Rita said...

Rita said...

A couple things of which I took note:

Quidi Vidi.. a small lake, village and brewery near St. John's, NL.. Loosely translated from Latin, ignoring grammatical errors, means "What I saw"

Burma-Shave slogans in Illinois, such as this one, were both interesting and a little scary: Roses are Red; My Gun is Blue; I am Safe; How about You.. Gunssavelife.com

Having to crawl under a desk to plug in the coffee maker in order to make coffee in the hotel room was NOT my favourite thing to do!

Pohénégamook... now what kind of a word is that?!! After leaving Quebec City, as we neared our 1st stop (Rivière-du-Loup), the sign intrigued me, so I had to look it up. Pohénégamook is a US/Canada border town, sharing the border with Estcourt Station, Maine. It is located on the Southern and Western shores of Lake Pohénégamook.. We didn't actually go there, because we were going to drive around the Gaspé Peninsula, however, this inquiring mind, just had to know!

I am so happy we made this trip.. we covered such a small portion of the vast lands that are Canada, however it is enough to know that next time I fly to my favourite spots (Ottawa, Quebec City, St. John's) and spend more time enjoying those cities and all they have to offer!! 

Everyone should drive across Canada at least once

Carmen said....

ditto and fini

VIDEO

I have added a link above to some video I took. It proved to much of a task for the IPAD. 

Musings along the way

• Ontario..so many golf courses so little time
• With all this driving and sitting, I am losing muscle tone, can you say atrophy? We get stiffer faster and hobble lots when first getting out of the car
• After climbing the lighthouse my quads and butt are sore and that was only 4 flights of ladders. oh bad
• Houses in the east have big ass lawns
• There ar flowers everywhere
• Looking at the pictures in the blog it looks like we are having a gay old time, doesn't give the impression that we regularly don't get out of the room till 11am, Rita says that is fine it is our coming back at 4pm which is the problem
• Who would think I would miss Telus internet, I guess Telus ain't so bad after all
• During the wars, Newfoundland was not part of the Country, a colony of England and joined the 2nd war at the same time as Britain.
• The American midwest, the land of billboards - omg
• Chow relish in New Brunswick, I think a relish made with green tomatoes
• the best pillows - Red tree Inn at Fernie
• the best water pressure - The red tree in Fernie
• best almond croissants - le moulin de province in Quebec
• the best ginger cookies - The Chowder House, Point Prim, PEI
• the best seafood chowder - The Chowder House
• the best lobster roll - Sheraton in Bangor, Maine airport
• best gas station - Agawa, I think Ontario
• Best view in hotel - St Johns Newfoundland looking over the harbour
• best scallops and shrimp at the Lobster Galley outside Baddeck, New Brunswick
• I want my pillow
• Should have called the blog 'I ate my way across Canada'. I enjoyed every bite.
• Why is it called Moose Jaw?
• My thighs are rubbing together in ways I have never experienced
• a turnpike is actually refers to a toll road
• all blurred memories
• Rita takes such good care of me, made the coffee every morning
• Everybody smokes in St Pierre
• The shower washed my dreams away
• Newfoundland impressions: hilly, lots of lakes, rocks strewn over the landscape in amidst bonsai forests
• Turning into one big french fry
• I'm really really REALLY sick of my clothes
• I'm getting really sick of lugging luggage around
• I sick of sitting
• So many things I didn't know
• I now know what cutter bees do
• imagine how pretty it would be if it wasn't raining
• so many rest stops, so little time
• kept forgetting about the time zones
• I know what Portage la prairie means
• total mileage is 20,714 km approx
• I'm tired
• Canada is pretty much all bush

I'm home

hahaha

Fooled you. I have been home since the 14th. Now that I have good internet and my mac I can finish this thing easily. When the cat isn't in my face pestering me that is. Lulu is not traumatized and very happy to see me. I assume so, he is sticking close. He is fat so I know he has been fed. Thank you to all who helped to take care of him. It is like a dozen cats have been living here, there is so much hair around. It has taken me a few days to house clean, do a ton of laundry, load up with groceries and try to figure out what is what. A bit anti-climatic?

Summerland, BC

Oh, we are close, close. Are you as excited as I am? Spending the night with my sis.

Banff

So beautiful, haven't been here since I was a kid. We spent the night and before we left in the morning we met up with Rita's cousin Michele. A bit of walk and coffee downtown and we are off again. Will have to come back for a better look. 

