Ottawa

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Doin’ the Moho Slalom

I got the tow pins tonight. All I will say about that is that I’m surprised that I’m surprised about how that went down.

Anyhoo, I arrived at Miranda’s parking spot for the last time around 7. I took perhaps fifteen minutes to unload boxes and empty as many of them as I could.

Then, I looked for the magic battery button, but I don’t seem to have one, so I positioned Pommette for a boost. Once I got Miranda going, I manoeuvred her into place for hooking up the toad behind her.

Hooking up was surprisingly easy!

My tow bar is a Blue Ox Aventa II. I would have bought an Aladdin, which is a high end model suitable for towing a small car, but much cheaper than the Aventa II. The Aventa II, also a high end model, could probably tow a Hummer. It’s really huge and heavy, but I like knowing that I could upgrade Pommette to a pickup or SVU one day and still have a tow bar I can use.

The Aventa II is a self-aligning bar. I can’t figure out what’s ‘self-aligning’ about it, but I can say that I was completely hooked up, safety cables and all, in less than 20 minutes. The hardest part was getting the toad lined up perfectly with the coach and at the correct distance. Then, it was just a matter of attaching safety cables and electrical wires. I figured out the wiring on my own. As it turns out, I had to open a thingy under the rig, push in another thingamabob, and then plug the cable into the thingamabob. I’d seen the thingamabob in the rear pass through and had offhandedly guessed that it was part of the towing system, so I was already one step ahead of the game when I couldn’t find a skinny rectangular outlet for the wire.

I’m surprised by how easy it was to hook up the car on my own. There is no way I could have done that with a traditional ‘fixed’ tow bar, the kind with a ball coupler. The only thing I wasn’t able to do was confirm that the brake lights were working on the toad, but since the turn signals were, I didn’t worry.

Then off we went, the very picture of freedom and the antithesis of the current economic climate, LOL!

The drive back to Ottawa was very emotional. I was pretty sure it would be my last time driving up the 416 into a beautiful orange sunset and watching the pastoral landscape slowly become the skyline of the adopted city I will always consider to be my hometown. For all that’s found, something else is lost….

I let Majel the GPS pick the best route to the garage where I would drop off Miranda. She had me go down a narrow residential street that had cars parked down it. The parkers were smart and alternated which side of the road they were on, so I was able to take a serpentine route all the way down. Maybe I’m just tired, but I really got a kick out of doing the moho slalom.

Towing was a piece of cake. It really helps that I could see the car in the backup camera monitor, as well as all the connections. I didn’t notice much of a difference when stopping and starting, even on hills.

I feel positively drained and have to keep reminding myself that this time next week, the first day of my adventure will be just about behind me.

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A Tale of 30 Kilometres

Whew! Miranda’s officially officially mine! I dropped her off at the storage place tonight. This was my first time driving her. Yes, I bought a vehicle without test driving it first. No comments on that, please. 🙂

I looked her over and then decided to take her out onto the street to see if I could tow. Taking a deep breath, I sat down in the pilot’s seat (very, very comfy), adjusted the mirror, inserted a key, and ROAR! My gal came to life! It took me a moment to remember where the parking brake is on such a a vehicle and then we were rolling!

Although I parked her a tad crookedly, I was still reasonably close to the curb, something that was really hard to gauge. I wasted perhaps a half hour trying to hook up my car to the tow bar before realising that I’m missing some pins. I’ll check with my mechanic to see if the pins come with the base plate or the tow hitch. I was happy to discover safety cables in her basement so I didn’t have to go to the back end of Gatineau to pick some up.

Since I couldn’t tow, I moved on to plan B (get someone to pick me up at the storage place) and took off with just Miranda. First obstacle: getting to the end of the street. It’s a fairly wide street, but cars were parked on both sides. I held my breath as I ran the gauntlet, but Miranda and all the cars came through unscathed.

I took it nice and easy and made my way out of the neighbourhood. By the time I got to Island Park Drive, about two and a half kilometres away, I was feeling pretty cocky.

And then came the cyclist.

She was well in her bike lane, I was well in my lane, and the traffic in the opposite direction was also well in its lane. But I wasn’t so sure about the mirror…. I slowed to a crawl as I passed the cyclist. The mirror seemed to miss her and I moved on, keeping an eye backwards, praying that when she passed my blind spot she’d still be on her bike. I soon saw that, of course, she was, and she wasn’t even paying me any mind. I rolled my eyes and continued.

The turn onto Merivale (Merry-vail, not Merry-val-eh, dear Majel!) was a bit awkward, and then I was on Carling, heading for the Queensway. I crossed three lanes to put myself in the correct one. Got to the light at Kirkwood and discovered that there was a utility truck in my lane between myself and the on ramp!!! So, I had to move one lane over in traffic. I put on my turn signal, checked the mirrors, prayed, moved into the second lane, crossed the intersection, passed the crew, and quickly manoeuvred myself back into the third lane to access the ramp.

