Tuesday, September 05, 2006
Sunday Sept 3rd Meadville Pennsylvania – Toronto /Pearson Airport 393 km
Seemed that our good luck with the weather had finally ended. Previous day had already been quite a bit cooler than we were used to. But Sunday morning in Meadville was grey, foggy and rainy. We started at 07:30 and headed for Erie PA and took I-90 towards Buffalo NY.
The border crossing to Canada was piece of cake or actually I would call it a joke. The whole process took 4 minutes. The border control checked our passports, looked at the funny licence plates and made sure that we are really going to leave Canada shortly. That was all.
As we seemed to have plenty of time we decided to take a look at the Nigara Falls. I had seen them back in 1991 but it was high time to refresh my memory. We visited the Skylon tower and luckily the weather improved slowly (or at least the rain had stopped although the clouds still hang low).
We arrived to the Cargo Zone International at 14:30 and we had plenty of time to wash the bikes at a local Shell station. We had accidentally filled too much gas on our way to Toronto so we had to use our siphon to take out some 12 liters total from both tanks. We donated the gas to the gas station manager who put it in his own tank and this is how we paid for the bike wash water.
The Skylon tower.
Horseshoe seen from the Skylon.
The other waterfall (whatchamacallit...).
Jouko taking gas out from the tank. We took it to the level where the yellow alarm light comes on.
However, we could have had any amount of gas in the tank. Cargo Zone guys were not checking the amount. They must have trusted us telling that the tanks are almost empty...
Of course the captain of the aircraft can demand a checkup of the fuel so it makes no sense trying to fool anyone.
"Cargo Zone International" sounds like a big enterprise. In reality it was one of the three dozen other similar small cargo handling companies. The only way to get the bikes to their warehouse was to ride them up a (pretty light looking) aluminum ramp, which the guys dropped down from the loading dock. We could have easily damaged the bikes already there. It was slippery and the angle was way too steep for LT, it got stuck from the belly but enough speed helped...
Bikes already in the warehouse being loaded with our riding gear.
The practise and standards of this company were about 10 years behind the cargo handler in Frankfurt. No security measures, they had no idea how the bikes would be packed, on a pallet or in a container. (And still they said that they do this all the time...)
We taught the foreman how to operate the electric centerstand but we consider it a miracle if one or the other of the bikes has not been dropped.
But all the paperwork was very easy in Canada! No running around or calling different companies. Cargo Zone took care of everything. (Or at least that is our hope!) We will see tomorrow morning!
Blog being updated at Motel 6 in Meadville PA previous night.
The border crossing to Canada was piece of cake or actually I would call it a joke. The whole process took 4 minutes. The border control checked our passports, looked at the funny licence plates and made sure that we are really going to leave Canada shortly. That was all.
As we seemed to have plenty of time we decided to take a look at the Nigara Falls. I had seen them back in 1991 but it was high time to refresh my memory. We visited the Skylon tower and luckily the weather improved slowly (or at least the rain had stopped although the clouds still hang low).
We arrived to the Cargo Zone International at 14:30 and we had plenty of time to wash the bikes at a local Shell station. We had accidentally filled too much gas on our way to Toronto so we had to use our siphon to take out some 12 liters total from both tanks. We donated the gas to the gas station manager who put it in his own tank and this is how we paid for the bike wash water.
The Skylon tower.
Horseshoe seen from the Skylon.
The other waterfall (whatchamacallit...).
Jouko taking gas out from the tank. We took it to the level where the yellow alarm light comes on.
However, we could have had any amount of gas in the tank. Cargo Zone guys were not checking the amount. They must have trusted us telling that the tanks are almost empty...
Of course the captain of the aircraft can demand a checkup of the fuel so it makes no sense trying to fool anyone.
"Cargo Zone International" sounds like a big enterprise. In reality it was one of the three dozen other similar small cargo handling companies. The only way to get the bikes to their warehouse was to ride them up a (pretty light looking) aluminum ramp, which the guys dropped down from the loading dock. We could have easily damaged the bikes already there. It was slippery and the angle was way too steep for LT, it got stuck from the belly but enough speed helped...
Bikes already in the warehouse being loaded with our riding gear.
The practise and standards of this company were about 10 years behind the cargo handler in Frankfurt. No security measures, they had no idea how the bikes would be packed, on a pallet or in a container. (And still they said that they do this all the time...)
We taught the foreman how to operate the electric centerstand but we consider it a miracle if one or the other of the bikes has not been dropped.
But all the paperwork was very easy in Canada! No running around or calling different companies. Cargo Zone took care of everything. (Or at least that is our hope!) We will see tomorrow morning!
Blog being updated at Motel 6 in Meadville PA previous night.
