Trip to Timmins

For work, I had to travel to a small city called Timmins, Ontario. This is the city where Shania Twain is from and her picture is everywhere as well as there is a Shania Twain museum. The trip from my house is about 10 hours however since I took the Smart Car, it only has a 20 litre gas tank so I had to stop twice on the way up to get gas. Therefore the trip took 11 hours.

We were having very nice weather in the Niagara Falls area and when I left, it was already 15C in the early morning with a reported high about 20C. I got about a half hour down the highway when I realized that I did not have a jacket. I was not too concerned because it was so mild these days.

I did not take a map but instead had my GPS unit. I have become to rely on it for almost all of my travels. Last year I went to Philadelphia with no map - just the GPS and it took me right to the front door of the hotel. The only problem with the GPS is that it doesn't really show you the bigger picture of where you are heading - basically just what is in front of you and what your next turn is. The GPS had me taking Hwy 400 once I got north of Toronto and then left onto highway 69 through Parry Sound (famous for where Bobby Orr was born) and up through Sudbury. Once I got onto Hwy 69, I was down to below 5 litres of gas. Not knowing the area very well, I turned off the highway on the first sign that said 'Gas, that a way'. I wound up winding back and forth on some country roads and eventually found the out of the way 'no-name' gas station. It was an old gas station with a couple of ole boys hanging around like you would see in an old movie along Route 66 in the USA. They had never seen a Smart Car before so they were quite interested in it. When I went to pay for the gas (actually it takes diesel which sometimes can be a pain trying to find a station that sells diesel), the card would not work in their machine. Likely because they were not a brand name gas station, the card would not accept the merchant. So I had to pay in cash.

The drive through Northern Ontario is very scenic.

Once back on Hwy #69, after about two more kilometres, there were three brand name gas stations, an Esso, an Petro Canada, and another one. Had I only known, I would not have spent 20 minutes off the beaten trail looking for the other station. I laughed at myself.

As I was passing around the perimeter of Sudbury, I once again was down to only 5 litres of gas. I kept driving on the main highway knowing that eventually there would be some gas stations. I did not want to make the same mistake I made south of Parry Sound. When I got to the north end of town and heading north on a small remote highway with about 5 more hours to drive, I turned around and headed back into Sudbury. I could not risk running out of gas in what was becoming the remote north. I wasted about a half hour searching for diesel which by about the 4th gas station, I found some. On my way again.

As soon as I got north of Sudbury, in about a 30 minute span, the temperature went from 20C down to about 5 C. Once I got into Timmins at about 8 pm, the temperature was now zero with some snow flakes in the air. What a change in temperature! And I had no jacket. I got some supper, found my hotel room in the Super 8, and hunkered down for the night, making the 9 pm broadcast of LOST just in time. It was a good show. At 10 pm, I looked out the window and you could hardly see because of the snow. It wound up going down to -15C with the windchill. In the morning, the Smart Car was covered in snow. My boss, who often is very sweet (and she does not read these blogs), gave me permission to buy a coat and charge it to the company. I told her that she was in the running for 'Boss of the Year!". My meetings were indoors so I never did get around to buying a coat but it sure was COLD!!!

I took a different route back - one that was more popular and more gas stations. It took me through towns such as New Liskeard, North Bay, Huntsville (where the G-8 Leaders Summit will be held in June), and eventually Barrie and back through Toronto. The trip back, although tiring, was uneventful.

Note: Did you know that if you click on the pictures, they enlarge. I just found this out myself :)

Tim