Road trip into Quebec to Valcourt.
As folks in Quebec probably know . . . and die-hard sledders might know . . . this is where the Ski Doo factory is located.
Started the day at 3 a.m. Got on the bus in Bangor at 4:30 a.m. Ride north . . . or rather northwest . . . was rather uneventful except for a DVD player on the bus that had a bad connection as every time we hit a bump the sound would suddenly get really loud until we would hit another bump and then you could barely hear it. It made sleeping a bit hard as you would just doze off, the bus would hit a bump and then you would be blasted by Jerry Reed singing the Smokey and the Bandit theme song.
The bus also didn't have the DVD remote so we ended up watching the movie about Bombardier and his life story all in French as we could not switch it to English . . . sadly the three years I took French in high school failed me.
Only other thing worth mentioning on the way up is that some folks should not sit in the back of the bus . . . had two kids blow chunks when they got motion sickness. I heard the bathroom in the back was destroyed. I wisely choose to not use the bus bathroom for the entire trip.
Got to the border and learned everyone either had their passport, pass card or driver's license and birth certificate except for one guy who apparently had a vehicle registration . . . somehow he managed to make it into Canada . . . and back again.
Ski-Doo (originally it was supposed to be Ski-Dog by the way -- clerical error made it Ski-Doo) tour of the factory was incredible. Saw a bunch of MXZs and Grand Tourings being made. Lots of cool Japanese factory concepts borrowed from Toyota -- meetings held on the floor while standing up around round tables, parts are made as needed in limited batches vs. having huge inventories of all parts, work spaces are clean and uncluttered, etc.
Museum was also pretty neat -- saw the original B-7, B-12 . . . Muskeg . . . wild race machines . . . neat thing was the museum also paid homage to other brands which were revolutionary with regards to design.
Lunch was interesting . . . went to a Chinese restaurant across the street where we were given a meal consisting of a burger, hot dog, fries and soda . . . very odd since we were in a Chinese restaurant.
Valcourt itself is interesting . . . something like 2,500 folks live there we were told . . . and the Ski Doo factory has 2,300 employees -- obviously there are folks who live in other towns nearby so not everyone in
Valcourt works there.
Return trip was interesting. Started with the bus driver nearly rear ending and then almost clipping a small car that pulled out in front of him and then a mile or so down the road suddenly turned on its left hand turn signal and braked hard and fast.
Border crossing in Coburn Gore was very long . . . didn't help that we had the one guy without any paperwork . . . or the student who was 17 and had chewing tobacco on him.
On the windy road in Coburn Gore when we rounded a corner and found a tractor trailer on its side completely blocking the road . . . shredded paper all over the place. Driver was OK, just a bit ticked off at himself. No fuel spill. After some pondering the bus driver thought that righting the truck would take a very long time since a wrecker would have to come from Skowhegan . . . and where and how the truck was placed looked to be pretty bad. So we headed back into Canada . . . and back through the border crossing as we made the very long detour to get to Jackman.
It was an hour or so into the detour that I was watching the movie when I happened to glance out the front window (I was sitting in the second row) and I about crapped my pants . . . our very large tour bus was apparently driving in the middle of nowhere . . . gravel road, no homes . . . some telephone lines at first . . . and then a bridge that had a snow fence partially in front of it (think the wind blew it there) along with a sign indicating that bikers could cross the bridge there . . . nothing about tour buses. I half expected to hear banjo music. The bus driver later said he was getting a bit nervous himself and at one point had checked a second GPSr to see if we were heading the right way. In any case, we eventually saw a house and after a few more minutes returned to tar.
Made it to the Jackman border where we were told three trees were blocking the road. We cleared customs and then proceeded to follow a border patrol vehicle and eventually met up with a Jackman Fire Engine that was just finishing clearing one of the three trees . . . followed them the rest of the way into Jackman. Fortunately, no more downed trees and the one moose and couple of deer we saw stayed on the side of the road instead of playing chicken with the bus.
Arrived in Skowhegan a few minutes before 11 p.m. where we stopped for "dinner" (fortunately the teacher coordinating this trip had stockpiled plenty of snacks) . . . got back in the big city a little after midnight . . . back home and in bed by 1 a.m.
