Bemidji to Winnipeg - Blasts from the past - Day 29

Today we got up, had some breakfast in the hotel and then went across the parking lot to Tires Plus for a new set of tires and another oil change. Gotta love the customer service around here! The guy got us in and out in less than an hour and the price was great! And the car is so quiet now!

We went west to Grand Forks (the border town with North Dakota), then pretty much straight north along the North Dakota state line to the Canadian border. Again, we were probably the most exciting thing in the border guard's entire week!

Almost instantly after we got over the border, Adam observed (and I had to agree) that it looked a bit like the landscape had been ironed. And I was reminded of how strange it seemed (especially to a girl from a province that's always had oil) that the highways and streets are made of concrete rather than asphalt.

It took us until a little after 5 to get all the way across town to my friend Mike's (we hit some heavy rain on the highway and some pretty heavy traffic through town) where we are staying tonight. He has an adorable house that he's done a complete remodel on - just in time to get an offer he couldn't refuse to go back to Edmonton to work. We waited for his wife Kristen to come home, and then went out for a nice dinner on a patio (the rain had cleared and it had gotten quite warm and sunny).

We stopped for a couple of drinks at the CanadInn (where Celebrations is) with Gail, one of my best friends from the old days. It was so great to see her - I wish we could've made contact with a few others, but most of them have kids and we did get in later than I'd intended.

Tomorrow we'll do a little bit of sightseeing around Winnipeg - a few of the things I've always enjoyed, and possibly one or two sights that somehow I never got around to seeing, before we head on our way.

Brevort, Michigan to Bemidji, Minnesota - The first city on the Mississippi - Day 28

We came through 2.5 states today, so unsurprisingly there was a LOT of driving. Unlike our last marathon drive day, we didn't try to fit in a major tourist attraction (or 3) in the middle of it! (See day 6)

Anyway, we checked out of the motel in the morning (there was an industrial size ice machine at the end of our hall, and the hotel owner told Adam to "Load 'er on up - we've got lots of ice!" (which given the fact that some hotels specifically forbid using their ice machine to fill up coolers, was particularly nice)) and loaded up the car.

We went back into "downtown Brevort" to a cafe for breakfast, which was totally serviceable and only about $5, before hitting the road west again. A good note for anyone travelling through the Upper Peninsula - unless it's the weekend at the height of summer, you probably don't need a reservation. Just drive along - there are cute, classic motels with Adirondack/Muskoka chairs out front to enjoy the sunshine about every 45 seconds on average. Some of the oldest, "cabin style" ones are indeed closed and looking kind of decrepit, but there's always another one coming up.

We drove through some beautiful country - the Hiawatha National Forest first, then we followed the southern shore of Lake Superior for awhile, and drove through the Porcupine Mountains State Park (it's so cute how they think those are mountains....)

Also of interest in the Michigan leg of the journey - for the first time (in my personal history at least), we WON the license plate game! Now granted, we lucked out on the first or second day by actually seeing a Hawaiian plate on the mainland, but we had begun to despair of ever finding a West Virginia plate without actually going there. And there it was! Apparently West Virginians only ever leave West Virginia to go to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. We also got a confirmed Delaware plate (I'd seen a variation that only has "Del." on it but we finally saw a standard one). All 50 states, plus DC, 10 provinces, and 3 territories! Quite a victory! (and all it took was driving cross country one-and-a-half times!)

We crossed from Michigan to Wisconsin at a town called Ironwood, and drove through Wisconsin for a couple of hours - and another beautiful peek at Lake Superior - and then crossed into Minnesota (in a torrential rain that Adam did an awesome job of piloting us through) at Duluth-Superior, as we were leaving Duluth, a highway that must have been closed was reopened - Google maps binged and said that there was a new route available that would save us an hour. Would we like to accept? Why, yes, yes we would!

So with the combination of the "saved" hour and the "gained" hour (we got back into the Central Time Zone in Wisconsin) we arrived in Bemidji at about 8:45pm local time.

