Would you like to take a survey? - Part 10

This is gonna be another long one, so get comfy. Firstly, I meant for this post to be my Niagara Falls entry (as you may have noticed, I try to organize and categorize my posts by location – which seems only logical to me :-) However, I’m actually in Fort Erie right now. We were in Niagara Falls last week, as a matter of fact. My apologies for the delay. Two reasons: 1) Was pretty busy with work and sightseeing in NF that I didn’t get around to composing this post earlier, before we left, and 2) Internet access is rather sporadic at the hotel here in Fort Erie (I’ll explain further in my next post, which I’ll dedicate exclusively to Fort Erie). Therefore, for all intents and purposes, please treat this post as though I were writing it in Niagara Falls :-)

Okay, now that that’s out of the way, down to business - so to speak! On Wednesday (the 20th) I got up at the obscenely early hour of 7:00 a.m. in order to be packed and ready to leave by 8:30. Now, I know what you’re saying or thinking to yourself right now: 7:00 really isn’t THAT early…he must just like to sleep in. However, in my own defence, I work the 4:00 p.m. to midnight shift - I’m not usually in bed until 3:00 a.m. or so, and I don’t usually wake up before 11:00 a.m.! Ergo, 7:00 is pretty damn early for me!

The drive from Brockville to Niagara Falls was okay. Long – it took about 5 hours to get there – but obviously we all expected that. Could have been a lot worse, in fact. The weather was decent and traffic along Highway 401 and the QEW was surprisingly good. Passed through Toronto, though I didn’t really see any major landmarks (i.e. the CN Tower). Also briefly saw the cities of Hamilton and Saint Catharines; on a personal note of interest, my late father was born and raised in the latter. While driving along the highway through here, I got a good glimpse of the south shore of Lake Ontario. Very impressive and majestic. I’m not surprised the early European explorers in North America initially mistook the Great Lakes for the Pacific Ocean! At a glance, it does indeed look too vast to be a "mere" freshwater lake!

Once we got to Niagara Falls, I quickly got settled into my room. The hotel we stayed in was decent – the Super 8 Motel Niagara Falls. It’s in a pretty convenient location downtown, close to our survey site as well as to the falls themselves. However, the neighborhood was a bit sketchy – you could clearly see prostitutes and/or drug addicts walking around from time to time. Also, there is a strip club right across the street! Oh well… The hotel itself was nice enough – clean rooms, good customer service, indoor pool & hot tub, sauna and gym. Moreover, there’s a pancake house right next door! Sweet! The food was alright, but quite expensive :-(

My one complaint would have to be that, once again, the television in my room doesn’t show The Weather Network! Aaaaaarrrgh! I need my fix – I feel so lost and dissatisfied without the soothing background music of the Local Forecast (every 10 minutes on the 10s!)… :-)

Once everybody was all settled in, we went for dinner at an Outback Steakhouse a few blocks down from the hotel. Excellent food at reasonable prices. Afterwards, a lot of people went to the nearby Casino Niagara. Since I’m not much of a gambler, I opted out and decided to take a nice, long walk around the downtown core. Interesting, yet depressing at the same time. As you might expect, the whole area is a giant tourist trap, with many neon and billboard eyesores to overwhelm the senses. Pretty tacky, I must say – a kind of Las Vegas North. I suppose it’s understandable, though – after all, tourism is the city’s biggest source of revenue, and you have to cater to the whims and desires of your customer base. It’s perhaps a reflection of the fundamental shallowness and superficiality of human nature…

Our survey site was the Queenston-Lewiston Bridge, which was only a 10-minute drive from the hotel. My team covered the eastbound side, going into the USA from Canada. This bridge is reserved mainly for tractor-trailers and other big trucks, but there was still a fair amount of "civilian" traffic (i.e. smaller passenger cars and trucks). The more well-known Rainbow Bridge further down is off-limits to heavy trucks; it serves as the primary crossing point for most of the daily lighter passenger traffic.

Surveys went well. Pretty standard. The setup was very efficient and we had great flow. As a result, we got a lot of surveys done. On one shift, we surveyed more the 60 trucks! That’s a new record for a border crossing for us (we usually average about 40-50). This time, instead of the OPP, we had officers from the Niagara Regional Police flag trucks for us into the survey lanes. They were all very friendly and helpful.

