Wednesday, June 25, 2014

Arrived alive

It was a quick trip across Canada. We left Toronto, Ontario sometime around 9:30 am PST on June 21st (Saturday) and kept driving until we hit our destination in southern British Columbia around 5:30 am PST on June 24th (Tuesday).

Spidey and Yun relaxing in Scarborough, Ontario before the trip.
My poor little truck was jam-packed, behind the seats and in the box! Sleeping was NOT easy! We couldn't slide the seats back or tilt the seatbacks back very much because my TV was back there along with pillows and odd and ends.  Along the TransCanada highway there are pullouts all over the place, and in the middle of the night, you will no doubt find long haul truckers taking a nap too. The stops are noisy affairs with the sounds of traffic and headlights make sleeping hard - but we did it!

We did a few other stops too, since we needed to stretch our legs and also wanted to get a Geocache in each province. I had a Spidey and Yunshoof (owl) from work that joined us on our adventures ...sorry, us meaning my sister and I.

If anyone is driving the Transcanada, here are a few hints
  1. Winnipeg SUCKS for driving through at night. The bypass is a mess of construction. I highly recommend driving through it in the daylight! There are so many pilons and reflectors, turns, and signage that it hurts the eyes - not to mention traffic flies through there. It was the only time I felt worried driving on the whole trip! Trying to find the right way to go was difficult.
  2. There are very few rest stops in Manitoba on the TransCanada. It could be because it is only aprox 500 km across. If you are tired, there is a great rest area at the Ontario/Manitoba border, a rest area in the middle (near Sutton I believe), and another at the Manitoba/Sask border.  These are going west, not sure what is on the 'going east' side.
  3. Wawa, Ontario...for some reason the mileage signs always indicate the town was always 'about an hour away' but it took forever to get there!
  4. Ontario takes FOREVER to get through, but once you are through that, it's a fast haul across the prairies until you hit the BC mountains. (Maybe they are alberta mountains, but I'm from BC originally, so I'm claiming ownership for my province :)
  5. A lot of the corners from Wawa to Thunderbay, Ontario do not seem to have the right slope or bank to them, they feel 'flat', so it's like you are being pulled outwards when taking them. It was a bit nerve racking at first.
Spidey and Yun checking out the moose in MooseJaw, Sask.
Being uprooted and in a new place is a feeling I'm used to. Being uprooted, in a new place, but not in a place of my own is something else entirely.

Yes, I'm with family, but that isn't the same as having the complete privacy of my own place and doing my own thing. Like walking from the bathroom to the bedroom completely nekkid after taking a shower!

We'll see how things go.  Work is nice enough to let me work from BC, so at least I have $ coming in.


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