The coolest thing about Bemidji is that it sits on the Southwest shore of Lake Bemidji, which is the northernmost lake feeding into the Mississippi River, and is therefore referred to as "the first city on the Mississippi." We drove across the Mississippi River for (at least) the second time on this trip. But this time, a person (granted, a person with a much better throwing arm than me) could probably throw a ball across the river. Adam was pretty thrilled.

We checked into the hotel (a Super 8 tonight that beats the pants off the last one we stayed in (remember Indiana?)) and then across the street to Applebee's for dinner (which was delicious and HUGE).

Tomorrow we're going to get another oil change for Elantra (and hopefully a new set of tires - we decided to hold off until we really needed to replace them, but they're looking pretty alarmingly bald now) at the Walmart that is in the same lot as the Applebee's, and then striking out (mostly) north, through Grand Forks, ND to an informal Celebrations reunion in Winnipeg!

Sarnia ON to Brevort, MI – Life among the Yoopers, or, What is a Pastie? - Day 27

We got up this morning, loaded up the car and headed for the border, across the Bluewater Bridge. I was a bit concerned that we would have a long border wait at one of the busiest crossings, but I needn’t have worried – there were lots of lanes open and we only waited a few minutes. It was also entertaining to see the border guard try to remain detached as we answered his questions and you could tell he really wanted to hear some stories about our adventures –

“And where are you going now?” 

“Well, we’re cutting under the Great Lakes before heading back up to Winnipeg, but we’re going to go through the upper peninsula.” 

“… (secretly wishing he could ask us to take him with us)… Well, drive safe.”

Another beautiful drive – it sort of “misted really hard” for awhile – you needed to use the windshield wipers, but the “drops” were really tiny, and sounded more like bugs hitting the windshield than raindrops… even a new kind of rain for Vancouver-y me!

We also did make our big Walmart stop – strangely, the hardest thing to find (which is shocking to me, at back-to-school season) was a decent backpack. And I know I got the old one at a Walmart. So we wound up getting a new suitcase instead- it should be useable as a carryon (at least on big planes) and it has those funky 360° wheels – I’ve wanted one for awhile. So now we’ve pretty much replaced everything we actually need – and a few things we don’t. In an interesting turn of events, I’m noticing a (both intentional and unintentional) preference for black and hot pink as theme colours for my purchases this summer. No particular judgement, just an observation.

I will admit, I didn’t believe Adam when he told me that the people up here call themselves Yoopers. It sounds way too Dr. Seuss to be real. But it’s true! It comes from the letter “U” (upper) and the letter “P” (peninsula). So Yoopers it is. I’ve seen it on more than one sign.

The other things we consistently saw on signs throughout this part of the world were ads for “the best pasties on the upper peninsula” (in a somewhat unlikely turn of events, every restaurant, café and store we’ve come across has “the best pasties on the upper peninsula” – Adam has considered consulting the math and statistics departments of local universities to help explain this phenomenon). Of course, the first thing we imagined was an extremely healthy cabin country burlesque community. But in fact, what they were referring to are pronounced “past-eez” and are basically meat pies (the one we tried was like beef stew) without the pie shape. Sort of an early precursor to “Hot Pockets.” We each had one for dinner at a cute restaurant in the next town that had an absolutely breathtaking view of Lake Michigan. There were hummingbirds hovering around feeders on the patio, and the tables were all stocked with some simple board games, a set of binoculars and at least one guide to local birds.

I don’t think that “pasties” will become my new favourite food (I still prefer my pies to have sweet things in them) but it was very good and I’m glad I tried something new.

Our motel this evening is called the Chapel Hill Hotel (not surprisingly, since across the street/highway, on a slight rise, is a quaint Lutheran church) and while it is charming as heck and has the plushest hotel towels I’ve felt in a long while, it does not have anything so crazily new-fangled as an internet connection. So I’m typing this into Word and will post it tomorrow, from another strangely named town, two states over.

Fortunately, one of the (about 5) TV stations we get up here is showing “Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets” tonight. Woohoo!

