3600 Kilometers of Fun
Well, I am in Saskatoon now. Outside of the window, honest to god, I can see a grain elevator. Sadly it is one of the modern ones, but it's a grain elevator nonetheless. We made it to Thunder Bay on the Sunday night, and then to a small town about 250 km from Saskatoon last night. Below is a more or less chronological list of thoughts on driving through 1/3 of Canada.
I had always known that Ontario was really wide, but don't think that I ever really understood it, but after taking more than 20 hours of driving to get to the edge of the province, it seems a whole lot more real. Northern Ontario is probably really, really pretty during the day, but at night is just a series of winding roads and trees. My friend Damien biked across this stretch of the country last summer, I beleive on the same highways we were on. I have a whole lot more appreciation for the feat now.
On the upside, the roads were pretty good throughout, though visibility was kind of shitty on the way to Thunder bay. A really thick fog got in the way whenever we were at the top of a hill. This slowed us down dramatically, as Ryan was pretty much restricted to navigating by staying within the lines.
General comments on towns that we drove through: Sudbury seemed as desolate as I thought it would be, but in fairness we didn't really go through the town proper. Or atleast I don't think that we did. I didn't see the giant nickel, but saw a sign pointing towards Science North, one of the many interesting things I didn't get to visit. Sault Ste. Marie actually seemed pretty nice, though its roadsign motto of "Naturally Beautiful" makes me think that it is more beautiful on the inside than on the out. We stopped in Thunder Bay for the night, where I had to go all Russell Crowe on the Hotel deskperson to get a working phone. They also offered free "dial-up" internet in the rooms, which seems to me to be a whole lot like offering black and white TVs.
Monday's drive was mostly uneventful until the end. We made it through the last stretch of Ontario to Kenora, and then easily across Manitoba. The Prairies really are as flat as I had thought. I'm actually thinking about buying a dog, just so I can watch it run away for a few days. What we hadn't factored, however, was that small town Saskatchewan shuts down after 9pm.
Ryan had forgotten to fill up in the last major town, and so by 11:30 we had been riding the E for about 40 kms. We pulled into Foam lake, where the gas station had shut down and the Motel had switched to self check in. We called CAA, who very helpfully told us that we should have filled up 40 minutes ago. None the less, they sent a guy over who was supposed to bring us some gas. The guy, who seemed to be really annoyed that he had to be doing his job, didn't actually bring gas with him, but brought us to a nearby pump which he couldn't actually get working. It is still not entirely clear to me what he would have done had we been totally out of gas and had we been unable to get into the motel. We should have paid better attention to our fuel situation; he should have actually been able to do something other than use up more of what is left of our gas.
So we stayed the night in what seems like the surliest town in the Prairies. We made way for Saskatoon, and here I sit, getting ready to go off and jumpstart an election campaign for someone I have yet to meet in a province that, apart from it being flat and mostly rectangular, I know nothing about. Good times ahead!
I had always known that Ontario was really wide, but don't think that I ever really understood it, but after taking more than 20 hours of driving to get to the edge of the province, it seems a whole lot more real. Northern Ontario is probably really, really pretty during the day, but at night is just a series of winding roads and trees. My friend Damien biked across this stretch of the country last summer, I beleive on the same highways we were on. I have a whole lot more appreciation for the feat now.
On the upside, the roads were pretty good throughout, though visibility was kind of shitty on the way to Thunder bay. A really thick fog got in the way whenever we were at the top of a hill. This slowed us down dramatically, as Ryan was pretty much restricted to navigating by staying within the lines.
General comments on towns that we drove through: Sudbury seemed as desolate as I thought it would be, but in fairness we didn't really go through the town proper. Or atleast I don't think that we did. I didn't see the giant nickel, but saw a sign pointing towards Science North, one of the many interesting things I didn't get to visit. Sault Ste. Marie actually seemed pretty nice, though its roadsign motto of "Naturally Beautiful" makes me think that it is more beautiful on the inside than on the out. We stopped in Thunder Bay for the night, where I had to go all Russell Crowe on the Hotel deskperson to get a working phone. They also offered free "dial-up" internet in the rooms, which seems to me to be a whole lot like offering black and white TVs.
Monday's drive was mostly uneventful until the end. We made it through the last stretch of Ontario to Kenora, and then easily across Manitoba. The Prairies really are as flat as I had thought. I'm actually thinking about buying a dog, just so I can watch it run away for a few days. What we hadn't factored, however, was that small town Saskatchewan shuts down after 9pm.
Ryan had forgotten to fill up in the last major town, and so by 11:30 we had been riding the E for about 40 kms. We pulled into Foam lake, where the gas station had shut down and the Motel had switched to self check in. We called CAA, who very helpfully told us that we should have filled up 40 minutes ago. None the less, they sent a guy over who was supposed to bring us some gas. The guy, who seemed to be really annoyed that he had to be doing his job, didn't actually bring gas with him, but brought us to a nearby pump which he couldn't actually get working. It is still not entirely clear to me what he would have done had we been totally out of gas and had we been unable to get into the motel. We should have paid better attention to our fuel situation; he should have actually been able to do something other than use up more of what is left of our gas.
So we stayed the night in what seems like the surliest town in the Prairies. We made way for Saskatoon, and here I sit, getting ready to go off and jumpstart an election campaign for someone I have yet to meet in a province that, apart from it being flat and mostly rectangular, I know nothing about. Good times ahead!
posted by an Mike Powell at 12:34 PM
1 Comments:
Go northern ontario. My grandfather lives up there, and doesn't have indoor plumbing.
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