Road Trip Day 4: Thunder Bay to Winnipeg

After my shower this morning I was feeling good and ready for another day of driving.  The same cannot be said about my companions.  Barb hasn’t been feeling great ever since her back spasm and Sarah had been feeling a little off since the beginning of the trip and this morning was the pinnacle of her suffering.  This morning they both had pretty bad nausea, among other things.

They were in pretty rough shape but I was able to enjoy the delicious gluten free pancakes made by Aranka’s mom.  After I ate, Barb and Sarah chilled and tried to prepare themselves for the drive while I reorganized my stuff in the back of Stan so the middle seats had room to recline.

It took us longer to get out the door than planned but we made sure to thank our lovely hosts before we left.  We even grabbed a picture with Aranka before leaving.

This morning was the first time I really wished I could drive Stan.  Stupid rental rules!  I’m 22 – that’s plenty old enough to drive a minivan in my opinion. 

I don’t think I have ever felt so powerless as I did this morning.  I couldn’t drive and I couldn’t magically heal Barb and Sarah.  We were basically stranded in Thunder Bay until they felt better.

We stopped at a Starbucks attached to a Safeway so we could grab some coffee (apparently Tim’s coffee isn’t good enough for Sarah) as well as some anti-nausea remedies.  In other words I picked up more gravol and some ginger ale.

We hung out for a little while until Barb was feeling well enough to drive.  Sarah crashed in the back waiting for the medicine to kick in.  Surprisingly enough within an hour or so she was like an entirely different person – the wonderfully sweet Sarah we all know and love was back.

About an hour into our drive a cop car drove past us driving in the opposite direction.  Barb noticed in the rearview mirror that he did a u-turn to follow us.  Yeah we got pulled over.  According to him we were going 114km/h in a 90km/h zone.  I don’t know how he could tell how fast we were going since he was in a moving vehicle.  Oh well, he ended up letting us off with only an informal warning.  We were luckY!  Needless to say we were very conscience of our speed for the rest of the day.  Barb and Sarah opted to use the cruise control for a good portion of the day.

Not long after that we stopped at a rest area near a lake to use the washrooms and for me to make lunch.  I had the pleasure of discovering a couple inches of water at the bottom of the cooler from the melted ice.  Since I was the only one feeling well enough to eat I cleaned out the cooler, made a sandwich and then brought it with me to eat in the van so we could continue on.

Sarah took over driving since she was feeling significantly better and while I was eating we had a good conversation about different types of learning and the flaws within our current education system. 

From there we moved on to the topic of health and nutrition.  I’ve decided that when I get home I am going to work on developing a workout schedule and eating plan for the summer.  I do so much better when I have a plan or routine to follow.  You just have to compare my two semesters this year.  In the Fall I had a workout routine that has me running and swimming 5 or 6 times a week.  That helped improve my eating and my moods; and I even did pretty well in school.  This past semester I failed to develop a new workout routine that fit my new semester schedule.  My laziness resulted in weight gain, poor sleeping and eating habits, and being super stressed out by schoolwork.  Yep I think developing a workout routine for the summer is wise.  Don’t you?

The rest of the drive from that point until Kenora was pretty uneventful.  All three of us just kind of chilled and did our own thing.  I decided to start writing this post while in the van to save time.  I’m glad I did because I am absolutely exhausted and now I have less to write about before I can crash.

Kenora was our favourite small town in Ontario so far.  It was quaint and had a nice aesthetic.  I took a few pics as we were leaving.

Shortly past Kenora we reached the Manitoba-Ontario border.  It was kind of crazy how almost immediately you could notice a difference in the landscape.  At first there were still a few trees but later you could definitely tell we had entered the Prairies.  Right around then Sarah and I fell into a conversation about the Hunger Games.  Barb tuned out since she hasn’t watched the movie or read the book but she might someday so she didn’t want us to ruin it for her.  I found Sarah’s perspective on the storyline quite interesting since she had only seen the movie.  Plus she was able to relate her theological studies to the story, which I found kind of fascinating.  The only trouble is the movie tends to be to subtle about certain aspects of the plotline that were much more clear in the books so Sarah saw things quite differently than how they were portrayed in the books.  I really want her to read the books so we can discuss the series on a whole different level. 

