Mother of all Road Trips--Day 3

The third day began with us having no breakfast. After getting ready we did walk to Mohini’s place to call her down and say our goodbyes and return her sunglasses that she had forgotten in the car. However, we did miss giving her the honey-whisky liqueur that she wanted to pass on to Austeja.  Priti was driving and we did head out of Montréal without any issues. 

After being on the highway, however, we wanted to fill up gas and that made us leave highway and go backwards! This #Ultramar station was the worst one I ever encountered. This was in #Beaconsfield, and the puming machine just would not initialise. I went in to asked why and the lady said I have to pay at the pump and I could pay inside only for a specified amount. This is stupid, I wanted to fill up and how am I going to predict.

So I took a chance to use a credit card. But it kept on saying “error”. Mind you, every instruction on the terminal was in French and there was not an iota of English around. After spending 10 frustrating minutes a good fellow stopped by and helped me through the complicated process. However, it still did not get me an option of filling up and I had to choose an amount worth of gas. If possible never again will I travel through #Quebec in a car and will avoid #Ultramar stations. It is sad that we are in a bilingual country of impotent rulers who are nobody is able to discipline Quebec. At least have bilingual staff and machines if you are in a service industry.

Later it was a pretty staid trip with one lane undivided highway and the passing lanes every few kilometres. It was mostly agricultural landscape which then changed to mountains, lakes and valleys. We did a couple of stops for scenic spots. One was for some rapids, which was nothing but details about the original canoe route. The second one was at #Nippising Indian Reserve No 10 to look at the Ottawa river. And then we were in #Sudbury. We filled up gas at a Petro Canada place where the surprise was two youngsters coming out and filling up and cleaning the windows, despite the pump being marked as Self- serve. On payment, he took my Amex and was out with the receipt without my requiring to enter my pin or even sign, surprising.

At this #Motel 6 nee #Pioneer Motel, owned and operated by a Punju, we decided to stay put. We had a couple of drinks (vodka and one can of coke) and ate from the “lots of food” that we are carrying with us. Prominent among them, was the leftover pizza, and the famous and delicious Masoor rice by Priti. The plan is to leave early tomorrow morning on way to Terrace Bay, Ontario.