Part 2 of my adventure...

Well, I ended the last post by saying that I would just stay in Thunder Bay for a few more days and then my girlfriend would fly back and we'd continue on through the states back to BC. It didn't exactly work out that way. After about 3 or 4 days in Thunder Bay, I became incredibly bored and I figured that I should do something about it. So, as crazy as it sounds, I decided to drive as far as I could in one day in the direction of Ottawa and see where I ended up as I figure I could meet up with my girlfriend at some point along the way and she could cash in her return ticket to Thunder Bay and use it at another time. I managed to drive for almost 15 hours straight that day and I made it as far as Pembroke, Ontario (which is about 1 hour 45 minute drive east of Ottawa). I crashed at my aunt and uncle's place there for the night and by that point, I had been driving so much that I began to feel light headed so I thought it best to stop.

The next day I woke up and went over to my aunt and uncle's office. They run the local Weed Man franchise in Pembroke and I chatted with them and met their assistant. We went out for lunch at Boston Pizza and I was able to catch up with them on all of the family gossip. A few hours later, I was off driving towards Ottawa and made it there in about 1 and a half hours to Kanata Town Centre where I was supposed to meet the GF. We relaxed there and then stayed at a friend's house there which was great. I enjoyed hanging out with some old pals at my old haunts from my university days. It sure brought back memories. I have to admit that I do feel a bit nostalgic for the place sometimes...

Anyways, I stayed in Ottawa for about 2 days and then we continued east to Laval, Quebec where I met up with another friend. We had a delicious home cooked pizza and went to a bookstore that afternoon. In the evening, we just chilled out with him and slept over at his place. Early the next morning, we headed out of Montreal and down towards the U.S.

We made it as far as London, Ontario that day and stayed in a motel just off the highway that night. Unfortunately, they only had non smoking rooms available and the room we had really reaked of cigarette smoke which made me nauseous but I still managed to be OK. The next morning, we checked out early and made our way to the US border at Port Huron, Michigan. We didn't have any problem whatsoever with the US customs and proceeded to drive on I-69 in Michigan going towards Chicago. We made it to Chicago later that afternoon and finally was able to meet up with my friend Haukur and his wife Jennifer. I hadn't met his wife before since they got married since the last time I saw him which was 8 years ago. Haukur is originally from Iceland and he moved to the US after he got married to an American lady. Jennifer was really nice and we enjoyed hanging out with them. They took us out to a Mexican restaurant the first night we were there and they had live mariachi bands. I didn't know any Mariachi tunes but Haukur knew one and asked them to play it. It was pretty good. The food was also excellent.

We got back to their place late that night and crashed on the floor. It was pretty comfortable so we didn't mind. The next day we went out to Navy Pier on Lake Michigan and looked around. It was really neat. It was a kind of a carnival like atmosphere with a ferris wheel, amusement park rides, live shows and entertainment and lots of concession stands and delicious food. We wandered around took photos and then just relaxed by the lakeshore. It was such a beautiful day and we really enjoyed ourselves.

That night we had dinner again with Haukur and Jennifer at an old fashioned Chicago Style Pizza place. Let me tell you... the pizza in Chicago is like no other pizza. It is super thick and heavy. I was full after like 2 slices and normally I could eat 4 or 5 slices of a normal pizza. We ended up taking the pizza home in a doggy bag to eat for later. After dinner, we just headed back to their apartment and chatted some more before we went off to sleep.

The next morning, we were off on the road again driving west through the US. That first night we made it to Rochester, Minnesota. Along the way, we stopped off at Madison, Wisconsin for lunch. We had delicious smoothies and quiznos sub. We walked around town and took a few photos of the capitol building and walked down by the lake. The city of Madison is actually located on an isthmus between two lakes. It's definitely a relaxing and unique city.

After staying overnight at Rochester, Minnesota, we continued on early the next morning. We drove through the rest of Minnesota and headed into South Dakota. We noticed the landscape getting progressively flatter and more arid as we were driving further west. We stopped in Sioux Falls, SD for lunch and ate at Taco John's which is a US chain similar to Taco Bell or Taco del Mar. We continued driving west along I-90 into the night. At about 10:00pm we were driving in the pitch black night and suddenly on the side of the road, I saw a woman walking right on the shoulder of the interstate highway. I turned to my girlfriend and said, I just saw a woman walking out in this darkness alone. I decided to stop the car and to check out to see if she needed any help or if there was something wrong. I managed to walk back about 200 metres and meet up with her. She seemed so happy and glad that we stopped. It turns out that she was working outside all day long on construction and her boyfriend just ditched her on the side of the road and she had to walk 20 miles back to the place where she was staying in a nearby town. Well, I decided to give her a lift there as it was on our way and not too far and I didn't want to see her alone in the dark. We drove for about 10-15 minutes and chatted with her and found out her story. She was very grateful for us having driven her back to her place. She gave us both hugs and we were on our way again. We drove about another half hour or so and we were in Rapid City, SD. We stayed the night there without much incident but were shaken a bit by the woman we had picked up that evening on the interstate.

