Roadtrips

Do you ever go on a road trip and in your gut you can feel that something is bound to go wrong? Well, that seems to be the ongoing case for Rob and I. Whenever the two of us go on a road trip, it never fails that something is bound to go wrong. Let me go back a couple years ago...say September 2003.

So I am working up north at a beautifull park called Obatanga Provincial Park and I have no way to come back down to the civilization of the GTA so Rob comes to pick me up. It's my last night up there, and Rob's only night there; the car is loaded and my foreman, Rob, and I chill around the last campfire of the season (park is now closed up and we are the last ones there...creepy, maybe just a little but I got used to it pretty quickly). Rob and I get up early and I start the trip off with driving. Now, one thing to realize is that we have a 10hr. trip ahead of us, so we drive down to Sault. Ste Marie and everything is all good, and then down to Sudbury and by this time it's around lunch time. We are just entering the greater Sudbury area and Rob realizes that...he forgot his very expensive watch(it was a gift) and we absolutely had to go back to get it. Now, I am not impressed cause I just want to go home! I try calling the park and my foreman is gone, and I can't remember the sister park's staff house phone number(it's unlisted). So as much as I want to go home, I say fine, let's go back to get it. I then take Rob onto a back logging road that cut off about an hour or so off of our drive and we make it up to the park. It's all closed and locked up, no one is around and neither is his watch where he accidentally left it. We then drive another hour up north to the sister park, White Lake Provincial Park and all the guys there couldn't believe that we drove that much to get this watch. They offered for us to stay for the night but at that time I just wanted to get home and go to a church service so I said thanks and we were on our way. It's early morning and we are both tired. We make our way down and we finally make it past Barrie and...Tire blew! We pull off right away(gotta remember this little VW golf hatch was packed right up with my stuff) onto the shoulder and unpacked the car, take out the spare, switch tires and repack the car all in a matter of 15 min. Unbelievable! Alright, time for our home stretch, and yes we do make it safely at like 5am or something around there; we make it to my house with my dad getting up to go for a run, crazy guy;).

Alright, time for adventure #2 for Rob and Dan. Two weekends ago Rob and I are going on a little trip(about 3hr. drive) to see our friend, Anthony. He is currently at a school called Summit College. My car is loaded, fresh oil change, winter tires on, ready to go. We head off and I decide to take the 407 because it's much faster than taking the other highways to get to the 400. We enter Vaughn and something happens to my car. I am pushing the gas pedal and my car is backfiring and I am getting no power from my engine. I pull over onto a shoulder on a bridge. Great start to another road trip! I check under the hood of my car and I see that something is glowing bright red so I tell Rob that we need to get out ASAP and get everything out as well. We do. He's now on the phone with his brother in law and Rob gets us a rental for the weekend. The glowing dies down and everything is alright and I call CAA, they have a tow truck coming. Next, a cop pulls over and says that where my car is parked is an absolute hazard and tells us to get in the back of his Suburban cruiser(ya, we were in the back of a cop car). He calls for a tow truck(now I have to cancel CAA and send the bill to them from the tow truck that arrives) and literally 3 sec. after the cop is off of his radio, there's the truck. Turns out he deals with Robs brother's company and they know the same people and we managed to swindle him down to less than what CAA would've charged me. WOOT! We get the rental and have a great time up to Huntsville area. Nothing goes wrong throughout the weekend, we have a fun time until it's Sunday morning and Anthony thought he forgot something in the van (What you have to understand is that Anthony had to leave early to go on a winter camping trip); both Rob and I are asleep(I remember hearing something about keys but not clueing into anything at all...). Anthony gets the keys and goes on his way. It's several hours later and I get out of the shower and dressed and come out of the washroom and Rob is just waking up and asks me where the keys are. "I have no clue" I answer and then I realized what happened; Anthony forgot to bring them upstairs and he still has them. We search high and low for them hoping he left them somewhere, check once then twice in the van and still nothing. I finally decide to call the gatehouse at Algonquin where they are going and hope that maybe they are actually at the gatehouse or haven't come by yet and it's then that Anthony calls and tells us that he has them and his leader is bringin them back. It's an hour back to Summit and then another back up to the park and the leader will cross-country ski back in by himself. Wow! It works out and we get the keys and we think everything is great, until we reach Barrie and I try to call my Dad. No one is home, so I try the cell and nothing. Hmm, I try again later and still nothing and again and again. Crap, we are now stuck in Mississauga where we have to drop off the rental. Karen can't come, and we can't get ahold of my dad, so we go to McDonalds and pretty much spend our afternoon there until I finally get ahold of my dad, only to find out that he ran a 1/2 marathon(21km) to prep for the Boston Marathon coming up that he qualified for(42km in 3hrs 19min)! They then drive an hour to come pick us up and drive us over to Ancaster and have some tea/coffee at Rob and Karens which made it worth it for them. Thanks again Dad and Teresa! So...this has been another one of our great adventures.

I think anyone and everyone who knows us and knows about our travelling together has come to the realization that if and when we go on road trips together, to expect the unexpected, not worst but just unexpected. We never know what's going to happen but can guarantee that something is going to happen, it appears to bring adventure into our lives haha. We say this not only because of these two larger trips, but because we have had many, many fun adventures in the past while driving together. It's always a good time driving around with Rob!