Disclaimer: I'm not really looking for comments on the pictures, as this was a trip where the main goal was to move our stuff and a secondary goal was to document the trip. So don't mind pictures taken through the windshield... I just wanted to share if you guys are interested (I know how the OT critics are quite harsh hehe)
p.s. for you OTers, I have a little more of the girlfriend pics...
This set was taken with the P&S, not the "big" camera so obviously the quality sucks.
==========
This is one of the few trips I've done in the past two years. I love driving, and thus I'd like to share with you my experience on a few roads and places.
p.s. the same text was posted on a few forums (car related or not) as it takes forever to write, so bear with me if it's not 100% suited to this particular forum.
Calgary, AB to Montreal, QC (US route)
We have decided to drive back to Quebec with a trailer, as it was much less expensive and more practical then renting a U-Haul. We chose the US route because we had done the Canadian one going to Calgary over a year earlier (I'll do another road trip report for that). The car traveled by train.
I decided to plan this trip the best I could because the road is quite long and boring otherwise. I have mostly used the website Roadside America to find every little place I could stop for a minute or two along the way.
First things first, we had to steal a Garden Gnome/Midget. I had to have him see the world and will try to send it back to the owner with pictures of him around
2010-YYC-YUL-01 by the BeachBoy, on Flickr
We took the road with the little family and a trailer weighing over 7000lbs (max the truck could take).
2010-YYC-YUL-02 by the BeachBoy, on Flickr
First stop was the largest tepee in the world
2010-YYC-YUL-03 by the BeachBoy, on Flickr
2010-YYC-YUL-05 by the BeachBoy, on Flickr
2010-YYC-YUL-06 by the BeachBoy, on Flickr
Next, we drove to the border. We took a very strange road that led us through hunder of kilometers without any civilization. We even saw posts saying something like "if you run out of gaz, break down or other, there are no dwellings for 150km and you might not see anyone" The road led to the border and that's about it, and the border was not opened 24h/day. I could not take picture because with the trailer it's kinda hard to stop on a dime when you want to take a picture.
2010-YYC-YUL-07 by the BeachBoy, on Flickr
I had to go talk to the officers in order to have the agent stamp my belongings list. This procedure speeds up the return into Canada process as they already know everything you carry. It's not a guaranteed pass, but helps a lot.
2010-YYC-YUL-08 by the BeachBoy, on Flickr
Second stop/attraction was the Fairview Bridge and Cartwright Tunnel in North Dakota
2010-YYC-YUL-11 by the BeachBoy, on Flickr
2010-YYC-YUL-13 by the BeachBoy, on Flickr
2010-YYC-YUL-15 by the BeachBoy, on Flickr
2010-YYC-YUL-17 by the BeachBoy, on Flickr
At that point, our cat was ok with the drive.. at the beginning she was totally freaking out as she had never left the condo.
2010-YYC-YUL-24 by the BeachBoy, on Flickr
The next step was a little bit out of our route, but finally it was totally worth it. It's the Paul Broste Rock Museum yes, a ROCK museum. It turns out this guy was a rock freak but collected an awesome collection over his life. His wife holds the place and she's very proud to show the stuff.
2010-YYC-YUL-37 by the BeachBoy, on Flickr
2010-YYC-YUL-38 by the BeachBoy, on Flickr
You are greeted by a real Hard Rock guitar...
2010-YYC-YUL-36 by the BeachBoy, on Flickr
and inside, there are rock tress (that I would love to own as decoration) where each rock is perfectly polished in a sphere.
2010-YYC-YUL-26 by the BeachBoy, on Flickr
2010-YYC-YUL-27 by the BeachBoy, on Flickr
2010-YYC-YUL-28 by the BeachBoy, on Flickr
and natural glow-in-the-dark rocks which I didn't know existed.
2010-YYC-YUL-32 by the BeachBoy, on Flickr
2010-YYC-YUL-33 by the BeachBoy, on Flickr
Not far from there was another oddity called Earl Bunyon, it's a huge statue acting as the guy's tumbstone
2010-YYC-YUL-41 by the BeachBoy, on Flickr
2010-YYC-YUL-40 by the BeachBoy, on Flickr
ASfter that we drove to see the Niewoehner Bell Tower but when we wanted to ring the bells, the owner got out and asked money for it and started telling us the whole story that took forever. No way I was paying just to ring a bell!
2010-YYC-YUL-42 by the BeachBoy, on Flickr
2010-YYC-YUL-44 by the BeachBoy, on Flickr
At that point, we were at the geographical center of North America!
