Waldo

Waldo

Canada has a reputation for oversized attention-getters.  We found one Thursday the 19^th in Upsala, Ontario:  Waldo the Great.  He was hanging on a post near a gas station where we stopped.  I caused some hilarity among other customers as I took several photos and tried to decipher the vandalized plaque describing Waldo.  You can see that he has had unfortunate attention from passersby.  Online I found a little detail on his history:

·         He was built in 1997 solely to draw attention and visitors to Upsala

·         He is made of steel, styrofoam, paper mache and fiberglass

·         He is 4 feet high and 12 feet long

·         A story was created for him as follows:  "Legend has it, that in 1788, Governor General Sir Jigmore appointed Marechal to capture "Big Waldo", the fish of all fish. The battle took place on the 3rd Saturday of May, 1888 and "Waldo" met his match. For many men and many ships, who dared sink a hook in Waldo's lip met their fate at heaven's gate on Lac Des Mille Lac."

(This is obviously a “fish story;” Canada has never had a Governor General named Sir Jigmore.)

Waldo in better days

 

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Canadian farmers are like many American farmers in the way they stack broken (?) equipment around the edges of fields and let it rust away. Saw a farm with seven old dump-style trucks along the edge of a field, all heading the same direction, at different stages of “overgrown.”  Are they for sale?  Does one get a better price if the vines are completely covering the cab inside and out?

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We left Ontario and entered Manitoba toward Winnipeg late Thursday, July 20.  After days of mountains, trees, lakes and two-lane undivided highways the road changed to a divided highway with two lanes in each direction.  In some places the directions were so far apart that we couldn’t see the lanes on the other side.  It also got flat.  Very flat.    

 

The Longitudinal Center of Canada:   96 degrees, 48 feet, 35 inches – is 10 miles outside of Winnipeg.  We didn't feel the bump but we saw the sign.

 

Thursday night in Winnipeg we “settled” for a Motel 6, having never stayed in one before and with pre-conceptions.  We were delighted with it.  Simple, clean, well-designed room;  very friendly and helpful staff; special treat bag to welcome The Diva; a huge sports complex right next door where we walked this morning.  Behind both was a perfect field of wheat bordered by the Assiniboine River.  The price was even reasonable.  They deserve a plug for that!

Wheat

Assiniboine River, Winnipeg



 

FLAT!

Canola



Flax

We drove all day Friday with unbelievably flat fields of wheat, strawberries, canola, corn, oats, barley and flax stretching to the horizon on both sides of the road.  How do I know what was growing??  LABELS!  The yellow canola and the blue flax were a great combination when they were planted adjacent to each other.  It’s hard to capture even a hint of the effect when snapping from a moving vehicle.

 

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This is the land of BIG tractors and farm equipment.  On one stretch of road in Portage lá Prairie we saw dealers for New Holand, Massey Ferguson, Case, John Deere, Cat, Kabota, and Allis Chalmers.  They all looked prosperous.

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There are bear-proof trash cans everywhere since we got to Canada.  After a few seasons in the weather some of them are nearly human-proof as well because of corrosion. 

We are meeting the nicest people.  Today we talked to a couple from Eastern Ontario who are driving to Vancouver on nearly the same path we are using, will be gone one month, and are returning home the same route in Northern US as we are.  We discovered that we spent the last two nights in the same towns.  She took this photo of the three of us!

5:37 p.m. Friday.  No “Mom & Pop” motels in Moose Jaw.  We’d decided to hold out for one and try it tonight, so we drove on westward hoping that one of the half-dozen small towns between Moose Jaw and Swift Current would have the perfect one.  It needs to be the 50s drive-to-your-door style, clean, have wireless access and take dogs.  Not too picky!  We found none in Caron, Mortlach, Parkbeg.  Chaplin had one for sale. None in Uren, or Morse.  Herbert had one.  As we approached it SRD was saying “YES!” while Token Liberal was shaking head “NO.”  It did have a router for wireless, peeling paint, enough space in the room for one bed, one chair and a very small table with a dorm refrigerator under it.  All looked like they had been in use since the 50s.  Token had to be “bad cop” and disappoint nice lady and SRD.  No dice!  Off to Swift Current – 20 km.  We did find a perfect one here and booked it.  It is just fine.  Whew!

