Mother Nature’s a Little Pissed Off

I’ve been away for a bit doing another crazy cross Canada/US adventure–hence my neglected blog. Sorry about that.

You may recall last year’s adventure where I was wondering if there were any roads left in Southern Saskatchewan. (And there sort of were.) This year has been another banner year for floods. And to think two years ago I was contemplating planting cactus in the front yard it was so dry… Here on the Canadian prairies we’ve had towns burn to the ground (Slave Lake) followed by being flooded out (again, Slave Lake). Even our town had flooding (twice) with manhole covers shooting up three feet in the air from the intense rainfall trying to gush its way to our “lake” (really just a smelly pond we like to imagine is a real, honest-to-goodness lake). (Thank goodness we live on a hill!)

This year, like most, we jammed ourselves in our vehicle and traveled across a couple of provinces (and American states), camping our way along and pounding down some of those same roads as last year. To my surprise, they were still working on the stretch of the Trans Canada in Southern Saskatchewan where the Eastbound double lane was completely washed out. I had assumed that, one year later, everything would be tickety-boo and good to go again. Evidently not quite.

Here’s a little of what I saw:

This is the Eastbound lane–that packed dirt that drops off into the gulch. (The white truck is a construction vehicle, not someone about to do some serious 4x4ing.)

While this bit of Saskatchewan road was passable, there were some stretches in the southern part of the province that got the hack this year from new floods–involving a bit of a detour for us. (Those were the floods from Weyburn and area that stretched down to Minot, North Dakota. Man, is Minot ever hurting. Don’t try going camping there.) It is amazing what a few days of way too much water can do to a place. And yet… on the other side of the world people are starving due to drought.

I think Mother Nature might be a little P.O.ed at us…

Notes From Across Canada

I have been negligent in my blogging, I know. The truth of the matter is that I have been on a five-province fact finding mission. Here are my notes and observations:

British Columbia:

Stanley Park, Vancouver: Just because you happen to see a sign with a large letter ‘P’ on it surrounded by a green circle (see below), it does NOT mean you are able to park there. In fact, you might just discover after a nice walk along the ocean wall that you have just landed yourself a $39 parking ticket. (If you pay within a week. It doubles if you don’t.)

Vancouver is Toyota Matrix central. While in Alberta you may not be able to spit without hitting a Ford F-150, in Vancouver, you can’t spit without hitting a Matrix.

Alberta:

Aggressive drivers. Put the pedal to the medal or be prepared to get passed on any available road surface.

Small towns worth their salt have their town pride displayed in a monument. The tackier the better.

Saskatchewan:

This province always gets the shaft when it comes to scenery discussions. You know the jokes–you can watch your dog run away for five days before he disappears over the horizon, etc., etc. However, I like Saskatchewan. The roads go directly where you want them to go. No fooling around with having to go around lakes or rocks or going south to get north. It’s an efficient little province. And the bonus is, when you do drive by something like a salt mine or town it’s pretty darn exciting.

P.S. the Trans Canada is back in commission after all those floods. You have to reduce your speed in one short spot where you share the divided highway with the Westbound traffic, but other than that, it’s all good.

Good find in Saskatchewan–a hideaway RV park (can tent too) that is cheap and seriously has the most friendly, helpful owners ever. We literally stumbled across this one and it’s a keeper. It’s called Crooked Lake RV??? (Dang if I can remember, but it is on the south end of the lake directly north of Indian Head) east of Regina. Pasqua Lake? I’ll have to look it up.

Manitoba:

Er, um. Hmmm. Manitoba. Manitoba is… er… Hmm.. Nobody ever talks about Manitoba. It’s the forgotten child of the Canadian provinces. Oh! Here’s something. That Winnipeg circle road. Could they have made the circle any bigger? My goodness. You can’t even SEE the city from the ring road. I think it is more like a necklace for some big man named Gino than a ring.Plus, you have a lovely view of the city dump as you circle by. Lovely. It really makes me want to stop in and check out the city. Not.

General note: when it comes to vehicle colour, red seems like it is becoming the new silver. I’m liking this for the main reason that within a few years I will be able to find my car in parking lots once again. Yippee!

Ontario:

Where smart phones become expensive paperweights. Because without your special smart cellphone network, honestly, what can you do with a smart phone? You can’t phone, you can’t internet, you can’t email, basically you can’t do anything ‘smart.’ It doesn’t know what time it is. It eats it’s battery like it’s just been released from prison camp and the battery is a Black Forest Cake. You can’t even feed your virtual fish. (The region I am referring to would be from pretty much the Manitoba-Ontario border to Sault Ste. Marie. Then it begins working again. Thank goodness.)

In Northern Ontario those agressive semi drivers from Alberta become the most courtesous folks ever. They will let you know when it is safe to pass them by yusing their turn signal or flashers. Seriously. Even if you are happy to hang back and cruise behind them until the next passing lane.

It is in Ontario that you really notice what you can get for $80 a night in terms of a hotel/motel. That $80 can lead to a vast quality difference. $80 can get you a downhill slope to the bathroom with not enough towels ($120 actually–and that would be Vancouver) or a room with a door that doesn’t really close properly and is kind of musty and hot and when you open the old school ‘sanitized’ ribboned toilet seat you can’t help but laugh at the wad of used toilet paper sitting in the bowl (Dryden) or it can be knock-your-socks-off like this place in Wawa (see photo).

Best coffee EVER: Muskoka Bean on Manitoba St. in Bracebridge. BIG, yummy, flavoured mocca for $2. Yes, that’s right. Don’t even bother stopping at The Juicery in Port Carling. The prices may seem good until you get your miniscule cup of this-might-be-a-mocca.

And finally, I will leave you with a little note on tubing behind a motor boat. It’s all a ton of fun, but if you do it for too long you may end up with no skin left on your elbows. Plus, you might be amazed where a bathing suit can end up if you hit the water wrong. Trust me.

Over and out. Return trip commencing on Friday. I will Tweet my adventures, unless of course we zip down through the USA on our return trip, in which case I will go ‘silent’ as it costs too much to use our cellphone down there. See you back in Alberta!

Oh… Hmmmm….

I was planning on using this road tomorrow.

The Mighty Matrix, Trixie, isn’t exactly an amphibious car. Or 4 wheel drive. Or even really good at crazy uphill stretches. However, I texted a friend who just drove through the Alberta-Saskatchewan flood areas (no, not for kicks or to see if her Terrific Tahoe could do it–it is 4 wheel drive and has some oomph on crazy uphill stretches. It might even be amphibious. (I’d like to point out at this juncture that it costs us a lot less to fill up our little 4-banger and that it um, is, um, well, really cheap and great to drive as long as you have roads. Preferably somewhat flat roads.)) and she said that other than some slight delays, it was all good. I think us Canadians might be the masters of understatement. I’ll try and blog my trip across the Great Gulf tomorrow from the Handy Hand Held Device. If you don’t hear from me, it means we’re testing the amphibiosity of our Matrix.

Stay tuned!