It all started out pretty well, I thought ......... Chris found out he wasn't working Thurs or Fri so we could leave right after my 11 - 12 noon meeting..... We were kind of ready to go ... I bought the munchies Friday morning between appts and had packed the car with everything that was ready to go. I did NOT have the directions to the resort however.
Well first we had to address a call from Direct Detect regarding one of our properties, then drop in to Erik and Lisa's with last minute instructions for their open house Sat and Sun from 2 to 4... then without lunch under our belts, we hit the road.
First stop - kids to Mike and Frances for their getaway weekend, but first a stop at the Mandarin restaurant in Mississauga to stop those hunger pangs - a very nice lunch and Chris's idea !!!!
Then on to Mike and Frances and a mass exodus of 'stuff'' from the car - booster seats, clothes, games , stuffies etc etc and a quick kiss and hug goodbye ( the kids were thrilled to be with Mike and Frances and were not terribly interested in what or where their parents were going ) and off we went... 3 1-2 hours to the Bear Trail Inn..just outside Whitney ( in Algonquin Park ). Being the clever techno idiot , I had my internet stick and my netbook with me and went on the internet to get dirctions on how to get to our destination... and there were the gps coordinates for our gps !!!! Now I know in the past their website has said NOT to use gps to get there but I figured with the coordinates on the webpage this must now be ok ..... WRONG WRONG WRONG Turns out the coordinates were for plane taxis not cars !!! oops
Well first we had to address a call from Direct Detect regarding one of our properties, then drop in to Erik and Lisa's with last minute instructions for their open house Sat and Sun from 2 to 4... then without lunch under our belts, we hit the road.
First stop - kids to Mike and Frances for their getaway weekend, but first a stop at the Mandarin restaurant in Mississauga to stop those hunger pangs - a very nice lunch and Chris's idea !!!!
Then on to Mike and Frances and a mass exodus of 'stuff'' from the car - booster seats, clothes, games , stuffies etc etc and a quick kiss and hug goodbye ( the kids were thrilled to be with Mike and Frances and were not terribly interested in what or where their parents were going ) and off we went... 3 1-2 hours to the Bear Trail Inn..just outside Whitney ( in Algonquin Park ). Being the clever techno idiot , I had my internet stick and my netbook with me and went on the internet to get dirctions on how to get to our destination... and there were the gps coordinates for our gps !!!! Now I know in the past their website has said NOT to use gps to get there but I figured with the coordinates on the webpage this must now be ok ..... WRONG WRONG WRONG Turns out the coordinates were for plane taxis not cars !!! oops
Mistake 1 - leaving Toronto late - 3 pm on a Friday. We crawled out of the city - absolutely crawled...should have given the kids some sandwiches and stayed the course !!!
Mistake 2 - follow the gps directions onto an old old , now private road - no -road is too grandiose a word - path ?? until we finally admitted our folly and backtracked losing hours - well 1 hour.
Mistake 3 - bad timing, bad luck . Wrong place, wrong time . Bob, Leanne if you are reading this - stop now as Mazda lovers you will be upset by the following.
Mistake 2 - follow the gps directions onto an old old , now private road - no -road is too grandiose a word - path ?? until we finally admitted our folly and backtracked losing hours - well 1 hour.
Mistake 3 - bad timing, bad luck . Wrong place, wrong time . Bob, Leanne if you are reading this - stop now as Mazda lovers you will be upset by the following.
Now we are tracking , have phoned the resort who will have dinner in our room for us at 9:30 when we get there, we are now on hwy 127 heading for hwy 60 about 30 kms away from destination when who darts out of the forest but Bambi - medium size male buck. Well no warning , doing the speed limit - no way to avoid the thing and bang !!! Thankfully we were driving the Mazda not the Hyundai so the deer did not slide over the hood and hit the windshield , but the rad was destroyed and the front of the car is looking very sad. 
Its quite a weird feeling to be in the middle of literally no where with a dead deer at the side of the road and your 4 ways blinking woefully at 9 pm .... so we called police, insurance , and CAA and in a half hour or so along came the police. We also had a truck stop ahead of us and ask if we were ok and as soon as I said 'yup , we had just hit a deer , no one hurt' , he then asked if he could have the deer. A fairly common thing we found out as when the police showed up they were quite pleased there was someone already there that would remove it from the side of the road. A little weird we thought but hey , we don't live out here - what do we know.
So the car is probably getting a two week vacation while insurance sorts out adjusters coming up here to survey the damage and get an estimate from the car shop in Combermere and its made driveable again, we will get a rental , thankfully paid for by insurance , likely that will come from either Huntsville or Pembroke and hopefully it will be delivered to the lodge so come Sunday we can be on our way !!
In the meantime however , at this point of writing, it still has been a very romantic getaway. The tow truck fella was very good about driving us to the resort and waiting whilst we unloaded everything from the Mazda down to the last paperclip . Keys were left at the front desk making life easier for us to get to our room quickly . Dinner was waiting in our room mostly cold but certainly that was not the resorts fault, we got a fire going, got the food on the table and relaxed - it was just after midnight. Chris got romance back to centre stage. Deer and mushed grills have been temporarily forgotten. Enough said ...gotta go !
So the car is probably getting a two week vacation while insurance sorts out adjusters coming up here to survey the damage and get an estimate from the car shop in Combermere and its made driveable again, we will get a rental , thankfully paid for by insurance , likely that will come from either Huntsville or Pembroke and hopefully it will be delivered to the lodge so come Sunday we can be on our way !!
In the meantime however , at this point of writing, it still has been a very romantic getaway. The tow truck fella was very good about driving us to the resort and waiting whilst we unloaded everything from the Mazda down to the last paperclip . Keys were left at the front desk making life easier for us to get to our room quickly . Dinner was waiting in our room mostly cold but certainly that was not the resorts fault, we got a fire going, got the food on the table and relaxed - it was just after midnight. Chris got romance back to centre stage. Deer and mushed grills have been temporarily forgotten. Enough said ...gotta go !
OH MY-LANTA!!!
ReplyDeleteloved the recap of the tale --- best laid plans of mice and men
or in this case -- deer and men.....
glad you are okay.