Canada's Capital Region Road Meet - 25th August 2012

[Alps]

a) Don't worry, even the Mexican items aren't very Mexican. It's Canada, after all.
b) Yes, the Park and Ride is 1.6 MILES west of the bridge, not 1.6 KILOMETERS. I mistook it for a cemetery

[vdeane]

b) Yes, the Park and Ride is 1.6 MILES west of the bridge, not 1.6 KILOMETERS. I mistook it for a cemetery

I saw the same cemetery and thought it was the park and ride at first!  Google really needs to find a walking trail symbol that doesn't look like a road one.

EDIT: deanej, you're meeting up with a friend from Montreal and visiting Ottawa with him. That's all they need to know. If you want, I can give you my contact info.

Probably a good idea to PM it to me just in case.  At least this time I won't have to deal with having never met in person (as I did with the Montreal mini-meet) and I have more experience dealing with customs, which should definitely help.  The longer trip time and taking a normal route to get there can't hurt either.  Quite a few lessons learned from that trip.

[Dr Frankenstein]

I never take a normal route. I avoid lines. (Last time, I crossed at Jamieson's Line, a tiny, one-way U.S.-bound non-24/7 crossing in the middle of the boonies in North Burke.)

I'll PM you my info.

[Dougtone]

a) Don't worry, even the Mexican items aren't very Mexican. It's Canada, after all.
b) Yes, the Park and Ride is 1.6 MILES west of the bridge, not 1.6 KILOMETERS. I mistook it for a cemetery

Still, the Bistro Mexicana restaurant has very tasty menu offerings, in my opinion.

[vdeane]

I never take a normal route. I avoid lines. (Last time, I crossed at Jamieson's Line, a tiny, one-way U.S.-bound non-24/7 crossing in the middle of the boonies in North Burke.)

I'll PM you my info.

I think they're closing that one soon.  In my case it was going half an hour out of my way onto a bridge with more traffic just to clinch part of ON 401; while they didn't ask about it, the person did ask "you do know it's two hours to Montreal from here right?" (only if you use the time estimate from google; it's only an hour and a half if you keep up with traffic).

[oscar]

I'll meet you at the park-and-ride at 8:30am.  I'll be driving in my blue Prius, with the Hawaii Superferry psuedo-Interstate H-4 bumper sticker.

Slight change:  My Prius was in a fender-bender this afternoon.  So I'll be taking to the meet my silver Nissan Titan pickup truck with a silver camper shell, and a Confederation Bridge sticker (in French) among others. 

[oscar]

Is there a turnout estimate?  It'd help to have that by tomorrow evening, so I can decide how many maps I'll need to bring for giveaways. 

If there's a Facebook event page up (don't know where it is if there is one, or how to find it), I can track that to estimate turnout. 

[Dr Frankenstein]

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/408690245851696/

Right now we're, um, 4.

[Dr Frankenstein]

Vehicle-wise, I'll have either a black Pontiac Sunfire in dire need for a car wash, or a relatively clean black GMC Sierra with chrome accents. Québec plates.

[vdeane]

Any particular area of the parking lot we all plan to meet at?  I was planning to park in the back near the entrance from Chemin Rivermead.  Though I can't imagine there will be too many other people there at 8:30 AM on a Saturday.

[Dr Frankenstein]

Sounds like a plan, but I don't expect the park & ride to be full at all either.

[AsphaltPlanet]

Well, was fun and frolic had by all?

[vdeane]

Yeah; it was also my longest meet to date, we me leaving Potsdam at 6:20 and returning at 10:45, so 12 hours total not including driving to/from Ottawa.  Stops didn't work out exactly like the last one; we decided to just drive past the removed RR in Renfrew, stopped at an overpass over ON 417 in Arnprior, and had to deal with closures on Union St in Ottawa and the stop for A-5 construction; we had to turn around at another overpass to get in through the narrow entrance for construction vehicles and the one house on the road right next to QC 105.  We also did a little loop east of Arnprior to clinch both that segment of ON 417 and the disconnected piece of ON 17 in the area.  Didn't have time for the after-meet, with sunset being an hour earlier now than in August, but I was able to use the extra time to clinch ON 417.

Customs seemed a lot less interested in my trip than they did for the Montreal mini-meet; must be because I have more experience talking to them now, because one of the people ahead of me in line returning to the US was talking to the officer for quite a while, so they obviously weren't taking the day off, even though it felt like pre-9/11 conditions for my experience.

Was very foggy for my drive up; thankfully it cleared right before I hit Ottawa.  Most of my pictures of ON 416 consist of fog and a blurry sign as a result.  No views of the St. Lawrence crossing over for me; going up it was fogged out, and going back it was too dark to see anything but the bridge, though it is easier to see the temporary Canadian customs facility in Cornwall at night (it's invisible during the day to southbound traffic due to the wall that was installed).

[oscar]

deanej, you're meeting up with a friend from Montreal and visiting Ottawa with him. That's all they need to know.

Both on the entry into Canada and the return to the U.S., the customs agents followed up by asking me how I wound up with friends in Canada.  Fortunately, there was no prolonged discussion of that point. 

The Canadian customs agent then started showing interest in what was in the enclosed camper shell in my truck, but soon after I started on boring detail on what was there (mainly "empty space"), he hastily concluded that line of questioning, handed me back my passport, and practically begged me to leave as fast as possible.  I suspect that by then, his computer screen confirmed that I'd cleared Canada customs five times earlier this year, and so hassling me on my sixth crossing wasn't likely to get him anywhere. 

I had a good time at the meet.  I just limped back home (after spending a few hours at a party in suburban D.C.), will go into more detail later this week once I'm more awake.  I'll also post several group photos, as well as a few others, then.

[Dr Frankenstein]

My longest meet to date as well, beating the Montreal one that lasted well into the evening (and more if I count hunting for old shields in LaSalle). It's amazing how road conditions can change after just one month. The Minto Bridges were closed (though we parked nearby and crossed two of them by foot), chemin Cross Loop was closed (but we still got on it). We wanted to walk on a closed overpass over the construction on 417 in Arnprior, but a police car was in the area.

I wish we had more people to get more conversations going (Jessica's toothache didn't help) but I think it was still a nice meet.

[AsphaltPlanet]

How's the progress on Autoroute 50?  The final segment must be almost done.  It's a shame I couldn't go, the fall colours are just about peak here, Saturday was nice, and the colours in the Gatineau hills must really be something.

[Alps]

Minto Bridges closed - permanently, or for the day?

[Dr Frankenstein]

The new section of A-50 has some signage standing so... I assume it's close.

The bridge closure seemed temporary.

[oscar]

Here are some of my meet photos.



At the bridge carrying Lanark County road 20 across Ontario's Mississippi River, at Pakenham.  From left to right:  Carl Tessier, Valerie Deane, Jessica Labrie, Oscar Voss.



At one of the steel truss bridges over the Rideau River in downtown Ottawa.  From left to right:   Carl, Valerie, Jessica, Oscar.



Carl, Jessica, Valerie, and Oscar at the other end of that bridge.



Valerie and Carl, in front of the covered pedestrian/bike bridge carrying the Trans-Canada Trail over Riviere Gatineau, near Wakefield, Quebec.



A route marker for the trail, at one end of the bridge.

[Duke87]

A road meet where the number of girls equals the number of guys. Well, that's a first!