People have asked us if the site will stay up and yes! It will. We
won't post as often but will keep updating with VW related activities.
Back to work tomorrow. If anyone from work is reading this, go easy on
us our first week back... :)
We left around 7am after spending the night in a random parking lot in North Bay. We only managed to get about 5 hours of shut eye but hey, we are almost home.
Lucy's generator isn't charging again. Kinda funny how it's acting up in the same spot as on the way out. Kinda. Not really. At least this time we have the battery charger!
Ah memories...
The plan is to go to the apartment, shower and unpack Lucy a bit then head to see our folks and drop off the van in Embrun.
It was a blast. Thank you all for being there with us. I'll continue posting to this blog because we still have a lot of Lucy related events planned... camping, car shows and weddings this summer...restoration and mechanical work this winter.. Owning a Westie is a full time job :)
See you soon! :)
Stephanie
--sent from my iPhone--
We are hitting every single timmies we see on the 17 for a combination
of stretching and/or peeing and/or checking the engine.
We might stop soon because we are a bit paranoid the battery will die
leaving us without headlights.
Anyhoo expect us back tomorrow at some point!
I have been reading while Francis has been listening to his iPod. We
have been pretty quiet and once in a while one of us looks over at the
other and smiles. I really like how we can just sit there and not have
to feel like we have to break the silence.
I just asked Francis if he wanted to say something on the post and he
is being pouty and saying he wish we could turn around so the trip
wouldn't end so soon. Haha.
Is the forecast for Ottawa still rain for Sunday? Hopefully the
Volksfest is still on...
Today's goal is to drive all the way to Sudbury or in that area. Looks
like a sunny day so far so a great day for driving. We are sad tonight
will be the last night in the van. You would think we would be sick of
it but no...Both of us agree we could keep this routine going for
another month. Westfalias are a blast to travel and camp in.
You guys will get a bunch of updates all at once since there is no
reception here and probably won't be until the Soo.
Love you!
We figure we have around 1900 kms left in our journey (about 24 hours
drive). Seeing we want to get there Friday night that means about 8
solid hours of driving per day. Hoowie! The goal today is to pass
Thunder Bay and Nipigon and head either on the 11 (Hearst and Kap) or
the 17 (Wawa and the Soo) today. Google says taking the 11 is
slightly shorter but it's also not as scenic. Let's put it to a vote
then! What do you guys think? Small french speaking communities to the
north or amazing lakes to the south?
Woohoo I just saw Huskie the Muskie in Kenora!!! (no pictures though.
Damn! )
We are on our way to Rushing River Provincial Park. Good night!
The park warden was from Temiscaming and he was happy to speak French
to us. Nice guy. As a matter of fact everyone is extremely friendly
here. I think I said that already but it's quite obvious when you
cross from Alberta to Saskatchewan and even more so when you get to
Manitoba. Not that everyone is crusty in Alberta or anything... It's
just they tend to not talk to strangers as much.
We met a couple in one of the many A&Ws we stopped at and they started
telling us all about the trips they did together and how for their
anniversary they would like to find a bus like they had and go back to
where they had gone as newlyweds. This was all standing in line
waiting to order. Hee hee. Francis promissed we would just keep Lucy
that way we wouldnt have to find another 71 van in 50 years! :)
Speaking of A&W, Francis is extremely excited at tge number of stand-
alone drive thru A&Ws in the west. I'm just impressed at the lack of
other fast food giants. A&W has a monopoly here almost. No McDonalds
in the small towns. Besides, A&W is all about keeping things vintage
and supporting cruise nights in small towns so I don't mind them one
bit.
We just passed Foxwarren and are heading towards Winnipeg today.
Beautiful weather for driving. It's about 24 and sunny. More updates
later.. I hope the return to work after the long weekend wasn't too
difficult for you guys :(
We slept well in Saskatoon. It rained so we didn't go to the drive-in
as planned. Today is out first Sweatshirt and jeans day since we first
passed through Manitoba. It's actually nice to not stick to the seats!
