22 cars and a doll make for a real # EggBeater
7,000- kilometre trip involves a lot of pretty fall scenery across Atlantic Canada
Sometimes my commitment schedule gets away from me. Too much travel and too many things that need to be done in too little time. I’m sure most people occasionally feel life is like an egg- beater, mixing then scattering all the chores, errands and responsibilities in a thousand directions at a pace that seems impossible.
That egg- beater feeling happened a couple of weeks ago when I checked my short- term work schedule following a slew of business meetings. After formulating a plan, it turned out I’d be driving 22 different vehicles a total of 7,000 kilometres over the next 10 days. That’s a lot of keys, hotel rooms, fuel stops, meetings and blacktop.
As I chipped away at the plan, I eyed a handmade doll I recently bought. She had been propped up on the hotel bed when wife Lisa Calvi and I checked into the spanking new Drake Devonshire Inn in Prince Edward County, Ont. The gangly, intricately detailed doll looked cranky, and that might be the reason we bought her before checking out.
“I don’t know how to make all this work, Lisa,” I said.
“Life will be busy the next 10 days but perhaps we can make Cranky Face, the doll, smile out there on # TheEggBeater.”
I figured using the Twitter hashtag would make my online social media communications about my upcoming missions more entertaining.
Mission 1: Pick up a new Volkswagen Touareg TDI from Toronto and deliver it to Trout Point Lodge near Yarmouth, N. S., 2,200 kilometres away. I’ve done the Toronto- to- Halifax drive many times and, after dropping Lisa at Montreal’s Trudeau Airport, Cranky Face and I made it from there to Halifax in 12 hours and 12 minutes.
The following morning we set out to complete Mission 1 with a 600km return drive from Halifax to Trout Point Lodge in East Kemptville in southern Nova Scotia.
The sun shining on an Instagramworthy display of fall colours when I pulled the well- mannered Touareg into the driveway of the remote, rustic and luxurious Trout Point Lodge. Of course, the staff was all smiles when I handed over the keys to the V- 6 3.0litre TDI Clean Diesel Touareg.
Mission 1: Accomplished. At 4 a. m. the next morning, I started the weekly 1,200km shuffle. In 20 hours, I drove an Audi SQ5, a Camaro SS convertible, a Porsche Macan S and five others as # TheEggBeater shifted into high gear. Since this happens every week, It didn’t count as a real mission, though.
That night, the plan for Mission 2 was hatched. My 1980 Volvo 245 DL, Red Cloud, on exhibit at the Maritime Motorsport Hall of Fame Museum in Petitcodiac, N. B., had snagged a six- week gig hanging out at Halifax’s Volvo dealership as part of their 40thanniversary celebration.
After considering the hassle of renewing the plates, a safety inspection and the what- ifs associated with driving 300 km in a 34- year- old car that hasn’t been driven for two years, I concluded hauling it in our enclosed Haulmark trailer was a smarter option.
I talked the folks at the museum into letting my ’ 91 GMC Jimmy, a veteran of a slew of motoring adventures in the early 1990s, fill the temporarily vacant spot left by the Volvo.
OK. Cue Rimsky- Korsakov’s Flight of the Bumblebee for # TheEggBeater Mission 2!
Pick up the trailer from its storage spot in a buddy’s driveway in eastern Nova Scotia, haul it to Halifax with our GMC HD Duramax diesel, evict the Pontiac Firefly that lives in the trailer, load the Jimmy, haul it 300 km to Petitcodiac, extract the Volvo from the Maritime Motorsport Hall of Fame Museum, swap it in the trailer for the Jimmy, install the Jimmy into the museum, haul the Volvo to Halifax, unload it at the Volvo dealership, load the Firefly back into its nest then haul the trailer back to my friend’s place and hope his patience holds while the white behemoth clogs his driveway for another spell.
# TheEggBeater cranks on. Cranky Face’s gnarled expression seems even more menacing after realizing she missed that road trip. Buck up, doll!
Mission 3 involved a flight to St. John’s, N. L., where Lisa and I picked up a 2015 Mitsubishi Outlander GT that needed to be driven to Halifax. No sweat. A 900km drive across The Rock from St. John’s to Channel- Port aux Basques for a day sail back to Nova Scotia.
Our assignment included getting some video of the handsome, energetic and all- new Outlander. That pesky video assignment became an eggbeater within # TheEggBeater since finding those vignettes became the order of every minute of every day.
It was during the Marine Atlantic ferry crossing from Newfoundland to North Sydney that I could finally see the end of # TheEggBeater. What seemed at first an impossibility turned into a series of sweet fall escape drives through Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Newfoundland.
But when I checked my day planner to see what the next 10 days held, I counted six flights, two 1,200km vehicle shuffles and a fleet of Cadillac ATS coupes to coach through their national media launch.
Indeed, # TheEggBeater winds on.