Breaking into Cars and Taking Illicit Photos

My uncle Oliver and I started our day getting gas at the Irving gas station down the street. As he was filling up, I pulled out my camera to get a couple shots of the large Irving gas storage tanks in the distance. Suddenly a booming voice came over the PA, “THERE ARE NO PHOTOGRAPHS TO BE TAKEN ON IRVING PROPERTY.” Everyone at the station looked up and I put my camera down, wondering what this was all about. My uncle went in to pay and found out that Irving has a policy of not allowing any photos on their property. “But you can take a picture if you stand just off the property line” he pointed out. The attendant agreed, but added that “they’ll come after you” if they see you taking pictures on their property. She also added that they had become more strict after 9/11. 

PEI is sure to be a prime target for Osama and his gang. I’m going to sleep better tonight knowing Irving’s looking out for us.

After the gas station foolishness we headed out to see some sights. My uncle used to own a contracting company that built log homes and did other construction-related work so he took me up to this isolated spot in the woods where a lady had hired him to build a small shed. She’d intended to subdivide the property and sell lots and the shed was meant to somehow make the area more attractive. 

Once we hopped out of the car we realized the keys were locked inside. This just as it was beginning to rain! We didn’t have much to work with other than some branches from the woods but we managed to snake a small branch between the car body and the driver’s door and press the window down button. It was a relief as we weren’t sure if anyone would be able to find us in such an isolated spot!

I also got a look at my uncle’s painting studio which was pretty cool. Back in 1980-81 they bought a patch of land at Brackley Beach and put a log home up on it. Over the years they added a small cottage and then a few years back a my uncle built a studio so he had somewhere to paint more regularly. 

After all the breaking in and being hassled at the gas station we went out for lunch at a really nice restaurant where Bronwin (my cousin) works. Then we toured around a little more, checked out the museum at PEI’s first bank in Rustico, and headed back home to relax and recharge after a full day. 

Now I’m heading out with my cousin Andrew to check out some local bands at a small club down the road.

Charlottetown

After a day spent stumbling around Moncton, which I vote as having the most ridiculous road system in Canada, I made it to my Aunt and Uncle’s place in PEI. It’s been great to see them again. The last time I was in PEI was for their wedding when I was 6 years old and the last time I saw my Aunt Dorothy was just after I’d finished high school when they came down to Vernon to visit. So I was looking forward to seeing them again and checking out their stomping grounds.

It turns out they’ve moved into a condo right in downtown Charlottetown that they used to rent out. It’s a lovely place and it’s awesome being right downtown. They’re also a block away from Founders Hall and Victoria Park, a 50 acre park on the oceanfront. We’ve been taking their dog, Saxon, out for walks on the park’s boardwalk which stretches over a kilometer along the shore. Charlottetown’s kept many of their historic buildings in downtown so our walks have been quite scenic. I’m looking forward to getting out with my camera this week to get some shots.

Fredericton

Today was a day of driving to make it into the Maritimes. Right now, I’m letting an excellent dinner (apple curried chicken) settle before I drive a little ways towards Moncton, which I will be checking out during the morning, and then I’ll continue on to Charlottetown.

The drive through eastern Quebec was beautiful and I’m glad I get to do it again when I return. Fredericton’s a neat little town too. Lots of cool pubs and stuff along the main street. There’s a great series of walking and biking trails along the St. John River. I took the opportunity to do some exploring and discovered that there’s an old railway bridge that’s been converted to a pedestrian bridge. It’s also the longest pedestrian bridge in the world at just over 1/2 a kilometer!

I’ll post some pictures on Flickr in the next little while and then I’ll hit the road.

Bonsoir! Ca va bien?

I’ve just wheeled over in Quebec City to scoop wifi and get online for the first time today. I’ve come up with a sneaky way to “fish” for wifi in a new city. As I drive through, I throw the iPod Touch on the dash with the wifi settings panel opened up. When I see an unsecured wifi connection I’ll pull over (potentially having to drive around for a block or so to get a good signal) and turn on the macbook so I can get on the internet for real.

This morning started off with a short, but scenic, drive through farmland to Montreal. I’ve never been to Montreal but have always wanted to go there to check it out. The thought of being in a French-speaking community appeals to me and every few years I debate moving there. The only problem is it’s a smaller city, I don’t know anyone there, and I don’t speak much French. I think one day, when I’ve made my fortune, I’ll have to go there for real and enroll in a French program. 