Lucy is averaging 22MPG now. I think she likes the flatter lands.
We have no clue what the plan is for today. Just driving eastbound
towards Winnipeg and stopping when something is picture worthy I
suppose. I think we should be able to get to Manitoba today if we keep
a steady pace.
Be good!
The local who suggested we stay in the little alley showed us around
his place. He had planted a whole bunch of trees and bushes and I
tasted saskatoon berries for the first time in my life. They are a bit
like a mix of blueberry and plums as far as taste goes and look like
blueberries. I also saw an almond bush for the first time. They are
super fuzzy! He explained the farm life in his area and showed us the
solar panel that powers the water pump for the town. He says it cost
about 200 000 to build and they have enough power to actually feed
some back to the grid. He also explained how the little oil pumps that
we see everywhere work.
This is going to sound dumb but Delia was everything I thought a small
Alberta town was. The man who showed us around works in the oil
industry and was a big burly man with duspenders and a confidence and
warmth about him that was a bit like that of a trucker. The owner of
the cafe was an old Chinese man who had been around for 50 years and
knew everyone that walked in the door. It's crazy to think at one
point in his lifetime, he was discriminated against and slowly earned
the respect of his neighbours. After church, groups of people walked
in with their cowboy hats or coveralls and chatted around warm coffee.
They talked about the weather and how it affects the crops. The men
played with their long mustaches while they smiled our way knowing
quite well we were out of town.
When a man walked in with full cowboy gear and a handlebar mustache,
Francis and I both felt like the theme from The Good The Bad and The
Ugly should be playing. We spotted quite a few Canadian toxedoes there
too. (Jeans and a Jean jacket)
Anyhow we passed other similar small towns with funny names such as
Cereal and Chinook and just crossed the AB/SK border.
The strap is holding the poptop down OK. Phew!
- us leaving late because of pit stops at the groceries, gas and
Canadian tire
- how huge the bag of twizzlers is and how I was able to make five
knots in one licorice piece (it was exciting at the time)
- How there was a storm far off in the distance and it was cool
because we could see it approaching
But THEN, winds picked up and all went to hell. There are no trees
around here so it was impossible to see how bad it was at first. Then
out of nowhere hay starts flying and hitting Lucy at super high speeds
and Francis is struggling to keep her straight. Next thing you know I
look back and the poptop is up and the canvas is flapping around so I
tell Francis and he quickly pulls over and goes to the back and
struggles to bring it down. The winds were so strong it broke the two
rubber latches holding the poptop. Now Francis is literally hanging
on the handle trying to prevent the poptop from breaking off or the
canvas to rip and I'm just hoping the van won't tip. Yes, it was that
bad. So I make my way to the back and take Francis' place and pull the
poptop down with all my strength and Francis starts driving hoping to
find some kind of shelter. You have to imagine thunderstorms and hail-
like rain outside and grass rolling across the street. Anyway, we
drove for 10 minutes going about 60 and had a few scares along the
way. We pulled into a tiny town, tied the popup down with a strap and
waited it out in the local cafe. There were a few locals there and we
talked about the weather and Lucy and relaxed with barley soup and
green tea. They told us to avoid the campground nearby because there
was a wedding there with "lots of hippies". Haha. One of them told us
to go to a small laneway next to his place so that's where we are
camped out, next to silos and grain elevators. It's actually pretty
cool. :)
I just read the winds were up to 100km/h in some parts. I'm not
surprised. We had hay wrapped around the bumper!
I guess we will be using the strap to hold the top down for the rest
of the trip until we can order new tie downs from cip1. Thankfully the
canvas didn't rip except for a tiny hole in one of the panels.
Anyway, quite an adventure..the weather is messed up because of the
heat wave. Ok back to watching a cheesy 80s Sylvester Stalone movie
(guess who picked it out? Haha)
Night!
After our whirlwind tour we headed to Ben and Marc's place (just ten
minutes away) for a late game of XBox Tiger Woods. We went to bed way
too late so got up quite late too. Today was all about breakfast at
Perkins, car wash and bearing adjustment with Serge. Thanks for the
tour and the hospitality!
