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Canada Trek '09 (completed)
Once again, the Great White north called to Dawn and myself. This year, we decided that it was time to head West.
The Purpose
The purpose of Canada Trek '09 was several-fold:
- Because it was there?
- A social experiment
as our past adventures prove, Dawn and I can drive 3000+ miles in a week-long trip and not kill each other. We felt we needed to up the ante
- Burning up vacation time / Saving my wrists
We had these pesky "vacation day" things, and it was either use them up this way, or I would have just played WAY too much World of Warcraft, thus destroying what was left of my carpal tunnels.
- A chance to see the rest of Canada's provinces
Dawn and I have driven all over Labrador, Newfoundland, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Quebec, and Prince Edward Island. Individually, we've both been to Toronto, but as a team, we had Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and British Columbia to tick off on our "before we die" lists.
- One word: PHOTOS!
The Summary
The plan was to drive from my place up to Sudbury, then follow the Northern shores of the great lakes over to Thunder Bay, then head West across Canadian Prairie country, up over the Canadian Rockies and down into Vancouver. We planned to spend a day or so wandering around there before we head south through Seattle, then west across the Northern US back home.
Surprisingly, this sums up what we did exceedingly well. We filled in that "spend a day or so wandering around there" part with a ferry to Victoria and a stay overnight in Nanaimo before taking a ferry down to Port Angeles in Washington.
The real surprise was that while there were some tremendously beautiful highlights in Canada, Dawn and I had both built up slightly unrealistic expectations for Vancouver, Victoria, and Nanaimo. Not to say they weren't great places... it's just that we failed to find the level of inspiration that we'd hoped.
Okay, that was actually just a mild letdown, the surprise was how stunningly beautiful and interesting Washington, Northern Idaho, Montana, and North Dakota turned out to be. In fact, they were so interesting that we're actually considering ~gasp~ a US-based adventure next time 'round.
Day-by-Day
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Day 1: Longmeadow, MA to Sudbury, ON
This was be about 11.5 hours driving plus some planned down-time crossing the border along with some unplanned down-time being stuck with slow traffic and torrential downpours. We never quite made it to Niagara Falls as we felt that the WALLS of water we were continually crashing into on the highway were quite enough.
  The nature of the weather meant that it would be bright and sunny, and up ahead, we could see the line of rain, and it really was a wall of water when we'd hit it. We'd have about a minute or two of intense rain, then just as quickly as we were in it, we'd be in the clear. It made good rainbows.
All told, it was a pretty long day, but we made it to Sudbury and found our motel. We had Internet and a bukkit, so it was all good.
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Day 2: Sudbury, ON to Thunder Bay, ON
Still in Ontario (apparently, it is more than just a container for Toronto and Niagara Falls), we skirted along the North channel of Lake Huron, then around the North shore of lake Superior, stopping for the night in Thunder Bay.
Throughout the day, Dawn got more and more stressed out. Surprisingly, the source of the stress was NOT my driving or incessant babbling, but rather the fact that her iPhone was unable to find any service.
On the face of this, one might assume, "okay, I can understand that, I'm addicted to my iPhone and I'd be a little out of sorts without it". However, keep in mind that by this point, we had crossed into Canada... land of Roger's Wireless... land of the INSANE data roaming rates. This means that we'd both already turned off our data roaming. So, she was getting freaked about not being able to call/text? She who doesn't like to talk on the phone anyway?. Well, she did have a bunch of friends and co-workers she would text with fairly regular updates when she did have signals.
From what I can piece together, the real problem was that she has been religiously following the epic travels of Roz Savage who was solo-rowing across the Pacific Ocean. So some woman on a 23' rowboat in the middle of the pacific ocean twittering about being blown miles backward over the night or having to drink her ballast water to survive since both her water maker things had broken was more important to Dawn than the insightful commentary (read: non-stop 200 word-per-minute onslaught) of her very own traveling companion? Oh, the humanity.
Fortunately, as we rolled into Thunder Bay, Dawn's cell phone signal ~bledep~ came ba~bledep~ck and ~bledep~ she was ~bledep~ inunda~bledep~ted with a dozen or so ~bledep~ text messages... some of them from people who weren't currently fighting the world's largest ocean for their very lives. ~bledep~ ~bledep~ ~bledep~
I did comment about how strangely remote some of Ontario seemed to be, but I was unshaken by the whole lack of cell service thingamee... after all, I knew that we had Internet and a bukkit waiting for us.
