Indeed, I'm sure it's a much nicer drive.Just Old Al wrote:Actually, I usually end up coing into Canada on I-81 from New York State, then picking up the 401 and running that down to Kingston, as you say. Straight shot there on local roads (Hwy. 38) up to 7 in Sharbot Lake and then East to Silver Lake from there. When you're traveling with antique hardware speed is not an essential, and the run up the local roads is much nicer than barrelling down 7 and getting into Ottawa's traffic.
Then again, I've never known anyone who was...Just Old Al wrote:Admittedly I'm not a fan of the 401,
There was a time when I would drive a school bus for a church on Sundays, then drive campers up to a summer camp for the week. I had other duties on site, once we were there. We would drive back to Toronto on Fridays, and I would inevitably end up driving the bus on the 401, in Toronto, (all 16 lanes of it - not that I took up all the lanes, of course), during rush hour... Nobody would let you change lane with the bus, regardless of how long you left your blinkers on, until you started drifting slowly into the lane you wanted to reach, and a driver "woke up" and "realized" it might be a good idea to slow down and let you change lane...
Fun times... fun times...
Thank you. I'll take that as a compliment...Just Old Al wrote:but it's not a bad drive if you stay to the reight and avoid the mad Quebecois.
Just make sure it is, indeed, a proper poutine... (See below.)Just Old Al wrote:With my colesterol levels I shouldn't be eating any of them...so you have to pick your battles. Trust me, I am not in any way above a proper poutine.lake_wrangler wrote:Well... Nobody's perfect, I guess...
The chicken is "meh"/OK (used to love it, though. So much so, that it was our default go-to food for all birthdays, when I was growing up, but I've grown out of it, I guess...) But their poutine is not right. The fries are not the right kind: you need fresh, thick, just cut potatoes, pre-soaked before frying, with a golden brown exterior, and a "meaty", tender inside, and you need proper brown gravy, not their oddly-spiced one. Diners usually have better poutine. And if you are looking for chain restaurants with good poutine, for consistent results all across the board, they are, in no particular order, "La Belle Province", "Valentine", "Lafleur". There are others, of course, but those are the ones that come to mind... New York Fries, in Ontario, does come close in quality.Just Old Al wrote:I remember being in Quebec playing tourist and just being too damn tired to go find something decent to eat - and stopping at "Poule Frites A La Kentucky" for a quick to-go box. Disappointingly it was no more palatable than at home...one can hope.
Love it or hate it, Tim Horton's coffee is indeed ubiquitous, in Canada...Just Old Al wrote:One thing on the purchase list is a case of Tim Hortons' coffee - I can;t get it here anymore as the nearest outlet to me closed up.
Safe travels!