Trans-Canada road trip: Ottawa to Brunswick

Trans-Canada road trip: Day 6

August 19, 2012

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Sunday morning we woke up early and were on the road around 6 a.m. My sister sent us with some leftovers and snacks, so we ate those for our breakfast.

We knew we would have a very long day of driving. To drive from Ottawa to Brunswick, Maine should only really take about seven hours, but we had special circumstances that would make our trip much longer. Since I wasn't officially a resident of the US yet, I wouldn't be able to bring my belongings across the border until I'd had my immigration interview and gotten my US visa and green card, which we had already submitted paperwork for, but didn't have an interview date yet. Because of this, we had arranged ahead of time with my mother's cousin and his wife, who live in New Brunswick, to store my things at their house. They had graciously allowed us to do so until I had my immigration interview and would legally be able to bring my possessions into the US. While this was very, very kind of them, it did mean that we would have to drive through Quebec and New Brunswick all the way around the north and east of Maine to unpack our trailer before going through the border, which more than doubled our driving time for the day.

We managed to time our trip just right to arrive in Montreal right around morning rush hour time, and the fact that there was construction on the road as well didn't help matters much. In all the hubbub, we accidentally got onto the wrong highway and crossed over the river on a large and traffic-filled bridge. We realized our mistake as we were driving over the bridge and as soon as we got across we found the first place to turn around and headed back to the Trans-Can. Luckily the traffic heading back on the bridge was moving smoothly, so our return trip didn't take us too long. After finally getting through Montreal, we continued through the province of Quebec, following along the St. Lawrence River. Eventually we left the river and headed south into New Brunswick.

Sunrise from outside Becky's house in Ottawa

Interesting clouds

Quebec mountains from the road

Start of the watch for wildlife signs in Quebec, New Brunswick & Maine

Dirty-looking St. Lawrence River beside the Trans-Canada Hwy

Entering our last province of the road trip

Another wildlife sign in NB (the only official bilingual Canadian province)

Fun to see this along the road as we drove by

In the early afternoon, we arrived at my mum's cousin's house. They were actually on a trip that weekend, so their across-the-street neighbours had been asked to let us into the house. They were such a sweet couple and even helped us unload some of the larger items. We unpacked the U-Haul trailer in about an hour, stacking everything in piles as neat as we could manage, then locked the garage back up, returned the house key to the neighbours, and continued on our journey.

We arrived at the US border near Houlton, Maine about an hour later and got in line. We didn't have too long to wait to get to the front of the line and talk to the border guard. With me trying to get into the country, but not having US resident status yet, our situation was a little different and after explaining everything to him, he asked us to come inside to talk with a different border guard so the outside line could keep on moving. We figured this would happen, so we went in with all my paperwork that I had so far. We had to explain everything again to the border guard inside, and then he had to go talk to his superior so we sat on the benches and waited. Finally he returned and talked to us again. We were wondering why this process was taking so long until he made a comment about my possessions. We then realized that he had been thinking this whole time that we had been trying to take a full U-Haul trailer across (we were bringing the trailer with us the rest of the way to Brunswick since that was cheaper than dropping it off in New Brunswick). We quickly assured him that we had left my belongings in Canada and were just taking the empty trailer with us into the US (and wondered why the outside border guard hadn't informed him of that fact). As soon as we had told him that, he seemed quite a bit more at ease, and after he checked in with his superior again, he came back, gave us all our papers back, and sent us on our way. All in all, we probably spent about 45 minutes at the border, but we were glad it had all worked out that I would actually be able to come across and stay with Jonathan until my immigration interview.

Sun starting to set nearing the US border

Entering our new home state for the next two+ years

It was getting close to sundown as we started driving southeast on I-95 from Houlton, so I spent most of the rest of the trip carefully scanning the edges of the interstate to watch for wildlife. Fortunately we didn't see any and the three-hour drive to Brunswick passed without any difficulty. We were so happy to finally pull up to Jonathan's parents' house around midnight that night, and see the lights from the windows that they had left on for us. We just brought in the essentials for getting ready for bed, and quickly got settled and fell asleep after our 18-hour day. Although we had a great road trip and had been able to see some great places, we were very glad to have reached our destination, and very thankful for our safe travels!

- Ali

Daily driving total: 1,320 km (820 mi)


For fun and to wrap up this series, here is a map of our whole road trip across the majority of southern Canada. It was quite a trip to make in five days of driving!

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Total trip distance: 5,975 km (3,712 mi)

Trans-Canada road trip: Sabbath in Ottawa

Trans-Canada road trip: Day 5

August 18, 2012

We got into Ottawa rather late on Friday night, and after visiting with my sister, Becky, for a few minutes, we were happy to stretch out on the air mattress she had ready for us. We had planned to make it to church the next morning, but we ended up having a really wonderful sleep and slept in too late to make it to church on Sabbath. After a relaxed morning and breakfast, we got ready for the day and headed across the Ottawa River into Gatineau, Quebec to go hiking around Pink Lake in the Gatineau hills. The lake was beautiful, and the hike was pleasant and not too intense, but gave us good exercise after sitting in a car for the past four days. After our hike, we had a late afternoon picnic before returning to Becky's house to get ready for the interesting evening we had planned.

