North America 2021 Roadtrip #10: Vancouver, Calgary, Regina, Madison, Barrie, Toronto and Wapakoneta
I am now one day’s drive from Nashville. Specifically where I am right now is noteworthy, read to the end to find out why!
As I wrap up the trip, I’m sad to see it end and disappointed that I wasn’t able to make it to my last few stops on the east coast. After 14,038 miles, I am definitely tired of driving but happy that I’ve been able to catch up with old friends and relatives and seen and experienced so many great things, and a few crap ones…
I managed to get across the border into Vancouver, given that I had done the PCR test, made my ArriveCAN account, uploaded a crapload of documentation and booked a crossing appointment. Seems like a bit of overkill, O Canada!
I spent a wonderful three days with my sister in law and her family in Vancouver. I think she’s a spy or something and doesn’t want any info on her family on social media, so I’ll leave it at that. I was also able to catch up with my Aunt Dot Chisholm. Due to COVID regulations we had to sit in the cold in the garden behind her apartment but we managed to catch up on all of the members of the extended family.
I left Vancouver and headed into the mountains. You can refer back to my earlier post about the horrible no good very bad highway. My OS/2 buddy from way back Mike Bowler had a family emergency so sadly I missed out on staying with him.
After clearing the storm, I rolled into Calgary, Alberta and stayed with my electric vehicle buddy Jason Arnold I met him at his workshop and he showed me the details on each of the cars being converted to electric drive. It brought back memories of my own Porsche 914 conversion, but with 12 years of improvements in motors, batteries and controls. Tesla components are very popular in conversions these days.
I headed out east towards Regina, got caught up in another snowstorm so I got a hotel room in Moose Jaw. The next morning was clear but quickly turned into a blizzard leading to a 4 hour standstill on the highway. Ugh. I rolled into Debbie Alfer’s house in Regina swearing never to see snow again in my life. I spent two days with Debbie and Bryan until the weather system passed through.
My next stop was Madison Wisconsin, so I had two long driving days with a stopover in Fargo. Luckily, I didn’t have a run-in with the local police.
I had to plan ahead to my upcoming crossing back into Canada which meant another PCR test and ArriveCAN booking. Strangely I had a lot of difficulty finding an available PCR testing appointment, finally booked one in Menomonie, on my way towards Madison. The lady doing the tests said she had customers booked every 10 minutes all day long.
I arrived at Sara Green and Ron’s house and got to play with their two great dogs. We talked for hours about Thailand and the Tesla and what we’ve all been up to since we last saw each other years ago back in Austin.
At lunch the next day I met up with Shana Verstegen, champion log roller and amazing Huntington’s Disease warrior.
I booked into a hotel near the river in downtown Chicago and drove in. After dark I strolled the riverwalk in the biting cold, but very pretty from all of the lights.
Without my test result I couldn’t cross the border at my appointment time so I booked into a hotel in Port Huron, right underneath the bridge to Canada. A little good luck, it shared a parking lot with a Tesla supercharger station.
I woke up at 2:28am due to my middle-aged bladder and saw that my negative test result came back! I packed up in the morning, crossed the border with the agent’s acceptance of missing my appointment yesterday; he didn’t seem too bothered.
I turned north and followed the shoreline of Lake Huron to see the countryside and avoid the awful 401 and 400 highways. As the day went on, clear skies turned to… Guess what. No, go ahead, guess. Did you say snow? You know you did. Crap. Avoiding the heavy snow on the northern loop through Owen Sound, I headed directly east and got to my sister Sue Brown-Taunton’s house in Barrie.
I caught up on lost sleep and Cathy Jolliffe came over, along with her daughter Jenna and the two grandkids. We went out to dinner later, joined by Steve Taunton.
The next morning I packed up and headed to Val Kidson Fletcher’s house in Toronto. We spent the afternoon catching up then met up with Shannon Matthews and Jamie at an Irish pub, complete with a very loud two-piece Irish band right next to our table. Shannon brought pictures from 1986, I hope she’ll add them below.
This morning I packed up and headed towards the land of guns and meth, oh and some good stuff too I guess. :^) I stopped in London, Ontario and drove through my alma mater, recently renamed Western University, in another damn snowstorm of course! It’s what I like to call The Final Insult. Unlike Steely Dan, I do enjoy going back to my old school.
Crossing over into Detroit was easy, the Americans don’t care if you’re Typhoid Mary coming over the bridge.
That leads me to where I am right now. I’m in Wapakoneta Ohio. It’s about halfway home to Nashville and is nicely located for my last hotel night after the sun went down. The name rang a distant bell. Do you know why? It’s the hometown of Neil Armstrong, the first man on the Moon! Now that’s a great way to cap off a heavily space-themed roadtrip! The Neil Armstrong Air and Space Museum opens at 10am tomorrow, so I’ll be first in line.
Next up, Nashville and a wrapup of the trip.
