Dryden, Round The Lakes And Back Through Dryden.

Six Days - 4571 Kilometres.

____ At last, a trip that kept moving smoothly and gave good miles everyday. It didn't look too promising at the start, with a Saturday morning departure for a delivery in Wisconsin. But after swapping an empty trailer for a full one at Dryden; it was into the States at International Falls and a Sunday afternoon discharge at Park Falls. One of the advantages of Penner International is that they do have a lot of trailers spotted about in the States and weekend trailer switches keep the wheels rolling. So, straight down to Neenah and a load destined for Burlington, Ontario.

____ A late night finish at the TA at Lake Station means a late start across the busy Interstate 94 towards Detroit. An hour loss to the Time Zone fairy gets me up to Mississauga late in the day but the office keeps me moving by switching trailers. A GTA city truck will take my load to Burlington while I head north to Barrie with an empty trailer. Getting out of Toronto in light evening traffic is an added bonus. But my real stroke of luck comes at the OnRoute Service Area at King City; a super B vacates a parking spot just as I roll in.

6 x 6 Bitsa Crane.

____ Loading at Barrie is a lengthy process with 10 drops of building products spread out across four provinces; starting at Sault Ste Marie in Ontario and finishing at Red Deer in Alberta. I get to do the first three and find the first one is just a couple of hundred yards down the road from the Husky Truckstop at the Soo. Service at the Husky seems to have improved; prompted, no doubt, by the arrival of a brand new Flying 'J at the other-side of town. Drop 1 done and the rest of the day is spent driving Highway 17 across the Canadian Shield; back to Dryden for the night and the completion of a great lake circle.

____ An eight-hour over-night break, an early start as dawn breaks; the end in sight. Drop 2 to Dugald and bit of soft dirt road driving before Drop 3 on the edge of Winnipeg. Drops 4 to 10 go to the Winnipeg yard; where there is an empty trailer to shuttle back to Steinbach for repairs. All done and dusted by 2 o'clock in the afternoon. I have just enough time to switch the tyres on the Mustang. Summer for Winter; but the the forecast is for snow and they are right; flurries outside as I write this.

White Western Star.