Ouch, my neck!

Well folks... yesterday we had a nice start to the day with the most amazing Breakfast I've ever had at L'Accent. Seriously, for $12.95 you can get the L'Accent Brunch and it comes with pretty much EVERYTHING you could want for Breakfast on one plate.

After that we wandered back up to the Old City to grab a couple T-shirts emblazoned with some offensive Quebecois on them. So, with our newly acquired souveniers and full stomachs we proceeded to head towards the Plains of Abraham. We get to the intersection to turn in to the Park and oncoming traffic stops to let me turn. The lane next to the stopped car looked clear so I turned, before I could react, a newish Audi A4 nailed me and spun me a good 100 degrees to be facing the direction he was going.

I didn't manage to grab a picture of the damage on the Audi, but my poor beloved Gretchen is written off.









So there you have it. The grand finale of Gretchen.

Now I'm working on a solution to get to Sept Iles, QC where my company can pick me up and fly me to Goose Bay.

Jon is busing to Guelph, ON today to start heading back to BC. It was great having him along on this trip as I doubt I would have made it this far without him.

More updates to come as I change modes of transport and hit some new turf I've never ventured across before!

Vive la Quebec!

So we made it to Montreal on the 22nd. I've already been to Montreal before so I didn't really do much in the way of taking pictures there.

What I can say is that thankfully we stayed with our friend in Westmount. Checked out a Hookah Bar in Downtown called "Cafe Arabesque". It was really nice, great food and the Mango Shisha is delicious as well.

Later, Rick and I went out to Cafe Campus for a couple $7 pitchers. Did I mention how much I love this Province? C'est magnifique!

Anyhoo! Today we got up to Quebec City. I think that I like this place better than Montreal. The pace of life seems a bit slower and more what I'm used to in BC. Sure less people speak English but everyone has been polite and helped us out after we ask them "Parlez vous Anglais?". It's also amazing at the high concentration of gorgeous Women here. Half tempted to stay here, learn French nice and proper and land me a hotty of a Quebecois Wife. Alas, my job lays in Goose Bay!

Tomorrow before departing to Baie Comeau, we're going to check out the Plains of Abraham and some other sights. Here's a couple shots from our wanderings today.











Oh! I almost forgot! We checked out Pub St. Patrick which is in Old Quebec City. AMAZING food and it's also in a building that was built in 1749. So it's pretty neat to be able to say that I had dinner in a building that is older than Canada. 261 years ago they used to store ammunition to fire at the English and Americans where I sat having a Pint. Kind of neat when you think about it.

Anyways! Time for sleep! The Hostel we're in tonight is pretty decent too. More being a tourist tomorrow!

Up the Golden Horshoe

Sorry for the delay in the updates. We had a blasty blast in Toronto. Took Jon to his first Jungle Party in Toronto. It was an event filled with Old School Jungle. Very good night overall. Didn't really take any pictures since I forgot my Camera in the Car.

But! When we left London we went to Niagara Falls. I lived in Toronto for four years but had never made it down to the Falls before. So this was a great experience for me. I have to say, the Falls are more impressive in person than they are in the postcards.







I also noticed that Clifton Hill reminded me a lot of Las Vegas. Lots of lights and strange amusements etc on to the Street. Pretty neat either way. I'm definitely going to have to come check it out again and spend some time at the Fallsview Casino or some other spot.



After Niagara Falls, we headed up to Barrie. I was booked to spin at a fundraiser there thrown by a good friend of mine, DJ Yoshimojo. It was mainly Breaks but I got to rock out a set of Fidget House and Electro House. Overall the turnout was decent and all the DJs involved did a good job.







Last night we checked out a Dubstep Jam here in Ottawa at a place called "Hangover Joe's". Was a pretty good little Jam they had going on there.

Now it's time to finish waking up and head off to Montreal!

Bushplanes, Police Officers and Wind Farms! Oh My!

So we made it to London, ON from Owen Sound, ON today. But let me go back to yesterday first.

Checked out the Canadian Bushplane Heritage Centre in Sault Ste. Marie before we left for Owen Sound. What a great spot! They have some great exhibits and it's most definitely worth a visit if you're ever in "The Soo". It was half price for Spring Break so for Jon and I it was only $10 for admission.









We got there right at opening so it was great as there was no one in the Centre but us. A great opportunity to grab pics without anyone wandering in to my shots... as well as a chance to do all the Kids Activities without anyone realizing what big nerds we are.

Here's a couple pretty pictures I took while we were waiting for the Bushplane Centre to open. We went down to Belleville Park to check out the Canal.





We've been blessed with amazing weather for the whole trip. It's continued through today as well as it's supposed to me nice up until the weekend. AWESOME!

