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Tuesday, November 02, 2004

Sunday, October 31st
Ahhhhh! I've had my worst truck stop experience so far in my trucking career. It only took me almost an hour to find this place that my company wanted me to fuel in the city of North Bay, Ontario (CA). Kudos to Bay Truck Stop for making my life miserable this morning (And I used the CB Radio to get advice from other truckers, a gas station attendant, and other truckers at other truck stops to try and help me find this place). Arrrggh! Talk about being friggin' tweaked! So what's your truck stop horror story? (Keep it clean, concise and try not to exaggerate too much!)

I crossed the border with my fingers crossed hoping I'd have enough cash to pay the bridge toll and customs charge (usually, I'm well prepared but this time I had some unexpected expenses such as buying tools and oil-wipes to repair a marker lamp on the tractor). Whew! I have just over $5.00 left in change. Well, time to call it a day. I'm in Manistique, MI and viewing a great panoramic view of a bay of Lake Michigan (this sort of makes up for the commotion I experienced at another truck stop at another Bay!)

Miles Driven = 411

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Saturday, October 30th
Vermont has some cool rest areas. In fact, they provide fresh kick-butt coffee in a variety of flavors for frees (donations are accepted). I'm so impressed that I hereby create a list of the top 10 rest areas in America. Although I would have to include all of the rest areas in Vermont as winners, for the sake of fairness to the other States, I'll pick one Vermont rest stop. I was impressed with the ambiance and atmosphere of the Northbound I-89 rest area just south of St. Albans (about 20 miles south of the Canadian border). Their attendants (they had attendants!) were friendly. While one was mixing a fresh batch of coffee, another pointed me to the caraffes full of various coffee brews. Thanks Vermont for a wonderful rest stop experience!

The border crossing was uneventful and went fairly quickly ('Course it was early Saturday morning). That's good, I believe the Canadian customs officials are still on strike (a union thing). So managers (non-union) are there and training replacements. It rained most of the day (as did my last Eastern to Midwest Canadian journey a few weeks prior). Tomorrow I'll be crossing from Canada into Michigan and Wisconsin if all goes well.

miles driven =499

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Friday, October 29th

Watched the sun come up over the foothills of S. Burlington, VT. Beautiful. In the last 3 minutes, the sun popped up over the distant hills, so much so, that I had to put my sun visor down. Spent the night here and now waiting to unload. Hopefully they can get to me before my scheduled appt. later this afternoon.

miles driven = 225

11:42:51 PM       comment []    back to top