My Electronic Scrapbook: Leaving Ontario

I took this photo as we were driving towards the sunset in Ignace in Northern Ontario. We had stopped at a gas station there to fill up and I got out of the car to stretch my legs. A bunch of crows flew over my head and across the sky, noisily and so fast. Then, their voices stopped. I heard a deep living silence that was totally new to me. There were so few people and yet even the air was alive. I have rarely encountered a place so magnetically awake, everything radiated. I swear, even the stones hummed.

We stayed at a cheesy 70s motel complete with orange shag carpeting and it made me laugh. We ran across the Trans Canada Highway to a diner for dinner. I was in love with this area and did not want to leave. I had always dreamed of living in a place like this but it was not meant to be.



The next morning we packed up and left. You can see all the plants I took with me in this photo, our tape deck and my old camera case, with tripod in the back seat. Reg looks particularly eager to leave. I have a feeling he did not appreciate the retro motel as much as I did. Cheapest hotel of our entire trip though!

OK, now, I feel bad about the next leg of our journey. Because we were days and days behind schedule, very little pulled me to the side of the road to take photos. I wanted to get going! We did stop at a restaurant in Manitoba right after finally leaving Ontario (that province is ridiculously big!) but I got all creeped out as soon as we got in there. Totally weird vibe and when I saw there were public showers in their back room, I told my husband we were not stopping anywhere else in Manitoba. I trust my bad feelings and we just put the pedal to the metal and drove right through. .

We almost got all the way through Saskatchewan too on the same day. I took a lot of video in Saskatchewan, that place is gorgeous in the fall. It was funny that Manitoba was so freakin' flat and here we were going through Saskatchewan, which is famous for being flat, but the wheat was so tall and golden, moving with the wind, it looked like rolling deserts. We found an over-priced motel and and went to sleep, that was a very long day!



The next day we drove past Calgary which I regret. It looked absolutely gorgeous, all golden and autumnal but I really wanted to make up for lost time. Once we got past Calgary everything again got totally flat and there was this long line of bumps in the horizon, far, far away from me. Literally, as far as you could see left and right, were what looked like little mountains. My brain could not compute this mass at all. I kept telling my husband is must be something else, which he thought was very funny. I guess I thought there would be a few mountains to drive through, not a lineup of THOUSANDS.

It took what felt like forever to finally make it to these little bumps that quickly turned into wild rocky mountains. We were exhausted and had a feeling we would not be finding a hotel anytime soon as we stopped at Dead Man's Flats RV park. What a spooky name in a place surrounded by mountains! I insisted this was the place to stay for the night.



This place had lots of... character. It was also the first time we camped since we left Ottawa and Reg had issues with the tent at first but did get it set up. We slept under the stars close to the highway under those dark spooky mountains.



Reg insisted that the morning sunlight was the most gorgeous he had ever seen. Unfortunately, I woke up with a flare in my left knee and could not move. I could barely get out of the tent with his help but I did manage to capture the last of the light in this photo.



Then we were off and the next stop was one I had been waiting for my whole life: Banff, Alberta. The entire time I studied English and Creative Writing I kept hearing about the writers workshops in Banff and dreamed of going one day. Breakfast would have to do!



These are my first food photos ever! I wish I could remember the name of this family restaurant we went to for our pancake breakfast. Some tourist complained to our waiter that they did not use fresh blueberries with the pancakes. She was obviously not from around here. Fresh blueberries in late September in the middle of the moutains???



It was a stunning breakfast that I appreciated and we made sure to smile at our waiter and roll our eyes at the stupid tourist which he appreciated. I would have loved to have spent days in Banff and might have done so if I could walk but the pain was unbearable. I hobbled to the Uhaul with Reg's help, threw my leg on his lap and we were off once again!

We did attempt to drive to the stunning Lake Louise just for a peak from the Uhaul but our moving van couldn't do it. The path was so steep that it was going to blow up, I swear! I started to panic at the noises it was making. After losing breaks outside of North Bay... it wasn't worth it. Reg managed to turn around which was not easy and we got back on the highway.



In just a few minutes, we crossed the border and were in our new home British Columbia. The second we did so, it started to rain. And I laughed. I laughed and laughed. It was a sign. We were home.