So after the Bushplane Centre, we headed for Owen Sound. However! We get to Parry Sound so we can trade drivers. Stopped to get gas, Jon takes over driving and about 5 minutes on to the highway again we get pulled over by the O.P.P. oh lovely. He pulled us over because we were going about 5 km/h too slow. Well, being as our speedometer doesn't work we didn't want to go screaming down the highway with a Cruiser behind us. So he let us go with no issues. I think he was more amazed that our awesome vehicle made it this far.

The rest of the trip was pretty uneventful except for a little confusion on the directions to Owen Sound. But we got there with minimal distraction. Got to see the Lake and some awesome beaches though.



So nice! I would love to have a Cottage or something near there.

On the way in to Owen Sound we saw the infamous Blue Mountain. When I was living in Toronto, people would always go on about it and the skiing. Wow, talk about underwhelming. I think the Bunny Hills at Whistler and Blackcomb (Both of which I've done) are bigger and longer. Hilarious! I'd be amazed if they had any runs higher than maybe a Blue.



Was hard to snap a picture of it because of all the trees on the side of the road and it being on Jon's side of the car.

So after getting to Owen Sound, we got our Motel, our Whiskey and picked up my buddy Jesse who I haven't seen about a year and a half. Motel Party! WHOOO! Good times had by all. Including the noise complaint.



That about sums it up. A 40 of Wisers goes a long way apparently.

So back to today! We left Owen Sound around 11am because we decided that sleeping in and feeling 100% recovered was the prudent thing to do. The Sun was with us once again as I previously mentioned.



We were driving along Highway 21 towards London, I'm driving perfectly behind another vehicle and an O.P.P. cruiser ends up turning on to the Highway behind us. That's fine I thought, I'm not speeding, all is grand. NOPE! Buddy hits his lights and pulls us over. So now Jon AND myself have been pulled over. The cop's excuse for it? He said I had a "hole in my tail light"... I thought maybe the red Tuck Tape I had used to cover it up (in true redneck fashion) had come off. I check it here in London and sure enough IT WAS STILL ON! There was no visible holes at all! He totally pulled us over for no reason other than probably the fact I'm running a BC plate. Not impressed.

Now to enjoy the rest of the evening and watch the Leafs v. Senators game.

Until tomorrow! Niagara Falls and St. Patrick's Day!

Welcome to "The Soo"

Made it in to Sault St. Marie, ON. at about 17:30 today. Quite the drive from Thunder Bay. Very scenic but after Wawa, ON there is ABSOLUTELY NOTHING until you hit "The Soo". Seriously... absolutely nothing. Trees, Rocks and that's about it.

Also, despite the numerous "Moose Crossing" signs we've yet to see a single one. Jon and I are both kind of disappointed. Really, after the distance through Northern Ontario we've gone already you'd think we would have seen at least ONE so far. Negative!



So after leaving Thunder Bay it looks a lot like this. Really pretty and at some points almost reminds me of bombing along the Malahat Highway on Vancouver Island. Lots of hills and curves, totally a big change from the miles and miles of straight in Saskatchewan and Manitoba.





Just outside of White River, ON it was really odd and almost barren. Like there had been a large forest fire or someone didn't feel like practicing selective logging. (Wow, my British Columbian is showing) Anyways... this is a taste of that little section.



White River, ON is apparently the Home of Winnie the Pooh. Yeah, I know... I was kind of amazed actually. But that's what the signs say.



We had to make a stop in Wawa, ON because we heard about the rather large Canadian Goose there. They weren't kidding! This sucker is huge!



There's also quite the view from the Visitor Centre next to it. Worth a short stop to at least stretch your legs.



After going through Lake Superior Provincial Park and getting pretty much down to 1/4 Tank of gas we finally found a Service Station about 30km from Sault Ste. Marie. The funny part is, the Gas Attendant that filled us up was from Kamloops as well! What are the odds? The guy used to live in Brocklehurst. Us British Columbians are everywhere apparently. Either way, we're a long way from home!



So now we're in "The Soo" for the night at the Travelodge. Tomorrow we're going to check out the Canadian Bushplane Heritage Centre and take a look at the massive bridge that heads in to Michigan. After that we'll be heading to either Barrie or Owen Sound.

Snowbirds, Womyns Day and Thunder Bay!

Okay! So I finally have some decent Internet access! We're at the Thunder Bay International Hostel in Thunder Bay... obviously. And I have to say, this place is pretty neat. Run by a very nice older couple. You have to see it to believe it and the best part it that its $20 for the night. So definitely in our budget.

