I have said at other times in these chronicles that I prefer to ride the back roads but Interstates can be OK if there's not too much truck traffic. Here's the problem, you never know what your going to get when you get on the freeway and you may be at a point that it's not easy to get off to a back road. Such was the case for us as we left Sarnia for Whitby.

We're heading to Whitby because we have an appointment with Rob Poineau of PDQ Yachts to see their 34' Power Catamaran. I had communicated with Rob a couple of times telling him I planned to be in the area this summer to visit some friends and would like to see their catamaran. As we got closer, I called him and we made a 2:00 o'clock appointment to tour the PDQ factory and see a boat.

Right off, the traffic was terrible. Then there was the lack of a speed limit. The signs all said 100 kmh, which is roughly 62 mph. Being a foreigner in a foreign land, I tried to obey the posted speed limit. Silly pup! Cars flew by me like I was standing still, heck; trucks flew by me like I was standing still. Do you know how it feels when an eighteen-wheeler comes by you on your left while you're being buffeted by dirty air from the truck in front of you? It's a real pain in the butt.

So Linda and I are talking about how bad the traffic is and then we reach London, ON. Heck, they were just getting us ready for the main event. Now the trucks, cars, SUV's, and anything else that would roll, were passing us, tailgating us, and generally trying to get somewhere in a hurry. To be fair, no one cut us off or honked, or otherwise was rude, but I was tense.

We finally get off Canadian 401 to take a break and try one of the Tim Horton donuts we kept seeing advertised. We figured they must be something like the Krispy Kremes that are sweeping America. The donuts were average but we met another Goldwing rider, named Ron Willingsly, who saved us much time and grief. He told us to take the toll road 407 to bypass Toronto. Man, that was the best thing that could have happened to us today. The number of trucks dropped drastically as did the amount of traffic. It was still terrible, but less terrible than it had been. We arrived at the PDQ factory about 30 minutes late and Rob was waiting for us.

I don't have any pictures of any of the places we passed today because I was too busy trying to survive to take any. The Ontario countryside was mainly open green fields with scattered trees and slight rolling hills.

The PDQ 34 Power cat is a boat we are interested in purchasing. We were able to go through the factory as well as go aboard a boat that was in the process of being commissioned. I have included a couple of the pictures I took of the work being done (photos 1, 2, 3, 4 & 5). From what we saw it looks like this is going to be a beautiful boat.

We had no desire to face the greater Toronto traffic again once we left the PDQ factory. Rob directed us to a new motel in the town, which we gladly drove to and put and end to the worst traffic day of the entire trip. If I ever pretend that I enjoy riding on freeways, remind me of Toronto.

Tomorrow we will get up early to see some new friends we met last year on the road, Igor and Joanna, who live in the Annex neighborhood of Toronto. I'm hoping that Saturday morning will be different than Friday afternoons on the freeway. We shall see.

Today's Route: Canadian Hwy 403 to Hwy 401 to Hwy 407 Toll Road to Whitby.