More from the road!
Road Trip Snacks of the day: Runts, Aussie licorice and Jones Cream
Soda.
Road Trip Music of the Day: John Denver
We will be arriving in Calgary around 7:30pm and we will meet up with
one of Francis' friends tonight.
Good times.
(and air conditioning)
We are at Pogue Mahone's and tasting their 3$ home brew. The verdict:
a cross between Bohemian and Coors light. 4 stars out of 5.
(ps: Check out Francis' awesome tshirt that his awesome fiancée got
him in awesome Tofino!)
In other news, Francis tried a Big Turk (one of my favourite chocolate
bars) and liked it. Yay!
Other than that not much to report. We watched Knowing on the laptop
last night in full surround. :) Not a bad movie!
Now we feel refreshed and cool.
Vancouver is a great city and I now understand why they have an
overpopulation problem. The downtown core is very compressed and all
the bridges make it hard to get around. There's glass buildings
everywhere so now I know why Douglas Coupland's book was called City
of Glass. Locals are, as far as I can tell, quite friendly and laid
back. We both wish we could have stayed another night to continue
exploring downtown and the rich nighlife.
I know I can't bitch because it's been raining since we left back home
but it's 32 (feels like 35) here and man is it ever gross. We were
lucky the RV park had a pool so we went for a dip while waiting on a
load of laundry to finish. We slept OK though, thanks to all the
screens in Lucy.
We are currently sweating in Vancouver traffic finding our way to
Highway 1 EAST (!!!) for the first time since we took off. We will try
to make it to Kamloops today.
Sorry in advance to everyone back home but we didn't get a chance to
souvenir shop as much as we thought... :(
It's 30 out so the breeze from the boat is a big welcome.
Ferry trip went well. We saw some seals on the way in. Another ferry
tommorow morning and then off to Vancouver!
Good night!
Mmmmmmm
One thing is for sure, we want to come back. Honeymoon perhaps??? :)
Now we are off to Cathedral Grove to see the monster trees. I'll
probably hug one. Won't be able to resist. There's someting magical
about trees that old.
Anyhow, holy crap we have a gorgeous country. I mean I knew that
before leaving but actually seeing it is intense. I love how wherever
we go, there is a commonality however dramatic the landscape changes.
We saw kids playing road hockey in Winnipeg and Victoria. We saw the
annoying strip malls with the same stores from Northern Ontario to
Nanaimo. ( I hate those. I mean really I didnt drive 5000 kms to go
shop at a Moores. We need to do something about that and support the
independant shops). We saw rocks and trees and lakes everywhere along
the way. This country's culture revolves around its landscape and wow
is it ever an impressive one.
I've always been a tree hugger but now more than ever I see how
without those clean lakes and clear skies and thick forests, Canada
would lose its soul.
Hang Loose.
The lakes and mountains around here are similar to the Rockies. Clear
waters, fresh air.... no wonder the license plate says Beautiful
British Columbia! The road to Tofino is really fun (for me anyway,
Francis is annoyed with the 30 km/h winding road) with lots of scenery
along the way. We are excited to get to the most western destination
of our trip! After this, it's all Eastbound... Boohoohoo :(
No cel reception here but I'll keep posting so you have something to
read tomorrow at work!
Ok back to driving to Tofino!
Tomorrow we will drive to Nanaimo and Tofino. A few asked us where we
ended up staying. We are at Bamberton Provincial Park.
Some locals dropped by our site last night because they heard Francis
playing guitar. They gave us s few tips of places we could go and
spent the evening with us. They really liked Lucy so we gave them the
grand tour.
Hope the weekend is going well for everyone. Happy birthday to
Francis' awesome Mom and Happy Aniversary to my just as awesome
parents :)
Too bad because it's really nice here. The trees are huge, the sites
are private and the facilities are plentiful and clean! :)
It is supposed to be sunny on the island until late next week
according to the forecast so we will be able to visit outdoor stuff
without a hitch.
