When I woke up Wednesday morning, I wasn’t even
excited. I know right…me not excited to
finally be heading off; but I don’t know I just wasn’t feeling it. Mentally I really didn’t feel …I don’t
know…motivated? Packing and getting
ready felt like an inconvenience and I really had no excitement the days
leading up to my departure.
I lay in my bed for a while trying to pump myself up but I
really just felt depressed more than anything.
It was weird…I did have travel jitters – which made no sense as this
isn’t the first time I have left – I also knew, that this time me leaving,
didn’t seem as epic as last time – as everyone is used to me taking off – but
yet it felt way harder to leave and say goodbye this time; more so than last
time, I don’t know why. However…after a
few hours in the car my stomach had settled and I had begun to relax.
I guess before I go on I should explain that I am currently
on a road trip across Canada with my friend Sara from work. Sara had been planning on driving out to
B.C. as she is moving out there. Me, who has traveled the world knows
absolutely nothing about my own country so I thought it would be the perfect
opportunity to explore my country before I leave it once again.
The drive out of Ontario took about 22 hours which seemed
like forever; but of course, me who
likes to keep people entertained, told Sara the story of Falling Rock:
A long time ago there
was an Indian chief with a young son named Falling Rock. Now, Falling Rock was just a young lad of 15
but in the tribe it was time for him to become a man. In order for him to become a man, he had to
be able to survive out in the wild alone for one month.
On the day that
Falling Rock was supposed to begin his journey his father (the Chief) walked
with him to a place in the forest and said “My son. You are my first and only child and I hold
you very dear to my heart. There comes a
time in every young boys life when he must become a man and now, it is time for
yours. It will rain, the wind will howl
and sometimes it may be scorching hot, but I know I have taught you well and
you are nothing more than a survivor.”
With that, the Chief left young Falling Rock for his one month journey.
After a month Falling
Rock did not return, nor did he return the next month or the month after
that. The Chief sent out a search for
his young son but he was never found.
The Chief never stopped looking for his only child; he wanted any and
every body who passed by to keep their eye out for him, and that’s why on the
highway going through mountains and rocky area’s you will see signs WATCH FOR
FALLING ROCK.
Pretty good huh :). LOL Sara just looked at me like I was
nuts, it was pretty much the same
reaction Dan gave me when I told it to
him. I think it’s a great
story. My dad used to tell it us when we
drove to Florida. Sara said the Chief’s
name should be Cliff – you know like a cliff LOL. You have probably guessed that we passed a
WATCH FOR FALLING ROCK SIGN, which of course I told her the story J. We passed other signs as well…Deer and
Moose. Everytime we passed a Moose sign
I would yell “MOOSE!!” and Sara’s reply
would be “Sign” “MOOSE!” “Sign” “MOOSE!”
“Sign” this went on for a few
hours, and unfortunately…no Moose sightings, but we did see Zebra, Reindeer and
those other things. I didn’t see any
signs for bears but Sara thinks its funny how freaked out I get about them when
we camp.The first night we camped in Wawa. The campsite was really cute with a couple of cabins and heaps of spots for RV’s and tent’s, each site having it’s own picnic table and fire pit. We got a campsite by the river, where we got eaten alive! I used my Eucalyptus oil as it says it’s a bug repellent but it made it worse…it was a mission getting the tent up as every few seconds you would here SMACK! OUCH! SMACK! FUCK! OUCH! SMACK! SMACK! “ Emmie, didn’t you say this eucalyptus was a bug repellent?!?” “Maybe it only works on Australian mosquito’s (that’s where I got it from.)” We were covered in them and we got them in the tent too and one was in there the whole night and Sara ended up getting bitten in her nose.
Once we finally got the tent set up we decided it was too hot so we took the cover off so we were just surrounded by the netting and we were pretty much completely open to nature and the incredible sky. We just chilled out, with a couple beers and relaxed. I had a hard time relaxing, every time I heard a noise I was like “whats that? What’s that? Are there bears out here.” “Oh probably. You’re not menstruating are you? Bears can smell the blood, and they will find you and attack you!” “ Your not very nice Sara.” She started laughing at me and told me not to worry.
It was so cold and the ground was so hard. We had no source of cushioning under us and even though we put the cover back on it was still cold. I could barely sleep. I had a small stone poking my boob and I was on a little incline so I kept waking up snuggled against Sara and I couldn’t keep warm. As tired as I was I was really happy when it was time to wake up and start driving.
We made a quick stop to see The Goose in Wawa and take pictures and then we headed off to our next destination…Winnipeg.
The drive through Northern Ontario is absolutely beautiful. Driving along Lake Superior is incredible, beaches, cliffs, trees and water reaching out as far as the eye can see; I was extremely impressed and so far has been my favourite part of the drive.
I had a little internal moment when driving along the Trans-Can toward Thunder Bay. There are signs up every few kilometers with Terry Fox on them. I didn’t realize that made it to just outside of Thunder Bay. That the very road we were driving was where he ran his incredible journey…it really just stole my heart for a few minutes. We even stopped at the Terry Fox Memorial which is amazing, it really almost brought a tear to my eye…he is definitely a Canadian to be proud of.
It rained just after we got out of Thunder Bay. It rained for a few hours. It kept things cool which was nice as it was so freaking hot the day before. 30 degrees and Sara has no A/C in her car so we have to drive with the windows down lol and we were still sweating.
We got to Winnipeg in good timing, however the her friends address was showing 2 locations on my GPS and when we had the right address he wasn’t home so we waited around outside with the weird neighbourhood people who were very intrigued by us and our clothing. Finally his roommate let us in to their un – airconditioned apartment where we waited by ourselves for almost an hour before her friend showed up. By the time he got there we were so exhausted and he was wonderful enough to give us his room with an awesome fan where I slept comfortably at a perfect temperature.
We were up super early once again and were on the road by 8. We drove through Winnipeg which I have to say really isn’t much. When we got therethe big intersection reminded me of the one at HWY 7 and Weston Road, which was alright because it was like being back in civilization, but then driving around today the Downtown area reminded me of Toronto but more run down and less people; and driving out reminded me of the area at the Kiss and Ride on Yonge St. It was really weird. And; there was no vibe or flavour or anything, the streets seemed really empty.
Driving through the prairies is nothing to write about though it’s not as bad as everyone made it out to be, it is pretty but it’s the same most of the way. It almost reminds me of the Outback except its greener and there is actually vegetation lol
We are heading to Calgary where we will be spending the night with another one of Sara’s friends . We are really tired today, we already pulled in at a gas station to have a nap. Driving through time zones is a little bit difficult and we have covered a lot of ground in 2.5 days . At least we can sleep in tomorrow…and then it’s off to Banff!!!
