Cross Canada Trip Part Deux

After our slight mechanical problems in New Brunswick, we decided to take Guy Lafleur (our car) for a check-up in Montreal before that long trip across 5 provinces. We stoically endured a mouthful from the fatherly mechanic. “Why didn’t you come to me first before buying this Junker?!” And accepted the facts from his $30 inspection that Guy’s frame was rotting and he was never going to pass safety inspections for resale at the end of our trip.

His diagnosis did explain why the whole right side of the car was leaking from the bottom up during those rainstorms, and also the need for the many black garbage bags lining our floor and trunk. However, it was a bit disheartening to know Guy was terminal with 6000 km to go. After the inspection, I had a reoccurring nightmare about falling through the floor of the passenger seat going 100 km/h and being decapitated by the car body. Yet, despite the fears and some strange noises, Guy was a solid car and made it to Vancouver with only slight encouragement from us along the way; where we promptly sold his parts for a whopping $75 CDN. So long Guy! Thanks for the ride!

Our first stop after Montreal was in Canada’s Capital city to see the famous parliament buildings and more importantly…our friends Dan and Karin. Ottawa, the capital city of Canada is nestled right along a beautiful, winding river on the Ontario/Quebec border and draws thousands of visitors each summer to view the Canadian parliament buildings and parks. Thanks to our wonderful guides, we completed a tour of the city in a few hours, and after a few weeks with a rain cloud tied to our tailpipe, we decided to enjoy our amazingly good weather by swimming in Karin’s family pool. We memorably created our own Pool Olympics, with such events as the floatie boat relay, the cannonball competition (freestyle and traditional) and the ever-popular synchronized pool noodle routine. The Pool Olympics, though popular, were not to be outdone by the Beer Olympics later that evening. I think Ivy won the Belching Event, much to Dan’s dismay.

ONTARIO

Sadly we had to leave Ottawa and the last of our good weather. Ontario is massive!! 2 and 1/2 days in the rain or 36 hours of driving with no stops to reach the western edge. That is a long time to spend in the car. About half that time was spent driving along the shore of the Great Lakes which was scenic until about 8pm, then the last 4 hours of driving each day were black and boring, even a little scary. Despite our mission to spot a moose, and the overwhelming number of signs indicating their presence (“Moose Crossing Ahead next 5 km”), if we had actually hit one at 100 km/h, we would have been crushed, end of story. Only somewhat disappointingly, our hunt for moose produced none in the eastern provinces.

MANITOBA

By August 17^th, exhausted and sick of camping in the cold nights, we reached Erickson, Manitoba in the Midwest of Canada to recuperate at our friend Charlene’s and hopefully track down some of that famous Canadian wildlife that had eluded us so far on our trip west. Once again we forgot to pay tribute to the sun gods and had ominously cloudy weather during our stay. In fact, Manitoba hit an all time summer low of 8 degrees in honour of our visit. But by good luck, we managed to see a herd of bison, three moose (Finally!!!), some deer, and a young coyote in Riding Mountain Park before hitting the road once more.

SASKATCHEWAN

Crossing Saskatchewan, the breadbasket of this country, could only have been more painful if we had decided to play “I spy.” Imagine seeing golden canola fields, grain elevators, and a strip of pavement towards the horizon, for 11 hours, nothing else, no mountains, or trees and definitely no moose. Every 2 hours, I had laughing fits brought on by a lack of visual stimulation and had to take a break from driving. Luckily, we arrived unharmed at the Giant Ukrainian Easter Egg just past the border into Alberta. (The other giant roadside attractions we passed by on this trip included, a moose, a bull, an elk, a bear, and no we weren’t hallucinating, we have photos…really).

ALBERTA

Alberta, home of Canadian cowboys and The Royal Tyrell Museum in Drumheller, the coolest and most extensive dinosaur museum I know (except for London’s Natural History exhibit which is second), was a relief from the open Saskatchewan road. After a quiet night at my friend Leslie’s in Edmonton, we hit the road the next afternoon for Drumheller, the famous dinosaur fossil hunting ground in Alberta. Here we purchased our dinosaur quiz book to keep us amused in the car, and had our picture taken with the tallest dinosaur roadside attraction in the world (Guinness book, 2000). Only stopping to sleep in Calgary, we were off to tackle the Great Canadian Rockies in one day.

We sped through Banff National Park, Lake Louise, Glacier National Park, and many other national parks, taking pictures along the way to the BC border. We didn’t even break out the dinosaur quiz book once; our eyes wouldn’t come unglued from the incredible mountain views through our windshield. This was the Canada we had been waiting for. Too bad we only had a day to see it. I think both of us would go back to The Rockies in a second if offered the chance. They are incredibly beautiful.

BRITISH COLUMBIA

Most of our trip through BC coincided with, funnily enough, more rain. In fact, as more than 15 people (no joke) we met pointed out, Ivy and I just missed all the record-breaking 35-degree weather by about two days. Sigh. We spent an afternoon at a music festival in Vernon with my friends Jo and Lucho, where it didn’t rain until we left strangely enough. We made it to Vancouver by Aug. 23^rd, ditched the car and sat back to relax in the inevitable rain and cloudy weather after 20 days on the road.

Well, we completed the Western Portion of “Neysa and Ivy’s Cross-Canada Trip” on Aug. 22^nd. We made it from Montreal to the far Atlantic Coast to the cold Pacific waters of Vancouver Island. We put 8000 km on the speedometer, crossed 8 provinces, drove some days till 1am, listened to 40 cds twice each, lost an antenna, went almost hysterical from driving too much only twice, got lost only three times that I remember, and learned a lot about dinosaurs thanks to a Drumheller invisible ink quiz book (ages 4 and up) purchased in Alberta.