Enough bitching, moaning, and complaining. This thread is about driving, and I must say, that I’ve driven Canada end-to-end (i.e. Victoria BC to St. John’s Nfld) at least twice, if you add up all the segments.
We live in a beautiful country, full of friendly people, and we have such amazing scenery! You won’t see the Sleeping Giant from the air, but you will from Ontario 17 eastbound out of Thunder Bay. The view from the top of Kelly’s Mountain in Cape Breton is spectacular—until you look down at the Seal Island Bridge, and say, “We’re going there? Holy shit!” The Big Hill in Alberta/BC on Highway 1—how the hell did the railway engineers do this?
Hell, I’ve driven across Newfoundland, from St. John’s to Port-aux-Basques, and taken the ferry both times with my car.
Drive this country. I have. It is well worth the drive.
I agree! I haven’t exactly done that, but as a kid I did accompany my older brother on a drive from Montreal to Saskatoon, which is about halfway across the country. And since my parents refused to fly until they absolutely had to when by brother was in California, I’ve also been on trains between Montreal and Saskatoon, and at least once from Vancouver to Montreal. This is indeed a beautiful country, and I was privileged in a previous job to be able to visit just about every part of it, though the travel was all by air. Possibly the most visually impressive was a conference at a resort among the spectacular mountains of Kananaskis.
Maybe I should put down on my bucket list a drive from one coast to the other and then back again. I’m sure there would be lots to write about!
I’ve had lunch at that resort, actually. I know just the one that you’re speaking of.
Do it! Talk to me; I have driven that route many times, and can give you tips and whatnot to make your trip easier.
As I’ve said before, one of my bucket list items is to take a train between Toronto and Vancouver. That would complete my cross-Canada rail trip, given that I’ve done Toronto-Montreal many times, Montreal-Halifax, and Toronto-Edmonton/Calgary (yes, I’m old enough to remember when Canadian Pacific ran passenger service to Calgary, and I rode it). I just need that Edmonton-Vancouver trip to fill in the blank.
Edmonton, pffft! Go for the gusto, or don’t go at all. Toronto-Vancouver, by ViaRail, I’m looking at you!
I’ve done a few, including with an infant child (around 1 year, just walking… but thankfully a lot of sleeping)
I don’t know if I have the stamina for a full-on American style road trip across the country - and my vehicle is not equipped for one, but Southern Africa is reasonably big. I have been through South Africa, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, and a very brief excursion into Zambia. That’s probably only at most one eighth of the USA.
But still a road trip.
My most fun was when I was much younger, had dreadlocks and had only recently quit marijuana. My friends and I got hold of an old camper VW combi, in Zimbabwe. My girlfriend and I spray painted it full on hippie style, then three really good friends of she and I did an epic road trip - very slowly, that vehicle was underpowered - via back-routes and side-roads (to avoild tolls) from Zim to Cape Town.
One highlight is when we picked up a Rastafarian hitch-hiker who saw our crazy vehicle - it was one where the spare wheel was mounted on the front, so we wrapped it with banner featuring Jim Morrison in the classic pose - and after we picked him up rolled such a massive joint - and in my smoking days, I could recognise a massive joint - in order to thank us for the lift.
Unfortunately at that stage, as hippie as we looked none of us were actually smoking at the time. So this guy had to sit with quite mad people (my friend Giles was wearing a Viking helmet, I am white but had dreadlocks, the less said about my friend Angus, who was driving, the better) for about 100km heavily stoned and possibly questioning his choices amongst all these sober people.
We did drive about an extra 20km off our route to get him directly to his place.
I’ve heard or read those same allegations, and I have no problem believing them. The Bay Area used to have an intercity rail, that (among other places) actually ran across the lower level of the Bay Bridge, that was cheap and efficient. The Key System, a private transit system, was mostly in the East Bay but connected to SF, first by ferries then on the bridge. It stopped running in 1958, and was sold to AC Transit. The rest, as they say, is history.
BART is poorly designed, in that it relies mainly on commuters for its traffic and doesn’t really serve its communities well for other things. If they had been smart, they would have put good vertical shopping centers at every non-SF station while the land was still relatively cheap. Then people would have a reason to use it during non-commute hours. What is there at my station, Balboa Park? Absolutely nothing. Oh, yes, a coffee shop opened recently across the street. I don’t know how much traffic it’s getting. The nearest shopping on Ocean Ave. starts with Whole Foods, which is nearly 1/2 mile away.
I regularly drive SoCal - Las Vegas, but that’s about the limit. Long gone are the days when I’d drive Burlington, WA - Redlands, CA in a single go, stopping only to fuel/eat/eliminate. Or dragging a trailer behind my truck from Anchorage to San Bernardino. If the high speed rail ever goes through, I’ll forgo the Vegas drive as well and take the train. Why?
The one concession I’ve made to aging is I almost never drive through the entire night anymore. I sometimes start around midnight, and sometimes end at around 3 if I’m ending at home though.
I still don’t like to rest a lot per se when driving. I need to stop for a bio break every 2 hours or so but I only spend 5 minutes, same goes for gas stops. Sitting in restaurants and most rest stops isn’t relaxing.
But some rest stops are. If it is quiet and scenic I will sometimes take a 10 minute break to chill, check my phone, and sometimes make a call.
On the third hand, I will occasionally take a nap at rest stops, especially if it was one of those days when I started off early in the morning
I love driving, but now that I’m in my 70s, I’m preparing for becoming an Old Coot. And they’re not the safest folks on the road.
So I tried a couple of things this year:
I rented a car with driving aids: Not FSD, but it had “Lane Keeping Assist” (which, when I moved near the edge of my lane, made it difficult to go over the lane line unless my turn signal was on). And “Adaptive Cruise Control” that would keep me a certain distance from the car ahead of me.
Those worked well, and I decided that they’d be handy as I get older… if I get distracted putting in a King Crimson 8-Track tape.
The other thing is I took some bus and train trips. Amtrak trains are showing their age, but I decided to appreciate the Industrial Chic ethos. The Empire Builder follows Lewis and Clark’s route to the Pacific Northwest, the Southwest Chief parallels Route 66 through the desert to LA, and “The Train They Call The City Of New Orleans” heads down the Mississippi.
So many times I wished I were driving so I could stop in some little town at a diner or a thrift shop. But that was more than offset by the luxury of just staring at the scenery, chatting with other passengers, and even napping.
So now I feel like I could get old without losing too many travel opportunities.
