Chapter One:
Quebec to New Brunswick

 

Daniel stops to pick up Zen at the Shack in St-Zenon. It is 7:30 am, and Dan makes an entry in his log. Any one who drives highway knows what this is all about.

 

In Berthierville we stop in at McD's for a healthy start to the day. We see this bizarre display in the garden.

 

A few hours later, we're way out there on the 20, parallel to the St-Lawrence River.

 

See the mountains on the north side of the river. They actually get alot of snow up there and have a ski hill. We are around St-Jean Port Joli. Nice and flat here, so we can do 100 kms per hour.

 

Here's a better look at the mountains.

 

The landscape starts to roll a bit. The farms are beautiful. The weather is good.

 

No snow yet.

 

Last minute instructions from the boss on the Mike phone. A few miles down the road when we hit New Brunswick, it craps out. Our first problem; no communication.

 

We stop to get gas, Dan is in top shape. Twenty one sleds on
a 20,000 pound trailer, total weight 40,000.

 

The old Hino is gutless. 200 hp just ain't enough. The slightest hill off in the distance frightens it, and we begin to slow down. Up hill, we are talking 35 miles per hour. It's not fun.

 

Our load. Going to make about 5 drops in all.

 

We joke with the staff in the gas stops. We tell them they will be Zen Stars. They seem mildly impressed, but remain skeptical. I don't blame them.

 

The sun begins to sink. Mountains of the north shore seem distant.

 

I zoom in to the max, and here is the view I get.

 

Strange bumps pop up on the horizon, probably glacial deposits. We approach Riviere du Loup.

 

We turn right at St-Alexandre... too early. We get to see countryside as the light gets interesting, highlighting the colours of the landscape.

 

Heading through village after village on the way to Edmunston New Brunswick, wishing we had taken the right turn off.

 

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The quality of the highway disintegrates, and we see snowmobile trail crossing signs.

 

I check the rear view.

 

Darkness hits us, and we finally make Edmunston, almost 2 hrs behind schedule.

 

Dan points out our final destination, it don't look that far away... right.

 

The truckers are lined up.

 

We have coffee with one of them.

 

We joke around in the restaurant. At this point, things are still fun.

 

This guy looks beat in his Peterbuilt. Really nice leather interior. We are riding in the cheap seats, in our Hino.

 

Nice. We decide to ask the boss for one like this.

 

Minutes after we run over the Nova Scotia line, we get caught at the scales with no permit. Ooops. Our office made a mistake, and they turn us back into New Brunswick. We were lucky. No fine. He was a nice guy/

 

We gas up so we can be ready to roll in the morning once the office fills out the paperwork, an the 600 bucks are paid for the Nova Scotia, New Brunswick permits. Ouch. In Newfoundland, they tell us, we can buy the permit at the scales.

 

It's late. We go into our motel and have a wake up call for 7 am. That gives us four hours to sleep.

 

End of Day One.