Anyways! Where was I? Oh yes! We toured the Snowbirds at CFB Moose Jaw on Friday. One of my friends from Cadets is the Public Affairs Officer for them so we got a real nice tour. We met the Deputy CO of the Squadron as well as Snowbird #1. Got to check out the Flight-line and the whole Hangar.

A couple shots for my fellow Aviation Nerds.







So, after our tour there we hot-footed it off to Winnipeg. With a stop in Rouleau, Saskatchewan aka "Dog River".






Heading in to Manitoba we ran into some serious Fog. It was so thick we tailed a Semi just to make sure we could follow the road without incident. We even picked up icing on the front of the Car! I'd never seen icing not on an aircraft before so that was kind of amusing really.





Once we got to Winnipeg, we stayed in the Hosteling International Hostel in Downtown Winnipeg. Found they had a a Bar downstairs (as most Hostels I've been to seem to have) called "The Lo"... turns out there was a party going on for International Women's Day. So Jon and I went and joined the fun after having a go at the bottle of Fireball we had from the previous evening. Have to say, the DJ they had playing at this Bar was awesome! She dropped an awesome Madonna - Hung Up v. Orgy - Blue Monday Mashup as well as some great dancefloor friendly classics. DJ Beekeeni was her name. They even had "Cunt Cake" at the back of the Bar. Yes, you read that correctly. I didn't sample any as Fort Garry Pale Ale would agree too well with Chocolate Cake.

Started off this morning after begrudgingly getting up at 8:30am. The weather has been amazing still! We must be dragging the Okanagan Sun with us. Drive from Winnipeg into Ontario was an interesting change. Went from flat with trees back into hills, valleys, rocks and trees. Very nice countryside we have here. The road in to Thunder Bay is pretty much the worst stretch we've encountered so far... well except for Saskatchewan Route 714 which was all dirt road leading into Rouleau. Amazed at the amount of Semi-trailer traffic there is in this part. Saw a convoy of about 8 of them at one point. Nothing too much else spectacular to say for this leg so I'll end this entry with a couple pics from today.





Tomorrow we head to Sault St. Marie for our next overnight. After that... we'll see. Thinking maybe Barrie or in to Owen Sound to visit some of my friends.

Moose Jaw!

Well the Internet here is slower than molasses going uphill on a cold piece of glass so the entry for yesterday is postponed until I can find something faster.

Basically we made it from Strathmore to Moose Jaw. Once again we had amazing weather.

Got drunk at the only "club" in town and now we're heading off to check out 17 Wing at CFB Moose Jaw before heading out to Winnipeg for the night.

More to come later today!

Strathmore Station Pub

Check it out if you're in this neck of the Woods.

Just had some great food, decent prices and they also had Kokanee Gold on tap.

Also as a very nice bonus the waitresses were of a very fine quality.

This concludes the Food Review portion for today.

Day One

Left Kamloops at 9am Pacific. We just pulled in to Strathmore, Alberta at around 6:30pm Mountain. Not bad time at all!

The weather was absolutely amazing! Nothing but blue skies and barely a cloud at all.

Gas in BC was about 106.4 but once we hit Calgary it dropped to a lovely 92.9. Excellent!

Amazing how fast the land goes from huge rocks to rolling fields as far as the eye can see.

So here's a couple pics from the first day:










There's a few for now. You can check out the rest of the pics by the Flickr Widget on the right side of the page.

Just discovered that Lightroom does mass resize and export! Awesome.

That's it for now! More to come!

T-3 Days

Well the date of departure is close enough that the excitement is starting to build.

Also! I just got a call from my friend Jon. He's decided to just go for it and join me on the trip. This is great as he can also drive stick and won't mind listening to Drum'n'Bass along the way at barely tolerable volume levels.

Another update... I've been booked to DJ at a Fundraiser in Barrie, ON on the 18th. If you're in the area, come check it out as it's for a good cause. Sleeping Children Around the World.

So I'm taking the Wagen in to the good folks at Wolverine Auto here in Logan Lake on Tuesday. Got a couple electrical things for them to fix and then fluid changes. This will have her all prepped for departure on Wednesday morning.

First overnight will be in Calgary. We're taking suggestions for cheap places to overnight and/or have a pint.

So yeah, 72 hours before we kick this blog into cruising gear!

Plotting and Planning

While I've got the Laundry on, I've got some time for a little planning update.

Started working on a rough itinerary. Basically I figure that I should be able to average 700km/day. That's a decent pace and as there is no Cruise Control in the Fox, my foot will need a break once in awhile.