Here are some more anecdotes from the week:

Saturday (the 23rd): The site was very quiet. Extremely low volume all shift. What’s more, we were forced to work out of our cargo van – we had no tent, as it was damaged when it blew over in the wind the previous night during the graveyard shift. It started raining pretty hard around suppertime. Since visibility was restricted and our portable weigh scales don’t work properly when they’re wet for a long time, we had to pack everything into the cargo van for several hours! The weather didn’t clear up again until an hour before the shift’s end! Luckily, we had an awesome cop that day (his name is Craig, I believe). He was a supremely nice guy, very friendly and easygoing. He actually made it a point to hang out and chat with us between surveys. He also brought us coffee from Tim Horton’s at the beginning of the shift. He even went so far as to buy us all pizza for supper that night!! He personally went to pick the order up and bring it back to us! What a wonderful gesture! We were all very appreciative and grateful. Hopefully, when we swing through Niagara Falls again next month, we’ll get Craig once more for a shift or two…

Before work, though, I decided to do some sightseeing. I walked further downtown to the Skylon Tower. After buying a ticket, I rode up the elevator to the observation deck. I got an incredible view of the falls from there! Very impressive.

Afterwards, I strolled down to the promenade/viewing gallery area right at the edge of the falls. Even though it was packed solid with throngs of tourists, I nevertheless got a magnificent close-up view of the Canadian Horseshoe Falls (and, to a lesser extent, the American Falls). The sight was absolutely breathtaking!!! Seems a bit trite, I know, but it’s still true! Such majestic beauty… You could really feel all that raw power surging forth in front of your eyes – it was very invigorating. Also very humbling at the same time. It reminded me of how small we as human beings really are compared to such an awesome display of Mother Nature’s glory. I know I’m waxing poetic here, but that’s really how I feel about it.

Sunday (the 24th): Before work, I went on a helicopter tour of the falls. Fantastic and exhilarating! It was a beautiful day, and I got another awe-inspiring view of the falls. Also, part of the thrill for me was riding in the helicopter itself. I love to fly and I hadn’t been in a helicopter since I was a little kid. It was expensive ($100 CDN after coupon), but well worth it, in my opinion! Overall, it was a very pleasant and enjoyable ride, though I did get a bit nauseous every time the chopper made a sharp turn, or when I made the mistake of looking directly down at the ground! My seatmates were very nice and friendly. I chatted with them afterwards. They were British senior citizens, part of a tour group. I even helped one lady fix her camera! Overall, a great experience!

Monday (the 25th): This was our day off. I deliberately saved the best for last: I took a ride on the Maid of the Mist! Wound up going by myself; I tried calling a bunch of people at the hotel, but I didn’t get any answer – people must have been off doing their own thing, I guess. As for the tour, amazing doesn’t even begin to describe it!! It was a spectacular, truly memorable experience!! Something I’ll never forget. It’s the mother of all understatements to say that it was a beautiful sight. It was very stirring – watching and feeling the water cascade down before you is a glorious feeling! Unfortunately, I realized once I got there that I forgot my camera at the hotel! [insert classic Homer Simpson scream] It was just as well, though, since it would have gotten thoroughly soaked (like the rest of me!). The boat ride certainly lives up to its namesake! Besides, I managed to take plenty of great pics of the falls from the previous experiences described above. After returning to the hotel, I just chilled out for the rest of the day.

Well, friends, that’s it for now from Niagara Falls! As mentioned previously, I’ll give you more details about our Fort Erie sojourn in my next post! Until then!

Would you like to take a survey? - Part 9

Greetings and salutations, my faithful readers (that is, if anybody does actually read my blog...haven't gotten any comments in a while!) Well, this post is going to be a fairly long one, so you might as well settle in and make yourself comfortable :-)

First off, I wanted to mention an anecdote from our time last week in Lacolle, which I realized I forgot to put in my previous post! Last Tuesday (the 12th) was our day off while in Lacolle. A bunch of us decided to enjoy the afternoon by going to Parc Safari. As the name suggests, it's a safari-type drive-through theme park, similar to African Lion Safari in Cambridge (Ontario). Located in nearby Hemmingford, it was a quick 10-minute drive from our hotel in Lacolle. It was a lot of fun! Got to drive around and see a lot of exotic animals up close. A few of them - from zebras to camels to llamas to Ankole-Watussi buffaloes - made their own extremely close inspection of our van! They came right up to the windows! Made us all a bit nervous at times, especially our driver Diane! Fortunately, the animals were quite peaceful (they were probably just hoping we would give them some food!); our van managed to escape without a single scratch :-) Afterwards, we all went into the walking section of the park. Got to see lions, tigers, hyenas, Japanese macaques, chimpanzees and black bears, among others. The lion/tiger compound was pretty cool - we walked through a glass-domed concourse or walkway, where you can see them up close! One tiger was sitting comfortably right in front! We all got some great photos of that (I'll upload all my trip photos to a website sometime in November when I get home)! The macaques were also interesting - very cute and funny, especially the little baby ones! Overall, it was a great experience. We all had a lot of fun and enjoyed our little expedition very much.

