Hunted: New Jersey, New York, Vermont, Québec

After a moderately restful Sunday, come Monday morning, I was off on the road again—this time to the North (and ultimately Canada).

Part of the route I was traveling this morning is the route that I routinely make when I road "test" radar detectors, because its takes me through Warren County (western central NJ) where state troopers like to patrol (and sometimes pretty fiercely) using instant-on X-band, Ka-band, and of course, police laser (lidar).

This morning things were fairly quiet as I traveled I-78 East towards I-287 which in turn flows northerly into I-87, the New York Thruway.

Again, things were pretty quiet this morning and afternoon and I did not see or encounter much traffic enforcement. I made good time to the capitol district, Albany, NY, took I-787 North passing the Mass Pike and picking up NY 7 West to Latham Circle, NY and onto I-87, the Northway, which heads directly up to the border of the US and Canada (Québec) into Quinze nord (15).

I briefly stopped by my old stumping grounds and managed a quick visit to the Watervliet Arsenal (where I spent some of my college youth, learning the 'physics' of high-powered munitions, among other things). Since 9/11, security has been greatly heightened and fortified.

I didn't want to spend to much time in the greater Troy area, as I had a lot of miles to go, before I slept and I was getting amp'd to experience the wrath of the New York State Troopers who routinely patrol the Saratoga and Glens Fall, NY stretch of the Northway interstate.

I wanted to visit an old college buddy of mine who still lives in the area around Saratoga Springs (and visit two wonderful horse racetracks, as is my usual preference) but was very much time limited, so I decided to hit them on my return trip. I did manage to make a pilgrimage to the second largest water falls in the US.

Niagra/Mohawk River, Cohoes Falls, Cahoes, NY

When I was growing up, several college roommates and I drove all over upstate New York, and I couldn't help but get a little nostalgic for those good ol' times (almost 25 years ago!). Particularly when you get up above the Catskill region on upwards to the Adirondacks, this is some of the prettiest driving country there is in the US, in my opinion.

Above Lake George vii, NY traffic gets much much lighter as there is not too much (in terms of development) between that area and Quebec (except for Whiteface).

It is very easy to let the speeds seriously climb in this region as you are surrounded by beautiful evergreens and not much else.

I spent a fair portion of the trip driving with Escort Passport 9500ci and Beltronics STi-R while swapping in/out of windshield service several other windshield-mount radar detectors, including, of course, the Valentine 1 (v3.861), Cobra XRS- 9950, Escort Passport 9500i (blue), Whistler Pro 78/Whistler XTR-690 high-end models, and the Beltronics STi Driver and I noted the relative behavior of each as I drove.

I had another déjà vu moment, from long-history, and almost got nailed at about the same place I almost got nailed 20 some years ago, about 10 miles south of US/Canadian border.

I had been moving at a very strong clip and there were very few other vehicles on the road. Note: this is one of the times when one is most vulnerable to getting tagged even with a radar detector.

Given the extreme sensitivity of the Escort Passport 9500ci and Beltronics STi-R remote radar detectors it can sometimes be difficult to spot the officer because the distances tend to be noticeably farther than what I have become accustomed to with Ka-band, but I believe I picked up an instant-on shot of very strong 35.5 Ka just as I went under an overpass.

It was starting to get dusk, so instead of "waiting" around like a sitting duck, and to be on the safe-side, I decided to make a "quick" exit and fill-up with fuel (as my fuel level was quite low), for what was going to be still a long drive east towards Northern Vermont on some very scenic secondary roads.

At the time, I ended-up paying the highest fuel rate in my entire life on a per gallon basis.

Having a full-tank of petrol, I proceed quietly back on the highway towards exit 42 (just five miles south of the US/Canadian border) and proceeded to my ultimate destination for the evening.

While on VT 104, in pitch-black conditions, my 9500ci, STi-R, and Whistler alerted to a strong instant-on blast of 34.7 Ka-band police radar. I couldn't locate the officer but he was sure to be very near.

