No I didn’t crash my truck.
I drove to Oakville and met with David and Suzanne at the Weather Network this afternoon after leaving my friend’s place in downtown Toronto. They showed me around and despite David’s busy day were very gracious hosts. Suzanne made it very easy and comfortable to share with her on camera some details about my trip. It was a fun afternoon and from what I hear the full interview has aired a few times today as my friends back home have seen it. I’m hoping to perhaps get a link to the segment that I can post here. I’ll keep you posted.
I arrived in Barrie Ontario and saw a Starbucks. With hopes of doing some more editing and posting some more shots I set up my laptop and plugged in my external hard drive. All of a sudden it fell off the wide window ledge and hit the floor. It was only about a 12 inch drop but it was enough to trash the read/write heads in the drive. I did some reading online and based on the clicking sounds in the drive this seems to be the problem. I’m hoping that I can get the images recovered. Yes, I’m a little stressed but keeping faith. I also have to figure out where to store the new shots I’ll take on the way home and the recovered shots once I take the drive in.
One step at a time I guess.
So it was a fun and fruitful day with a bitter end but life goes on.
Thanks to Everyone at the Weather Network for their time and hospitality. Cheers
Stairway to...
Category: Cross Canadian Road Trip 2009-2010, Highlights, Trials and Tribulations
Tags: Barrie, challenges, data recovery, hard drive, interview, Oakville, ontario, starbucks, stressed, The Weather Network, Toronto Leave a Comment
I’m not sure what I was expecting. Not sure what I thought I would feel or even what I wanted out of it but the fact that I made it this far and now essentially have to turn around has left me feeling a little off. Honestly I was feeling a little blue the last few days anyway but figured I’d get over it once I hit the East of the East.
It’s not like the adventure is over, I still have to make it home and have no set agenda as per the way here. Basically it comes down to making the money last.
As I was leaving to come on this trip a friend gave me a book written by Stuart Wilde. I’d never read any of his stuff but have read other books regarding spirituality, energy, positivity and “the universe” etc before. I just opened this book and am halfway through it tonight. Good timing too as it made a lot of sense and I feel much better about a lot of things, including the rest of this trip and my goals upon my return to “regular” everyday life. What makes me smile is the fact that since I have everything to do with it, my regular everyday life is going to get pretty sweet in the next couple of years. I don’t have much to complain about and a lot to be thankful for so really it’s not a long journey. I simply have to keep my “ego” in check and lose the fear, the fear of actually doing what I’m doing now so I can keep doing it. Yes, you heard it here first, this trip wasn’t exactly “easy” for me to just get up and do. It still isn’t.
For now though I am back in the right headspace. Tomorrow will be another great day for photos as I explore Bonavista Newfoundland Then I will again be slowly on my way closer to people that mean the world to me. Until I get there, I will be lost in my element, appreciating what is absorbed through these orbs in my skull.
Lighthouse at Cape Spear
I woke up on the wrong side of the sleeping bag today. Not sure what set me off but I was in a funk all day. I left Corner Brook which was a feat in itself. Who designed their road system, a chimp with a crayon? I’ve seen maps that made more sense in a bowl of spaghetti. Anyway, enough about that. I drove up the 450 all the way to Lark Harbour. Got a few shots in Little Port and Frenchman’s Cove, some during a storm of sideways sleet-hail.
I drove through Corner Brook and went on to Gander. Got there just as it was dark and decided I was too restless to sit around. I also checked my bank account and panicked. I figure if all else fails I want to see the furthest Eastern point of Canada so I drove straight to St. John’s. Besides, the roads were dry and aside from some wind gusts the weather was nice, could see the stars the whole way here. Now this way I know approximately what I need as far as gas money to get back to Port-aux Basque. After Cape Spear tomorrow I can try and gauge a few shorter North or South detours as I make my way back towards the ferry. Money sucks.
Tomorrow is supposed to be nicer weather. A little colder but I’d rather bundle up and get some good sky for my shots than be warmer and shoot in a snow storm with gray skies.