Here's the itinerary so far:

Kamloops, BC to Calgary, AB: 620km (RON)
Calgary, AB to Rouleau, SK (Short Stop) to Regina, SK: 804km (RON)
Regina, SK to Winnipeg, MB: 572km (RON)
Winnipeg, MB to Thunder Bay, ON: 706km (RON)
Thunder Bay, ON to Sault St. Marie, ON: 704km (RON)
Sault St. Marie, ON to Midland, ON: 554km (RON)
Midland, ON to Owen Sound, ON: 143km (Short Stop)
Owen Sound, ON to London, ON: 229km (Poss RON)
London, ON to Niagara Falls, ON: 206km (Short Stop)
Niagara Falls, ON to Toronto, ON: 132km (RON or Two)
Toronto, ON to Ottawa, ON: 450km (RON)
Ottawa, ON to Montreal, QC: 194km (Short Stop or RON)
Montreal, QC to Quebec City, QC: 253km (RON)

From Quebec City to Goose Bay I am still working out the logistics for that. Highway 389 is all gravel, sparsely populated and not under cell coverage. A little more research must be done for that.

Still no confirmation on any of my friends coming with me so this trip is starting to look like I'll be going Solo.

Will be packing my Apartment tomorrow and heading up to my Grandmother's place to save on Rent and get assistance from my Uncle with final vehicle prep. Right now it looks like that I'll be departing in the first week of March.

I'm starting to get excited as everything moves forward.

The Shakedown

Well I've driven the Wagen a fair bit over the last week. Surrey to Abbotsford, around Abbotsford and to West Vancouver, West Vancouver to Surrey and a little more around the Fraser Valley. No issues... well, I stalled on Cambie and Georgia in Downtown Vancouver but that's my own fault. I let the Tank get a little too low. Oops.

After departing Vancouver to head to Kamloops for what was my first time driving the Coquilhalla Highway solo; I stopped in Hope just for a top-up of Gas because after Hope there's pretty much sweet F.A. until you get to Merritt. Everything went smoothly until about 100km South of Kamloops, my Left Front tire blew.

So I managed to get my Uncle to come out and assist me and now I'm back in Kamloops.

Assembled the shopping list of supplies and things I need to get for the Car and next week I'll get that purchased. Also pricing out some new Tires.

In addition, I've now secured an Apartment in Goose Bay so all I have to do now is pack up and ship out!

So far, my expected Co-Pilot hasn't said that he's 100% going so I'll be checking in to that.

All in all, the date of departure is getting here rather quickly.

Oh yeah! I'm trying to think of a name for the Wagen. So far I have a couple possibilities: Olga, Helga, Sybille, Freida and Hilda. Trying to stick with the Euro theme... she is a Volkswagen after all. Open to suggestions!

Chariot... Acquired!

So! I finally got the mighty Steed that will carry me to Labrador.

My 1988 Volkswagen Fox Wagon. Price: $500


It's pretty solid, starts with the first turn of the key... Lots of fire left in this one. I'm rather pleased with my purchase really. A couple of my friends have laughed, others have started mourning me pre-emptively... and others still are glad they'll be with me in Spirit.

One step closer to embarking on this Trip. I get more excited every day.

My co-pilot on this Adventure and I have to hammer out the final details. It will be here, so as soon as we leave; you will know!

Until the next update!

Prologue to the Great Journey

So here's the Story on why I'm planning on driving across Canada in March.

Last September, I was laid-off from my job as an Aircraft Refueller because after Fire Season there wasn't enough work to keep me on full-time. So I've been job hunting since then with little result. Having been working in the Aviation Industry for the last seven years, I've pretty much painted myself into a corner with my work experience.

Earlier this month I recieved an enticing job offer from a company in Goose Bay, Labrador. Having nothing keeping me in beautiful British Columbia, I've decided to take the job and go.

I'm heading down to Vancouver next week to find the Chariot that will carry myself, my stuff and probably one of my friends with his stuff across this mighty nation we call Canada.

Sure, a trans-national roadtrip in March probably isn't the best of ideas. But I can certainly think of stupider things to do. Running with Scissors for example... Oh, and maybe eating Blowfish prepared by an uncertified Chef.

After perusing Craigslist for possible vehicles, I've set my sights on what appears to be a 1988 Volkswagen Fox Wagon that is in decent shape. Waiting for some pictures of the interior... it looks promising so far. Will be checking it out next week, if it's kosher, it'll be mine!

This Blog will document the trip from beginning to the end. There'll be pit stops, food breaks at most likely questionable establishments and stops to visit some of my Friends in other provinces. With my trusty Canon 450D and my Laptop with Bell Turbostick, I'll do my best to make it as if you're stuck in the backseat with me. Don't worry, I won't be singing "The Song That Doesn't End." However! If you do, we're turning around and leaving you in Winnipeg.

Until next week!