Random Observations

Photos do not record VASTNESS well enough

Today was the first day of the “Mosquito Patch.”  We knew there would be mosquitos nearly everywhere we were in Canada so we did some research and found a couple of products to try.  This is one of them.  Based on a very limited data set I have to tell you that so far, it is working great.  This is a vitamin B-1 patch which gives you the protection that two weeks of tablets would provide if you use it two hours before you meet the mosquitos.  Each patch lasts about 36 hours.  We were exposed to enough flying, biting insects today to give a reasonable test and neither of us got any bites.

·         Usefullness of AAA:  Not very.  Last night we reached Smooth Rock Falls and the only motel was full.  We referred to the AAA book for Ontario. Kapukasing (the next town) had only two listed…both “name brands.”  It was getting late and we didn’t want to be on the road all night so we called ahead and reserved one.  This morning as we drove out of town we saw about five others;  more modest but perfectly fine. 

·         Standard speed limit:  90 KPH (55 MPH.)  Two-lane, undivided roads.  Most people drive the limit and it seems pointless to pass or try to “make time.”  You just end up behind a different big truck.  Use yoga breaths and enjoy the scenery.

There are a lot of BIG trucks carrying BIG machinery.  Today we saw one carrying a whole new rapid transit car.  There must be a lot of heavy industry in Canada.

·         General Motors has a “Cold Weather Development Center” in Kapukasing.  Hmmm

·         Lots of wood burning for heat leads to some prodigious wood piles and wood storage systems.  I have never seen home wood piles this big or this perfectly stacked.

·        Need to do research on what causes road mirage.

Visitor Center in Hearst, Ontario.  Hearst has a huge plywood manufacturing plant -- the main employer there.

We haven't seen any yet -- hope to.

Dogs are great travelling companions...no complaining, no backseat driving, easy to please.

Guys love the topper.  Don left the little store to see if we needed to buy ice before I paid for my stuff and I waited…and waited.  Went to see what the hold-up was and he had a stream of guys waiting to talk about and inspect the topper.  Lots of bear and fishing stories were exchanged as well!

·         On Highway 11, between Hearst and Longlac there is a nearly 200 km stretch of road with no towns.  It’s bounded by vast forests of pine and birch.  At some points we could see no vehicles in either direction.  At about the half-way point there is a dwelling with neatly-kept outbuildings.  That gets the imagination working…how to manage things like food, power, septic, gasoline, communication, human interaction?

       We spent Wednesday night, July 18, in Thunder Bay, Ontario.  Cell service is BAD but everything else is good!  We took a long evening walk at a park called Prince Arthur's Landing along the waterfront of Lake Superior.   It has a number of art installations we liked but these aluminum droplets were appealing to my penchant for shiny things.  I did a little research and learned they are by artist Andy Davies, installed October, 2011 and are called “Traveller's Return.”  They are about 19 feet high.  

Prince Arthur's Landing 

Into Canada

We finally turned Diva loose from captivity.  She ran to the truck, jumped in and was ready to roll!  We made good time through New Hampshire, into the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont and to the Canadian border at Derby.

It took the inspectors about a half-hour to decide we weren’t too scary and didn’t have any contraband before they let us cross.  We were allowed into Quebec, though, and headed to Montreal.  We arrived right at rush hour and a couple of creative turns allowed a little extra exploration.  We did eventually find the Trans Canadian Highway and turned to the Northwest.

We drove into the mountains and spent the first night at Mont-Tremblant.  It’s a world-class ski area but we stayed in a “down-scale” motel where we could park by the door.  Today we drove almost all day through a gorgeous reserve called La Verendrye.  We stopped for lunch at a beautiful campground and wandered through it admiring the unique way campers have decorated their sites.  It looks like the kind of place you could spend a few weeks or a summer on Grand lac Victoria.

We are sharing the road with a lot of logging trucks and other huge haulers.

As many trees as these trucks carry there are still trees as far as you can see in every direction.