So I was pretty excited when I drove into Montreal for the first time! I found parking downtown right away and jumped out of the car to start exploring. Rue Ste-Catherine seemed like an interesting strip and I made my way down it. It was still early so there weren’t many people out so I got to look things over while it was still quiet. Once I’d made my way west I decided to head up towards Parc Mont-Royal, so named by Jacques Cartier who was the first European to scale it when the local natives guided him to the top in 1535. It’s a huge and scenic park. The view from the top is amazing!

After going back down into downtown it was time for some food. On Rue Ste-Catherine I’d spotted a cool looking diner called Nickel’s. Now that I’m looking at their website (www.nickelsrestaurants.com), I realize it’s a chain owned by Celine Dion! Agh! That’s like thinking you found a great bar only to discover that it’s owned by Nickelback. 

At any rate, it was a cool place, and I got thrown into the French-speaking world when the waitress started in with the French. I tried my best to keep up and I did manage to get some things across in French. Her English was far superior to my French though and I’m a little disappointed with myself for not taking more time to learn French in the past. This may strike you as funny, but I feel that as a Canadian I should at least have a grasp of French since it is one of our official languages. It’s always humbling when you go somewhere with a new language, try to speak to people, and they have this excellent command of English in addition to their native tongue. 

After breakfast it was time to check out the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, which I’d passed on my initial walk through downtown. The exhibition was the work of Yves Saint Laurent, who I’ve never heard of, and didn’t know what to expect walking in. Turns out he’s a famous fashion designer who brought women’s wardrobes into the modern age. When I first walked in I thought, “I paid $15 to check out fashion?!?” I was prepared to accept that I’d been ripped off and thought it would be a short tour through the exhibition. Turns out it was an incredible exhibition! I had no idea you could do so much with fashion. One display showed the collection inspired from different places in the world, like China, Russia, Morocco, and most colorfully, Africa. Another was based on different painters such as Mondrian (whose work also inspired the White Stripes red and white stylings) and Monet. Monet was particularity interesting since a wedding dress had been designed using Monet’s style as inspiration.

I was quite impressed with Yves Saint Laurent’s work and glad I’d taken a chance on the exhibition. I also investigated the gallery’s permanent collection of paintings which included a number of paintings by the Group of Seven. There was even a Tom Thompson painting in there, even though Tom Thompson passed away prior to the Group of Seven becoming an official group. His paintings are some of my favorites and it was great to see his work again. 

After that, I headed to Trois Rivieres for dinner at a wonderful little place with a patio. Again, my French wasn’t the best, but it got me by. Trois Rivieres is a neat spot too. Small, funky, and well worth checking out! I’m going to make a point of stopping there again on my way back. 

Tonight I’m going to head a little way out of Quebec City with the goal of being in Fredericton tomorrow.

In the Lair of the Vampire

I’m writing from Ottawa where I’ve spent most of my day today. This morning I drove into town on the Ottawa River Parkway that follows the Ottawa River into downtown. As soon as I was near the Parliament Buildings I put the car into a parkade and wandered over to check it out. My first stop was the Supreme Court of Canada where I was given a tour and learned how the Supreme Court fits in to our justice system.

After the supreme court I picked up a ticket (free) for the 2:50pm tour through the Centre Block of Parliament. It’s neat to finally see where all the action takes place. The hour-long tour was informative and all sorts of bizarre history came out. The Parliament Building had burned down in 1916; however, the library was saved because of the steel doors that prevented the fire from reaching it.

There are also brass plaques placed on the wall for each successive government. Apparently they don’t make up a plaque until the current government has ended in case there are any changes during the ruling party’s reign. This was most famously demonstrated on the plaque for the Conservative period of rule under Sir John A. Macdonald’s last term. Three months after being elected, John A. passed away and Sir John Abbott took over the reigns, but resigned due to ill health. Sir John Thompson stepped up next but he suddenly died two years after being sworn in and Sir Mackenzie Bowell became the next Prime Minister. Bowell was forced to resign by his own cabinet and Sir Charles Tupper was put in place. His term only lasted 10 weeks though as the Conservatives were defeated by Sir Wilfrid Laurier’s Liberals in the 1896 election.

So there’s a plaque hanging in the Centre Block that has five Prime Ministers listed during one term in office! 

Yesterday, before heading to Ottawa, I wound up in Sault Ste. Marie for a few hours. One of the things I did there (other than eating greasy burgers) was to check out the Canadian Bushplane Heritage Centre which features a large hanger filled with all sorts of planes that were used to service Canada’s north. There were some harrowing stories from flying these old-school planes up in the north and it was interesting to see how they would use wood skiis to land on the snow up there. Many, many plane crashes too. Certainly not a career I’d be interested in. 

Tonight I’m going to head towards Montreal, where I intend to spend some time tomorrow. My intention is to be in PEI on Monday.

