Brian King

The 62-year industry veteran and former owner of Venture Holidays and several companions had reached Chicago on their way to a Rotary International conference in Montreal when bad weather forced the closure of O’Hare airport.

Flights were cancelled, huge queues formed as thousands of stranded travellers sought to make alternative arrangements and overnight accommodation in the Windy City was booked to overflowing.

With time running out, Mr King and his companions decided some initiative was needed, so they asked a Palestinian cabbie if he’d drive them the 1600km to Montreal.

He didn’t have a passport, but his brother did, and was prepared to make the trip for a fare of $2000, plus a $250 tip.

The cabbie had never been out of Chicago before, and more hours passed as he tried to find the main route to the Canadian border.

He was nervous, too, about what might happen to him if he was caught driving a Chicago Yellow Cab in Canada.

"We’d left Chicago at 2am on a Sunday morning and with two of us sharing the driving we arrived in Montreal, via Detroit, Windsor and Toronto, at 8pm that evening", Mr King says.

"At that point it was 48 hours since we’d left Adelaide.

"Is this a record?"