We got the Jeep Commander a couple days
before our trip. Generally speaking it's a good idea to shake down new
equipment before relying on it for a long trip. That gave me two days
to check it over and drive it locally to see if anything surfaced. I
took this time to install the roof box for our luggage. This called
for drilling four holes in the brand new luggage rack cross-rails so the
u-brackets for the roof box would work. Alternatively I could have
purchased different rails with t-slots in them but there wasn't time and I
didn't want to spend another $200 for redundant rails. So I got to
drill on the vehicle less than two hours after taking delivery...
The tradition continues...
We learned with
the Wrangler
that having everything out of the passenger cabin made for a
much better travel experience. Even with the larger
interior capacity of the Commander, we wanted to leave the rear
area as unburdened as possible. All the overnight stuff would be in the overhead.
So here's what fits in the roof box with a little room to spare:
That's one very large roll-away
duffle bag (too large for airline carry-on), one carry-on
roll-away, two kid-sized roll-aways, one over-stuffed suit bag,
two athletic duffels, and one tote bag. Enough clothing
for a clothes-horse family of four for eight days.
Now I realize that
getting it all up there without a step ladder is not going to be
much fun, but that's where teamwork comes in. In actual
practice I was able to stand on the rear wheel and have items
passed up to me. This works fine.
Here's the Jeep all ready to hit the road -
nice and clean with no
crazy roof rack
things going on. Like I said: The same but different.
We're still using overhead storage but we streamlined it for this type of
trip.
We drove pretty much straight
through except for the necessary sorts of stops along the way.
We had brunch at Golden Corral near Erie,
PA at 10:35.
I had to stop to get sneakers because my
big boots were very uncomfortable in the limited space of the driver's side footwell.
With size 13's, large shoes do not work well in this vehicle -
in direct contrast to the Wrangler. My leg was cramped
within an hour of setting out - even with the cruise control
engaged. Wal*Mart to the rescue... We got back on the highway at Noon.
We reached
customs at 1:50 and cleared them at 2:11.
We spent about 20 minutes at
customs and another 10 minutes immediately after customs to get snacks,
Canadian currency and refresh ourselves. After that we continued up
the highway until we reached the Best Western Hotel in Newmarket, Ontario at
3:50pm.
After checking in and unloading, at 4:45pm we drove over to
Cliff & Anna's, about 5 minutes away, for dinner (KFC) and to visit.
I had ride in their 2007 Dodge Charger R/T
w HEMI on the way to KFC (whoosh!).
We visited for a while, got the latest
news.
The kids had some fun in Cliffs den.
At 8pm we headed back to the hotel.
I downloaded the GPS data from my legacy
system, loaded them for the maps and routes to Montreal and Québec, while
Maria got the kids cleaned up and ready for bed.
Next:
Sunday, April 1, 2007 - Toronto Ontario to
Montreal, Québec