It’s Business Time in Sault Ste. Marie

I’m in downtown Sault Ste. Marie where I’ve managed to steal wifi again. I just ate at a greasy little place called Neil’s Diner where Neil mans the grill behind the counter and cooks up some mean burgers and fresh cut french fries. Everything seems to be made from scratch and the locals kept coming in to hang out and eat, which is always the hallmark of a fine dining establishment. It’s greasy, but so very tasty.

This morning, after waking up in White River, I went into the town to check out their Winnie the Pooh themed park. Apparently White River is where a Canadian army veterinarian purchased a bear cub which he named “Winnie.” The cub was left in the care of the London Zoo while the veterinarian served in France and it was there that A.A. Milne saw the bear and spun the story based on him. 

Once I’d seen enough of Winnie I headed down towards Lake Superior Provincial Park to check out some of the beaches on the way to Sault Ste. Marie. The best discovery was a set of pictographs done by the Ojibwa people at Agawa Bay. While I was down looking at them I started talking with a gentleman who happened to be a professor of anthropology in Michigan! He gave me a full rundown on the paintings and what they represented. My favorite was the picture of Mishipeshu, a cat-like creature with horns who was said to inhabit the waters and use his long tail to cause stormy weather on the ocean. The professor told me that the natives would bind the feet of a puppy and throw it into the ocean as an offering to Mishipeshu when they wanted safe passage!

Before running across the pictographs I had a swim at one of the best beaches I’ve ever seen, Katherine Cove. The whole beach is smooth sand like you’d find in the tropics and the water is shallow for a quite a ways from shore. One could spend a lot of time on a beach like that. The water isn’t terribly warm though. Warmer than the ocean, but still the kind of water you only want to spend a few minutes in.

I’m going to send a few photos to my flickr account now and then I’m going to hit the road again.

Darren’s Bogus Journey

I’m stealing wifi in some one-horse town called Marathon. I was driving along the Lake Superior coast towards Sault Ste. Marie when I started getting hungry. My clock is still on Alberta time so I’m not getting hungry until 8 or 9 at night here. I saw a billboard for a town called Marathon which made the place look like an appealing spot to visit so I pressed on past some restaurants that looked quite good to get to this wonderful town called Marathon. 

Pulling into Marathon it turned out that there isn’t much of interest here, and most everything was closed at 9 at night. So I elected for the one open place which turned out to be a greasy spoon restaurant with the sort of food one would expect from such an establishment. I did score some pistachio pudding as part of my meal though, so that made it alright.

I was also unsuccessful at scoring wireless internet in Thunder Bay; however, I was pleasantly surprised to discover an open wireless router somewhere near this greasy spoon in Marathon. Score!

Let’s rewind the tape though and I’ll tell you about today’s adventures. 

Last night, after leaving Kenora (I did want to stay longer and I’m sure I’ll be back there one day) I drove for another couple of hours. Every day I’ve been shifting my clock ahead an hour because of the time zones with the consequence that I’m not tired early at night. What I tend to do is get in behind a tractor trailer, since it’s driven by a professional driver who knows the roads much better than I do, and use him as a pacecar. Last night was no different until my pacecar started drifting into the oncoming lane a few times. I slowed down to give him lots of room and it was a good thing too because he nearly drove into a guard rail! Fortunately he decided to pull into the next rest stop and call it a night. I think his amphetamine high must’ve worn off. 

This morning, after another beautiful drive through Ontario lake country, I pulled into Thunder Bay. First thing I hit a gym to get some exercise to offset all the sitting in the driver’s seat. The gym was kinda weird. It’s a fancy new gym that’s filled with people who look like extras on the set of the new Beverly Hills 90210. 

After the gym (and the much-needed shower) it was time to check out Fort William Historical Park. I didn’t really know what to expect and was surprised to find a large fort, carefully reconstructed and filled with actors who performed in character as though they were the actual inhabitants. The highlight for me was a fully-restored workshop where they made birchbark canoes. I got to hear all about how they steam the wood and sew up the birchbark panels to make a waterproof skin. The sewing stitches are water sealed using a resin formed from animal fat, spruce pitch, and charcol. 

The other cool thing was having the “doctor” walk me though how he amputates limbs, complete with a demonstration of the saw, cutter, and tourniquet he would have used back in the day. So if he was to saw off your arm he would first put a tourniquet above the area, then he would use a curved blade to cut the skin around the arm, and finally apply 3 quick strokes of a saw to remove the arm. Once the arm was off, another implement was used to seal up the veins to avoid having the patient bleed to death. The veins could either be coterized shut or they could be tied off. Then the whole thing was stitched up and you were good to go!