Whew! I was on the highway!

The rest of the drive was positively uneventful, as I expected highway driving to be. Miranda handles well for her bulk. Of course, I need to get used to braking (I’m not bad at estimating her braking distance needs, though) and the backup camera will be most welcome, but I didn’t feel like an utter nincompoop who had no business driving an RV.

Saturday will bring a new challenge: backing up. 🙂

Been twenty-two years since I travelled this way…
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Been twenty-two years since I travelled this way…

and I made Halifax day last Friday (with all my apologies to Stan Rogers).

I have some strong memories of Nova Scotia from my last trip there as a child, but it had been long enough since I’d been for me to feel it was necessary to revisit the area. Also, my last visit to the Maritimes was to New Brunswick, in 1994; just recently enough to remember things clearly, but long enough to coat the memories with romanticism. Even though my decision to move to Manitoba is firmly taken, I felt an inkling of regret at not giving the Maritimes a chance, too, as I love the ocean.

A friend’s move to Halifax and a subsequent request to come visit provided the perfect opportunity for me to test the waters, pun intended, and see if this ocean lover is really a landlubber at heart.

I’ll spoil the ending now: she is.

FRIDAY

An 8:30AM flight required an early start. Up at 5:30. Yawn. Thank goodness for the programmable coffeemaker!

The bus ride to the airport was very quick; in fact I was so immersed in a book that I almost missed my stop!!!

I’d checked in from home, so I only had to deal with security. There, I had to either surrender my hand cream and toothpaste or check my luggage. I picked the former.

Landing in Halifax is comparably spectacular to landing in San Francisco, only this time you land in a sea of conifers instead of salt water. Apparently, Halifax Airport was built where it is located, in the middle of nowhere, because it was never foggy there. Acres of trees were cut… and the fog rolled in.

First stop after the airport: Pete’s Frootique. Apparently, this store was featured prominently on a CBC noon-hour programme about twenty-years ago. It’s a produce store with a large section devoted to British products. It’s definitely an experience!

Next, we dropped off my luggage at Julie’s. Her apartment is huge and located in a coniferous enclave off the bay. There isn’t much around her place, but downtown is about twenty minutes away.

We then drove to Martinique Beach, which is the nicest in the Halifax area. To do this, we had to cross the MacKay Bridge and then all of Dartmouth. There is a fare both ways. I was amused by the fact that the ‘speed pass’ for the Halifax area is called a ‘MacPass’ as the other bridge is the MacDonald.

Martinique Beach was indeed gorgeous and Noel’s ravages were evident in the amount of seaweed on the beaches and the broken docks.

After a couple of hours, we drove home to change and then headed back downtown for dinner.

Julie took me to The Old Triangle, her favourite pub, which was very nice. My meal was an okay veggie burger and a Keith’s Indian, and we shared a Bailey’s chocolate pie for dessert. Just as we were thinking of leaving, a couple sat down beside us and we began to chat. They were retired Americans from Colorado who had traveled extensively throughout North America and seen a good chunk of the rest of the world. We were regaled with tales of their travels through Alaska and the Canadian Arctic. I really enjoyed making their acquaintance.

Feeling Welcome
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Feeling Welcome

in San Francisco, and I’m not even there yet. Neil just sent me details for how to get onto his computer and how to log on to the wireless network with my laptop. So, I can definitely be expected to post a few times from there! The following week, though, will depend on how compatible Blogger is with my laptop’s archaïc (and unupgradeable) browsers.


Packing is so much work now that I’m more style-conscious, WAH! I left for a MONTH in Scotland with a fraction of what I currently have in this suitcase… and I’m not done packing yet! What’s not helping is that I have to pack for four climates (home, SF, Vegas, LA) . But it looks like the suitcase will close without a) my having to ‘expand it’ or b) sit on it (or c) expand it AND sit on it), and I’ll have room left for ‘extras’ I’ll pick up along the way, so it’s all good. For carry on, I have a little matching bag which will hold my paperwork, notebook and pen, books, magazines, food supplies, and other sundries, and into which I’ll stuff my purse since my laptop doesn’t fit in it. Hopefully stuffing one bag into another will get me around the two article limit for carry on luggage…. I am proud that I’m not using the third suitcase in my set, a ‘carry on’ size. Next trip! 🙂

I’ve decided to try the bus to get to the airport this time to save 30$ (bus is 3$). So Tuesday 6AM will find me schlepping my luggage for two blocks to the Térrasses de la Chaudière where I’ll catch the 8 to Lebreton Flats, where I should have more than enough time (I hope) to catch a 97 that’ll get me to the airport for seven (it better). My plane technically leaves at 8:20.