About half an hour away from Winnipeg we noticed we could see the city pretty clearly.  It was kind of amusing.  I guess that’s the Prairies for you.

When we arrived Cam was in the middle of preparing supper and it was only then that I started to notice just how drained was.  A few days in a row with less than 8 hours of sleep and lots of time spent in a van will eventually take a toll.  As the only fully healthy one and the navigator/music selector I felt like I couldn’t sleep in the car, like I needed to stay awake so we didn’t get lost or so I didn’t miss anything.

My fatigue was made obvious when I said, “Sarah, I would be so excited if you left the continent!”  It sounds really bad but I definitely didn’t mean it the way it sounds.  I meant to say I would be happy for her to have the opportunity to travel abroad.  Travelling is one of the best experiences in my opinion.  You may have already guessed that though, eh?

Cam took us to visit some of her oldest and dearest friends after dinner.  They were going to have a bonfire but it turns out there is a ban on fires currently, which makes sense since it is incredibly dry and rather warm here.  Ever since I got here my lips have been really chapped and my throat has felt like it is perpetually dry.  Instead of a bonfire we ended up watching a movie called Chronicle.  I found it kind of strange and at times annoying.  The others seemed to enjoy it.  Near the end, one of my contacts folded in my eye and I had to take it out and put it back in.  It was kind of painful since my contacts were super dry, yet another side effect of the warm, dry weather here.

I’m really looking forward to having Cam join us.  He is quite the character.  I think he will provide some much needed entertainment through the flat Prairies.  Plus I think Barb and Sarah are looking forward to having him split the driving duties with them.

Road Trip Day 3: Sault Ste. Marie to Thunder Bay

I did not want to get up this morning.  By the time I fell asleep last night I only ended up with about 6.5 hours of sleep before the alarm went off.  It was not enough.  I’m one of those people that needs 8 hours sleep.

Maria proved just as hospitable in the morning as she did last night.  She had fresh fruit, orange juice, cereal, and toast all laid out for us.  It was wonderful.  She was such a great host.  I really hope we were able to convey just how grateful we were.

Shortly after leaving the Soo I lost service and continued to have no service until we reached Thunder Bay. It was kind of annoying, mostly because I could not use the map function.  On the other hand it was also kind of nice to be off the radar.

Also not too long after setting out I was making Barb some crystal lite and I was juggling two water bottles.  I was not so successful.  I managed to dump a bunch of water in my lap.  It felt like I had peed my pants.  Thank goodness it was only water and not the crystal lite mix.  That would’ve been worse.  Having a wet crotch for most of the morning played tricks on my bladder.  I ended up having to get Barb to pull over so I could pee in the woods.  I’ve now joined Barb and Sarah in the “pee in the woods club.”

Besides that water-spilling incident today’s drive was the nicest one yet.  It wasn’t warm out but it was sunny and that’s all that you really need when driving.  The area we were driving along was quite beautiful.  From the Soo to Wawa the highway followed pretty closely along Lake Superior and passed by many small lakes.  There were times that it reminded me of BC, just without the mountains.

The lakes we drove by had the strangest names.  My favourite were three lakes called Mom, Dad and Baby Lake respectively. There were also Pancake Bay and Old Woman Bay, which I thought were kind of amusing.

We stopped at Old Woman Bay to stretch and took some pictures.  It was nice.  While Barb used the washroom Sarah and I checked out the beach and put our hands in the lake.  It was freezing.  Sarah, who had been sleeping up until that point, really enjoyed her first view of Lake Superior.

