Day 8 - Buffalo to Bay City 550kms

Today we travel west from Buffalo, crossing the border back into Canada and then back into the USA for the remainder of the trip. 

Leaving the hotel at 7.36am on a  sunday morning ment the roads were nice and quiet and our crossing back into Canada via Peace Bridge went with out a hitch.

Now back in Canada and in the state of Ontario we continue west taking lovely quiet back roads as well as a few gravel sections. Very flat farm land lined our route for the best part of the day with a mix of small and large farms growing on the whole - maze and corn crops and a few also had live stock.

Today's two regularity sections were both held on open gravel tracks but luckily no traffic was seen during our timed section! The first section we came in 2 seconds slow and the second section we came in 1 second fast so still not quite got it cracked! Let's hope we hold on to our 2nd position.

The afternoon should have taken us to a Drag Car Circuit at Grand Bend Motorplex near Lake Huron, but due to timing issues this had to be cancelled! In fact even if it had not of been cancelled earlier by the time we got there the heavens had opened big time and it certainly would have been canceled anyway.

It certainly knows how to rain! - most probably why they have these big lakes here!!!!!l

We left Canada and returned to the USA driving over Blue Water Bridge crossing Lake Huron and taking us to the border crossing, now mid afternoon there was quite a build up of traffic so the whole process took some time!

Once over the border we still had another 175kms to travel through the Michigan country side before we arrived in Bay City for tonight's stop over.

The pain in my butt from siatica is still giving me jip so I'm having to experiment with different seating positions, not an easy thing in a Porsche, at each PC or fuel stop I have taken to doing laps of a building or forcourt to try and ease the discomfort a little, I even had a fellow competitor follow me this afternoon thinking I was marching off to find a loo - she enjoyed the exercise!

The weather has continued to be pretty miserable all day, so I expect there will be a few cold and tired crews arriving at the hotel at the end of the day. 

Tonight there is a monster party planned so we have all been trading notes on how best to make up an out fit from what we have in the car plus a few purchases made at other stop overs to assemble some sort of a costume,should be fun to see what people come up with!

 

Day 7 - Stopover in Buffalo

The Hyatt - Buffalo

Last night was a free night so a group of us got together and ate in the hotel steak house, a fun evening with a little too much sauce consumed, so I'm feeling a little ropy today!

Breakfast then a bit of a walk around the city to clear the cobwebs, first impressions of Buffalo were not great and it's hard to see what it has to offer other than being somewhere to stay when visiting the falls. There are a few old and interesting building dotted around the city but these are mixed in with a lot of modern buildings most of which seem to be empty - it's a Saturday and the whole place feels a bit like a ghost town.

After our walk we returned to the hotel as I had booked a massage before the trip to the falls, I have been suffering really badly with sciatica on this trip so decided a massage might help, sitting in a car for 8 hours a day with a pain in your A.... Is no joke!!!

We visited the falls in the afternoon and took a boat trip on "Maid of the Mist" the falls were not as big as I thought they might have been but none the less very impressive and the boat was a great way to see them.

We got a little wet!!!!

Day 6 - Old Forge to Buffalo 441kms.

Today we head west towards Lake Ontario where a pre arranged lunch stop has been planned at Sodus Bay, the largest bay on the lake. We then continue on to Buffalo where we have a two night stop over and the chance to visit Niagra Falls tomorrow.

The day started off a little overcast first thing with rain forecast for later in the day. We left Old Forge heading South West and driving on beautiful tree lined twisting back roads running along side a shallow babbling river, with Hansel and Gretal type cabins nestled into the under growth.

We then turned off the Tarmac and onto a gravelled section of  where we had two regularities back to back for today's tests. Having recalibrated our trip meter yesterday we were full of hope that this may be our chance to improve on out timing issues of the last few days.

First section - did not go to well as my driver over shot a left turn and had to make a quick adjustment to get back on the right track and make up the lost time! But even with the mistake we came in at 1 second adrift from ideal time, so both very pleased with that. Second section - went very well and we came in bang on ideal time. The recalibration was well worth the effort.