Etobicoke to Sarnia – Now with Peacocks! - Day 26

Our residence room being less awesome than the night before (although I’m splitting hairs… they were both nice – if we’d been travelling in the other direction, we might not have even noticed the difference. Adam even said he had a better sleep on the bed at Humber), you might think that we would have been up and at ‘em bright and early. We’d even wanted to go check out a little beach-type area before we headed out. But not so much. We got up at the last possible moment, and had to get moving if we were going to make our “lunch date” with Linda, Shannon, and the boys (Leeson and Ellis). Shannon had told us that she had to get to a doctor’s appointment later in the afternoon, so the timing was really pretty tight.

We plugged her address into the GPS and were on our way. It was a pleasant drive – they live on a beautiful acreage in Schomberg, ON (which is about an hour north of Toronto, and about a 45 minute drive from where we were staying – probably due to the fact that we weren’t driving through traffic really at all.

We got to Shannon’s in good time and were met by her and Linda, as well as two adorable dervishes who were thrilled to show us their bikes (and how fast they could ride around the circular (racetrack) driveway) and the pond beside the house, and their swingset, and their new construction truck toys and especially their new “big brother” red bunkbeds. (Shannon is expecting another baby any day now – in a particularly charming moment she admitted that “we were without power for four days this winter… which led to this” (pointing to her belly).

One of the most awesome and bizarre parts of her beautiful property is the fact that it is populated by a flock (?) of wild peacocks. Yes, peacocks. They’d mostly moulted off their big tail feathers, but they were everywhere, wandering around the yard. No one really knows how they came to be there either, but there they are! It was kind of surreal, and absolutely delightful. Shannon also told us that a couple of days before she’d seen a turtle 18” across sunning itself on the dock at the pond. Gorgeous!

We had a delicious lunch, featuring some fantastic wheat-free dishes (they’re following what Shannon describes as a “crazy diet” – for someone from Vancouver, it didn’t really seem all that strange) like a zucchini lasagna with pine nut paste instead of ricotta and some bread made from almond flour. It was great!

The boys are adorable and it was so nice to see all of them!

After lunch, we were on the road again, avoiding the toll portion of the highway by cutting across through Orangeville (where my cousin John and his wife Sheryl had their wedding) -  we picked up a few things at the Walmart but decided to wait until we got back across the border to finish restocking ourselves (after the loss of our bag).

Then we carried on to Sarnia, which is just across the Bluewater Bridge from Michigan. (It’s called that because the water there is ridiculously blue.) We found a hotel (we had to go a little bit out of the main part of town, as it seems there’s some kind of sport tournament going on this weekend) and then headed back into downtown, where we found a cute restaurant/pub where Adam had a nice local beer and I had a martini. We were hoping for another delicious charcuterie platter or something, but this restaurant didn’t seem to have very much in the way of appetizers, so we had a hotel room picnic when we got back.

We decided once and for all that the nominal added time to our drive through the US this time by taking the route through the upper peninsula of Michigan was more than outweighed by the scenery and the fact that we wouldn’t have to go back through Indiana. So we booked hotels for the next few nights, set our route, and started getting in touch with people in Winnipeg and stops further west, to let them know when we will likely arrive.

Tomorrow, back to Americaland!

Ottawa to (metro) Toronto - Wherein Julia Gets to Drive Like a Crazy Big Smoke Girl! - Day 25

Our first adventure of the day came when I woke up early to do some laundry (the thief got all our remaining clean clothes) since reception didn't have any laundry cards last night. I went downstairs, loaded up the laundry, put some money on the card, and set it to wash. It is important to remember, for this story to work, that I put all of Adam's pants in the laundry - he was still dozing in his pjs.

At about the end of the wash cycle, I went back downstairs... to find that the washer with my laundry in it, still washing, was the only machine left hooked up inside the room. There were workmen hauling all the laundry machines out, to be replaced by new high tech ones, that wouldn't actually be hooked up until school started.

So keep in mind that all of my husband's pants  are now clean, but soaking wet. I have a problem. I went to reception and they told me "Oh, yeah, you have to go to Staunton." (which is what? and where is it? and what am I to do there?) Turns out that Staunton is the (fairly ghetto) next dormitory over, where there is one washer and one drier on each floor. So I carried all the wet clothes next door, found another laundry room, and put them in the drier. These machines were even older, so I wound up pulling out most of the clothes a few minutes before the end of the cycle (still a tiny bit damp) because we didn't have enough time to run them again, and I wanted to make sure at least our clothes for that day were dry.