As folks in Quebec probably know . . . and die-hard sledders might know . . . this is where the Ski Doo factory is located.
Started the day at 3 a.m. Got on the bus in Bangor at 4:30 a.m. Ride north . . . or rather northwest . . . was rather uneventful except for a DVD player on the bus that had a bad connection as every time we hit a bump the sound would suddenly get really loud until we would hit another bump and then you could barely hear it. It made sleeping a bit hard as you would just doze off, the bus would hit a bump and then you would be blasted by Jerry Reed singing the Smokey and the Bandit theme song.
The bus also didn't have the DVD remote so we ended up watching the movie about Bombardier and his life story all in French as we could not switch it to English . . . sadly the three years I took French in high school failed me.
Only other thing worth mentioning on the way up is that some folks should not sit in the back of the bus . . . had two kids blow chunks when they got motion sickness. I heard the bathroom in the back was destroyed. I wisely choose to not use the bus bathroom for the entire trip.
Got to the border and learned everyone either had their passport, pass card or driver's license and birth certificate except for one guy who apparently had a vehicle registration . . . somehow he managed to make it into Canada . . . and back again.
Ski-Doo (originally it was supposed to be Ski-Dog by the way -- clerical error made it Ski-Doo) tour of the factory was incredible. Saw a bunch of MXZs and Grand Tourings being made. Lots of cool Japanese factory concepts borrowed from Toyota -- meetings held on the floor while standing up around round tables, parts are made as needed in limited batches vs. having huge inventories of all parts, work spaces are clean and uncluttered, etc.
Museum was also pretty neat -- saw the original B-7, B-12 . . . Muskeg . . . wild race machines . . . neat thing was the museum also paid homage to other brands which were revolutionary with regards to design.
Lunch was interesting . . . went to a Chinese restaurant across the street where we were given a meal consisting of a burger, hot dog, fries and soda . . . very odd since we were in a Chinese restaurant.
Valcourt itself is interesting . . . something like 2,500 folks live there we were told . . . and the Ski Doo factory has 2,300 employees -- obviously there are folks who live in other towns nearby so not everyone in
Valcourt works there.
Return trip was interesting. Started with the bus driver nearly rear ending and then almost clipping a small car that pulled out in front of him and then a mile or so down the road suddenly turned on its left hand turn signal and braked hard and fast.
Border crossing in Coburn Gore was very long . . . didn't help that we had the one guy without any paperwork . . . or the student who was 17 and had chewing tobacco on him.
On the windy road in Coburn Gore when we rounded a corner and found a tractor trailer on its side completely blocking the road . . . shredded paper all over the place. Driver was OK, just a bit ticked off at himself. No fuel spill. After some pondering the bus driver thought that righting the truck would take a very long time since a wrecker would have to come from Skowhegan . . . and where and how the truck was placed looked to be pretty bad. So we headed back into Canada . . . and back through the border crossing as we made the very long detour to get to Jackman.
It was an hour or so into the detour that I was watching the movie when I happened to glance out the front window (I was sitting in the second row) and I about crapped my pants . . . our very large tour bus was apparently driving in the middle of nowhere . . . gravel road, no homes . . . some telephone lines at first . . . and then a bridge that had a snow fence partially in front of it (think the wind blew it there) along with a sign indicating that bikers could cross the bridge there . . . nothing about tour buses. I half expected to hear banjo music. The bus driver later said he was getting a bit nervous himself and at one point had checked a second GPSr to see if we were heading the right way. In any case, we eventually saw a house and after a few more minutes returned to tar.
Made it to the Jackman border where we were told three trees were blocking the road. We cleared customs and then proceeded to follow a border patrol vehicle and eventually met up with a Jackman Fire Engine that was just finishing clearing one of the three trees . . . followed them the rest of the way into Jackman. Fortunately, no more downed trees and the one moose and couple of deer we saw stayed on the side of the road instead of playing chicken with the bus.
Arrived in Skowhegan a few minutes before 11 p.m. where we stopped for "dinner" (fortunately the teacher coordinating this trip had stockpiled plenty of snacks) . . . got back in the big city a little after midnight . . . back home and in bed by 1 a.m.
