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I am proud to announce that I have started a program in Southern Ontario to help get Nurses and Doctors to their hospitals when bad winter storms roll in. Our medical system is stretched to the breaking point already due to so many staff shortages and whenever there is a major snow storm, hospitals see a huge increase in absentees.
The Storm Trooper Cruisers initiative has the singular goal of getting nurses and doctors into work so that they can do what they do best…save lives.
The program is made up of volunteers of 4×4 owners & enthusiasts who donate their time, fuel, expertise, and equipment, to drive essential workers to work. They can get picked up from home and dropped of on the steps of their respective hospitals at no cost. We just can’t promise to get you there on time.
I was inspired by a similar program in Moncton, New Brunswick and from that the Ontario Storm Trooper Cruisers was formed.
If you have a suitable 4×4 and would like to join the team, contact me. If you’re a medical professional in need of a ride to work when the weather turns foul, email me and I’ll try and arrange a ride for you. Also, let your hospital administration know that this service is available in Southern Ontario. If they ever need to activate their Emergency Operations Centre, they can reach out to arrange rides for their staff.
It’s been about 30yrs since I developed a desire for a Jeep Wrangler. Thirty years of watching them drive by, watching them evolve, adding extra doors and features, and I hoped that one day I would have one. Finally…after 30yrs longing…there is a Jeep Wrangler Rubicon with my name on the ownership. It’s a used one (a 2019) but it’s in great condition and whenever I drive it, I find that I have a huge shit-eating grin on my face.
My partner…whenever she sees me behind the wheel…smiles, laughs, and pats my shoulder because she sees that this vehicle really does have my name on it. Not just on paper.
I have yet to name it…that’s something that needs to just come to you naturally for some reason or another. This is true for any vehicle. You can’t just pick a random name. There has to be an earned ‘reason’ or ‘occurrence’ when naming a vehicle and sometimes it takes months for that to happen.
Until then, I look forward to a winter of snow and ice, and my first road trip in my new, well….new to me, Jeep Wrangler Rubicon. Time to get dirty.
Categories: Equipment|Comments Off on Another Dream Come True
For my epic road trip and Expedition around Canada, I chose the 18″ Assurance ComfortDrive tires from Goodyear. As an Instructor with the ILR Car Control School, we have a special relationship with Goodyear because we truly believe in their products (and they believe in us). So when my van Moose needed some new shoes before going on a massive road trip around the country, over two months, I chose to go with the Assurance ComfortDrive tires on some snazzy looking 18″ wheels. Okay yes…they are rather large for my van, too large in fact (it originally takes a 16″ tire), but they do look really nice and the wheels I mounted them on provided a lot of airflow around the brakes, which is always a good thing.
Now according to Goodyear, the Assurance ComfortDrive is an All-Season tire, but in practice it’s a touring tire best suited for mild to warm temperatures, and it should be limited to hard surfaces. Simply put…they are designed for paved roads. Period. I wouldn’t recommend them in the winter. I’ve used these same tires before on another vehicle and in icy, snowy conditions, they don’t perform very well, so you’re better off getting a proper winter tire when the winter season comes.
My road trip started off in Toronto, went to Vancouver and Victoria on the Pacific coast, then up the Dempster Highway to Tuktoyaktuk on the Arctic Ocean, and then traversed the Prairies again back to Ontario. Nearly 18,000km in just under two months and my tires were exposed to a wide range of temperatures from 6 Celsius to +30 Celsius (42F to +86F), and all types of weather and road conditions.
They also suffered the grueling Dempster Highway in the Arctic Circle, which is an 880km (550 mile) road of hellish abuse and not for the faint of heart. This road no longer needs a 4×4 but I would still recommend it. Remember that every mountain needs to be climbed twice…to the top and back down again. With that in mind, I drove the Dempster twice and thanks to some miserable weather, it was a totally different level of hell on the way back. You can read all about the Dempster Highway here.
The main tire killers on the Dempster are wheel crushing potholes and the sharp tire shredding shale that makes up much of the surface. It is said that it’s mandatory to carry a spare tire because the odds of getting a flat are nearly 100% and I did see a couple of people suffer from blowouts The service centre at Eagle Plains is usually swamped with tire repairs. Although a flat tire is NOT an experience that I had on the Dempster, or anywhere else for that matter, while on this epic road trip.
As an 18″ tire, there isn’t much of a sidewall to absorb heavy shocks, but the construction of the Goodyear Assurance ComfortDrive allowed it to soak up even the most jarring potholes as well as the wash-board dirt roads that were so violent they could shake loose the fillings in your teeth. I hit some pot holes so hard that I truly felt the need to apologize out loud to my van.