Now then, on to Ontario. This week we were surveying the Thousand Islands Bridge border crossing - between Lansdowne, ON and Alexandria Bay, NY. The site itself is located on Hill Island, linked to Wellesley Island on the U.S. side. The scenery is just beautiful here! Very picturesque - indeed, I've taken quite a few great landscape shots while I've been out here. Gorgeous, inspiring views of the St. Lawrence River and the islands within. Fantastic cottage country.

The hotel we're staying in is a Days Inn. Located in nearby Brockville, it's about a 20-minute drive to and from the site. Not too bad here, though far from exceptional. My room was fine, but others in our group reported funky smells and imperfectly clean rooms. Indeed, poor Eric (my crew chief) found a used condom and a half-cooked slice of bacon in his room!!! Not impressed at all. However, the hotel does have a gym. I made it a point to work out there every day all week - each session lasted about half an hour to 45 minutes. I'm quite proud of myself for that, actually (I don't normally go to the gym) :-)

Working at the site itself was pretty normal. Surveys went well. My side was covering the southbound side going into the USA from Canada. Traffic volume was rather low until Sunday, when things picked up quite a bit. We managed to do 50+ surveys during our shifts on Sunday and Monday. That's very good for a border crossing (we usually average 30-40). Morever, it was made even better by the fact that we had an OPP officer on site with us at all times to flag and divert trucks into our survey lanes! Unlike in Québec, we were not allowed to direct traffic ourselves under Ontario law. We had a different constable every day. They were all very nice, friendly and helpful. We would laugh and joke around with them between trucks; very open and informal atmosphere. We would often collectively critique the driving abilities and navigational skills (or, more precisely, the lack thereof) of passersby. Having a cop at our service right there really made us feel safer and more at ease when dealing with difficult truckers. Indeed, truckers generally seemed much more willing to take the survey with them nearby! Granted, nearly all truckers we survey are quite helpful and cooperative regardless of police presence, but it was still a psychological booster for us surveyors.

I find I especially enjoy working and doing the surveys in Ontario. Aside from the fact that this is my home province, there are more English-speaking truckers - since English is my first language, I'm obviously more comfortable interacting with people in that language. Moreover, Ontario truckers seem to be exceptionally nice and friendly. Indeed, I would often find myself slipping into a Lanark County accent (officially, the Ottawa Valley Twang) when talking to truckers! For instance, in true Canadian fashion, I would punctuate my sentences with the word "eh" - our most glorious expression :-) Aside from being mildly amusing, it actually seemed to put a lot of truckers at ease - that they were talking to a "normal" guy, and not some arrogant teenager or stuck-up university grad ;-) Nevertheless, there were enough Quebec truckers coming through for me to keep my French sharp. Also, we wound up being lucky by not going out west - I saw on TV that southern Alberta and Saskatchewan were hit by a snowstorm this week! Upwards of 10-15 cm! Ouch.... Glad we aren't there in the middle of that!

Here's some more detailed anecdotes from the week:

Friday: I managed to break two of the crappy folding chairs during the shift. A new record for me :-) As a result, I decided to bite the bullet and buy my own, high-quality chair. Went to Canadian Tire and picked up a good one. 250-pound weight capacity, steel-reinforced. Basically, if I break this one, I'm just not meant to sit on folding chairs!

Saturday: We attempted to pull a great prank on Dan, the crew chief on the northbound side. Our OPP guy that day - Paul - was a great sport. We had him go over there and try to escort Dan into Customs, claiming that he was too close to the border (Dany recently married an American and is currently applying for US residency; however, until it's approved, he is forbidden from entering the USA). However, Dany figured it all out early on and we were foiled. Still, Dany was still a bit paranoid about future prank possibilities :-)

Sunday: Busy day. Both Eric and Josée (a fellow surveyor and team member) were gushing about how cute our OPP officer for the day was. On a personal note, my mother drove up to the hotel in the morning for a visit (Brockville is only about an hour's drive from Carleton Place). Had lunch in the hotel restaurant with Eric and Dan. It was very nice!

Monday: Our crew (me, Eric, Josée & Anne) left early to go visit the 1000 Islands SkyDeck. It's an observation tower located on Hill Island, right up the street from our survey site. Was pretty impressive. Spectacular view of the area from 150 m (400') up. Took lots of pictures. Afterwards, we relaxed by the nearby playground. However, we all made the mistake of taking a spin on the merry-go-round. Needless to say, we were all a bit dizzy and slightly nauseous for a while when our shift started!