Anyway, tomorrow is going to be a landmark day for me and this trip. I’m sure I’ll be in a better mood.
In desperate need of a shower and knowing I have to spend up to 7 hours on a ferry tomorrow with the general public I figured a room and a hot shower was in order. (oh was it ever good). After a little bit of driving and no shots, a chat with a gent down by the water as I watched today’s ferry leave for Newfoundland I then looked for a room. I managed a cheap but quaint little room at the Highland Motel close to North Sydney where the ferries leave from.
As I got settled in I checked my email and found that a few of my web clients have been having troubles with their sites. Seems that the code has been altered against my knowledge and my wishes, hacked I guess but not the server, strictly the code has been altered to add Malware. So instead on working on a couple other things I’m trying to finish and perhaps editing a few of the last few days shots I’m troubleshooting these messed up websites thanks to some loser asshole with too much time on his hands.
Anyway, I think I may have it taken care of the problem now that it’s almost 10pm and my brain is fried. I guess the universe needed to, as they say in poker, “keep me honest” by throwing me a bit of a curve ball. Well, I may have only hit an infield grounder but come tomorrow, I’m off and running,…again!
Arriving at the CIBC bank in Souris twenty minutes after they opened to see if I could get my bank card back proved to be fruitless. It seems staying overnight was just a waste of time as the cards that an ATM machine eats get destroyed the next morning and even if I had been there waiting at the door they wouldn’t have given it to me as they can’t verify that it belongs to me. I guess they get many angry guys with multitudes of valid ID standing around the doors waiting to get their RBC bank card from their machine on a regular basis. Had I really needed the cash that I was trying to get from the ATM the night before or my card back this morning to get gas I would have been totally fucked. Luckily I had enough gas in the tank to get to Charlottetown where I was able to get a new (temporary) card from the Royal Bank there.
Oh well. One small glitch in a pretty smooth trip so far. As far as “problems” go I can’t complain. It was only a waste of time, which really didn’t matter anyway as it was pouring rain all day. Pouring!
So after the bank fiasco I just drove. I stopped in Summerside and used the internet briefly to kill some time, chatted with my young niece who I’ll see when I arrive at my sister’s place and was informed that I have a ticket for her school Christmas concert on Monday. So I told her I wouldn’t miss it and will be in Springhill N.S. sometime over the coming weekend.
After Summerside I drove up to the West Cape and found myself at the West Point Lighthouse just after dark. Knowing the moon is full and that the skies are to possibly clear I parked here for the night, hoping for a clearing where I might take some moonlight shots of the lighthouse and the beach.
…but its over.
After driving most of the day yesterday under completely clear skies to Mingan to view and photograph the tall wind sculpted rocks that I read about in my book I woke this morning at the gas station to a great sunrise, and waited. My gas light was on when I rolled in and there was only one gas station that I could see. So because I didn’t fill up in Sept-Isles when I had the chance I was paying the price, missing shots because I was afraid of running out of gas.
I figured I had a little gas to explore close by and soon came to know that the rock formations I drove all this way for are on the South side of the islands, only accessible by the tour boat that takes you there between June and mid October. So like many other things I’ve encountered, my choice of seasons has nixed another idea. Along with every provincial parks, all the tourist info booths and even some viewpoint pullouts are closed.
I sucked it up and started my journey back along the 400 miles I traveled yesterday but in the day light, or so I thought. I stopped at a couple cool beaches along the St. Lawrence and got a few shots but was feeling a little down due to my waste of the time and especially the gas that brought me here. This was soon to get worse as I crested a hill into completely white soupy fog. For most of the day I could see nothing but white as I traveled back down the 138, then it turned to rain as it got dark. I got into Baie Comeau and decided to cut my losses and take the ferry across to Gaspe bringing me to Matane Quebec.
My Morning Rush Hour
Tomorrow I will decide if I want to risk the long drive around the point of the Gaspe Peninsula because I really want to see the Perce Rock. Depending on the weather, I may just cut through and head for New Brunswick.
