EPILOGUE for trip -Aug 25 - Oct 11 2015

Great trip.  Would we do it again? No, because we've done it.  But, yes we are pleased that we did it and look forward to further exploratory road trips. Some summary details of the trip:

• started with 2 people, finished with (the same) 2 people! Yes, the relationship remains intact.
• 48 days
• summer to fall weather
• 14,885 km (9,300 miles) - see maps below for routing
• 'top down' for approx. 75% of the trip
• 1.5 mm of tire tread used
• 48 fill-ups with gas
• 7.23 L/100km (31.6 mpg-US; 37.7 mpg-Imperial)
• 6 provinces (Alberta, Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, PEI)
• 23 states (Montana, Wyoming, Idaho, Utah, Colorado, Kansas, Kentucky, Ohio, Virginia, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Maryland, New York, Massachusetts,New Hampshire, Main, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, North Dakota)

Map vs GPS: If you plan the route and have maps, along with a navigating passenger, then maybe you won't need the gps unit. It was nice to complete the entire trip the 'old school' way, without use of the gps entirely.

It helps to be flexible, when you're doing 15,000 km a wrong turn here or they doesn't mean much.  Enjoy the unplanned routing for the time it lasts. Remember, route signage doesn't always appear where we think it should.

Take a break, even a short one, every couple of hours and the longer travel days will be much more tolerable.

If the driver stays focused on the road and driving, the passenger navigator can be free to refer to maps and travel guides from time to time.  A 'talk and text' cell phone plan doesn't hurt either.

If you're thinking of traveling south and eastward, similar to our route, talk with us as we would likely have some recommendations.

North America has prairies running north/south -you have to cross them on long east/west journeys. Enjoy the drainage areas and the foliage that is adjacent.

How about the U.S. west coast next?              

..../David & Susan

Eastbound route
 

 Return, Westbound route

11 Oct 2015 Day 48 - To Home in Canmore

Back on the road by 8:00 for our last travel day of the trip. Left Pincher Creek and headed over to hwy 22 to enjoy the run to Longview.  After picking up coffee, the next leg of the trip was northwest over the Highwood Pass.  The drive was great and we loved being back in 'our' mountains.  Weather was variable as we did run into snow showers approaching the pass, and then rain north of the pass. As we proceeded past Nakiska, we ran out of cloud cover, put the top down for the open road experience and found some blue sky. Arrived back in Canmore at 11:30.

10 Oct 2015 North Dakota-Montana-Alberta

We headed out at 8 am on what was to be a mainly sunny day.  A few miles down the road we crossed into Montana, which we would be traveling across most of the day.  In Montana the Dept. of Highways places crosses adjacent to the highway where a traffic fatality occurs; definitely it serves as a reminder to the fragility of life when running the roads. What was really impactful was the significant number of crosses that we saw when crossing aboriginal lands - too many in too many places, and too many at any incident point. We just looked at a MacLean's article regarding aboriginal challenges (deaths, school dropouts, assaults on women, etc.) - so many years have gone by and these societal issues (including alcoholism and drug addiction) remain and waste too many 'could have been' lives.

Montana is definitely 'big sky country', but as highway 2 crosses the land, the sights do vary, especially as the rolling hills appear and the trees in the watershed areas.  Nicer scenery than in North Dakota where the view seems to be a never ending series of gas wells.

Beautiful and enjoyable trip from Browning to the Border, running along hwy 89 most of the way with the twists and turns, hills and valleys.  A little late too see fall colours as most of the trees have shed their leaves.  All the tourist areas were boarded up for winter, with little to no gas available between Browning and Cardston.  Chief Mountain Border crossing was closed, so we took the route through Cardston, then worked our way west to Pincher Creek for the night.

Arrived at 5:30 Mountain Time (picked up an hour with the time change, so 6:30 Central Time) and completed our longest travel day of 940 km

9 Oct 2015 - Minnesota - North Dakota (Williston)

The usual start at 8:00 am, but first a trip into a nearby park to enjoy viewing the Mississippi River, as we didn't really get a good glimpse yesterday (see pic). Cool this morning, but no rain so that was nice.

A comment re yesterday:
- question of the day. An age 20's young man at a gas station noticed that my license plate had 'Alberta' on it.  His question-"Hey, where is Alberta? Somewhere in Minnesota?" In trying to give a thoughtful and educational answer, I said "North of Montana".  That was met with silence (and I wasn't going to try to explain where Montana is!) OK, enough of that.

A comment re today:
Gotta' love highway signage, advertising and placement.  Saw an ad sign "Adoption - the good thing to do" (or something similar). A 100 meters down the road - a highway sign "Adopt a highway"! Don't think that is what the advert was intended for.

The nice weather saw us putting the top down for the day from about 10:30 onwards. Temperatures hovered around 12 Celcius for most of the day, but warmed up a few more degrees when we hit North Dakota.