Tuesday: Day off. I had to get up early (7:00 a.m.) to drive Dan down to the site to pick up and return the cargo van loaded with our survey equipment. Had a delicious, huge, high-calorie, high-carb, high-fat breakfast as a "reward" for my diligence: 2 scrambled eggs, pancakes, French toast, bacon, ham, sausage, home fries, toast, apple juice, and a cup of tea. I had a nice, prolonged nap back in my room after that! That evening, the whole group went over to Diane's parents' place (they live in the Brockville area) for a nice barbecue. Was a lot of fun - good times were had by all!

Tomorrow (or later today, if you want to get technical ;-), we're headed to Niagara Falls. Going to be surveying the border there for a week. I'm really looking forward to seeing the falls up close and in person! A lot of people have mentioned the idea of taking the Maid of the Mist tour boat ride on our day(s) off - hopefully that plan gets off the ground! If not, I'll just go by myself regardless. Should be fun! After that, we'll be Fort Erie for another week, I believe. Details will follow in my next post.

Until the next instalment, my friends!

Would you like to take survey? - Part 8

We're back in Saint-Bernard-de-Lacolle at the moment. We leave tomorrow morning to head back into Ontario. Our destination is the thriving metropolis of Brockville - from what I hear, we'll be staying at the Days Inn there. Hopefully it'll be pretty decent. Our survey site will be the border crossing at nearby Lansdowne - the Thousand Islands bridge crossing, to be specific. Not that far from Kingston and Gananoque. Since we'll be down in the Thousand Islands area, I hope we'll get the chance to look around a bit and explore while we're there. Beautiful scenery, from what I hear.

Work wise, the past week was good. Fitting in to my new team very well. We've all gone out and socialized before the switch, so there's no real awkwardness or adjustment. We all know each other already, so it makes things easier. We got the crappier site to work with (the southbound side, going into the USA); very narrow and restricted - we could only survey one truck at a time. Therefore, our numbers were consistently low. Oh well...couldn't be helped! Long line-up of trucks a lot of the time - a lot of them were late and/or grouchy to start with, so they're not as receptive to taking the survey. The queue was especially insane yesterday. Not at all surprising, given the fact that it was September 11!! The line of trucks extended at least 3 kilometres back on the highway! It was stop and go the whole time...

On the social front, things have been going well. Some funny anecdotes to pass along:

Our first night here in Lacolle (Wednesday), I accidentally locked Josee - one of my new team members - out of her room! We were all sitting in her room after the shift drinking, watching TV and chatting. Then, we all got up to step outside, so that the smokers in our group could have a quick cigarette. Since I was the last one out, I closed the door behind me. However, once I got outside, Josee tells me she forgot her key inside! Since there's no night manager or staff working here at the Auberge Premier, there was no way for her to get back in! I was so embarassed - what a way to cap off my first shift with the new team! Fortunately, Eric (our crew chief) offered her the second bed in his room for the night - Eric is gay, so there wasn't any uncomfortability involved. Still, I felt like such a spaz... Fortunately, Josee and I just laughed the whole thing off!

Also, on Sunday night, it got quite a bit slow during the middle of the shift. We wound up entertaining ourselves by chatting and, eventually, singing songs via walkie-talkie to our comrades on the other side of the highway manning the northbound survey site. It was quite entertaining! I myself launched into some stirring renditions of Doris Day's "Que Sera" and Gnarls Barkley's "Crazy". However, apparently during the latter, someone had brought the walkie-talkie into the bathroom with them. AND some CBSA (Canada Border Services Agency) personnel happened to be tuned to the same frequency! So, quite a few people unintentionally got to hear my off-key caterwauling :-) Nevertheless, I still got a hearty round of applause at the end! Very funny, albeit a bit embarassing too...

Anyway, that's it for now! Westward ho!

Would you like to take a survey? - Part 7

Wow. So much to say. Lots has happened since my last post. Hopefully I won't forget anything!