He also showed us the mechanical leech they would use to extract blood in the case where a headache or fever was to be treated. Apparently leeches wouldn’t survive the cold up here so they have a contraption that sits against your temple and has 16 razor blade tips spring out to make a series of cuts in the skin. Once the skin has been opened up, the doctor applies a bell shaped glass tube against the skin. Inside the tube is a small bit of burning material which creates a vacuum and helps draw blood out of all the cuts the leech made. The more serious your condition, the more cupfuls of blood would be drawn out. 

I also learned that dentistry was performed without any whisky to numb the pain. Molar extraction using a small set of pliers was quite popular, but it was done without any anesthetic at all! If something more painful was being done there was a mixture containing a little rum and a lot of opium that could be given to the patient. If it was me in the chair, I’d be downing that potion like water before they broke out those pliers!

After leaving the previous century behind I made it up to the Terry Fox Memorial to read about his journey and then on towards Sault Ste Marie. 

My laptop is about to die so I’m going to cut it off here. I haven’t gone back and re-read this entry, so please forgive any grammar issues and the like.

Husky the Muskie

I’m in a cafe in Kenora, home of the 1907 Stanley Cup champions, the Kenora Thistles. Turns out this is the smallest community to have ever won a major sports title. 

Wikipedia also tells me that Kenora had an outrageous bank robbery in 1973 when some dude walked in wearing a bunch of explosives wired to a clothespin that he held open with his mouth. When he exited the bank a police sniper shot him, the clothespin closed, and the man blew up!

See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenora,_Ontario

Kenora’s a beautiful place. It’s nice having trees again after being in the prairies. The scenery in Ontario so far is pretty amazing. To get into Kenora I had to cross a bridge over Lake of the Woods and I got to look out over this huge lake dotted with small islands that had cottages nestled in the trees. 

I’m having a bite at the HoJoe Coffee and Books place before I head on to Thunder Bay. I expect I’ll hit there tomorrow sometime. I’m planning to check out Fort William and, on Shanman’s recommendation, the Terry Fox Memorial.

The ‘Peg

Driven by Henry Rollins screaming on Black Flag’s Slip It In album I made good time last night and wound up sleeping at a truck stop about an hour east of Regina. Never did see Regina since it was dark out, but I suspect I’m not missing much. The highway doesn’t go through that town anyway. 

This morning I jumped back in the drivers seat and made it to Winnipeg around noon. I’ve spent the past couple hours wandering around downtown, picking up maps from CAA, and buying a power inverter at Best Buy near the Blue Bombers stadium. Their football team has a really nice stadium!

Now I’m eating tasty peanut chicken noodles at a place called The Line Up in Winnipeg’s Exchange District. This is a neat area. I was hoping to eat at this crazy hippie/punk cafe and bookstore across the street but they didn’t have wireless internet.

Winnipeg is an interesting town. Small, and most of the buildings are the original brick buildings from way back in the day. Lots of old timey ads on the sides. It didn’t take long to explore although I realize there’s many things I’ve missed. I wouldn’t mind spending a few days here sometime to really get a feel for the city. It’s low on my list though. At least now I understand what the Weakerthans are singing about.

Once I’m finished here I’m going to hit the road again towards Kenora and see how far I make it on the way to Thunder Bay.

Moose Jaw so far…

I’m in a cafe in downtown Moose Jaw chowing down a ruben sandwich and using their wifi. I got off a little later this morning since I wanted to hit the gym and finish re-packing for the trip. I stopped in Strathmore to pick up a copy of the X92.9 Xposure CD, which features a number of Calgary bands. There’s this hard-rock/punk band called Kilbourne that I wanted to hear, so now I’ve got them for road music.

Musicwise I’ve been tearing through the Fleet Foxes and Grateful Dead’s American Beauty album when I need something mellow and folky. After that I cranked up some Hawksley Workman (Amanda introduced me to him and I think he’s pretty awesome – like Of Montreal but more rock) and then some Pavement to get me into Moose Jaw. 

It’s been neat driving through Saskatchewan and Alberta. Very flat, but beautiful rolling hills. There were some great prairie ridges in eastern Alberta. It felt like the Lone Ranger would appear at any moment and bellow out “hi ho Silver” before riding off towards the horizon.

I’m going to continue on to Regina tonight and then stop for sleep. Winnipeg will have to deal with me tomorrow morning.

I’ve also started putting together a set of photos of my journey (starting today) on Flickr. Here’s a link if you want to see photos as I go across the country:

http://flickr.com/photos/darrenthetiger/sets/72157606678374172/