For lunch we went to Wawa.  As we were driving into the town there was a giant statue of a goose, which I thought was strange.  I said as much and Barb quickly shut me down by explaining that wawa is the Native word for goose.  How did she know that?  Well she spent the first years of her life in Petawawa so she must of figured it out at some point.  I find it funny that she used to live in “Pet a goose.”

After grabbing coffee at Tim’s we looked for a decent place to eat a picnic lunch.  The only place we could see was the visitors’ center by the big goose but it was closed and barricades blocked off the parking lot.  That didn’t stop Barb from finding a way through the barriers.  We pulled out our cooler of food and sat down at a picnic table.  The sunshine was nice but the wind was cold so we ate fairly quickly and then grabbed a few pictures with the goose before continuing on.

Past Wawa the strangely named lakes and roads continued.  Some that stuck out were Desolation Lake, Fungus Lake, Yellow Brick Road, and Dead Horse Creek.

In White River we stopped at a Winnie the Pooh statue to take some pictures.  Apparently Lt. Harry Coleburn purchased the black bear cub he named Winnie in White River.  I hadn’t known that.  I love Winnie the Pooh!  It was cool to learn something knew about the history behind A.A. Milne's stories.

Between White River and Thunder Bay we didn’t stop much besides coffee/pee breaks and to take pictures of a waterfall just past Terrace Bay called Aguasabon Falls.  As we got closer and closer to Thunder Bay the more tired I became but I felt like I couldn’t sleep in case I missed something. 

For a little while we got stuck behind a couple trucks and going up the hills at times we were going as slow as 20km/h.  That was kind of frustrating, especially since we were used to going around 100km/h.

Just as we were arriving in Thunder Bay the gas beeped that it was nearly empty.  We filled up before heading over to my friend Aranka’s house.  To fill Stan from empty was nearly 70L and cost us $97.  I knew to expect it to cost a lot but being someone who generally hates paying for gas it hurt a little to see that big a total.

When we arrived at Aranka’s her mom had dinner all ready for us.  It was very nice.  She had even gotten gluten free flour/bread crumbs for the fried chicken to accommodate Barb’s gluten allergy.  Their house is rather small - the perfect size for 3 people – Aranka, her brother and her mom.  With the three of us over we doubled the occupancy so at times it seemed a little cramped but we managed ok.  Aranka and her family have been so hospitable.  I am very grateful they let us stay with them.

After dinner we took a tour of the marina.  Apparently it is quite controversial.  They spent or are going to spend $40 million on improving the area to attract tourists.  Sure the marina was kind of nice but I wouldn’t travel to Thunder Bay just to see it.  It’s not that nice.  The art they chose to art was kind of strange - teardrops that look more like sperm and granite balloon animals.  So odd!

That more or less sums up day 3.   I finished earlier than usual.  Wow for once I’m going to be in bed before midnight!

There is something not quite right about this art

The sleeping giant

Road Trip Day 2: Sudbury to Sault Ste. Marie

 Waking up this morning and looking out the window my outlook on the day was as bleak as the weather outside.  I didn’t sleep very well and the pouring rain felt like it was adding insult to injury.

Sarah took the first driving shift.  It was not very pleasant. The scenery was grey and dingy, and the rain did nothing to help it.  We ended up stopping in for a coffee/pee break in a small town called Spanish.   We found the name somewhat amusing.  Sarah kept joking, “You know I’ve heard of French Ontario and English Ontario but you’d have known there was a Spanish Ontario too!”  She was also particularly amused by the accents she overheard.  She heard one lady say, “Oh gosh, oh geeze, I sure do love cheese whiz!”

In Spanish Barb switched to the drivers seat.  She was not pleased with my music selection at that point in time so I started working on creating a new playlist for her on my laptop.  It’s pretty cool how technology has evolved to the point where you can be creating playlist or even burning CDs in the car while on a road trip.  I was preoccupied with my music that I didn’t notice at first that Barb didn’t look so well.  It turns out her back went into spasm while she was driving.  How much would that suck?  I felt so bad for her.  She pulled us over on the side of the highway to so Sarah cool take over.  Thank goodness today was our shortest driving day - 4 hours.  Otherwise I don’t think Sarah would’ve been too pleased about having to do all the driving.

