Discoveries

Hello Blog. I had grand plans to keep you updated during my trip but overwhelming emotions when I first started out combined with busy days and limited internet access served to thwart my plans. I have uploaded pictures to Facebook which is so time consuming that I won’t be duplicating those posts here. I’m pretty sure most of my blog readers are my FB friends but if you’re not, let me know and we’ll fix that.

I do have an entry of random stuff about my trip that I will post here. In the spirit of my new “discover” theme, here are some things I discovered (or confirmed if I already knew them) while driving across five provinces and three time zones:
- I would rather follow than be followed and I will go out of my way to let people pass me
- Manitobans are really friendly, just like their provincial slogan promises
- Many of the RV’s on Hwy 17 (the ON part of Hwy 1) seem to be from BC. Are we the only ones who think that driving in Northern Ontario would be “fun”?
- It is a lot harder than it sounds to stick to the “no fast food” rule I tried to set for myself before I left
- There is nothing like fresh blacktop and good driving music
- Starbucks Via (iced) is nectar of the gods
- “Update from here” on my BlackBerry Maps App is the new “are we there yet?”
- Walmart is familiar and comforting when you’re feeling homesick
- It’s hard not to speed when you’re surrounded by fog and feeling rather invincible
- Visitor Info Centres rock...although I already knew that
- The Ontario Ministry of Transportation likes to make signs that state the most obvious things
- OPP (Ontario Provincial Police) are everywhere!
- Full bars on your phone don’t mean that you’ll have service...or if you do, that you’ll keep it
- Manitoba is bilingual and that’s more fun
- In Saskatchewan you start believing that the road will never turn and then if it does you worry that you will forget what to do
- The thing I miss most about home so far is clean clear water (there were a few places on the prairies where I couldn’t drink tap water and it was annoying)
- It sucks to not have cell coverage
- You can see the cars on side or cross roads coming from miles away when in SK and parts of MB and it feels like you’re going to collide with every truck racing down a Range Road
- Brick makes any building look better
- Saskatchewan Rough Rider fans have a LOT of pride
- I definitely need a spouse with wander lust
- McDonalds employees will try to make up for forgetting your fries by giving you enough ketchup packets to fill a whole bottle
- Skunks must be stupid because I passed a lot of dead ones