Goodyear Assurance ComfortDrive delivers even on surfaces that it wasn’t designed for.
These tires also performed extremely well on wet roads and although you can feel the puddles under you, they do well at evacuating water so they can better maintain traction with the road. They even did very well on loose gravel, but they did however struggle with thick, wet mud, and on slick dirt/muddy roads. Well of course…they were not designed for that. Still though…they delivered, and even though I was at times probably driving too fast for the conditions, they complimented my skill set to kept me from flying off the road and landing deep in the Tundra.
I can’t praise them enough actually. Over the entire trip they performed extremely well and even survived the abusive conditions of the Dempster for which they were NOT designed for.
So if you’re wondering if this is a good reliable tire…yes…absolutely. They have truly impressed me on this mega road trip and I would highly recommend them for most driving conditions. Okay…don’t take them offroading, and it would be best to stay out of slippery mud.
Categories: Equipment|Comments Off on Goodyear Assurance ComfortDrive Touring Tires Outperform Expectations
It’s a little ironic that I’ve never been hunting. Although I have gone fishing in my youth with my Grandfather…does that count? I suppose it does yes but fishing isn’t what comes to mind when you think of hunting.
The irony being because I’m a Canadian outdoorsman and my Dutch surname literally translates to “the Hunter”. However, I’ve never fired a rifle or bow at an animal. The only thing I’ve ever shot an animal with is my camera.
In today’s age of modern conveniences, and living in a major city, there is no need for me to hunt. I have no problem with those who hunt as a way of life and in some way survive off doing so. Many people rely on hunting as a food source. Just like when I went fishing with my Grandfather, we would eat the fish that we caught, and for those hunters who eat what they kill, I have no problem with that. It’s an important resource and when done responsibly, it’s sustainable in small numbers. I’ve even known a few people over the years who went further than just using the meet for food. They would also harvest the skins, pelts, and bones to make clothing and tools. Over-hunting though can have disastrous results. Just look at what happened to the Bison in North America. Their numbers were in the tens of millions and they were hunted nearly to extinction. The same can be said about many other species in the world.
I do have a problem with Sport or Trophy Hunters. Those who hunt just for the sake of their own ego, and go out and kill large animals, especially endangered ones…well let’s just say I have little patience for those types of people. If you want to go to Africa and do a “Big Game” hunt for a Rino, or Elephant…I won’t shed a tear if you yourself get shot.
In Canada, we have one of the most diverse ecosystems in the word with creatures ranging from the smallest Gnats up to the majestic Moose, Elk, Caribou, Wolves, and Bison, as well as a range of bears like Black, Brown, Grizzly, and the truly massive Polar Bears (although their numbers are dwindling fast).
Now you would think that on a road trip around the country, that I would see many of these large animals but that isn’t the case. I’m moving rather fast in a vehicle, crossing huge distances each day. The only wildlife I would see would be whatever can be seen from the roadway, and since most animals are skittish, they stay away from noisy places like roadways. It’s only at night when the roads are less traveled when the animals are usually nearby.
Although there are exceptions and sometimes those big beautiful animals that you want to see, wander close enough to the road during the day. If you’re really lucky, you’ll be able to shoot them…with your camera. Usually though, you’ll only get a passing glimpse of them. I was extremely fortunate to see several types of large animals in the northern British Columbia region, as well as in the Yukon and North West Territories. I was even more fortunate to be able to capture them with my camera. Getting that elusive black bear was one of my prize trophies, as well as the Bison, Big Horn Sheep, and the one animal I never thought I would even see in the wild tolerated my presence long enough for some photos…a Canadian Lynx.
Shooting a deer, moose, or a bear with my camera may not fill my stomach, but it does fill my soul.
On my road trip up to the Arctic, I was fortunate enough to see the following:
Some people may be curious how my van got the name “Moose”. Well, I’ve never really been one to name my vehicles, although a couple did have some sort of nickname.
In this case though, I knew that this van would certainly have a significant role to play in my life in the near future. When I bought the van, it was just to have more space for my RC stuff and I planned on sleeping in it on the weekends when I went RC racing. I hadn’t at this point decided to drive around the country in it. Although…it didn’t take long for the idea to become planted in my head.
One day while working with the ILR Car Control School, at their facility in Brampton, I saw in the parking lot a small stuffed TY Animal and on the tag it said…Canada Moose. It was of course a small moose.
It was dirty and tattered and it looked like it had been driven over by a car or two, so I figured I would take it home and toss it in the wash. If it survived, it would become the mascot for the van and the van would be named Moose.
Well it survived the washing machine and now sits in the ashtray of the dashboard. It, like the van, got a new lease on life.
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