After changing into warmer clothes, Becky drove us to downtown Ottawa where we parked and walked to the Parliament buildings, the site of the annual Ottawa Mosaika Sound and Light Show projected on the buildings. We arrived early, so we wandered around the lawns watching the large projectors being set up and tested. The show was excellent, giving viewers a history of Canada using projected images, music, narration, and interviews. I had seen a small preview of it once before when my family and I had visited Becky a few years earlier, but this was the first time I had seen the actual production. It was very well done and wonderful to be able to see and hear Canadian history portrayed in this manner.

Once the Sound and Light Show was over, we took the opportunity to walk to a few streets over to a very tasty food stand selling the always-popular Ottawa beaver tails (fried dough). This stand has a whole lot of different options for toppings, both sweet and savoury. We each got a beaver tail, and all three flavours were delicious. We munched on the treats, sharing bites between each other, as we walked back to the car, and then headed back to Becky's house for another good night of sleep before getting back on the road the next day for our final leg of our cross-Canada trip.

- Ali

Daily driving total: 60 km (37.2 mi)

Next up: Ottawa to Brunswick

Trans-Canada road trip: Nipigon to Ottawa

Trans-Canada road trip: Day 4

August 17, 2012

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We didn't get the best night's sleep in Nipigon. The small inn we'd chosen the night before was right on the highway, so for most of the night we could hear large semis and other traffic barreling along the road. Another startling occurrence happened sometime in the middle of the night when our room door that led outside to the parking area at the back of the building suddenly blew open with a strong gust of wind. Since we had come into the inn through the main entrance to pay, and then had come upstairs to our room through the inside, we had never used the outside door. It must not have been totally latched from the last tenants or from the cleaning people earlier in the day. We woke up from our sleep to the very startling bang of the door hitting the wall and the chilly wind blowing in through it, but Jonathan quickly saved the day by getting up to shut it and make sure it was well latched and locked for the rest of the night. Needless to say, we didn't have much restful sleep, and we were up pretty early to start another day of driving.

Before we started our drive, we had to make a decision about which route to take. We had a goal to reach by that night, to get all the way from Northern Ontario to my older sister's house in Ottawa. One route would take us a more northerly route, staying north for longer as we traveled east and then eventually directly south to Ottawa. The other would take us southward along the lake first and then east further down in the province. Both routes were about the same distance and time. While the northern route would have taken us right through Iroquois Falls (near Timmins), where my aunt and cousins lived, we decided that since we wouldn't have time to stop and visit anyway, we might as well just keep along the shores of Lake Superior and take the more southerly route. Much of the drive in the morning and early afternoon was within sight of the deep blue water of Lake Superior as we traveled south along it's northeastern shore.

We made two quick stops in the morning, the first one when I saw signs about Winnie the Pooh as we neared White River, ON. This town is the hometown of Winnie the Pooh, where a Canadian lieutenant, on his way to England during the First World War, bought a black bear cub from a hunter and brought her across the ocean with him. He named the bear "Winnie" after his adopted hometown of Winnipeg, Manitoba. (More information on the historical origins of Winnie the Black Bear and Winnie the Pooh in the History/Origin section of the Winnie the Pooh entry on Wikipedia.) It was neat to stop for a few minutes in this town and snap a few pictures of the Pooh Bear statue.

Just a little bit later on our drive, we stopped in another town to grab a meal at Subway and this particular town, Wawa, just happened to have several large Canada goose statues around town. We snapped photos of these as well, and looked them up later on to find out why they were there. The main goose, overlooking the highway was built in 1960 to commemorate the town, which takes its name after the native Ojibwe word for wild goose. (More information on this northern Ontario roadside attraction in the Tourism and attractions section of the Wawa, Ontario entry on Wikipedia.)

As we continued our trip after our satisfying lunch, a little bit south of Wawa we drove around a corner and spotted a pretty bay just below. As we drove closer, we saw signs for Old Woman's Bay camping area in Lake Superior Provincial Park. We made an impromptu decision to stop in and explore the beach area for a little bit. It was a very pretty spot, and the steady wind roused up some good-sized waves for us. We enjoyed the rugged outdoor environment and the chance to stretch our legs on the empty beach. As we headed back to our truck, we spotted a quick little chipmunk and stalked him for several minutes before snapping some great photos of him when he was sitting still for a few seconds.

After that stop we knew we had to get going again and keep pressing onward in order to arrive in Ottawa that evening. We drove right though the center of Sault Ste. Marie, ON, another town that I had always been fascinated by because of that grade three socials textbook, but we didn't spend any time exploring.