Clothes clean (if not completely dry), checked out of the rez, (we got permission to leave the car in the parkade while we looked around) we went downtown.

It is unfortunate that we hadn't been able to make contact with my cousin John, who lives with his wife and 2 boys in Ottawa, but it turns out they were out of town... this is what happens when other people have busy lives, and we can't give any notice, since we don't exactly know when we'll be anywhere in particular!

So it was great to be able to make plans to see my cousin Shannon and Aunt Linda, who live north of Toronto.

We also tried to make plans with Amanda, a great friend from Vancouver (and best friend to my awesome sister) but she was too busy with work to make the scheduling work.

All of these arrangements were being made over another delicious breakfast at a "Cora's" before we did some power-touristing in Ottawa. We saw the statue of Oscar Peterson by the National Center for the Arts, (where they play jazz over the speakers all the time and you can sit on the piano bench next to Oscar!) the war memorials, (the one for the Korean war was extra cool - there's a statue, and in front of it is an arrow that is part of the pavement, that points the direction to the cemetery for Canadian soldiers in Korea, where an identical sculpture looks back at this one). The WWI sculpture is much bigger and more detailed, but I was particularly moved by this one.

We saw the Parliament buildings, the Supreme Court, and any number of buildings and museums that look like castles, and the most impressive sculpture of Queen Elizabeth I've ever seen! Not to mention about a hundred other sculptures.

On our way back to the car, we were able to see the locks working in Rideau Canal, before stopping at Rideau Center so that I could replace some of my makeup.

Then we got back to the car, loaded up, and got on the road. I drove.

Let me tell you some things about my experience of driving on the 401. I'm sure it's very different at rush hour, when nothing's moving. And I can't imagine trying to do it without a) GPS and b) Adam, to periodically look ahead in the GPS so that I know what lane I will need to be in (in time to do something about it). The drivers were consistently fast and agressive, but not competitive. That is to say, they'd leave exactly enough room for someone to get a lane over, but if you hesitate for a second or fail to drive consistently 20 km/h faster than the posted limit, you will be lost (or at the very least, miss your exit).

I actually found it pretty exhilarating, and Adam was very glad that it was my turn to drive.

We stayed at the dorms for Humber College Lakeshore (a jazz school - not that there were too many music students there at this time of year) in Etobicoke (the very western edge of Toronto proper). The photos looked very much like our Ottawa residence, but in reality it was a little more downmarket, although it was still a double room "suite" with much the same layout - just not as nice finishes.

It was also the only dorm we've stayed in without wifi. They were willing to sell us ethernet cables (we did, in fact, buy one, but it was kind of a nuisance to be tethered). It seemed very low tech. Crazy luddite jazz musicians.

I was feeling a little bit bad that we weren't having much luck finding family and friends who had time to hang out with us, and that we were too far out to want to brave the expressway to get back into Toronto to experience some nightlife, so Adam offered to take me out if I could find something. We found a place called "Biermarkt" in Etobicoke, and went there for a drink.

The place has about 30 beers on tap, and another 120 in bottles - about which the server/bartenders are very knowledgeable - and they also had really delicious soft pretzels and a fantastic charcuterie platter, including house made candied bacon. (Candied. Bacon. Need I say more?)

We had a lovely "date," went back to the residence, and got a good nights' sleep. Playing with 3 and 5 year olds in the morning!

Montreal, QC to Ottawa, ON - No More Drama, please, from now on! - Day 24

We checked out of the hotel in the morning and brought the car into the middle of downtown, (centreville) where we parked at a meter and got on one of the Gray Line Bus tours. I love these, and Adam doesn’t usually bother with them. But he loves me and on we got.

 It was pouring rain most of the tour, so we sat inside the double decker bus instead of on top. It was a bit leaky and the grouchy woman at the front wouldn’t open her window, so it also got pretty foggy. The tour guide, though, turned out to be another classical bassist, and he made some slight alterations to the tour itinerary to show Adam some cool music related places. We also saw some great architecture and were excited to get back, plug the meter, have some lunch, and then go out and do some more sightseeing. All we hoped was that our car hadn’t been ticketed.