The lunch time stop off at Dockers Resturant Sodus Bay, was a real treat with a yummy assortment of seafood and fresh and interesting salads - we sat on the sun deck over looking the bay and enjoyed our lunch in the sunshine.

Gavin and Diana Henderson Car 12 rejoined the rally at lunch time today having made their way from Montreal where their car was fixed yesterday after its injury at the race track.

Richard and Isobel Squires Car 38 are still being fixed in Montreal, but do hope to arrive by tonight.

After lunch we still had a further 214 kms to travel before arriving in Buffalo. We travelled a mix of roads from busy main highways to quite back roads. The rain did eventually arrive and fell very heavy for about 25 minutes or so making driving conditions very tricky - hardly being able to see the car in front.

The last part of the journey into buffalo was pretty tedious with nose to tall traffic for about an hour!

It's never the best plan to enter a big city at rush hour on a friday night but needs must I guess.

Day 5 - Quebec City to Old Forge 581km

 Another over cast but very warm day today as we left Quebec City on route towards our boarder crossing later in the day. We needed to make a quick call in at a local garage shortly after leaving the city limits due to a trapped stone in the brake caliper, we borrowed a heavy duty Jack and Peter quickly removed the wheel to find the affending stone, the wheel  promptly refitted and all nuts nicely tightened we were back on the road.

A number of U.S. Have been struggling with timings on the regularities over the past few days so the ERA had kindly set up a couple of distance checks so that crews could reset their calibration! We were one of the offending crews and after the checks could see that we had been running out by 2-3 revolutions per km, making quite a difference over a longer distance - will it make a difference? time will tell!!!

We then made our way to the Sanair Circuit - the only TS of the day so very much something the boys had been looking forward to! A fast and tight little circuit and with lots of excitement in the air the inevitable happened and a few cars fell by the way side! One of our team members in Too Porsche to Push and FTOTB, Car 12 Gavin and Diana Henderson - found themselves with a broken clutch and Car 38 Richard and Isobel Squire have an undiagnosed problem so both needed to be transported to Montreal for further investigations!

The rest day seems to have taken its toll on a few of the other cars today with casualties punctuating today's route to the border! Luckily the last set arrival time other than the end of the day was at a fuel station just befor the race track so at least crews have a bit of time in hand to fix their problems with out incurring any penalty points.

After the race track we then headed south west towards Montreal before heading directly south for the boarder crossing at Rouses Point.

The border crossing all went very smoothly and we were soon back on our way. Once over the border we made our way to a Passage Control in a fuel station to make sure we had all arrived safely in New York State - here we received a number of amendment to the route book due to a lot of police road blocks, we were told that this was due to a few escaped convicts who were now on the run. At the first diversion we saw many film crews and helicopters flew above us in search of said criminals! we then found out from the state patrol at the next road check that the convict were in fact murderes and any car with trunk space was searched in case a fugitive was concealed within! all very exciting - would Harrison Ford appear from the bushes?

We then continued our journey further North for another 152 kms driving towards the Adirondack Mountains to arrive at our stop for the night in Old Forge and our hotel for the night The Water's Edge Inn. Tonight we are to be entertained by the local Fire Department who are putting on a BBQ for us - many locals are expected to turn up so we have been asked to display our cars in front of the fire station for the evening.

Day 4 - day off in Quebec City

Today was a lay over day in Quebec City staying at Le Château de Frontenac, apparently, the worlds most photographed hotel, built at the end of the 19th century it is quite a site to behold sitting proudly on the banks of the St Lawrence river. 

After a leisurely breakfast Peter joined others in the car park to do a few routine jobs on the car and I went in search of monster masks with Oli Hunt for a monster party planned I n a few days time! Not really what I had planned for our first day off!!!! 