Two more sleeps, maybe

Taunting me

I see glorious mountains

Left Saskatchewan

Early start this morning, not sure how far we will get. Usually takes us 2-4 hours longer than we are told. I will make a note here about the weather for our trip. Three driving days of rain. Not bad, eh? We are both looking forward to being home and we are close...

Swathing and combining

I got to go combining and Vern was gracious enough to let me drive a bit. I'm such a nerd, it was fun. Thanks Vern !! Forgot to ask, have you named it? How about Big Bertha? 

Resting up

We spent two days in Langham with Rita's sister and brother-in-law. Good food, good drinks, good weather. They took us touring, well me, Rita having seen it already, but my eyes were opened up about Saskatoon. Here I thought it was just a small prairie town but NOT. Very pretty along the river, lots of outdoor spaces, impressive University of Saskatchewan campus, good restaurants and a decent rush hour. 

Langham, Saskatchewan

We had a good drive to Mary and Vern's place. Again, all a blur.

Vern swathing

Safe at last

It was now pitch dark and a long way from anywhere. Well, an hour to Weyburn, Sask where they had a good Best Western with vacancy. Drinks and food as soon as we could. Had to get the poor froggies out of my head. I won't go into detail, but the roads were wet from recent rain and it took awhile to realize that it was not bugs jumping around the road. Speaking of bugs, lots of bugs in the prairies. At night it looks like it is snowing there are so many bugs.

One days drive in green

Oh Canada

Fortuna border crossing

Picture this: heading north, sun at our backs, good road, plenty of time to reach the border and maybe make Saskatoon by evening. This is what happens when you have expectations on a 'fly by the seat of your pants' road-trip. After missing a turnoff that set us back an hour, we are toodling along, still optimistic that things are going well.  We see one road sign informing us of no shoulder ahead. What they should have said, no road ahead. The road just disappeared. Obviously work being done, but no evidence that there are people working on it.  Now picture this: no traffic, no houses, no signs, no people. It is getting darker and darker, muddier and rougher, bigger and bigger pot holes and after about an hour of driving the only evidence of life once being here is the half laid pipeline we see in the dusk. No signs to tell us that we are on the correct road to the border or to say Canada this way. Nothing. Just a road that is getting worse and may require us to go into 4 wheel drive. Okay, there was one vehicle a ways back that was following but he disappeared somewhere along the way. Not a lot of people heading to Canada.  Now we are thinking that we may not make the border by the time it closes at 10pm. Rita is still looking forward to hitting the duty-free. I have lost hope.  

I have no idea of how long this took us, but it was dark when we finally saw the border crossing. Looked like it was closed due to pylons blocking the road but we see lights and a couple of guards ahead and a sign saying last exit to the US this way. Not sure what was what. So scooted around the blockade, past a border vehicle sitting there and it sort of like we were pulling up for an oil change in a garage. There was a van from Wyoming inside and we could see the fellow in the office talking to the border guards. After about 15 minutes he departs and they indicate for us to pull in. Not sure what they thought but after a quick check of our passports we are back in homeland Canada. Whew! So relieved that they were open and I don't have to drive back on that non-existent road or spend the night in the car at the border. And the duty free 'trailor' was closed.

Abandoned house, can see potholes a bit

St Jacob's fire

Heard some terrible news about St Jacobs Market that we visited earlier in our trip.

St Jacob's fire

Whole lot of nothing

After our quick visit to Mount Rushmore, we are heading north. Yoohoo. The billboards have eased up along with the traffic and the corn.  More ranch country and oil.

Not mooses

I scream for ice cream

Now this was interesting, the first ice-cream recipe in the US was written by Thomas Jefferson. I did not try it, but Rita says it tastes like ice-cream.

Breakfast with the presidents

Biscuits and gravy, had to try them. Jury is out on that stuff.

Mount Rushmore

Keystone is a little town before you enter the National Memorial. South Dakota's answer to Niagara Falls. Not much there other than the carvings, so to attract the tourists they have many activities to keep families busy. Just a quick visit for us.

Rapid City, South Dakota

Arrived in the dark in the midst of thunder and lightening. Fortunately, the rain held out till we checked in to our hotel. A couple of days previous they had a severe hail storm, so lucked out there.

The Infamous Wall Drug

Unfortunately, we got in just before 6pm and Wall Drug closed at 8pm, but we got a quick look. An abundance of touristy souvenirs, food and kitsch to browse.

Still driving and still a blur

All I can recall is that these are from somewhere between Iowa and South Dakota Soooo hot with a strong dry wind, and we are trying to imagine what it was like to go across in a covered wagon in the old days. 

One of the great rest stops along the way

Dry and hot

Prairies

Close to the badlands