Our itinerary had us heading for the Adirondacks and the Lake Placid area today but instead we found ourselves turning to an old friend, our Super 8 Hotels directory, on the way into Toronto. Pet-friendly and cheap have been words dear to our vocab along the road. Luckily the Canadian city had one. Unluckily for us it was smack dab on top of a generic, super cheesy, all-Chinese, four-story mall in the heart of Chinatown, and the underground parking garage clearance, stated as 6 feet, actually more like 5 feet10 inches, and our truck with the bikes is about 9 feet 6 inches, with the cargo box and no bikes 7 feet 7 inches, with just the bike racks and no cargo box 6 feet 2 inches, with just the bars just enough to make it! : ) The area around the hotel was busy and a bit ghetto so parking on the street wasn't an option. We had to formulate a plan of action and act we did. We pulled into a dead-end street that resembled the projects, oh wait it was the projects. We figured that Jessica could ride one bike at a time ov
er to the hotel and check in while I rearranged the truck to somehow make everything fit. That meant pulling off the cargo box and the bike racks, moving everything from the back into the cab without crushing Ophie, putting the cargo box upside down and hanging out of the back and driving it thru the busy streets of Toronto with no visibility and praying the box didn't fall out of the back on the hills. Success! Now part two of the plan, carry all of our loose and valuable stuff (including our cargo box and dog) from the third underground level to the third floor of the hotel including our cargo box. After about six or seven trips from the parking garage thru the Chinese mall into the elevator past all the people in the hotel lobby and finally into our room. People had never seen anything like it and it was truly a unique experience.
er to the hotel and check in while I rearranged the truck to somehow make everything fit. That meant pulling off the cargo box and the bike racks, moving everything from the back into the cab without crushing Ophie, putting the cargo box upside down and hanging out of the back and driving it thru the busy streets of Toronto with no visibility and praying the box didn't fall out of the back on the hills. Success! Now part two of the plan, carry all of our loose and valuable stuff (including our cargo box and dog) from the third underground level to the third floor of the hotel including our cargo box. After about six or seven trips from the parking garage thru the Chinese mall into the elevator past all the people in the hotel lobby and finally into our room. People had never seen anything like it and it was truly a unique experience.Oh and by the way we had a nice dinner at a great Indian spot, caught the end of the Avett Brothers show at the legendary Horseshoe Bar, and got some shopping in the next morning after we did the whole sherpa thing all over again just in reverse order. One hell of a 24 hour period!
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