We may have even managed to take a photo or two.
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Day 3: Thunder Bay, ON to Brandon, MB
 We parted company with the Great Lakes and struck Westward, across the Ontario, Manitoba border, right past Winnipeg, and ended up in Brandon. We didn't know much about the area, but we suspected we would find a few photographic opportunities along the way.
 It turns out this was not entirely inaccurate, but we did make due. My shots were all taken out the window during the morning while I was a passenger. After I took the wheel, I looked for spots to stop and shoot some pictures, but it just got boringer and boringer.
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Day 4: Brandon, MB to Medicine Hat, AB
I'm sure that Saskatchewan has some lovely places, but all we saw was flat... farmland, road, sky... EEEE, The SKYYY. I've never seen so much of it while still on land. It was actually a little unsettling. Dawn needed to use all her psychological training to keep me from screaming at the moon to stop following me. (the previous joke brought to you by the late Douglas Noel Adams.)
 I drew a picture to show how flat it was. (Oh, I don't draw very well by the way).
We didn't actually stay overnight anywhere in Saskatchewan. This wasn't deliberate, just a result of trying to make the amount of driving be somewhere close to 8-12 hours per day. It turns out that we probably chose wisely (Purely from a photographic perspective).
The one photo I took all day was actually a restored airplane that was sitting at the front of the hotel.
We picked Medicine hat solely because it had such a cool name.
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Day 5: Medicine Hat, AB to Kamloops, BC
Alberta starts out really flat - just like Western Manitoba and all of Saskatchewan. I actually took a photo. Sure, I could have used this one for the previous day's posting and SAY that I took it in Saskatchewan... you'd likely never be able to tell, but I thought drawing in crayon was more honest (and fun).
We passed through Calgary, then, BANFF! (as in the sound of jaws hitting the ground) CANADIAN ROCKIES!. After we picked our jaws off the floor, we headed through Banff National Park. Somewhere along the road, there was a sign welcoming us to British Columbia, and suddenly we were in Yaho National Park. Had a little bit of exciting driving (okay, a lot, but don't tell Dawn.. she might get jealous that I didn't wake her up and let her drive).
Saw some really great scenery this day. Kamloops was chosen because it too has a neat name. It was also chosen because we wanted a shorter driving day for getting into Vancouver.
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Day 6: Kamloops, BC to Surrey (Vancouver area), BC
 Originally, we thought this would just be a short driving day where the high-point would be when we entered Vancouver, but the Canadian Rocies had one or two more pleasant surprises for us.
Finally made it to Vancouver. This is not anything against the place, but somehow, we had built up certain expectations that just didn't quite mesh with reality.
Don't get me wrong, it's a nice city and all... we were just kind of thinking we'd be wowed, and it just never happened.
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Day 7: Vancouver, Stanley Park... ending up in Nanaimo, BC
 With a full day ahead of us and not really sure if we were going to stay in the Vancouver area or head over to Victoria / Nanaimo, we thought we'd try giving Vancouver another chance to "wow" us.
Stanley Park had some wow.
 The ferry over to Victoria was pretty big, but unlike most big ferries I've ever taken, this one never really felt like it was in the open sea... So many islands.
 Ferry crossings are some of my favorite moments as they're an opportunity to take pictures of a captive audience.
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Day 8: Nanaimo, BC to Seattle, WA
 The original plan for this day was "Vancouver, BC to Butte, MT via Seattle, WA".
Ha.
Ha ha.
Ha ha ha ha ha ~snort~ ha ha.
What we did was to fiddle around in the Nanaimo area for a bit, then head back down toward Victoria in order to catch a ferry to Port Angles, WA, and then took another ferry across Puget Sound.
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Day 9: Seattle, WA to Helena, MT
Coming Soon
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Day 10: Helena, MT to Jamestown, ND
Coming Soon...
- Day 11: Jamestown, ND to Arlington Heights (Chicago area), IL
Coming soon...
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Day 12: Arlington Heights, IL to Longmeadow, MA
Fourteen and a half ours... woo boy, that's the longest drive yet. Three words: Exploding Ass Tacos.
The Route
Proposed Route
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