Road Trip from Ottawa to Calgary

Hello Everyone,
Most of you should know by now that Brady and I have decided to move out west.  And so this is the beginning of our western adventures -- once more -- Hence the "Take 3".

On Jan 26th 2011, I left Ottawa to meet my buddy Mike (who was nice enough to volunteer for this crazy drive across Canada) in Sturgeon falls the following morning.  I got to spend the night with my memere in Sturgeon Falls, so it was nice to see her again before I left Ontario.

Let me begin with photographs of our Journey starting in Superior Provincial Park.  I didn't have a chance to photograph Sudbury or Sault-Ste-Marie, mainly because I've been there many times before and to me, it's just same old, same old.

And our journey begins with myself (Kayla), my buddy Mike and my cat Bowser.

Driving through Superior Provincial Park and onwards, we didn't quite make to Thunder Bay that day.  We had to spend the night in Marathon due to snow and darkness (I'm terrified of hitting a moose or any other animal on the road that may just kill me upon impact).  Marathon is a cute little town with an excellent chinese food restaurant named Wok with Chow. Yum.  It's also the perfect town for ice fishing in the winter. 

Started the next day bright and early... Off to TBay!

Made it to Thunder Bay to realize that people are not too friendly here! Well... no. That's not true.  Just the people at Nissan who wanted to charge me to torque my tires... Yes, charge me! After being upset for wasting 45 minutes of my time (important travel time might I add!) I decided to go over to Canadian Tire where they torqued my tires for free!  Thank you to the young man who torqued my tires for me.  Yay, no more wobbly steering wheel on the highway!

 One of the many many fillups required to drive across the country.

To our disappointment, we hit another snowstorm just outside of Dryden.  It's a nice little northern town.  A lot of hockey going on that weekend, lots of kids everywhere!  We couldn't go any further because Highway One was shut down at the Manitoba border so we spent the night in a little motel beside the highway.

Next morning, off to Manitoba we went!

 MANITOBA!

 The terrain starts to get flatter at the border.  I never realized how instantly the landscape changes (mainly because this was the first time I had ever driven across the country).

And this is where I wet my pants.  Unfortunately you can't really tell from the photograph below but...

 That day, the road was covered in black ice and we had cross winds of 30 km/h with gusts of ??? TOO MUCH, that's what.  Not cool if you don't have studs on your winter tire.

 I freaked out some more... but at least Winnipeg was somewhat in sight!

I had to stop short of Winnipeg to calm my nerves.  I have never driven in such absolutely terrible conditions... especially on a bright sunny day -- go figure?  Had a little A&W and we were back on track to Winnipeg.

 Oh. Hello Winnipeg!

 Nice little stroll through Winnipeg.  Too bad you can see much of the picture above... That's the Red River and people are skating on it like the Canal in Ottawa.

At least in Winnipeg, the roads were covered in snow, so I had a little traction to keep me going.

We leave Winnipeg to find THIS! More blowing snow and black ice! Bahahahah I wanted to cry.

Ok.  We decided to stop in Portage-la-Prairie because the internet says the roads were even worse beyond this town (Thank you Mike for your cell phone technology!).  So we spent the night.  It was THE coldest night I have ever spent, EVER! -35 degrees Celsius!  I had to plug in my block heater for the first time!  Nearly froze my fingers off trying to untie the straps that held the cable in place by my battery.  Anyhow, I was so overjoyed to finally be able to use my block heater that I think the lady at the Super 8 thought I was crazy.

 CN Train!

 Next day... We're off to Brandon...

 Skip Brandon... We're on to Regina!

 Lots of these windmills out here!  Maybe I'll get a chance to analyze data from some of these if I can get a job in the energy sector in Calgary!! How awesome would it be to climb a windmill?  The tallest tower I've climbed so far is 150 feet and these totally top that!

 Plenty of grain elevators...

We didn't get a break -- the snow started up again!  I was so annoyed that this time, I just wanted to continue driving.  And so we did.

 REGINA!!! We press on...

Cat chilling on my snowboard in the back seat/in between the two front seats.

 More flat land...

OMG! It's Moose Jaw! Such a cool name for a town don't you think?

Only in Saskatchewan will you find a backhoe on the trans Canadian highway...

CP Rail!  By the way, this is one of my favourite pictures taken along the way.  The snow billowing out from underneath the engine was such a great sight!

The first mileage sign with Calgary on it!  What a glorious moment!

It was getting darker... snowier... But we finally made it to Alberta! :)

It was starting to get too dark for pictures, but the sign below was for the main highway in Calgary -- The Deerfoot Trail.  My god, was I ever happy to see this sign.

And that's traveling Canada in the winter 101.

Lessons learned?

1. Purchase studded tires before the trip.
2. Bring books on tape or ipod.  But not ones that were taped 50 years ago.  Reader is very boring and monotone and just puts you to sleep.  NOT good if you are driving!
3. Always have at least half a tank of gas at any moment in time... also bring a survival kit in the car.
4. Packing several small bags is a better idea than lugging fewer large suitcases.  Especially if you are in a compact car.
5. Make sure your pet is totally comfortable with the car.  We didn't have this problem... but I did come to realize that my cat is terrified when I open the window doing a buck-twenty down the highway.
6. After a long trip like this... it's really nice to sleep in afterwards!