Road Trip Cont...

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Day 14. So Connie decided to join us after all. We had to pick her up at the greyhound station at 12:20, so we left a bit early as I didn't know how to get there. We were there about half an hour before the bus pulled in, so we got something to eat and a hot chocolate. Then I thought I better call Walter, family I had no idea about and after the call, I realised he didn't know anything about me either. So I introduced myself and told him how I was related and asked if we could meet, I think he was still a bit confused but he was up for the meeting. And he seemed pretty nice on the phone.
After we collected Connie, we headed off in the direction of Regina, Saskatchewan. Everyone was right, the Prairie's to drive through are quite boring, everything is so flat. That was until we hit a place just before Swift Current. It started snowing, I was driving and I was ok to start with, then I came to stop for the bathroom and found out that everything was icy. That was it for me, no more driving until we had passed the snow and ice, or until I really had to. When we sot to Swift Current, Micha took over only to get about twenty kilometers down the road, the snow and ice were worse, we all decided it would be best if we pulled off in the next town and stay there the night, it was too scary for me. So the next town was called Herbert, a little town, but it had a hotel and that was the main thing. When we were pulling off the highway though, we kept sliding and we almost ended up in a ditch, everytime Micha tried to get us out, we'd just get even more stuck. Thankfully and nice guy stopped and with his help, we pushed the car out of the ditch, thanked him and pulled into the hotel. No more driving that night.

Day 15. After a pretty sleepless night for me, as the bed was pretty unfortable, we headed out of Herbert and to hopefully get to Winnipeg. When we got onto the highway, it was really slippery and icy, Connie was driving this time. So it was a very slow trip and we made it to Regina around eleven. We stopped for a stretch and a hot chocolate, oh and more gas and kept going. That was until we got just outside Rigina and were turned around by police. They had the highway blocked as a truck had apparently jack knifed. So, I found an alternate route on the map to go around it. It was about forty five to sixty minutes out of our way but if it meant we'd miss the truck, then it was ok. So when we got back to the high was, we were on out way again, I even managed to close my eyse for a bit. Until about fifteen kilometers down the road, the highway was blocked again. Are you kidding me?! We found out that this time it was a truck pile up. So we had two choices; 1, get something to eat and wait it out; or 2, get back to the other highway and follow it all the way until we made it to the number 1 highway again. After we pulled into use the bathroom at a gas station/restaurant, we realised it had no food. Ok, so we get back in the car and try and get back to the other highway. Micha was driving, and instead of going back to the road we came off, she decided to ignore me and go straight ahead onto a different road that wasn't marked too well on the map. So we actually ended up stuck in the snow for the second time in 24hrs. Connie and I had to push the car out and it was so cold outside, it went straight through my gloves and my face was freezing. It took us about ten minutes to get it out, but it felt like so much longer as it was so cold. Hopefully that won't happen again. By the time we got back to the highway again, the police were gone, so we were able to continue on the highway again. My only regret of getting stuck in the snow was not taking any photo's of it. Just wasn't something I thought of unfortunatly, maybe next time if it happens again. I hope it doesn't though.
Finding somewhere to stay that night was pretty difficult as everyone was pulling off the highway as it was so icy. We ended up finding a small pub in a place called Fleming. It looked pretty crappy from the outside, but was quite nice on the inside and for $50 per room, it was nice. We had dinner in the pub, I got a nice piece of steak and a coors light (beer), I was in heaven lol. I haven't had a good peice of steak since I got to Canada basically.

Day 16. From Fleming, we left around 9am. When we walked outside, there was still alot of snow and ice and was very slippery under foot. Fortunatly though, the snow and ice had gone from the road. Micha drove most of the way to Winnipeg, Conny helped out a bit too. I had another day off from behind the wheel. We arrived in Winnipeg around 3pm, so I called Walter to organise a time to meet. So, we said good bye to Conny and Micha and I wandered around the city for an hour or so, the part that we saw was apparently not a great spot to see. The malls that we walked through all smelled like alcohol or something, it was gross. We then made our way to Walter's house. Of course when we were driving in peak hour which was so much fun, not! lol. We finally made it to Walter's place where his brother wife and himself were waiting for us and we decided to go out for dinner at a place called Smittey's, a diner type place. We talked over dinner and got to know each other, they were all very nice and very interested in our trip that we were doing. Alot of Canadian's haven't don't a trip across the country and Walter kept saying that I'd seen more of the country then he had lol. I guess that's the way though, we all see so much of every other country and not our own country. Walter's son, Kevin came around a bit later to the house so I was able to meet him too, their other son is in Korea teaching. We ended up staying the night at their place which was really nice.

Day 17. When we got up in the morning, Walter had plates, knives and forks set out on the table for us to make breakfast, it was sweet of him. We said our goodbyes and we were off to Thunder Bay, Ontario. The drive was pretty long today, about 8 or 9 hours, very tiring. Really nice views though all along Lake Superior, it was really beautiful. When we eventually got to Thunder Bay, what a nightmare driving around that place. We found a hostel to stay at just outside town for $20 a night, so we wrote down the directions to it, do you think we could find the damn streets for though, let alone the hostel. We ended up staying in a motel, we checked in around 9pm, I was so tired and annoyed. Was so nice to be out of the car and lying on a bed.

Day 18. It was another big day of driving, about the same as yesterday. We left Thunder Bay around 9:30 and made our way to the Terry Fox memorial. Terry Fox was this amazing guy who developed cancer and lost a let from it. To raise money for cancer resaerch he ran across the country. There's a memorial in Vancouver too. Unfortunatly, he died in 1981, but they've made a really nice memorial for him.
It was another very scenic drive along the lake to Sault. Ste Marie, actually pronounced Suez St Marie, no idea why it's spelt so weird. We've see quite a few police driving around in Ontario, more then what we've seen the entire trip. And everytime I see them, they either have someone pulled over, or they're pulling someone over. Better be careful of the speed lol. When we finally got to Sault. Ste Marie, we had the same problem as last night. We found the street ok, it was the hostel we couldn't finde though. Micha was driving this time. We ended up asking a guy if he knew where it was and pointed basically right behind us. So, what do you do when you need to turn around? U-turn, obviously. Except when you don't realise it's a one-way street. Oops! As soon as we saw a police car with it's lights on, we realised. So we stopped and the asked where were heading and asked where we were from. They then told us that we shouldn't stay at the hostel as it's really dirty and referred us to the Satelite Motel which turned out to be quite nice. Then then also kindly pointed out that the street we were on was a one-way street. lol. At least they were ok if it, it was late and no one was on the road, they let us go, but told us to watch for the one-way signs. Their turned out to be quite alot in Sault. Ste Marie.

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