The next morning, we got up early and decided to go to a local laundromat to do laundry and have breakfast. After that was done, we headed into Mount Rushmore and spent the good part of the day there looking around and taking photos. It was pretty spectacular to see the carvings of all the different presidents. The details on each of the faces was so intricate. It must have taken the sculptors a long time to get all the details exactly right. We really enjoyed hiking around the mountain and taking in the local scenery of the area. After spending a few hours at Mount Rushmore, we headed into the nearby town of Keystone to eat a delicious pizza there and talk with a few of the locals. They seemed really nice and friendly and were very glad to tell us a bit about the area which was quite interesting.
That evening, we continued on the interstate into Wyoming. At this point we noticed the landscape get extremely arid to the point that you could barely see any grass at all. Just rolling hills of dirt. It was a virtual desert which kind of surprised me as I didn't expect this at all. We stopped for the night in Sheridan, Wyoming and just relaxed at the hotel. The hotel we stayed at had a pool so I got some swimming in and just enjoyed myself.
The next day, we decided that we would take a detour off the interstate and drive into Yellowstone National Park on the western boundary of Wyoming. I must say the drive into Yellowstone was just as spectacular as the park itself. The scenery started to turn mountainous closer to the park and I saw a lot of eerie and interesting rock formations along the side of the road. It was really cool. At one point the highway we were driving on went right through the middle of a canyon! I couldn't believe I was driving inside a canyon.. it was that spectacular. The canyon must have been a half a mile wide and about maybe 1000 feet high. It was truly an amazing site to behold.

We entered Yellowstone park a about an hour later after eating some lunch. We drove a bit around the park without seeing much initially. After about an hour or so, we started to see the geothermal hot springs that the park is so well known for. We walked along different trails to have a look at the different formations. We saw steaming and boiling pools of every shape, size and colour as well as pools of boiling mud. It was certainly something that I had never seen before on such a scale. I really enjoyed it and it was really a unique experience. After walking around the pools for a while, we drove around a bit to see if we could see any wild animals that are also supposed to be in the park such as: bison, bears, moose etc. but alas, we didn't get a glimpse of anything. To finish off the day at Yellowstone, we drove up to the Old Faithful geyser, probably the most famous one in the world. We stood there for about an hour and waited for it to erupt. It erupts with a steaming plume of water every 90 minutes or so and we had just missed the previous eruption by 10-15 minutes or so. Nevertheless, we waited there and we saw Old Faithful spout off and it was also pretty amazing and I got some good photos of it too. It was also definitely something I had never seen before. It was the first time I had ever seen a geyser erupt. It was almost surreal.
That evening, we drove out of the park and drove a little bit into Montana before we settled for the night at a small village about an hour north of Yellowstone. There wasn't anything spectacular about this village except that I remember that there seemed to be this moth infestation. Everywhere I looked at night there were moths. At the gas station where I filled up, I couldn't hardly see anything except a huge swarm of moths and they got into everything, my clothes, car etc. I was glad to get out of there in the morning.
The next morning, we started to drive through Montana and we stopped for a late breakfast at Butte. We ate at the local subway and just relaxed for an hour or so. I kept driving and at this point, I had the idea that I could probably get all the way back to Burnaby by that evening. So, I kept driving and we had lunch at a place called Zips in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho. It was a pretty little town on a lake and it seemed really picturesque. I hope to go back there one day.
At this point, my girlfriend suggested instead of driving all the way to Seattle on I-90 and then drive north on I-5 into White Rock, BC, that we take an alternate route which turned out to be much more scenic in the long run. She suggested that I get off about half way across Washington State and drive north and cross the border at Osoyoos, BC. From there, I would take the Crowsnest Highway (Highway 3) all the way back to Burnaby.

We got off at the exit we were supposed to in Washington State and proceeded to head north. I didn't realize it at the time but hte scenery on this drive was also pretty magnificent. There were some really interesting rock formations and a large lake that was quite beautiful. I stopped and took a few photos on the side of the highway because it was so lovely. We kept driving north until we got to the Canada/US border. The Canadian customs agent that we had this time around was pretty strict. She kept us there for several minutes asking us lots of questions, which I had no problems answering. Finally, she let us go through and we were back in Canada. By this time, it was getting dark and we stopped at the Tim Hortons in Osoyoos for some dinner. I remember I had a chili and my girlfriend had a bagel and cream cheese. We continued driving west along the Crowsnest Highway. I also didn't realize at the time that driving the Crowsnest at night would be absolute hell. It was such a difficult drive as there was no lighting and very sharp curves. It was lucky that I was able to keep the car on the road as I had little to no warning about which direction the road would take. Fortunately, we were able to drive the remainder of the Crowsnest without incident until we got to Hope. There, I gassed up the car and we continued heading down the Trans Canada back into Burnaby (coincidentally the exact same highway that we used to leave Burnaby going east. There are only so many ways out of the GVRD it seems.). We arrived back here in Burnaby at about 3:00am early on Saturday morning and then went straight to bed as I was quite wiped as you can imagine....

The next day I just did some unpacking and dealt with some loose ends that had come up during our trip as well as back here in Burnaby but there were no major problems...

This definitely was one trip that I won't forget for a long time.. as it was special and really a lot of fun. Maybe one day I will be able to do something like this again. I am going to be uploading pics of this trip to the net, I will post the link here once all the photos are uploaded.

And now, it's back to the daily routine. I have to start getting myself prepared to start teaching classes again in the middle of August. I am actually looking forward to going back to work and to start swimming more and to get into a rhythm.
I hope that the coming fall has good things in store.. I guess I'll have to wait and see what happens....