Away To North Bay

Traffic going up to North Bay.

At two pm a bus departed from Toronto to take about 25 of us up to North Bay for the weekend to shoot the Terry Fox TV movie. It seems that we got stuck in traffic. I'm guessing most of the vehicles were going up to cottages for the weekend. The bus, although half full, felt cramped. Take the train for five hours to Montreal and compare it to a bus ride for five and a half hours to North Bay and I think you'd prefer the train. Unless of course you're a person with short legs or likes sitting in the fetal position where your knees are at your chin.

The bus ride wasn't all that bad. One of the pluses was we got to stop at Webers. Webers is a burger/ice cream place somewhere near Orrillia somewhere on the way to North Bay. Sorry to all those techies out there I do not own a global positioning system. You can tell it's Webers from the diamond shaped sign and the bridge that allows people going south to cross the highway safely to get a bite.

The line up was pretty long, I'd say we were standing in line for about ten or fifteen minutes. I ordered a cheese burger with double patties. Efficient teenagers shuffled back and forth through the people in line taking orders, money, bringing back change and eventually gave you your food. In the end I should have ordered two cheese burgers. I got hungry after eating the first one, got in line again, only to find that I had to get out of line to get back on the bus that was going to leave. D'oh! I told myself that I'd be fine and could go get some food in North Bay. After all how much more of a bus ride would there be?

Something to consider when riding a bus. Keep in mind this may not be for all buses. I'm basing my experience with this one. I don't really remember the bus trip to and from Niagara Falls. Not only do they not have leg room but they also do not have those cool little fold out desks. I had to type on my psion using my camera bag as a make shift desk sitting on my lap. Because of the cramp factor the psion screen was almost eye level.

I also noticed that the seats never lean far enough back. Maybe due to the fact that usually there's a person behind you that would get squished. In order to support your head in the sleeping position usually I have to crouch down more until my knees are in the back of the person in the seat in front of me. By default then, assuming no one is sitting next to you, you usually lie on a tilt with your legs over the seat next to you and your back partially on the seat and partially on the side of the bus. It's uncomfortable and I really can't imagine doing the twelve hour bus trip to New York even with a stop in Syracuse.

The bus ride ended up being pretty tiring. After getting off the bus I got some food at a fancy schmancy resturant named Churchills. It had a piano player and dim lighting. Perfect for asking someone to marry you. Failing that, as I was with Tom the visual effects supervisor, it was good for ordering and eating expensive food. I was hungry and there were no other resturants in sight so I ordered the lamb with a side of mushrooms. My bill came to about $60.00 (without alcohol, after tax and tip). It certainly wasn't a Webers but the food was good. Even if all the piano guy could play was Billy Joel music it was still a good choice in the end..