2010-YYC-YUL-45 by the BeachBoy, on Flickr
2010-YYC-YUL-47 by the BeachBoy, on Flickr
The next attraction proved to be very challenging and stressful. It was a Lone Bank Vault, in a town that doesn't exist anymore, so we had no clear indication of the exact location.
The GPS had us go through a really weird road, it was the first time I saw a place with a half avenue.. 32½ Ave!!!
2010-YYC-YUL-48 by the BeachBoy, on Flickr
It was raining and the gravel road was not traveled.. the trailer was sinking and even on 4wd with the tires, I was spinning and crawling forward. At that point, I was quite scared of getting stuck and we were very remote from the main roads.
2010-YYC-YUL-49 by the BeachBoy, on Flickr
2010-YYC-YUL-50 by the BeachBoy, on Flickr
We finally got the the stupid Vault, which was cool but simply a vault in the middle of nowhere as expected.
2010-YYC-YUL-51 by the BeachBoy, on Flickr
2010-YYC-YUL-53 by the BeachBoy, on Flickr
We then took the road for a little while and wanted to stop at a restaurant, the Fabulous Kegs Drive-In. Unfortunately, it was closed.
2010-YYC-YUL-54 by the BeachBoy, on Flickr
We entered Minnesota the next day and saw other attractions like this Big Fish Restaurant
2010-YYC-YUL-55 by the BeachBoy, on Flickr
I must say I now despise Minnesota as we got a $178 ticket because our trailer did not have a automatic brake system in case the trailer would disconnect from the truck. Even though the trailer had been inspected and was legal where it's plated, Minnesota police parks troopers and pull over all the tourists trailers (a lot of fishermen) in order to give these bogus tickets over a local law. With a 7000# trailer, if the bumper was to break loose, it would dig into the ground right away.
Next state was Wisconsin and we once again stopped to see weird stuff, like this humongous twine ball. I bet there's nothing to do in this part of the world!!!
2010-YYC-YUL-57 by the BeachBoy, on Flickr
2010-YYC-YUL-58 by the BeachBoy, on Flickr
2010-YYC-YUL-60 by the BeachBoy, on Flickr
2010-YYC-YUL-61 by the BeachBoy, on Flickr
Then saw the World's largest corkscrew
2010-YYC-YUL-63 by the BeachBoy, on Flickr
p.s. for you OTers, I have a little more of the girlfriend pics...
This set was taken with the P&S, not the "big" camera so obviously the quality sucks.
==========
This is one of the few trips I've done in the past two years. I love driving, and thus I'd like to share with you my experience on a few roads and places.
p.s. the same text was posted on a few forums (car related or not) as it takes forever to write, so bear with me if it's not 100% suited to this particular forum.
Calgary, AB to Montreal, QC (US route)
We have decided to drive back to Quebec with a trailer, as it was much less expensive and more practical then renting a U-Haul. We chose the US route because we had done the Canadian one going to Calgary over a year earlier (I'll do another road trip report for that). The car traveled by train.
I decided to plan this trip the best I could because the road is quite long and boring otherwise. I have mostly used the website Roadside America to find every little place I could stop for a minute or two along the way.
First things first, we had to steal a Garden Gnome/Midget. I had to have him see the world and will try to send it back to the owner with pictures of him around
2010-YYC-YUL-01 by the BeachBoy, on Flickr
We took the road with the little family and a trailer weighing over 7000lbs (max the truck could take).
2010-YYC-YUL-02 by the BeachBoy, on Flickr
First stop was the largest tepee in the world
2010-YYC-YUL-03 by the BeachBoy, on Flickr
2010-YYC-YUL-05 by the BeachBoy, on Flickr
2010-YYC-YUL-06 by the BeachBoy, on Flickr
Next, we drove to the border. We took a very strange road that led us through hunder of kilometers without any civilization. We even saw posts saying something like "if you run out of gaz, break down or other, there are no dwellings for 150km and you might not see anyone" The road led to the border and that's about it, and the border was not opened 24h/day. I could not take picture because with the trailer it's kinda hard to stop on a dime when you want to take a picture.
2010-YYC-YUL-07 by the BeachBoy, on Flickr
I had to go talk to the officers in order to have the agent stamp my belongings list. This procedure speeds up the return into Canada process as they already know everything you carry. It's not a guaranteed pass, but helps a lot.