 Well, we hadn’t gotten a ticket. We had gotten burgled. Someone smashed out the back passenger side window and grabbed our backpack. From one of the busiest areas of town, early afternoon, on a Tuesday.

Obviously, this was a low point. We’d spent a lot of money on the tour and I was really looking forward to having a bit more time to explore, even in the rain. There wasn’t much in the backpack really – the rest of our clean clothes (which wasn’t really all that much) our toiletries, bathing suits, and (for some inexplicable reason, it was the first time I’d ever put it in the backpack) my e-book. But it put a pall on the trip, and of course there was no option to do anything else in Montreal before we got the window repaired.

 Which, (more drama) we didn’t seem to be able to get done in Montreal. While I waited in the car for Adam to pick us up some sandwiches at Dunne’s, I called a place that had gotten good google reviews, but clearly it has changed hands or something because when we got there, it looked like a skeezy chop-shop and the proprietor didn’t want to do the window anyway. So we decided to cut our losses, I called the Apple Auto Glass in Ottawa and told them to order the glass, we’d be there in a couple hours.

 So there we were, cruisin’ down the highway, 3 windows down and one in pieces on the floor of the car, making fun of the thief for leaving all the good stuff and taking a bunch of half used makeup and a couple pairs of underwear… it really could have been a lot worse.

We arrived in Ottawa, where the Apple Auto Glass People stayed open late to fix the window and clean out the car, then checked in at the University of Ottawa residence – which was pretty swanky! Two bedroom suite, thank you, with an attached shower room and kitchenette – it was pretty awesome, really. (With secured parking!)

 And walking distance from downtown. Once we got settled, we took a walk downtown, stopping at Byward Market – the main market was closed but all the surrounding pubs were open – for a pint and some delicious poutine and a smoked salmon sandwich with their signature seafood chowder. Then we picked up some essentials at Rexall Drugs, before we headed back to the residence.

 I feel pretty good about how we handled this bit of bad luck, but I feel bad that Montreal left such a bad impression on us. We were both looking forward to it – I wanted to brush off my French, see a city with so much history, and share it with Adam. And we didn’t get that at all. Well, next time, we won’t come with a car.

 Putting it behind us, and the rest of our adventure will be better!

Fredericton to Montreal - Travel Day - Day 23

We’d arrived late (missed it by that much) for check in at the University, so the first order of business was to find the actual registration desk and make sure they had all the appropriate information. We packed up the car and went into downtown for breakfast and coffee and a look around. Once again, we were struck by the fact that New Brunswick is the only truly bilingual province. It seemed as though almost everyone spoke both languages fluently and without any particular accent that gave away which was their first and which their second language.

 I, in turn, had fun being able to translate for Adam. It’s so rare that I know something that he doesn’t, I milked it for all it was worth!

 We had breakfast at Cora’s – a franchise breakfast/lunch place that exists mostly in Eastern Canada, as far as I know… Adam says there used to be one in Vancouver, but I’ve never seen it, and believe me, if I had, I would be there all the time! I had French toast made from, essentially, a sliced cinnamon bun, covered in a pile of fruit and with English cream on top. Adam had a “crepeomelet” – literally an omelette wrapped in a crepe and then covered in hollandaise. The Uberbreakfast, really!

After breakfast we wandered around a little bit, checking out the old garrison for a little history, the legislative buildings, and another lighthouse to add to our collection, but we were aware that we had a long drive to get to Montreal (about 8 hours) so we got back into the car and were on our way.

 The drive was pretty uneventful – we followed our new road rules: when in doubt, buy more ice, and always pick up some unsweetened iced tea when you can find it… I guess it might be getting married to an American, but I’m really developing a taste for unsweetened iced tea, and one of the companies that makes it is starting to bring in the unsweetened version in Canadian markets. It’s sort of the “official non-alcoholic beverage” of the trip (man, I should have brought them in as sponsors)!

 When we arrived in Montreal, we didn’t have too hard a time finding our hotel, although it (in fact, the whole block was made up of similar hotels) had seen much better days. It was fine, though, and after checking in we took a nice walk down the street to a student pub and had a drink, then back to the hotel to bed.