Looking across Grand lac Victoria

View from our lunch spot

Through the rear-view mirror

Honoring the miners at the mining museum near Virginiatown, Ontario

Tonight we’re in Ontario after driving through mining towns that transitioned to farmland.  One of my favorite names was “Moonbeam.”  We’re in Kapuskasing…where you can walk your dog along the main highway at 9 p.m, half the town is out there with you, and its still daylight.

Happy Dog!

The Piles

This is two piles missing from the desk!

The last few days have been devoted to piles.  Some of the piles were my normally occuring piles created to hold items I'm not ready to deal with.  I can ignore those piles under normal circumstances until I am expecting house guests, on a cleaning spree, or looking for something I can't find and know I saved.  When you know someone will be staying in your house for a couple of months it's easier to see those piles and realize they look like "clutter!"  Most of those piles are gone.

Growing pile

The other piles are composed of the things that will go into the truck on Sunday night and drive away with us on Monday.  Today we moved and consolidated those piles to the garage -- staged for loading.  It doesn't look like that much until you get it all in one place!

One of us actually had a few moments of doubt about whether it would all fit.  SRD is excellent at puzzles, though, and eventually he got all of the pieces together. 

Token Liberal took photos and The Diva waited by the door worrying about the activity and concerned that she might get left behind.

It might not fit in the truck!

It's in!  There's room for even more if needed!  Tomorrow morning we roll...all of us.

Patience

The truck

A year ago, in preparation for this trip, we purchased a new truck.  After previous experiences with camper shells on pickup trucks SRD absolutely was not interested in having a heavy shell that needed to be removed or tolerated during the 95% of the time it wasn't needed.  He found an elegant solution in a soft-shell (called “Softopper”) that he can install and remove easily and independently. Today the topper was installed.  The truck has already had its routine service, so it’s now ready to go!

Preparations

It would be impossible to photograph the unseen support crew that allows us to drive away from home with confidence that everything will be fine for two months.  We give our most hearty thanks to those home-based helpers who are tending to business while we have our adventure!

We have been camping for over 35 years in many different environments and our accumulated gear varies from "vintage" to "high-tech."  This has been an opportunity to sift through it and pass along treasures like the 50-pound wooden box that accompanied us to the mountains of California and Colorado to Sam and his family (who can still lift it) and downsize into accomodations sized for the two of us.  Some of our old things had a lot of sentiment attached and I love knowing they'll still be used and will continue to be included in more adventures.


We've heard there will be mosquitos.  Token Liberal doesn't like cooking outside while swatting bugs...so we bought a cook tent.

She also doesn't like sleeping in a tent with no floor -- imagine the bugs!  Therefore, there is a sleeping tent.

...and LISTS!  We have lists of what to bring, what to do before leaving, who to assign as contacts, backups for the contacts, boxes and their contents...on and on!  Being away for two months is a complex exercise in logistics.  Diva dog has begun to realize that something's up so she is usually sitting on our feet to insure we remember to bring her!

The Plan

We depart MA on July 16, taking the Trans-Canadian Highway (TCH) from Montreal to Banff.  Next, up to Edmonton, then Dawson Creek, where we get on the Alaskan Highway to TOK Alaska, and down into Anchorage to see Diana and John.  This will be about 4900 miles.  We are estimating 10 driving days and 8 goof-off days along the way.    We will be camping about half the time and moteling the other half.

This is the route going to Alaska

The return trip will take a different path: down thru BC to Victoria , Seattle, Vancouver, WA to see Dave and Verlee, then across WA, ID and Montana to see David and Mila; then on across northern US thru Minneapolis, Chicago, Elmira, Albany and back into MA. The return trip is about 5700 miles and will involve 11 driving days and 19 goof-off days.

     This is the route coming back:

Travel time and distances are approximate.The concept is to follow our interests and maintain some semblance of a schedule. If something unexpected occurs or we decide we cannot support driving 500 miles each driving day, we will adjust our schedule to maintain our approximate return date.  SRD is taking all his fly rods and expects to use them along the way. Token Liberal is bringing crochet projects, her camera and books on her tablet for entertainment while the rods are in use.