Wednesday, August 6, 2008

EVEN SPLIT


As a kid, Cannonball Run and Smokey and the Bandit were two of my favourite movies. Maybe I just really liked Burt Reynolds, but I think it was the cars and trucks, and the idea of a road trip. Since those days when The Dukes of Hazard and Knight Rider ruled Friday night TV (generally known as "pre-history" to the junior crowd), I've been on more than a few road trips. Naturally, when the opportunity presented itself to attend a Jr Series race in PEI, my first thought was "I wonder how long it would take to drive there?"  

So I rented a van, packed it to the gills with 6 teenagers and their gear, and with the help of some generous parents (thank-you Ken Madsen and the Donald family!), we struck out for the open road.   The first stop was Ottawa to pick up Ian Donald, and then a full day of driving from Ottawa to Summerside, PEI.  Four thousand kilometers later (longer than the drive from Toronto to Victoria, if I recall correctly), we're back.  We saw a lot of gas stations, rest stops and Subways along the way, but no moose. I raised some eyebrows at the rental company when I returned the van 2300+ kms over the daily allowance, but in the end it went smoothly. For the record, the drive from Ottawa to Summerside took 12:57:56, and the return trip took 12:57:55....technically a negative split, but we'll call it even. If Sean had been able to hold on a little longer, we would have posted a better return time - there were multiple rest stops in the last few hours of the trip - definite time killers. 

We're home now for a few days before leaving next week for Nationals in Kelowna.  We'll be flying for that one.

I've posted some pics from the Summerside race here. Congrats to all athletes and coaches. 




I looked everywhere for a 'bridge out' sign, but I just couldn't find one.





1 comment:

Richard said...

Burt Reynolds is the man. I have him as the voice on my GPS that I got from Navtones.com. He often helps me escape from tricky situations now!