Cross country

I started my big trip alone, heading out to Western Canada to get
married. Due to an expired passport and a Wawa washout I ended up taking
the ultra-long Arctic circle route. This added about 8 hours of driving
time to my trip but as a silver lining I got to visit with a long-time
friend and his growing family.

The drive from central to western Canada was interesting. Northern
Ontario was flatter with more working farms than I expected. I've
always pictured it as Canadian Shield covered in Evergreens not that
there wasn't a lot of that too. My most vivid memory was the warning
sign along the highway that I was approaching the last McDonald's for 510
kms (gasp!).

Nipigon is a beautiful area and I would definitely like to canoe it
someday. After Nipigon was a long stretch of highway north of Superior
that I bicycled in my cross Canada trip of 2008. Zooming by in an
auto mobile is very different than bicycle speed. My memory of north of
Superior on bicycle is that it was long and hard and repetitive – the
one section of the ride I just wanted to get over with. But now that
I've got both perspectives I’d have to say bicycling was better.
On a bicycle you have the time to appreciate where you are and what you
are doing. Highway speed doesn't really allow for that.

Manitoba was much as I remembered it - rough roads. It’s main
distinction on this trip was the the massive amount of road killed deer
(at least until I hit Wisconsin) – one of those was being eaten by a
bald eagle. Bald eagles are big birds.

I didn't see much of Saskatchewan as it was pretty much covered in
fog or darkness. Creepily like the deer respected the Manitoba
provincial boundaries the fog respected those of Saskatchewan - and the
cold Alberta.

Alberta was cold and snowy. It was the coldest and snowiest
jurisdiction of the whole trip. It also had the best beer. And I got
married there.