Cottage commute - got any tales/stories?

[addyguy]

We've had a couple of threads on here about work commutes - how long they are, what people thought of them, whether people like long or short work commutes....

Well, this article got me thinking maybe we could have a thread about 'other' commutes - cottage/holiday comutes:

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-dri...article1649851/

So, for those of you who have a cottage, do you have a long commute to it? Do you like driving a ways to get to it, or would you rather it was closer?

Even for those who DON'T have a cottage, do you have a favourite holiday place you go? How is the commute there?

Any interesting 'cottage commute stories' folks would like to share?

My family has never had a cottage, but we had friends that had a really nice one, and I remember in the summer I would 'go up early' with them, and my mom would join us later, after she got my dad from work. We'd make the trip in their 1979 Zephyr wagon. I've always like driving, so I liked that it took a while to get there.

My 'craziest' holiday commute story was when I was with my first girlfriend, and bought a new car (my 1991 Corolla)...I bought the car, drove up and met her at a cottage she was staying at, drove back to work for the weekend, and then drove back to stay there during the week - put something like 2,000km on the car the FIRST WEEK I owned it!

 

[widman]

My "cottage" has grown over the years. I get there 5 or 6 times a year. 450 miles, 10 to 12 hour drive each way, half in 4x4 through the mountains.

 

[HyundaiGuy]

My in laws have a cottage about 45 minutes away from Orlando at the Eustis Yacht Club. I laugh every time I think about it because one cannot put a Yacht in a lake. He is a avid sailer so they go up there and sail on the weekends.

My favorite place in Florida? The upper Keys (anything north of marathon. All highway until south of Miami (the way I go at least.) I can leave home, be checked in at the motel and be witting at my favorite watering hole with an adult beverage within 5 hours.

 

[The_Jeff]

My parents' cottage commute ends with a scheduled ferry boat. Get stuck in the tourist (auto) traffic and you're in big trouble if you miss the last boat.

Best college commute story: my 1989 mazda 323, first car, leaked gas from the top of the tank so I never filled above 5/8. This meant stopping every couple hours. Was on fumes on I-88 in the middle of nowhere in upstate new york at 9:55 pm in total darkness, new moon, etc when I saw an Exxon at the end of an exit ramp. I pull in, buy a few gallons, pay, and leave. The lights flickered off for closing time in my rearview mirror as I was gaining speed to rejoin the interstate.

For "clackers" stories I drove 620 miles one way to ohio (and back again) in a saturn I just put on the road 2 weeks previously, having changed its transmission out.

 

[Win]

I've got a second house (definitely not a cottage) on a lake about 90 miles from here that I bought about two years ago when the entire world was on sale.

It's close enough that we can use it whenever we want.

No interesting commute stories, though, just great Ozarks scenery - the Boston Mountains separate the two homes.

 

[MNgopher]

Not a cottage, its a lake cabin. Northern Minnesota. 265 miles door to door one way. Last 30 miles are all gravel roads. Usual time is about 5 hours with food and gasoline breaks (always like to bring a full tank back into the woods...). One of the last trips down got a timberwolf to practically pose on the hillside. Even my 2.5 year old daughter saw it. The usual is dodging deer though...

 

[addyguy]

Little suprised there isn't more interest in this thread - thought lots of folks would have 'cottage commute' stories to share.....

 

[yeti]

there's little interest in a lot of threads. in auto gen topics, for example, 53 replies of 1093 views, 51 of 1162, 122 of 3063, 7 of 250, 1 of 84.that's just the way it is, man. have a good night.

 

[PandaBear]

Not really a cottage commute, but similar. About 7 years ago, before my wife and I got married, she went to Southern California (Orange County, Irvine) for her master degree. I would drive down every other weekend to stay with her. She lived in a house with a single lady and a divorced lady land lord, and I paid $50 for each weekend I stayed for a spare room, and would go around town trying out different [cheap] food, going for walks in the parks, beaches, theme park hopping, etc, for 2 years. I managed to pick up enough passengers to share the ride that I end up making money rather than spending money for the weekend. People who know us always wonder whether I did it for money or love.

Those were the nice days without mortgage, long work hours, or school stress.

 

[opus1]

No cottage to commute to....

Heck, I haven't had an honest-to-[insert religious deity of your choice here] vacation in 7 years.....

 

[Samilcar]

Just got back last night from our family lake cabin (shack actually) in western Ontario. 12 hour drive followed by a 7 mile trip by boat at the end to get to the island our cabin is on. When I was twenty years younger, I made the mistake of starting the drive around noon, thinking we would find a motel room when we got there. Couldn't find a vacancy and ended up sleeping in the car (little 1989 Honda Civic) parked on a boat ramp right on the north shore of Lake Superior. Had to come to a dead stop this year at the end of the trip to let a moose and her calf cross the road in front of us.