We reached Sault Ste. Marie, aka the Soo, by about 1:30pm.  Not before off-roading a little bit.  

Well not really but according to the GPS we were.

We decided to eat lunch at the Sault Ste. Marie Canal National Historic Site of Canada.  My friend, Ellysa, who I met while we were both on a Rotary exchange in Rouen, France, worked there for three years and recommended we check it out.  We walked around Whitefish Island, which had some nice trails and a view of Michigan.  Barb’s back pain had reduced by that point but she was still hurting.  She watched Sarah and I do some crazy stunts and didn’t complain.  Check out some pics below...

After our adventure at the canal we went in search of an Apple store.  Shortly after I made Barb’s playlist – a country mix – my computer stopped functioning.  It was super hot and I could tell that it was still running but the screen was black and it wouldn’t respond when I held down the power button.

We stopped at a nearby mall to see what we could come across.  Before finding out we had to head across town to the Future Shop we grabbed a bottle of wine for our host for the night, Ellysa’s mom Maria.  While we were there we saw a bottle of wine I thought my older brother, Will, might like.

Thought it was good wine for Will.  After all hippos are his power animal!

Once we got to Future Shop one of the tech guys fiddled around with my macbook for like a minute before he got it working.  Turns out it had overheated and spassed out.  At that point I realized that I had accidentally leaned it against the dash that is connected to the engine.  Whoops!  I won’t be doing that again.  It is all better now.  Yeah!

We had a little time to kill before Maria was off work so we ended up grabbing some Tim Horton’s and chilling in the van, in the parking lot.  Yeah we are just that cool.  While we were sitting there the wind picked up even more (it was windy all day) and it actually snowed a bit.  What bizarre weather day... Pouring rain, sun, and then snow!

Pic with the Elvis impersonator/Part-time waiter!

Dinner was absolutely delicious and Maria very generously treated us. On top of that she had cheesecake for us at her house for dessert.  Meg stuck around and chatted with us for a while and introduced us to her fiancé’s band, frank deresti and the lake effect.  His music was excellent so I decided to purchase his CD to listen to on tomorrow’s drive.

When Meg left I went through my old photos and found the ones of Ellysa and I in France, as well as, from Thanksgiving 2009 when I visited her in St. Catharine’s.  I think Maria enjoyed seeing the pictures and hearing some of my stories.  It was kind of funny... when I said hi to Meg earlier in the evening I said "Hey good to see you again" but I couldn’t remember if I had met her in France as well as in St. Catharine’s or just France.  She couldn’t remember either.  Well while I was going through the Thanksgiving photos I found some of us together.. Apparently we both have terrible memories.

SoI think I should leave it at that for tonight.  It has once again gotten really late.  I’m finding these posts are taking me much longer to write than I would like.  Maybe that will improve as the trip progresses…

Oh one last thing I want to mention.  Thanks Ellysa for helping organizing with your mom to host us!  We are very, very grateful for her hospitality!

Road Trip Day 1: Ottawa to Sudbury

I've finished school in Ottawa and I'm moving back to BC.  Since I'm leaving Ottawa permanently I figured the best way to transport all my stuff would be a vehicle.  Thus the idea of the "Road Trip Home" was born.  I managed to convince my older sister, Barb, and my good friend, Sarah, to join me on my adventure.  Then Sarah invited her friend, Cam, to join us once we pass through Winnipeg.  Planning it while in school was a little bit of a challenge, I'm not going to lie.  However, I think I managed pretty well even with the last minute alterations.


The map above shows all our stops over the course of 7 days.  They are Ottawa, Sudbury, Sault Ste. Marie, Thunder Bay, Winnipeg, Regina, Calgary, and finally Vancouver (Tsawwassen).  Of the 6 nights I managed to find someone I knew to stay with for 4 of those nights.  Staying with friends is much more cost effective than hotels.  The two nights in hotels will be a nice change though since I don't often get to stay in hotels.


