Tour du Nord II: St. John's Newfoundland Feb 17-22

[NHRef]

With a bit of trepidation given where this thread had gone to last day or two . . .

Ross, you're welcome to ride with me.

[Bonnie Blue]

We were reviewing the rates/schedules for the Marine Atlantic ferry and see that it's $76.50 CD one way for autos/pickups up to 20'. So, will two Minis add up to less than 20'? Suppose one wants to buy one ticket for two Minis? Is that possible?

[NoNo]

Unfortunately, I think the MINI is 12' long, so we're just over that limit. But that would have been nice if it worked out.

[NHRef]

Yeah, but they are stackable! What's the height restriction?

We could put DuctTape's upside down on top of another MINI.

[MinorRoadsKill]

More trip information, including FAQs, ferry info, budgeting, etc are now available at the trip website: http://www.arcticmini.com. The itinerary has also been tweaked a bit regarding ferry arrival timing.

Ross

[NoNo]

Interesting. This seems considerably more expensive than last year. Unless Peter lied to me when I asked how much I owed. But I suppose you can't put a price on happiness. To prove my point and show my excitement for the trip, I'll share with you these:



That's right, I bought special underwear. They have men's, too. Kind of the same as under armor, plus they dry in 2 hours, so you wash a pair, wear a pair. Best of all, odor resistant. Crucial on 16 hour drives Ex Officio. They've got a lot of cool stuff on their site.

[NHRef]

Quote: Originally Posted by MinorRoadsKill

More trip information, including FAQs, ferry info, budgeting, etc are now available at the trip website: http://www.arcticmini.com. The itinerary has also been tweaked a bit regarding ferry arrival timing.

Ross

Well done, Ross!

From the look of it, we should purchase underwear here . . .

[MinorRoadsKill]

NoNo & NHRef:

I hope to get a ride from one of you two, and the next thing you do is show me your underwear?

That's fresh.

NoNo, as to the cost, I think it is only a little more expensive this year. I suspect that most people spent more than they recollect, if they didn't do a budget. My own costs are up about US$150 over last year, but last year I lived along the route and could sleep at my house for 2 of the nights.

Where's the extra cost?
- more tolls
- more expensive gas
- ferry (however, at 4 to a room, it's a cheaper hotel, offsetting some costs)
- if you take the scenic option, it's a longer trip than last year

What's really expensive is not having a co-pilot and someone to share hotel rooms with, which is why we should try to find passengers for everyone who wants one.

Also, once we firm up our head count, we can make some decisions about our accommodations, which could be cheaper than I budgeted, depending upon what people want. I budgeted $100/night, but that's quite high for Bangor, and is probably a little high for the off season in St. John's, especially if we can get a group rate. IOW, accommodations should actually be cheaper than last year, because we're not as remote.

---

It took until this week, but now I am so pumped for this trip. I can't wait for Newfoundland.

Ross

[MinorRoadsKill]

I got a call back from the ferry company, and apparently we can do a form of group booking. Also, ferry loading in winter starts 2 hours ahead of departure rather than 1, so we'll have the group meeting onboard after the 60-minute-before-departure reservation deadline rather than ahead of time. This is good because it gives people an extra half hour to get to the ferry on Friday night, although trying to cut it too close is still not advised. If the ferry is already full with commercial trucks at 60 minutes to go when the reservations expire, the ferry packs it in and leaves ahead of schedule.

Also, if we have 25 or more people (we had 24 last year), we'll qualify for group rates on the ferry. A whopping C$2.25 off of the $27 per-person tarrif.

The other itinerary change is having breakfast on the ferry in both directions. Other good news (esp. for DUCTTAPE): on the return journey, sunrise will be 10 to 20 minutes before the ferry disembarks. So, provided that it isn't foggy, we should able to clearly witness our own arrival in North Sydney after all.

Also, I've added a 'to bring' list, largely derived from NHRef's ode to long johns.

http://www.arcticmini.com/2006kitlist.htm

NHRef: Out of interest, on your list, what is the air compressor for? Getting off the lug nuts, or something else?

Ross

[Oldpaint]

Looking at the list from a US perspective, Passports are required and Canadian inter-province car insurance cards.

[NoNo]

No, I checked, and I could have sworn that the passport thing starts next year. I'll have to go back and check that.

[NoNo]

From the Department of State website:

New Requirements for Travelers Between the United States and the Western Hemisphere


The Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004 requires that by January 1, 2008, travelers to and from the Caribbean, Bermuda, Panama, Mexico and Canada have a passport or other secure, accepted document to enter or re-enter the United States. In order to facilitate the implementation of this requirement, the Administration is proposing to complete it in phases following a proposed timeline, which will be published in the Federal Register in the near future.

This is a change from prior travel requirements and will affect all United States citizens entering the United States from countries within the Western Hemisphere who do not currently possess valid passports. This new requirement will also affect certain foreign nationals who currently are not required to present a passport to travel to the United States. Most Canadian citizens, citizens of the British Overseas Territory of Bermuda, and to a lesser degree, Mexican citizens will be affected by the implementation of this requirement.

[NoNo]

And some more:

When will the Travel Initiative be implemented?

In the proposed implementation plan, which is subject to a period of initial public comment, the Initiative will be rolled out in phases, providing as much advance notice as possible to the affected public to enable them to meet the terms of the new guidelines. The proposed timeline will be as follows:
December 31, 2006 – Requirement applied to all air and sea travel to or from Canada, Mexico, Central and South America, the Caribbean, and Bermuda.
December 31, 2007 – Requirement extended to all land border crossings as well as air and sea travel.

I thought there was an additional phase to be implemented on December 31, 2005. Is this a change?

In April 2005, the Departments of State (DOS) and Homeland Security (DHS) announced a proposed plan to be implemented in three phases beginning on December 31, 2005 for the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative. After further review and considering the delay in publishing the public notice in the Federal Register, DOS and DHS recognized that implementing the December 31, 2005, phase would be problematic for travelers during the upcoming winter tourism season. This change will simplify the implementation and provide a longer lead-time for travelers to come into compliance with the requirements.

So it looks like they were going to do it, but decided to give it more time. Which works out for me because I don't have a passport yet.

[MGB Boy]

I'll be interested to see if it happens at all. Border towns (on both sides) are pushing hard against this as they are so economically dependent on cross-border traffic, I don't know if I'd consider it a done deal yet. The impact on retail, tourism, restaurants etc. could be considerable...

-Ricardo

[NoNo]

Do Mounties even carry guns? If I took off at the border, what could they do? Shake their fists' angrilly at me?