As we started on the eastward part of our trip to cross the width of the province, I took over driving for the first time so far on this trip. (Every time before this I had asked Jonathan if he wanted to trade, he had said he was fine and I much prefer being the passenger, so I didn't push the idea any further after asking each time.) Soon we were in the heart of some long miles of construction somewhere between Sudbury and North Bay, which didn't make driving much fun, but we eventually got through that area. After driving for about three hours, we were ready to switch again and Jonathan drove for the rest of the day. We finally arrived at my sister's house in Ottawa long after sunset, but we were very glad to have made it. We were very much looking forward to the Sabbath and a day of rest from our travels! We were also very much looking forward to homemade meals and visiting with a family member that we hadn't seen for awhile.

- Ali

Daily driving total: 1,376 km (855 mi)

Next up: Ottawa & hiking in the Gatineau hills

Trans-Canada road trip: Brandon to Nipigon

Trans-Canada road trip: Day 3

August 16, 2012

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We woke up and got on the road early in the morning. Pretty soon into our drive we noticed a really interesting, really long cloud bank hovering right along the horizon. If we hadn't been in the middle of the country, we might have thought they looked like a long line of crashing tidal waves. As we drove toward them, the clouds lifted a bit off the horizon, but they stayed low and long, stretching to the north and south as far as the eye could see.

We zipped through Winnipeg along Hwy 1, but about an hour and 15 minutes further east we made a scheduled stop in Prawda, MB at a gas station/truck stop/restaurant right beside the highway.

I had been introduced to this place in early summer 2008 while driving with my mum, grandparents, and sister from Winnipeg to visit my aunt and cousins in Ear Falls, ON for my cousin's grade 12 grad. The relatives had told us to make sure to stop in Prawda for some amazing homemade perogies. We took their advice and didn't regret it in the slightest. In fact, we enjoyed them so much that we had to stop again on the drive back to Winnipeg a few days later to get some more!

So on this road trip, I made sure that we made the same stop as well. We both bought a serving of perogies, and quickly devoured them. There's just nothing like homemade perogies made by people who still know all the secrets of making this delicious Eastern European dish!

RCMP friend at the restaurant in Prawda

Wildlife pal at the restaurant in Prawda

As we drove closer to the Ontario border, we started leaving the prairies behind and the scenery gradually changed from flat fields to wooded areas, small lakes, and granite rock walls beside the highway. We soon were in the midst of the region of Lake of the Woods, a giant, many-armed lake that spans the border between the Canadian provinces of Manitoba and Ontario and the US state of Minnesota.

Small part of Lake of the Woods visible from the highway

We hadn't been able to take a photo of the Manitoba sign the night before since it was dark,
so I turned around and caught this one as we passed it going in the other direction.

The actual direction we were traveling in

We stopped at a small gas station and store a little way into Ontario to grab a picture with this large Inukshuk.
(I have photos with it from 2008, so I made Jonathan get in the picture this time.)

Terrible photo (as so many of them are while using a point and shoot from a moving vehicle),
but we wanted to document entering into the Eastern Standard Time Zone.

We made another stop in the evening when we arrived in Thunder Bay. This is a city I've long been dying to visit since my grade 3 social studies textbook made it sound like one of the most alluring places to see. Although we didn't have much time to spend here, we enjoyed our first view of Lake Superior in the gathering dusk.

After some photos of the lake, we drove a few more minutes east to another stop I have long been wanting to make, the Terry Fox memorial outside of Thunder Bay. For Americans (or anyone who doesn't know), Terry Fox is kind of a big deal in Canada. After losing his leg to cancer as a teenager, Terry decided to run across Canada in his early 20s to raise money for cancer research. He started his trek in 1980 in St. John's, Newfoundland by dipping his prosthetic leg in the Atlantic (there's another memorial at that site as well) and ran an average of 26 miles - the equivalent of a marathon - a day west towards British Columbia and the Pacific Ocean. Sadly, Terry's Marathon of Hope ended in Thunder Bay after 143 days and 5,373 km (3,339 miles) when he had a relapse of cancer, and had to return home to BC where he died nine months later. Although he wasn't able to complete his marathon, he has never been forgotten by Canadians, and never will be as each September schools and communities across the country and around the world celebrate Terry Fox day by running for a cure for cancer.

I have been to the memorial in St. John's and it was meaningful to see this one as well. Such an inspiring life to remember!

View of Lake Superior from the memorial

Our truck and trailer pointed eastward

Although daylight was waning when we left the memorial, we felt we had a few more hours of driving in us, and continued east through the forests of Northern Ontario. An hour and half later, we were quite tired and were very happy to find a room at a little motel in the small town of Nipigon on the northern tip of Lake Superior.

- Ali

Daily driving total: 1,019 km (633 mi)

Next up: Nipigon to Ottawa