2010-YYC-YUL-08 by the BeachBoy, on Flickr
Second stop/attraction was the Fairview Bridge and Cartwright Tunnel in North Dakota
2010-YYC-YUL-11 by the BeachBoy, on Flickr
2010-YYC-YUL-13 by the BeachBoy, on Flickr
2010-YYC-YUL-15 by the BeachBoy, on Flickr
2010-YYC-YUL-17 by the BeachBoy, on Flickr
At that point, our cat was ok with the drive.. at the beginning she was totally freaking out as she had never left the condo.
2010-YYC-YUL-24 by the BeachBoy, on Flickr
The next step was a little bit out of our route, but finally it was totally worth it. It's the Paul Broste Rock Museum yes, a ROCK museum. It turns out this guy was a rock freak but collected an awesome collection over his life. His wife holds the place and she's very proud to show the stuff.
2010-YYC-YUL-37 by the BeachBoy, on Flickr
2010-YYC-YUL-38 by the BeachBoy, on Flickr
You are greeted by a real Hard Rock guitar...
2010-YYC-YUL-36 by the BeachBoy, on Flickr
and inside, there are rock tress (that I would love to own as decoration) where each rock is perfectly polished in a sphere.
2010-YYC-YUL-26 by the BeachBoy, on Flickr
2010-YYC-YUL-27 by the BeachBoy, on Flickr
2010-YYC-YUL-28 by the BeachBoy, on Flickr
and natural glow-in-the-dark rocks which I didn't know existed.
2010-YYC-YUL-32 by the BeachBoy, on Flickr
2010-YYC-YUL-33 by the BeachBoy, on Flickr
Not far from there was another oddity called Earl Bunyon, it's a huge statue acting as the guy's tumbstone
2010-YYC-YUL-41 by the BeachBoy, on Flickr
2010-YYC-YUL-40 by the BeachBoy, on Flickr
ASfter that we drove to see the Niewoehner Bell Tower but when we wanted to ring the bells, the owner got out and asked money for it and started telling us the whole story that took forever. No way I was paying just to ring a bell!
2010-YYC-YUL-42 by the BeachBoy, on Flickr
2010-YYC-YUL-44 by the BeachBoy, on Flickr
At that point, we were at the geographical center of North America!
2010-YYC-YUL-45 by the BeachBoy, on Flickr
2010-YYC-YUL-47 by the BeachBoy, on Flickr
The next attraction proved to be very challenging and stressful. It was a Lone Bank Vault, in a town that doesn't exist anymore, so we had no clear indication of the exact location.
The GPS had us go through a really weird road, it was the first time I saw a place with a half avenue.. 32½ Ave!!!
2010-YYC-YUL-48 by the BeachBoy, on Flickr
It was raining and the gravel road was not traveled.. the trailer was sinking and even on 4wd with the tires, I was spinning and crawling forward. At that point, I was quite scared of getting stuck and we were very remote from the main roads.
2010-YYC-YUL-49 by the BeachBoy, on Flickr
2010-YYC-YUL-50 by the BeachBoy, on Flickr
We finally got the the stupid Vault, which was cool but simply a vault in the middle of nowhere as expected.
2010-YYC-YUL-51 by the BeachBoy, on Flickr
2010-YYC-YUL-53 by the BeachBoy, on Flickr
We then took the road for a little while and wanted to stop at a restaurant, the Fabulous Kegs Drive-In. Unfortunately, it was closed.
2010-YYC-YUL-54 by the BeachBoy, on Flickr
We entered Minnesota the next day and saw other attractions like this Big Fish Restaurant
2010-YYC-YUL-55 by the BeachBoy, on Flickr
I must say I now despise Minnesota as we got a $178 ticket because our trailer did not have a automatic brake system in case the trailer would disconnect from the truck. Even though the trailer had been inspected and was legal where it's plated, Minnesota police parks troopers and pull over all the tourists trailers (a lot of fishermen) in order to give these bogus tickets over a local law. With a 7000# trailer, if the bumper was to break loose, it would dig into the ground right away.
Next state was Wisconsin and we once again stopped to see weird stuff, like this humongous twine ball. I bet there's nothing to do in this part of the world!!!
2010-YYC-YUL-57 by the BeachBoy, on Flickr
2010-YYC-YUL-58 by the BeachBoy, on Flickr
2010-YYC-YUL-60 by the BeachBoy, on Flickr
2010-YYC-YUL-61 by the BeachBoy, on Flickr
Then saw the World's largest corkscrew
2010-YYC-YUL-63 by the BeachBoy, on Flickr
