we head in to Midas about 10am & they’re just finishing up, the mufflers had come in by overnight courier. They also did a full service on the old girl, topping up all her fluids.

Next step was to put the plates on her & for Scout-man Dan & #1 son   to take her on a shake-down cruise back home to Castleton.

The rest of the day was spent fine tuning & putting on some trim & pin striping tape to dress up the old girl.

My visiting time with old friends-n-acquaintances has fallen short of what I had planned.

 On the + side I did get a short visit with Gary, Rat & the boys at the Orono coffee shop. Caught up with Ed at Dan’s & later at the bus barn when I got the safety from Archie saw Joanne & others known from the bus years. Spent an afternoon with Roger from the tire shop, saw my lawyer & the girls from the bank. Spent a few days with #1 son.

 On the – side, never got a chance to get back to Gary’s, or Kendal way to see the Downsies, Mr Clean. Nor was I able to get north of the 7th to stop in at Noone’s, Pontypool to drive past the old shop that I heard was sold to a scrapper (cool that would just piss off the asshole neighbour), over to see Boney or Perry my old bus broker nor up to Woodville to see David from the Mercers garage days. Stopped by Earls, a former bus owner but he wasn’t home nor was Ronnie an old friend going back to pipeline days who hung out at the tire shop, of course didn’t get a chance to see ‘brother’ Joe or any of the other tire shop crew.  ( ah  well c’est la vie).

Almost There, fingers/toes crossed.

Road trip day but first Scout-man has a shopping list of paint-n-stuff. Now with the new environmental BS paint has gotten a ridiculous price & is garbage (what used to cover in 2 coats now takes 4) so we decided to go with an old standby

T R E M C L A D now the best place to buy this paint is at

(OHNO CrappyTire) http://www.canadiantire.ca

a place I hate with a passion as there’s no rhyme nor reason to the store layout, the high school dropout staff are stupid & lazy to boot! (but ya gotta do what ya gotta do)

With the day half gone I headed the Hyundai east again for the seaway town of http://www.prescott.ca to see what (if anything) was in mother’s safety deposit box. As expected from Canada’s most ignorant bank (the Green Machine) they were in top form, I had left my copy of the will showing me as executor with the accountant in Bowmanville, no can do dude says the head biatche.

As mother’s lawyer was in Morrisburg, http://www.ghosttownpix.com/lostvillages/morrisbu.html a lot closer than B’ville, I decided to get a copy there but by this time it would have to wait until morning. As I felt like just crashing at a motel with food/beer within walking distance, I ended up at http://www.worldexecutive.com/locations/canada/ontario/cornwall/67845.html

In the morning, on the way back to the lawyers I stopped off at a town along the way to see if my cousin was home, but no luck. The lawyer was away on a trip but his fine staff looked after me & I paid a bill that I didn’t know was there.

Leaving the lawyer I passed through http://www.edwardsburghcardinal.ca , where mother had lived for 20+ yrs after father passed on, then continued

on to Prescott, to find an empty safety deposit box. Still have an unresolved issue with the green machine but I’m not losing any sleep over the minimal amount of money involved, as far as I’m concerned they’re history!

I still had one more chore to do, arrange for mother’s death date to be engraved on the marker in Elmwood Cemetery in http://www.beautifulperth.com

father’s ashes are buried. They moved there when mother retired, they sold (gave away) the farm in Tabernacland (freakin’ frogs had caused farmland to be devalued about 1/2 what it was) experienced a decade of the good life outside Quebec before his time came.

So upon leaving Prescott I head West on the 4-nothin’-1 to Brockville to catch County Rd # 29 Smith Falls then #43 on to Perth.

Now for those not familiar with life in Eastern Ontario, the unwritten rules are: 1) If your grandfather wasn’t in business here, you do NOT belong here & never will! 2) Road signs are unnecessary (as in Central America) because if you don’t know where you’re going, you have NO business being here!

So a couple miles after asking where to turn for #29 was a sign showed up, Smith Falls went better as I remembered the puzzle from years ago. Finally arriving in Perth I acted on the assumption (yup ass lol) that someone at the town hall would know the contact person for the cemetery, a strange WTF look was followed by “try an undertaker”, yep that worked.

Met the manager at the cemetery & made arrangements to meet the next morning to sign the paperwork & pay $10.00 (ouch) per letter + $1.30 per letter for McSquinty to steal, for some Tabernacland outfit to come in & do the job.

Spent the night at http://www.perthplazamotel.com Next morning after brekky at Mickey Dees, paper work done headed back via Hwy #7 to Havelock then cross country to Castleton. Just before Havelock, home of http://www.havelockjamboree.com

I hang a north at Marmora towards http://www.ghosttownpix.com/ontario/towns/cordova.html on the way to http://mapcarta.com/24201314 Cordova Lake to visit an old neighbour from my Kendal days. My luck continued, he wasn’t home !

Back to C’ton to check on the progress & call it a day.