Again, one of the many things I've been noticing with the 9500ci and STi-R is that their sensitivities (particularly) to Ka are so astoundingly high, that it takes a little time re-orienting yourself (especially in the evening) to the actual threat-level; that oftentimes you have a considerable amount of additional time to safely adjust any "transgressions", so to speak.

Other than this brief, near-heart-attack-causing-event, I safely arrived on Monday evening, at the Grey Gables Mansion Bed Breakfast in Richford, Vermont for my extended stay in this region.

When Wednesday evening came around, I convinced a colleague of mine to take a "short" trip to Montreal, Quebec, Canada—to join me in a very good authentic Montreal steak dinner (at the Moishe's Steak House). From our location, it wass about an hour and 15 minutes to the restaurant, in downtown Montreal.

My astute friend was sharp enough to suggest that I leave my box of 20 or so radar detectors at the B&B and not in my trunk...And fortunately, I listened to his suggestion, and that was a good thing because as I crossed the Canadian border checkpoint the Canadian border patrol guard examined the contents of my trunk!

Had he found 20+ radar detectors (which are banned in this part of Canada), I probably could have been brought up on "distribution charges!"

Here the Beltronics STiR and Escort Passport 9500ci remotes really came into their own, I must say, with no problems encountered!

We made our way through some very nice and quaint Canadian villages and then picked up dix ouest (10 west), towards downtown Montreal.

The maximum speed limit in Canada is 100kph, but I sometimes got "confused" with the whole english/metric conversion thing, so to make it easy on myself, I simply cruised steadily at 100-130 (mph) on the some of the most rural and sparce sections of 10, with very little fanfare, and what a pleasure that was.

We easily picked up a K-band drone sign from a great distance and then a little later, got alerted to what appeared to be instant-on X-band coming the opposite direction from a cruising officer, but we had plenty of time to adjust our velocity, accordingly.

We successfully navigated to downtown Montreal, Rue St. Laurent, and managed a parking space right off of the street.

I love the French feel of Québec (especially Ville de Québec) and was able to use my ability parler en peu français.

My friend, Chris, ordered a medium-rare 2" 12-ounce filet and I ordered a rare 22-ounce rib-eye (without bone) with a peppercorn cognac reduction and sauteed champignons.

It may have been the absolute meilleur steak I have ever mangé. With vin rouge and a couple of desserts and café au lait, the meal came to: deux cent quarante dollars. Not cheap—by any means—especially when one factors in the exchange rate is 30-40% less favorable than not so long ago, but it was worth every penny, nonetheless.

After dinner we drove around town and visited Vieux Port, Montréal where I had "fun" running with a silver Aston Martin Vanquish through a series of the traffic-light (while green) controlled intersections.

He eventually pulled-off to visit a boîte de nuit which had parked a black Lamborghini Gallardo in front, very nice, indeed.

At this time it was getting pretty late in the evening, so we decided to head back to Northern Vermont, taking the reverse track.

As we drove through the countryside, Chris suggested that I watch out for moose and he warned me that moose are extremely difficult to see at night, because the cones and rods in their eyes are of a different configuration than most nocturnals—meaning they don't light up like a cat's eyes. With moose, I was told, you have to look out for the blackness in the road ahead (yeah, you've got to be kidding me!)

At any rate, no moose were either seen or hit and after about 20 questions and presenting proper documentation to the US border patrol, we were permitted to re-enter our wonderful country.

It was very late (or early, depending on how you looked at it) so we called it a night—a night that neither of us will soon forget...

Here are some fun real-world videos from this segment of my 6200 mile journey:

Steady K-band Drone Sign vs. Escort Passport 9500ci, Beltronics STi-R, Cobra XRS-9950


New York State Trooper Traffic Stop


Conduite Rapide à Montréal, Québec, Canada


Parlé de la plongée sous-marine pendant la conduite sur dix ouest à Montréal.

Bob, the Speed Trap Hunter