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Published: September 29th 2011
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At the end of my time in New Mexico I was, for the first time in my travels, on a time limit. My visa ran out on the 31st of August and i had to be in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada by then. That's a total 3565 miles (5700 km, distance). That's a fucking long way, no matter how you cut it. A decision was made to split the trip up into 7 stages:
Albuquerque - Fort Collins (8 hours)
-- Stayed with Becca for one night
Fort Collins - Bozeman Montana (8 hours)
I finally got a chance to hang with my boy, Montana, in Montana for a ten day stint of outdoorsy stupidity. I was firstly, introduced to fly fishing on some of the most beautiful rivers i've ever seen (though that's not hard being from Australia). Montana has been fly fishing for a long time so he knew just where to go and just how to catch fish. Empty stretches of water only like 20 drive from the city packed with fish makes for a pretty awesome day. After a few days of fishing and a day of floating down the river with the big man
And the big Jeff we decided it was time for a hike. The problem is, in case you don't know, is that Montana is crazy. So he decided we needed to climb the 'wall of death' which is a climb up around 3500feet in (as the crow flies) about a mile. Apart from the fact that shit almost killed me, our camp site at the base of a mini glacier was at around 10,000 feet and the altitude did a number on me for the first 12 hours we were up that high. The original plan was to hike across the plateau (called froze to death plateau, of course) and climb the highest peak in Montana. That didn't happen but we still had an awesome time and the second morning there were grizzly bear tracks about 80 feet from the tent. Fear not though, according to the big man it was a juvenile and we could have wrestled it, yeah he actually said that, those words actually came out of his mouth. A few more days back in Bozeman, just chillin and we decided to spent a few days in Glacier national park, which is, quite simply a stunningly beautiful
place to hike and camp. There's really nothing else to it.
Bozeman - Minneapolis (14 hours)
Kat works at a summer camp just outside Minneapolis. Timing was perfect and the last set of kids had just left, the camp was empty and the weather was perfect. We just hang for a couple of days but did manage to fit in a visit to the mall of America of which Lego Land is the only really cool thing there. Mind you Legoland is pretty freaking awesome. Also managed to hit up the Minnesota state fair. There are a lot of stereotypes concerning state fairs in the US and the Minnesota Fair pretty much personifies each and every one of them. The fried food, specifically cheese curd and candy bars are a real highlight. The animals are also cool, especially the prize winning pig, which in classic American style, is so fat it literally cannot move. Ridiculous but hilarious. The real highlight though is the princess of the fair has her head carved out of a huge block of butter. It's done in a special rotating freezer. I mean, it's supposed to be an advertisement for dairy but it's just plain
weird.
Minneapolis - Macomb, IL (5 hours)
-- Stopped into hang with April for a couple of days, wasgood to see her again but nothing to really report.
Macomb - Toronto (12 hours)
The trip into canada was nothing really special, except to say that after 12 hours of driving downtown toronto is hands down the most stressful place in the universe.
Toronto - Ottawa (5 hours)
The final leg of the drive was a piece of cake and my first few days in Ottawa were spent with Marielle, literally just hanging out. It was good to relax after such a long driving quest so i was happy to just mooch. I spent a total of three weeks in Ottawa and the highlights, though few in number, were legit highlights. We hit up the Calypso water-park on its last open day of the year and the place was pretty much empty. So it was pretty much the most awesome thing ever. Spent a few days in Montreal which was also really cool. It's such a beautiful city and our time their climaxed with a drunk Marielle ordering a 4L (135 oz) pitcher of beer, hilarious night.
In total almost a week was spent in toronto (spread out between two weekends). Toronto is pretty cool, an awesome public transport system means it's really easy to get around. While the CN Tower looks cool and pretty much lords over you no matter where you are in the city, Toronto Island is a real highlight.
The real highpoint of being in Canada, apart from everything being for expensive than in the states even though their dollar is stronger, is POUTINE!!!!! The basic concept is Fries + Gravy + Cheese curd and is probably the best / most disgusting thing in the history of pretty much ever. There are also many variations, the best of which, was Butter Chicken Poutine and i cry myself to sleep these days when i realise I will never have it again.
The real test still lay ahead however. I have a 6 month multiple entry Visa into the states. The 'rules' are basically that you should spend as much time out of the states as you spend in the states. Herein lay the problem, i had spent 6 months stateside and was now asking to spend another six months after only being out of the country for three weeks. The dude at the border, straight up knew what I was trying to pull and he said he 'did not appreciate people that try to bend the rules' like I was. After flooding him with paperwork showing how i had enough cash and plenty of plans for at least the next month he signed and looked me in the eye.
'I'm not giving you six more months'
'That's okay' I says, 'can you give me four'
'Okay, fine. But if you try and do this again they won't let you back in, no chance.'
Four months gets me to the end of January which was the original plan so i'm happy. When the the stress went away and i got out of immigration and realised that the American side of Niagara falls (which are super cool btw, though i have no photos because spending $20 to park my car is a joke) is pretty much the ghetto. Seeing that my luck was high i hit up a casino and won myself about $40. All in all things went and a look even better.
The next month is gonna be be, nay, huge; with TV, conventions and surprises for for all. The next stop is familiar yet definitely worth hitting up for a second time here come
New York: Mark II
As Always, More Pic are available
HERE
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