British Columbia Trip

Well I know what you all are thinking, its about time I got more on here so here I am while I finally get the chance. I have so much to tell, you better get comfortable.


Doing the miles we do, I just find it hard to keep up. Anyways after moving in, I went straight back out on the road. We just stayed in Canada for the three weeks, but we finally got to go to Vancouver, British Columbia in the second week. My first time in the mountains. Before we got into BC, it was Bernie's turn to drive so I went to sleep. 3 hours later, he is waking me up and got me to belt up in the front. I was so tired I just stayed in my sleeping bag wrapped up in the front seat. The snow was that bad over the top of the mountains, you could not tell where the road was, other than a little bump of snow on each side. No tire tracks or anything, so we was driving on top of packed down snow. It was the middle of the night, so the snowplows had not come out to play yet. It does not slow the Canadian drivers down though. He was still scooting along at 55mph. I tried to stay awake but next thing I know, I'm waking up and all the roads was clear so I just got back in bed and went back to sleep. When I got up, it was my turn to drive. I drove down into Vancouver. I thought I was in china. It was spot the non Asian. It was raining non stop too for 24hrs. Vancouver has the same weather as the UK except the summer can be a lot warmer, but still lots of rain and hardly any snow. When we was first interested in moving to Canada, before Ayr Motor approached me, Vancouver was where we thought about moving to with the weather been the same as UK, not that cold, but just as wet. It was the price of property that put us off. Not cheap at all.

Our collection was just round the corner from our drop. I drove back out of Vancouver again. It was midnight, so by the time I had reached the mountains, it was early hours. Bernie said if it was raining by the time I got to Chilliwack, I would be better going through the valley, which is winding, tiny mountain roads which take about an hour longer than going the main highway. It was raining and the matrix signs said the main highway was slushy and slippery and the valley had dense fog so I went the valley. The mountain roads where not like I expected at all. I expected roads like a roller coaster, but the main highways that Bernie brought us in was not that steep at all, just long winding hills really. The Valley was steeper though. Bernie was well impressed with my driving through the valley though, he never woke up once, and this guy wakes up if I as much as slow down sometimes.

At the end of the three weeks. Bernie was going on vacation. So I dropped him at his sisters in Toronto before I did a couple more trips before getting one back to Woodstock then home I went.

While at home. On the Friday, we took the kids to Moncton, which is two and half hours drive away. It does not seem that far as you only go on one road, all the way. We went to a indoor kids Adventure Park. Had some great fun. We bought a family ticket for $57 which meant we could go on all the rides as many times as we wanted. We had some great fun. Across the road was a large shopping Mall too, so we spent the morning in there before going to the Adventure Park. Emma loved Moncton. If we had not already got our new house. She would have wanted to move there for sure. Moncton I would say is the largest city in New Brunswick. It has all the shopping malls like Fredericton, but with the extra Adventure Parks and cheap housing, Emma was sold on it, so watch this space. Later down the line that is.

Our New Tradition, A real Christmas Tree. I got it the day i went back on the road

I then went out on the road on the Saturday by myself, as Bernie was still on vacation. My first load was going to Wisconsin. There was four trucks going to the same place. One was Keith my old team mate. The other two had set off before us as Keith went into town before we set off together. It was a three days drive. Two in Canada before we crossed over the border for the third in the US. We stuck together all the way chatting on the CB as we went along. We had to go through a lot of snow Canada side. We got to Wisconsin the night before delivery and was the first out of the four trucks to arrive. Much nicer weather down there though. Our reloads was also been picked up in the same place, 20mins down the road, both been dropped in Toronto. So off we went. This time round the bottom through Chicago back up through Michigan. If it was left to Keith, he would have gone back the way we came, which was 100km more, but like I said before. He would go well out of his way just to avoid places like Chicago. We managed to cross the border before getting our head down. The next morning, I was up early. Keith could not get his ass out of bed so I went off on my own. I expected to collect Bernie when at Brampton, but nope no sign. I then collected a load going Miramichi, NB again plenty of Snow but nice snow with no ice. So I scooted along just like Bernie does. My reload was 1 hour further north which I took back to Montreal. Where I then collected a trailer going to Moncton, but I was only taking it to Woodstock. Two hours before I get there, I get a message, im going home and a team is taking the truck. Turns out they have not heard from Bernie and need teams for the usual loads me and Bernie normally do. So thats why I got kicked out of the truck. Its not the first time Bernie as done this so im told, and I kind of expected it but was not sure. I have enjoyed it on my own, and looks like that's what I will be doing now. Lets hope I get my own single truck soon. Till then I now have to slip seat. Hopefully I'm not out of a truck much. I had a fantastic week this week doing over 4000 miles, which is the norm for a good driver for Ayr, with his own truck, if you are willing to work hard that is. Bernie kept saying that was the miles he was doing single. Did not know I could manage it too. My New GPS did help though. The 7” screen does take over the windshield at night though. Its a Cobra. New on the market in October. I'm sure its made by the same company of the truck GPS I had in the UK, as it has the same software but under another name. The PCMiler was pants so sold it to a Canadian driver. He thinks its great. Well compared to others here it is.



That now brings me up to date. So take a look at just a few pics out of the Hundreds I took till next time when I let you know how things are going.

Remember to Click on the pictures to super size them for the detail

Some of the mountains

They have to blast through the rock just to build the highways

Just some of the snow removal methods

My new GPS

Look at why i took this pic

Vancouver Olympics 2010