Everybody seems to have survived the first night fairly unscathed. We departed Kingston on schedule, and headed back to eastbound 401 to Quebec. The overnight snow accumulation wasn’t bad, but the high winds and blowing snow was going to make today an intersting ride, to say it politely.
The morning started off with a major surprise! Action Dan, our new bullet catcher up front since 2018, was not scheduled to be on this years trip due to health issues with his mother. However, after she convinced him to go on his favorite trip of each year, he departed Grand Rapids, MI at 6pm last night, drove thru the night in the winter storm, arriving in Kingston at 4 am!!! Nobody, except apparently he did inform our fearless leader Craig, knew that Action Dan was making this surprise appearance. I walked into the lobby this morning for my bowl of oatmeal, and there is Action sitting at our 8 person tall top table talking to Ron Nicks. At first I was like, good morning…. Then it hit me… ACTION DAN?!? What the eff are you doing here?!? We are all happy and excited to have Action back on the trail with us!
The Darkside Team employed a new gadget for truck travels this year. The lead truck and the tail truck utiilzed CB radios for communication instead of our cell phones. This is a new requirment for this travel, especially in the blizzard conditions we traveled in, communication was instant. The roads were windswept with lots of drifting and literally white out conditions. Vision was limited to about 50 yards in front of you, and the few other vehicles on the road popped out of the wall of white quite quickly. Defrost on high, keep your wipers and window from freezing, and crack the side window if your warm, we’re eastbound and down, as my friend Jerry Reed liked to say.
A few patches of black ice later, many cars piled up along the shoulders of the highway on each side, and about 6 hours in, we, naturally, had our first dilema for this fine January winter day, that nobody should have been out in to begin with. Phil from Indiana, here forward refered to by his CB handle “HedgeHog” was out front in his Ford 350 diesel, and black smoke came out the tailpipe, and the check engine light went red. An exit was needed to find out what was going on. I had an idea, as this happened about 7 years ago with my buddy RS’s diesel truck in similiar blizzard conditions… the air intake was probably packed with snow.
We pulled into a gas station/Tim Hortons at the next exit, let the guys that have some mechanical knowledge work on the truck, while I went in and shared half a ham & cheddar sandwich and a hot chicken soup with Action Dan and Joe Snowmobile Jamie.
They did their best to clean out the intake, got the truck to run without the black smoke from the tailpipe, but the check engine light was still on. The facility we were at didn’t have much for assistance, so we proceeded back to the highway, closed our eyes and hoped for the best.
After another 30 minutes or so on the road, the truck acting up again, we found an exit with a few more resources, poured hot water on the intake, to melt some of the accumulated snow inside. The light went off, so were we. On to Montmagny, QC and ovenight stay at the luxurious Hotel L’oisellere. Connecticut Jim, Dylan and Rob were already there, a day earlier, and awaiting our arrival and dinner.
But it just never works out that way does it? About 35 miles from our exit, in Levis’, the powers that be, shut down the highway and all roads into Montmagny. It is now about 6pm, we have run in these conditions all day, with only another 30-45 minutes to our destination, and now it looks like we will be sleeping in our trucks in a strip plaza parking lot. Fill the tanks boys, we are in for a long night.
At the gas station next to the strip plaza we had staked out for our overnight, a message on FaceBook messenger came from Chip of Pennsylvania. He, too, was stranded in Levis’ and had found a motel room. We inquired with him if they had accommodations for 6 more? He replied, “their filled”. A few minutes later he came back with word that the owner had 2 rooms, with 2 beds each, for 6 guys! PERFECT! send us the address, we will be there. He sent me the map pinpoint of the motel, and it was literally 900 yards down the road we were already on! PERFECT!
I love it when these things happen on the trail, this is where the memorable stories come from. Craig, Hedgehog, Stick and Joe Snowmobile all piled into one room, with Kevin, Ron Nicks and Action Dan in the other room. Naturally, the party room of the night was in our room, the bar was quickly set up on the round formica wood grain table next to the TV, and pizza delivery was ordered. Joe Snowmobile got the Patriots/Chiefs Game on the tube, and all 8 of us sat in the 2 chairs and around the edges of the beds to eat, drink and be merry.
We checked in with Connecticut Jim at the Hotel L’oiseliere. He was real sympathetic to our situation. He informed Craig that the 3 of them just enjoyed a nice steak dinner, with a bottle of wine, and that he and Dylan were now waiting for their scheduled 8pm massages!
The plan now was to wake early, get to our destination, unload the sleds, take our gear into a room to warm up while we eat breakfast, then hit the trail by 11am…. we shall see.
Bye for now…
Stick