Hey everyone! Guest blogger @stylemajeur here sharing our awesome road trip from Toronto to the New Farm Festival - a Farms for Change fundraiser. Thanks again to Soheila for having me contribute to her blog!
One of my favourite things to do is to take road trips! I'm a big advocate of road trips for so many reasons. The pressure and anxiety of airports is non-existent, it can be super cost-effective when splitting gas with your friends or when driving a hybrid, it's a fun way to thoroughly discover new areas while also having the flexibility to be spontaneous! When Soheila asked me to join her and some fellow blogger friends on a road trip with Ford Canada to drive up to The New Farm for the Farms for Change fundraiser, I jumped at the chance! Farms for Change is an incredible fundraising initiative that raises money to purchase locally grown organic produce for Community Food Centres Canada in an effort to increase access to healthy foods. Several top restaurants from Toronto set up shop for the day at The New Farm and give the opportunity to try delicious dishes from each! I can’t forget to mention there was also ice cream and other tasty treats. I buy organic and support local businesses whenever I can and thought this was a great way to get to know a lot of the restaurants in the city that buy organic produce from Ontario farms.
The biggest component of a road trip is obviously the vehicle you drive. Don’t underestimate the importance of a comfortable car with adequate space, otherwise you’ll find yourself needing to stop frequently to stretch! The back pain could surpasses the length of your trip. Trust me, I’ve had less than stellar road trips with tiny cars!! My first ever car was a Ford Explorer Sport Trac, and I have so many fond memories of it reliably getting me to and from London, Ontario when I was in University, taking my friends and I to Montreal for a weekend trip and getting me to the mountains with my snowboard gear in the cab. I feel a lot of nostalgia for Ford Canada and they were awesome in providing us with two vehicles for the road trip. Both were very different but completely suited our needs. I had the opportunity to drive the Ford C-MAX Energi SE the whole way up north. Before this road trip I had never driven a hybrid but the concept had always interested me, so I was super excited to get the chance to test it out. To me, hybrids are the perfect vehicle that offer the best of both worlds. Eco-friendly and incredibly efficient on gas, you feel great knowing you are making a smaller footprint but you have the security of knowing you can rely on the gas if you don't get a chance to re-charge! I can tell you this is a huge factor especially when driving long distances because electric cars are totally reliant on finding charging stations and when taking a road trip through the country, that isn't something I'm willing to gamble on.
The drive over to The New Farm was smooth and with a huge windshield giving us unobstructed views of the country, it felt like we were driving a convertible. The hands-free texting feature was one I had never used before and actually was quite ‘handy’ (pun fully intended). Since we were simultaneously driving up with a larger group of friends in two separate vehicles, it was neat to be able to easily communicate our locations via text message with just the sound our voices. But I think my favourite feature had to be hidden compartments under the backseat floor mats for valuables! This feature actually blew my mind because anyone who knows me, knows I am always paranoid about leaving anything valuable in my car and go through semi-crazy lengths to conceal any valuables. This feature would give me the peace of mind to leave my watch, wallet or cell phone locked in the car without an iota of a worry that my car would be targeted because of exposed valuables. And it felt so cool to know you have hidden compartments in your car!
On the way back from The New Farm to the resort, all 6 of us were more than comfortably able to fit in the other vehicle Ford provided us, a 7 seater Ford Flex. The sunroofs (yes that's plural for the 4 sunroofs found on the Ford Flex) gave us unparalleled views of the sky and we all enjoyed singing along to the Sirius XM satellite radio. It was the perfect vehicle to allow us to share a single car when needed.
The road trip was a total success! We got to and from without a hitch and came home with our pockets heavy and our stomachs full! That’ll happen when you stuff your belly with amazing food and barely use any gas in the Ford C-MAX Energi SE!
Although Ford Canada provided the vehicles and experience, opinions are all my own!