April 29: Halifax to Ontario

Well I headed out from Halifax at 5pm, was a little late getting out as needed to make a stop at BestBuy to get a few extra camera parts and a whole lot of memories cards, but was out on the road at 5.

This would be the first time that I put the smart on the highway for longer then 30 minutes, so a lot of unknowns, but after the first 2 hours I was smiling as the smart handles and was for me no different then driving any other vehicle.

I drove and drove, first thing that got me on the brakes where some dear crossing the highway, was a nice reminder to think about animals and a nice test of the brakes, they passed the test.

After that was getting some heavy rain, had to slow down a bit but wasn't concerned as the tires are designed to handle the weather. It wasn't till the rain turned into snow that I started to worry, it was the end of April and it was snowing and it was night, so slow and cautious I went.

I got into Quebec and was very disappointed by the roads they are single lane and not well kept, add to that about an hour into Quebec I hit a full on blizzard, if it wasn't for my HID fog lights I wouldn't have even been able to see the road. I drove about 5 minutes to the first off ramp, took the off ramp and ended up pulling behind a building and curling into a ball across the seats to try and get some rest and wait out the storm. BTW the smart has daytime running lights and they can't be turned off, even with the e-brake up, so with the car on to keep the heat I had a nice glare, which is why I parked the smart behind a building.

After just over an hour of a very unique way of sleeping I was back on the road, the snow storm had passed and I was back to lite rain. About another 5 hours on the road then it was enough driving for me and my body, just outside of Montreal I grabbed a hotel room and had 4 hours of nice sleep.

Back on the road at around 7am and into morning rush hour in Montreal, wasn't a pleasant part of the trip, never liked stop and go traffic when you can also see miles ahead of you with nothing but traffic.

After Montreal it was easy driving straight into smart Canada, which was a nice sight to see, will blog about that shortly...

(photos and videos yet to be uploaded)