Entries about mileage

Location: Walmart, Kanata, Ontario

Total Distance traveled: 1,545 kilometers

Day One: Home to Edmundston, NB 729 kilometers

We left at our planned departure time of 8:00am for day one of a two day drive to Ottawa, Ontario. The first part was to take us to Moncton, NB, about 325 k from home. We planned to stop at a Cabela's Outdoor Store there to look for hiking pants for me. That part of the trip went really well. We arrived right at Noon and took a two hour break to have a walk and buy some clothes.

New Brunswick has the neatest Moose warning signs:

Part two of the drive was something else. Instead of taking the Trans-Canada onward to Edmundston, we went north towards Miramichi, with the plan to take Highway 108 east to Plaster Rock and then on to our final destination for the day. Well, two things happened: first, it began to rain, in some cases Noah get your Ark rain, and highway 108 turned out to the be the worst paved stretch of highway we have been on since we went to Labrador a few years ago. Potholes, tire killing potholes, hidden in the downpour that accompanied most of our 90 minutes on this highway.

In a few spots we were down to 40 kph and slaloming all over the place to find solid pavement. Luckily we did not damage the R-pod's tires, and made it through safely to Plaster Rock, where we got the first picture of TaJ and a roadside attraction, the giant fiddlehead:

There we 12 R/V's in the Walmart parking lot in Edmundston, which gives a good indication of how many people pass through here on a daily basis. A good stop, the Walmart closes at 9:00pm, and other than a bit of noise from the Trans Canada Highway it was a good night's rest.

Day two: Edmunston to Ottawa, Ontario

Distance traveled: 816 k

We got out early for the long drive to Ottawa. The first 150 k is very hilly and the Honda Pilot tow vehicle (Sully) did fight this portion pretty hard. Our gas mileage plummeted, from 16/100 k (14 miles per US gal) to 21l/100 k (11 mpg). Yikes, what was going on here. We went through a full tank of gas in just over 300 kilometers. As Jenny drove a leg I read the owner's manual and decided at that point to upgrade to mid-level gas at the next fill-up.

That sure worked. Gas mileage immediately improved, up to about 15l/100 k (15.6 mpg) and the car stopped working as hard as it had been when the road rose a bit in front of us. I guess towing might require a little more octane. Lesson learned and we will now run on mid-grade gas, and probably premium when we hit the mountains in the west.

Given that we live in lightly populated Nova Scotia, we saw more cars in that one day drive through Montreal and on to Ottawa than we have seen in most of the last year. Both Jenny and I lived in big cities back in our working days and navigating them is not an issue for us. We arrived in Ottawa at 6:00pm and settled in to the Walmart Parking lot in Kanata, a suburb just to the west of the main city. The shopping complex in large and just about anything you might want within walking distance.

As this blog entry is written I am sitting in a Starbucks. When I worked in downtown Vancouver I never made coffee at home, I simply walked to a Starbucks. I walked past 5 of them on the 1 kilometer walk to my office. In Nova Scotia, unless you live in Halifax, there are no Starbucks.

So, this is luxury for me. Jenny is out in TaJ, reading and cleaning up. She'll join me soon and we'll have one more cup before we get ready for our first camping experience, at Algonquin Park, about 250 k west of here. We will shop for food supplies here and then head on to arrive mid afternoon at Lake of Two Rivers Campground.

We'll be there for 4 nights, and will have electricity and water, but no sewer hookup. So, we will test all the systems, including emptying the black and grey water tanks for the first time. So far, the R-pod has lived up to our expectations, it works well on battery and propane on our overnight stops, and tows well. It took everything that shitty Highway 108 in New Brunswick could dish out, and that is all we can ask for.

Onward!!