We are off to take advantage of the showers in case we can't find
another campsite who has them.
The park was full but they let us stay in the overflow area for the
night which is basically a tiny parking lot between two sites. It's
nicer than some of the parks we have stayed in previously so we can't
complain :) We will go back to the office tomorrow morning to see if
some sites have opened up for Friday night. If so we will stay here
another night so we can visit Victoria tomorrow without having to
worry about accomodations.
The ferry ride is quite nice and is about 2 hours long. We stayed
outside on the upper level for most of the ride to enjoy the view. The
max height to get the "normal car" rate is 7 feet so we had to empty
our roof bag to save some cash. We took the Circle Route deal which is
basically 4 ferry rides for 160$.
Oh and we almost hit two deers on the way in. Lots of wildlife here too!
Oh and Pauline, you will be invited to the wedding. No worries. Haha.
Off to Tsawwassen!
The wheel bearings are all OK as well so no more worrying about
whether we will make it back to Ottawa in time.
The mechanic and staff are extremely nice and I wouldn't hesitate to
recommend them to anyone looking for help in the area. They even gave
us a pen and license plate frame as a souvenir. Great folks.
In other news we witnessed a camper on fire on Highway 3 so we called
911 the minute we had cel reception. The guy was was waving for us to
do so when we drove by. The front end was on fire and I hope the
firefighters got to them before they lost the contents of the motorhome.
We saw a deer a few minutes ago but I wasn't fast enough to take a
picture.
There are a lot of VW vans here! Much more than any other province we
visited. Most are the vanagons (1980+) but they still wave us down
when they see us. :)
I'll let everyone know what the verdict is for Lucy when we leave the
mechanic's shop in Chiliwack.
There's also a very nice view nearby (picture) to make up for the
crappy sites. Our neighbours speak French so that's fun too.
Oh man I can't get enough of these fresh fruits! I ate three apricots
while writing this... Mmmm. It makes me look forward to come back to
Ottawa for blueberry season.
It's going to be a low of 17 tonight so I think it will be a screens-
open-no-sleeping-bag night. Such a dramatic change from the 6 degres
in the Rockies...
We will head to Chilliwack in the morning to go see a VW specialist.
Hopefully he can pinpoint our backfire problem and assure us she can
take us back home :)
The campsite we are at kinda sucks. It's not private. However, there
are showers and laundry facilities so that's the plan for tonight. We
are running out of clothes!
Can't wait to taste the local fruits!
We will go through Glacier National Park and Revelstoke National Park
today. It's yet another gorgeous afternoon. I can't believe our luck!
We washed the car today because the bugs were pretty bad and we saw
the chips in the front end again. Francis says it's pretty bad and
can't be patched up. :( Poor Lucy.
It's cold at night here. Around 6 degrees tonight. Good thing we
brought that extra blanket! I think it will be a movie night again
since there is no firepit here.
There's no reception here but I'll update more tomorrow.
After packing we went to grab a coffee and met a couple with a green
73 van. They are the original owners and told us about their travels
and suggested a few pit stops in Yoho National Park . We then headed
on the Bow Valley parkway, pit stopped at Johnston Canyon and now here
we are, nearing Banff after having outrun Hank the Sheep. It's around
28 and sunny here but somehow my legs are still pasty white :P
More updates later. Ring still very shiny! Haha.
We went on the Banff Gobdola and took a dip in Radium Hotsprings
today. The water was at 39 degrees and it was quite nice to breathe
fresh mountain air while relaxing our sore muscles from all the hiking.
We didn't get a chance to walk around Banff yet so we will do that
tomorrow.
The gondola made Francis dream of snowboarding around here. Maybe for
another trip???
Off to Banff...
Stephanie says the ring is too shiny but I think she'll get used to it.
I love her very much and I can't wait to spend the rest of my life
with her.
By the way I also wanted to thank everyone for all the nice emails and
comments. Steph reads them to me while we are on the road and it makes
us feel like you are right here with us.
Francis
