When you read the title of today’s post you may be wondering how to get out of a car accident right into a hot tub. Just to tell you so much at the moment: it’s possible.
But first things first: we started into a not so long driving day as yesterday’s 680km-journey with just around 350km to go. Also our destination was not a parking lot again but the home of our grand cousin close to Toronto, in a village with just 700 inhabitants.
The drive was mostly not so spectacular, just highways and one kilometre after the other passing by while were listening to podcasts, looking outside the window and having nice talks about this and that.
After half the way we switched our music – from podcast to musical. To be more specific: Hamilton. A fantastic musical you should definitely check out (it’s on Spotify) because it’s really amazing, trust me.
So we did sing along a bit and enjoyed the nice landscape around us. Maybe we enjoyed it too much, maybe it was the singing – but it took me a bit to recognize that our tank was nearly empty. For …quite a while. Such a while that we had exactly 6km left to drive.
But sometimes you have to be lucky – there was a gas station in 3km distance from where we were on the highway so we made it just in time. But I can tell you it’s not a nice feeling when you’re on the highway, in a rental car, in a foreign country, without mobile internet, discovering that you were to dumb to recognize the gas tank needle getting too close to ‘Empty’.
And then we had some contact to the Canadian police. So we wanted to grab a coffee at a McDonalds and other than usual I decided to just use the drive-in. What I didn’t take into account was the sidewalk that somehow managed to jump in our way all of a sudden. Long story short: we hit it with the front bumper and front left wheel leaving some scratches and the wheel case hanging loose.
Luckily we had information on hand what to do in a case like this and also a number to call at our car rental company. But although we told them that it’s only some minor damage, just a bit of plastic, they wanted us to call the police so they could file an official report about what did happen. So well – we called them. And waited. And waited. One hour later they arrived and as we didn’t know what to exactly anticipate we of course were a bit nervous.
It turned out to not be that bad. Actually not bad at all – the police officer was a really calm and nice man in his middle 50s and he was more amused than actually angry that we had to call him just because of some plastic bumper damaged by a sidewalk. While filing the report we chatted about our trip and he was really interested in our experiences and travels, how we like Canada (apart from McDonalds sidewalks) and what we’re up to for our last days. So that was a really good experience and reassured us that Canadians are just the nicer kind of people.
After another quite long call with our car rental service to file another report there we were told to fix the car so we could drive the last 300km remaining till Toronto. And how do you fix something that’s broken? Of course: with duct tape. Trust me, I’m (not) an engineer.
But it did work out really well, our fixed wheel case did not only withstand 300km but also rain and bumpy roads. So props to myself on this!
The remaining part of the journey then again was quite average: driving.
We arrived at our grandcousin’s house at around half past 5 and were instantly greeted by her two dogs, spending some minutes with them before we went inside. Their house is amazing, an old farmhouse with a nice garden – and a hot tub. But more about this later.
First we were served something really tasty: nachos with a 7-layered dip. We sat together, chatted about our trip, home and a lot of other things which was really nice because she’s a really kind person to talk to. Then we cleaned our car which of course was a bit dusty after two weeks of literally living in it.
The two dogs “helped” by inspecting every single piece of luggage we put outside on the ground and we had a break in between to have lunch together with the family.
Which was as well fantastic because she’s a really good cook and it also was the first real meal in two weeks, some pie with cream afterwards and we were really feeling like at home. If you’re reading this (we know you will) just know that you made for the perfect last night and the most wonderful ending of our roadtrip we could imagine!
But it should get even better – we already mentioned the hot tub and now’s the place to actually talk about it: they got a whirlpool outside, filled with hot water which we were invited to try. And it was legen (wait for it) dary. At around 11 pm it was still really warm outside and the water was hot so we sat there for around 45 minutes, having so good talks – and a great and clear sky full of stars above us. It’s for those little moments that are just fantastic, not because it’s a hot tub but it’s two more people besides yourself sitting in there that you really like and can talk to so well, no matter in which language. And of course a starry sky.
But then yeah, it’s still a hot tub, who wouldn’t love that?
We had such an amazing time!! I feel blessed to have such amazing cousins and to have had the opportunity to spend some time with you and create great memories! Can’t wait for Hagebrothers Canada road trip # 2!!