Today was Day 1 of the road trip.  It began with Barb and I bussing to the airport to pick up our rental minivan.  Sarah insisted the van needed a name so we decided on "Stanley the Dodge Caravan" or for short "Stan the Van."  Picking up the van from was surprisingly easy.  It took less than 10 minutes to do all the paperwork and whatnot.


Our first stop was Costco to stock up on food for the trip.  We bought a cooler and a bunch of food to fill it.  To be honest I almost feel like we bought too much food.  Oh well the less we have to "eat-out" the cheaper it will be.  After Costco we made quick stops at Walmart and Bulk Barn for a few items unavailable at Costco before heading back to my place to pack up.


I was very pleased to discover that Stan's backseat folded down.  It meant that I ended up having more than enough space for all my stuff.  I was quite worried actually.  My friend, Mary, came over last night and I gave her a ton of stuff since I didn't think I had space for it.  I also promised my friend, Mark, my desk chair if it didn't fit.  Sorry Mark but it fit.


Packing everything up and prepping food was somewhat chaotic.  My brain had trouble figuring out the best order of doing things.  I'm pretty sure there for times I looked like a chicken with its head cut off, running from one task to the next and back again.  Barb can attest to that.


Before I knew it everything was packed, my room was cleaned and emptied, and we were heading back to the airport to pick up Sarah.  Sarah is super a trooper.  She flew 5 hours only to hop into a van to drive for 6 hours!

Now here's one of the funny things about this trip.. I planned the whole thing but National doesn't allow anyone under 25 to drive their minivans so I actually won't be driving at all this week.  I am the designated navigator and music coordinator.  It wasn't my intention for it to work out that way but I'm glad it did.  Those two roles suit me just fine.


With long days of driving Barb and Sarah have decided the best thing for them to do is switch off driving duties fairly regularly so neither of them get too tired.  I think that's a good plan.  The first switch of the day occurred in Renfrew, the place my friend Erika is from.  I'd heard mention of the "Frew" many times over the past few years it was nice to see part of it.  Even if that part was a Tim Horton's.


I found today's drive quite nice.  The scenery was lovely and I chose my 90's Chill Mix to listen to.  We followed the Ottawa River North-West for the first half of the drive.  Barb and Sarah needed to use the washroom when we were somewhere nowhere near much of anything.  So they go to take their first, of potentially many, pee breaks in the woods.  For Sarah, the season mountain guide, it was nothing but Barb was a little put-off.  It didn't help that this stop occurred not too long after Barb spotted a bear while we were driving.


Originally I had planned for us to only drive as far as North Bay today.  But when we got there we felt like we could manage a couple more hours of driving, especially since we are spending tonight in a hotel and it didn't matter when we arrived.  So we continued on to Sudbury.

For the last leg of the today's drive I chose to listen to some Stan Rogers, one of my Dad's favourite musicians.  One line from his song "Watching the Apples Grow" for some reason particularly stuck out to me.  "Your scummy lakes and the City of Toronto don't do a damn thing for me.  I'd rather live by the sea."  In some ways I feel like that sums up how I feel about my experience living in the Ontario landscape.  Sure I like lakes but I much prefer the ocean.  Growing up in Tsawwassen, a town surround by the ocean on three sides, and near Vancouver and the mountains does tend to spoil a girl.  Who knows maybe when I see the rest of Ontario I might change my mind!  I kind of doubt it though.

Well I better head to bed.. Barb and Sarah crashed a while ago.  I don't want to be the exhausted one dragging them down tomorrow.  Although if I wanted to sleep in the van I probably could.. But then I'd miss the Ontario scenery.  I'll just have to leave sleeping in the van until the Prairies.  From what I hear there isn't much to see there..

Day 1: Ottawa to Sudbury