...And we've finally arrived!
Yep, that's how long our trip was...and don't even bother to ask about gas-
I haven't totalled those bills up yet!
The hike across the country started at 6am Tuesday morning. We drove 22 hrs,
stopping for food, gas, pee and cigar breaks until we finally arrived at 3am in
Huntsville Ontario at my Aunt and Uncle's home.
The hike through Quebec was pretty much ridiculous. Can you say
CONSTRUCTION?!? Basically from the moment we entered that province until the
moment we left we were in construction zones. Montreal was a
little...exciting...dad drove- I navigated. When we finally made it through the
city alive, his first goal was to pull over and smoke a cigar. He got a little
frazzled and white knuckled doing that leg... And the HEAT! Oh my goodness. I
have no A/C in my car and so, Dad and I near boiled to death.
I drove from Renfrew to Huntsville, through the Algonquin park. I was pretty
much expecting to hit some kind of animal, considering the time of day, and the
fact that it was raining pretty good throughout the entire park. Luckily I
only saw 3 foxes, all of which ran away before I could hit them.
We left Huntsville at 1130 Wednesday after visiting with my aunts and uncles
and continued for 11 hrs until we reached Wawa, Ontario. This leg of the trip(
11hrs) and the one from Wawa to Thunderbay, was very scenic because it involved
driving around the great lakes. Also scenic was the female moose sitting on the
road watching us. Immediately after, dad needed another cigar.... There was a
spot called Marathon, Ontario that was between Wawa and Thunderbay. About 3
hours away from each. Know what the price of their gas was? It was horrible,
and I was so thankful that we had gassed up in Wawa... A DOLLAR THIRTEEN PER
LITRE?!?! That was the most expensive we saw during the trip.
During the entire trip, we only saw 3 accidents though, all of which were in
Ontario. The first was just past Sudbury. A motorcycle was demolished on the
side of the road, police were there, but no ambulance...judging by the look of
the bike, I wouldn't think that the driver faired out too well.
The second was between Thunder Bay and Kenora. A Semi TRAILER was sitting on
the road and its truck was being pulled out of the ditch. It must have
jack-knifed and detached itself from the trailer.
The third was just before entering Manitoba. A minivan had hit a deer. The
deer I think was dead, and the van's hood was all crinkled up. The passengers
seemed to be okay, they were all out standing on the side of the road.
There are big signs everywhere in Ontario as well that clearly state that if
you are caught driving 160km/hr then you will be issued a 895$ fine and lose 10
points!!! Too bad there were no cops around, because we were passed by quite a
few people that MUST have been doing at least that!
Also, Ontario have these HUGGGGE rock formations that when they made the
highways, they had to blast through. Well, along the side of the road, if you
drove through one of these formations, there are these often very large rock
faces. On top of them people would stop and make Inuksuks. You know? from the
heritage commercial?? "Now the people will know we were here"... well
anyway, dad had this brilliant idea that we would buy a can of spray paint and
stop along the way and build an inuksuk and spray paint him so that he stood
out from the rest. So, we did. In fact we did 2 of them and painted our name on
a face as well.
On Thursday night, we pulled into the base in Winnipeg, but unfortunately
there were no accommodations available, so we kept driving west and pulled into
Portage La Prairie. We drove 16 hours that day.
We left Portage at 8 the next morning and drove 10 hours, arriving in
Medicine Hat this evening.
I’m glad that we slept last night though, because I really enjoyed driving
through the prairies during day light. I took a bunch of pictures, which I'll
post on facebook later! We live in a beautiful
country, whether it's the east coast or the west coast, or somewhere in
between.
Tomorrow, I plan to sleep in!!!! And then probably take dad down to the
ranch before heading to Calgary. His flight leaves on Sunday out of Calgary-
however there is a post tropical storm dumping lots of rain and wind on the Maritimes,
so he may get stranded in Toronto!
Best roads- Saskatchewan
Best view- Saskatchewan prairies
Slowest speed limit when it should have been fast- Ontario
Most construction- Quebec
Longest individual construction zone- Manitoba
Scariest drivers-Quebec
Most hills- Ontario
Hottest day- day 1 (PEI-Huntsville)
Coolest day- day2 (Hunstville-Wawa)
Most pictures taken- a tie between Ontario's great lakes and Saskatchewan's
FLATNESS!
Okay, it's off to veg a little....
...pfewf! That's all I can say!