North Dakota - the land is flat and the roads are straight, notwithstanding the occasional curve just to break up the drive. Much farming plus gas field/sites continuously.  These two industries intermingled seems to work, but the traffic with large trucks crossing a 70 mph highway with uncontrolled access -- must be some bad accidents from time to time. Also, ND presents a good reminder of the Cold War era, with old missile silos, and in Cooperstown there is the Ronald Reagan Minuteman Missile Control station (decommissioned) that is the only station of its kind that can be visited and toured by the public. What else - oh yeah - only country music on the radio - if it ain't country, it ain't radio!

Went by Fargo - why? - because it is Fargo (and you have to have loved the movie).

Rugby - see pic.  The geographic centre of North America.  The way I figure it, if you visit Rugby then on average you have been everywhere in North America.  At least this attempt at logic makes sense to me! 

Tonight we're in Williston, ND, arriving at 7:00pm.  938 km today, so our longest day on the entire trip.  We're close to Montana now, so might get to Alberta (maybe Waterton) tomorrow.

8 Oct 2015 Michigan - Wisconsin - Minnesota

Headed westward after breakfast at McD's.  8:00 am start on a cool and rainy day; drizzle and rain finally cleared in mid-afternoon, so the top came off of the Miata for awhile even though it was no more than 10 Celcius.  Gained an hour today as we entered the Central Time Zone in Minnesota, so we drove until approx. 5:00 pm Central Time to Baxter Minn. (near Brainerd).  Even though it was overcast all day, the drive is beautiful and we recommend to all the drive along the southern side of Lake Superior.  The colours were bold, but not brilliant only due to lack of sun.  We are hopeful that tomorrow that will be rectified and we will have sunshine. Crossed the Mississippi River near here; didn't expect that but here the river is. Completed about 770 km today (12,700 km cumulative), so we're a little ahead of plan by a couple of hours.

4-7 Oct 2015

4-Sunday - we headed back south from Collingwood to Ballentrae to enjoy a surprise 50th wedding anniversary of our friends Bill and Carol.  Great to be part of the special celebration and surprise event.  Also wonderful time to get together with their friends and family.  Following the celebration, we drove north to Huntsville, trailing Bill and Carol, to their cottage which we had not seen.
(Note: a year for 50th wedding anniversaries as Les and Carole celebrated theirs Oct 2nd in Canmore - sorry we missed it but we managed to get in a phone call)

5- Monday - enjoyed the day around the cottage with Bill and Carol, with some walking in and some very local sight-seeing. Had a 'turkey' dinner at the cottage; also in attendance were Bill and Carol's friends Don and Donna -- Carol commissioned Donna to do a painting of the cottage as a surprise gift for Bill, which he very much appreciated (nothing like the perfect gift) - Great painting Donna.

6- Tuesday - toured to Algonquin Park with Bill and Carol.  We hadn't been there in a number of years, and enjoyed the trip, especially the walk around the outdoor logging museum near the western end of the Park.  A nice evening dinner at the Pub on the Docks.  The day ended with some very unfortunate news, as we learned that our Canmore friend Bob Sanderson passed away suddenly. A big blow to his wife Lesley, the family and the many friends that they have.  Our condolences to Lesley and family.

7- Wednesday - up early to get on the road west-bound to Alberta by 8:00 am.  Nice cool drive north to Sudbury and then westward to Sault St. Marie to cross into the U.S. Beautiful fall colours much of the trip. Modified our trip plan and decided to head westward and skip the Macinanc area.  Reached Newberry, Mich. at 4:30 pm, staying at the rustic but nice (and cost effective) Gateway Motel.  A very good and inexpensive steak dinner at Timber Charlie's restaurant/bar. About 660 km covered today, and with our more northern route, we're a little ahead of schedule.  Came across a 'bear ranch' for tourists - see the pic - doesn't seem right to do this to bears!

1-3 Oct 2015

Thursday - Had breakfast at friends Sandra and Paul, along with Grahame and Lynne.  A great 'catch up' with folks. A wonderful but ever to brief visit.  

Then off to Collingwood to visit with Ray and Fran and stay overnight.  Jean and Jacquie were also dinner guests and we had a great dinner and evening.

Friday - David headed back to Ballentrae to meet up with Trevor and head into Toronto to attend the BMO Pensioner Luncheon, which was most enjoyable.  The free lunch is nice, but the treat is saying hi and having brief discussions with many ex-colleagues acquired over his 25 years in Toronto with BMO.  While David can attend the Calgary annual luncheon, there are few to no people that he knows, so attending the Toronto luncheon is a terrific opportunity. Back to Ballentrae and then a trip back to Collingwood to meet up with Susan at Jacquie's place.  Chinese food was the order of the evening, but it started off with the traditional martini.  Watch the 'Jays' win another game - nice for Canada to have a winning team and one that has potential for play-off wins.

Saturday - A nice breakfast with Jacq at the golf club, and then did a few things about the house.  A nice relaxing day, with our Collingwood friends (as per Thursday) over tonight for dinner.