I Should've Made a List

We made it.


We traveled from the Northumberland Strait to the soaring mountains of British Columbia;  across the Canadian Shield, dipping into Michigan's Upper Peninsula, through the great Prairies of North Dakota, Saskatchewan and Alberta and along BC's sketchiest mountain pass.  Some 5500 kms.  We made it.  We're home.  


That's over 60 hours alone in the car with the man I've barely seen these last few months as we wound down our time on the sandbar and prepared for our new adventure atop the mountains.  I'm happy to report, we still like each other.


We like road tripping.  We had lots to talk about.  We laughed A LOT.  We saw a lot of interesting things.  I should've made a list.  Before it all evaporates into the recesses of my gray matter, following are some highlights of our road west.


Buzz likes a three-way.  GET YOUR MIND OUT OF THE GUTTER.  Buzz, ever the guy with a back-up plan likes to not only have printed door-to-door  MapQuest directions between each day's Point A and Point B, but he also likes to refer to the North American Map Book that lives in the backseat of our car.  But that's not enough.  No....we also like to use our GPS navigational system too.  This way we have micro and macro views of where we're going and how we're getting there.  No looking out the window to read a road sign for us...no sireebob.


Michigan's Upper Peninsula (the U.P.) is the only place in North America that you can get a Pasty.  That's not a typo.  I said "Pasty".  It's pronounced "pass-tee".  When we first spied the signs for authentic U.P. Pasties I immediately thought of those things that cover a stripper's nipples;  Buzz thought it was a typo for pastries.  We were both wrong.  Pasties, for those who don't know are a type of meat pie brought to the area by Cornish miners in the 1800's.  A standard recipe includes a thin pie crust stuffed with rutabegas, diced potatoes, carrots, onions & ground beef seasoned to perfection.  We wouldn't know what they tasted like because we didn't buy one, but I wish we had.  Oh well, maybe next time we're in the U.P.  


Hunting season opened the weekend we were traveling through the U.P.  I have never seen so much cammo and flourescent orange in my life.  And guns.  Lots of guns.  And lots of small lodges, campgrounds and shacks "WELCOMING HUNTERS!!"   Don't even get me started on the trees.  I think the entire U.P. is one long series of National Forests.  For miles and miles on either side of our car, nothin' but trees.


Birds of Prey are everywhere...not just in our backyard on the Sandbar.  We saw eagles in every province and state we traveled through, but the most memorable was the great bald eagle we spotted not 30-feet from the side of the road devouring his breakfast.  I was driving and going way too fast to pull over and snap a photo, but whatever you've read or heard about eagles, multiply that by like a million and you're still not even close to the majesty of an eagle.  Plus its head was like the size of Snickers.  Not kidding.


Rugby, North Dakota is the geographic centre of North America.  You know how I know this?  I posed at the monument, of course!  

And speaking of North Dakota.   We loved Grand Forks.   Can't really say why, but we did.  Just loved it.

Eventually we wound our way back across the 49th parallel in Portal, Saskatchewan.  That morning we left Grand Forks in temps hovering around 60-degrees.   By the time we reached the border 7 hours later, our mother country welcomed us with open arms and one nasty weather bomb that dropped two feet of snow and ice on lower Saskatchewan.   The last 150-kms of that day were amongst the most treacherous we traveled.  Until the next morning when we literally skated across the province to Alberta.

Thanks to four-wheel drive we made it through Saskatchewan, which in my mind is one of the most beautiful landscapes our country has to offer.  That's saying a lot, because one thing I came to really appreciate this trip is just how spectacularly beautiful North America is.  Full stop.  

Saskatchewan is not known for winding roads.

And parts of it seemed a bit lonely

The morning light was spectacular

Blue skies, green fields, red barns

Moooooooooo

We overnighted in Calgary where we dined with friends and marveled at how much that city has grown in the three years since we were last there.  Or maybe we just never noticed it before.  But whatever, we both decided Cowtown was NOT our kind of place.  Too much traffic.  On the plus side though, gas was the cheapest here.

And that left us with one last day on the road.  Calgary to Sun Peaks.  Through Roger's Pass.  One of the scariest passes on the Trans Canada Highway.  I cannot believe transport carriers traverse this road on a daily basis.   Conveniently it snowed just as we got to the Pass, which turned a scary trip into a nail biter as our windshield wipers clogged up, making keeping pace with the spray from the trucks almost impossible.   By this point I was done with the road trip.

I will leave you with one last image of our trip west.  Imagine if you will a quaint boutique that sells this:

Suffice it to say, we didn't get a jar.