The flag of Quebec 

Any way masks purchased we meet back up with the boys at the hotel and then decided a bit of exercise was required so took a long walk around the walled city before finding a nice place for a bite of late lunch. Having thought we had found the perfect place, a nice little bistro with out side seating just off the main square with a man playing some great music on his guitar we sat down and ordered our food only to find that within a matter of moment that we were in the middle of a work site! builders returned from their lunch break and set to work with Jack hammers and stone cutters! drowning out the guitar player and making it very challenging to have a form of conversation - thankfully the work did not continue for too long and the music resumed and the bells from the church rang in the back ground - once again we could relax and enjoy the company and our meal.

Young people walk the streets as corpses telling tales of days gone by and the crimes they had committed!!!

The old city was teaming with young people and tourists - I guess the end of the summer term here so lots of school trips with groups of children following their teachers in a convoy and coaches dropping of tourists in key places of interest around the city, the place was buzzing with activity.

A free evening with no rally dinner planned so a group of us got together and booked a really nice resturant - le Quai 19 - great company and a fun evening was enjoyed by all.

 

Day 3 Edmundston to Quebec City - 307 kms

Another wet and miserable day lay ahead of us so shorts were packed away again and long trousers were back in favour.

Checking the leader board for today's new start time I'm pleased to say that Car 25 is now running in 3rd position, 10 seconds behind car 40 in 2nd place and 22 seconds behind car 27 in 1st place so quite a lot of ground to try and make up in the coming days.

After leaving our hotel in the morning we made our way to lac Baker a very large lake with beautiful properties lining her banks from one end to the other - the French influence became more apparent as we got closer to Quebec State and many of the properties along the banks flew the French and Canadian flags side by side, with many other bits and bobs painted in the red white and blue of the French. The French flag in fact also has a gold star in its top left hand corner and this from what I can gather is the Achadian Flag and shows that these people are French Canadian.

We only had one special test today, a regularity, and this was held just before lunch on a gravel section of road. We are still struggling to get our timings sorted and unfortunately finished 3 seconds fast again! We spent the next few miles trying to jiggle the settings on the Branz "our trip meter" to see if we could get ourselves closer to the ideal time!!! It really does mess with your head when you can't get it right.

The day continued to be wet and miserable but luckily cleared up by the time we got to the ferry for the short ride across the St Lawrence River to Quebec City and our hotel for the next two nights - Le Chateau de Frontenac.

Day 2 Moncton to Edmundston - 446 kms

Just as yesterday morning the start was not to be at our hotel but at The Petty Race Track some 39 kms away, so time had to be allowed to get there and ready to be clocked out at our allotted time - we don't want any penalties for a late departure time!

Peter has had a bit of a fiddle with the little car and after a few tweaks on the spark plugs she seems to be running so much better now.

We arrived at the race circuit and lined up in our new start order after last nights results were published, the running order will now be slowest cars out first - we are now running in 9th position after a not very good day yesterday so have a bit of making up to do. The tight little circuit was right up our street and with the little car running smoothly once more, we managed to set the fastest time completing the two short laps in 44 seconds, one second ahead of the next 3 Cars so this should be a great help in climbing up the leader board in tonight's results, fingers crossed!

After the race track we continued on our journey taking in Magnetic Hill along the way - a bit of a tourist gimmick but had to be done, I guess! (An optical illusion) 

We were then taken well off the beaten track travelling along a combination of compact dirt and gravel roads to make our way to Rogersville for a lunch stop.

After the lunch stop those in open top cars started to wrap up and prepare for a wet afternoons driving and sure enough as predicted the heavens open at about 1.30 and continued for the rest of the day. Not at all nice for the closed top cars but horrendous for the canvas top cars with no side panels to protect them.

We travelled north on the 108 heading towards Edmundston, where we will spend the night and our last night in Canada before crossing the boarder into USA tomorrow, passing through the town of Grandfalls. Grandfall had an amazing waterfall bang in the centre of town so as a good blogger I leapt out of the car in the pouring rain to capture a few photos - I have a weakness for waterfalls!

Grandfalls is also in what is known as the potato country and host the annual potato festival each year.

The afternoon also presented us with another test - a regularity on a muddy track that proved a bit tricky in the wet conditions, a lot of slipping and sliding so much so they Peter thought we had a flat tyre at one point! Anyway a good section and only 3 seconds out on ideal time.