I'm currently back home in Carleton Place for a little break. Came back on Saturday. We leave again tomorrow (Thursday) morning for St-Bernard-de-Lacolle - again. We're surveying both directions of that border crossing once more, this time for a week. Should be okay, I think. Hopefully the customer service has improved somewhat since the last time I was there... ;-)

After that, apparently there's been a little change of plan. Originally, we were supposed to head out west (Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba) to do surveys at various border crossings there for the next month (until early October). However, we recently learned that MTO (the Ministry of Transportation of Ontario) has backed out of its commitment to fulfill that leg of the project. Therefore, we're being re-deployed throughout southern Ontario in order to compensate for the slack. Mostly border crossings, I believe - Niagara Falls, Sarnia, Windsor, et al. I'm not too bummed out about the change. I've never been to that area of my province, so it should be interesting regardless. Plenty to see and explore. Plus, the contract got extended by another month as a result - we won't be finishing now until early to mid November. I can hardly complain about an extra month's pay!! Besides, I can always take a trip out west later on; there's no rush!

Anyway, last week in Quebec was pretty eventful. We were staying in Mont-Saint-Hilaire, about half an hour's drive east of Montreal. Pretty little town. Our hotel - the Auberge Montagnard - was quite nice. On their website, you can actually see a picture of the exact room I stayed in!!! At the main page, click on the "Rooms" button - mine was the "Comfort 3" example! I recognize the painting on the wall. Spectacular view of the mountain itself right in front of the hotel. Our survey site was just outside nearby Saint-Mathieu-de-Beloeil (it was another inspection/weigh station, like the previous site in Pointe-du-Lac). It was pretty busy - lots of traffic on the highway (Autoroute 20 East). We pulled off some pretty good numbers.

The week culminated with some significant changes for me: as of tomorrow, I will no longer be a crew chief. I am going back to being a normal surveyor and transferring to another team as well. To make a long story short, my previously mentioned "island of tranquillity" got hit by, if not a hurricane, then at least a tropical storm! Basically, I was having some professional difficulties with one of my team members. In the course of trying to deal with the situation, I made some significant mistakes & errors in judgement as a crew chief; I failed to sit down and clearly communicate my concerns to this person. That, coupled with my own uncertainties and my inability to minimize them in front of the surveyors, led to several members of my team openly voicing their doubts as to my effectiveness and capacity to be a crew chief. When this happened, I realized that I really had to re-evaluate my position and make an appropriate decision. I feel that, given all my mistakes and my crew's escalating tensions & doubts, I was perhaps not ideally suited to be a good and effective crew chief. It is neither fair nor wise to force a crew to continue to serve under a leader they no longer respect or have faith in. I have no real pride or ego riding on this - to me, "crew chief" is just a title, not worth all this stress and aggravation. Besides, I was always happiest when I was doing the actual surveys; all the organizational and administrative duties and headaches increasingly felt like a burden I no longer wanted to bear under the circumstances. Therefore, in the interests of both myself and ultimately my team, I concluded my best course of action would be to request the switch and transfer back to surveyor. I called up one of the project managers at Transport Canada I'd become friendly with and explained the situation and my request. Being very understanding and sympathetic, he readily agreed and approved it. I'm completely satisfied with my decision; my family and friends are equally supportive as well. It's a surveyor's life for me!!

Getting home Saturday turned out to be quite a challenge. Not to mention an exercise in frustration, aggravation, and monumental patience! Basically, through a conspiracy of circumstances and poor planning, I (as a driver) got suckered into doing a ridiculous amount of running around the Ottawa area, picking up and dropping off both people and luggage. After a three-hour drive from Drummondville (even further east of Mont-St-Hilaire!) back to Ottawa, I wind up in Orleans. From there, I had to drive over to Vanier, to drop off both one of my guys and his luggage as well as the luggage of another surveyor. Then back to Orleans to pick another guy's luggage that had to be ferried over from Rockland (!). I drove this luggage over to the Glebe. From there, I had to finally drive the cargo van down to Britannia Beach to drop it off at the house of one of the top brass. I arranged to have my mother pick me up there and return me at long last to Carleton Place! After starting out in Mont-St-Hilaire at around 9:00 a.m., I didn't get home to CP until about 7:00 or 8:00ish! AAAAARRRRGH! Needless to say, I won't be doing that kind of runaround again anytime soon - if I have anything to say about it!

One funny yet personally embarrassing anecdote to mention while I've been home: went shoe shopping yesterday evening. While talking to the salesman, I noticed that he was giving the shoes I had on a rather odd look. He then asked me if I realized that I was wearing two different shoes! Upon looking down, I saw that he was right. Oh, did I feel like such an idiot at that moment! What's even funnier is that I'd been wearing these the whole time I was in Quebec and never clued in! Luckily, they were both black and of a similar style, so no one noticed (I hope). We all had a good laugh at that little discovery... :-)

Anyway, that's it for now! With any luck, I should post my next update reasonably soon.

A la prochaine!