Jack Visits the West - Introduction Page
| All right everyone, I promised I would upload a few more pictures from
my trip west. I finally got a chance to sit down and get this done.
Some 200 Megs later, I have all the pictures (that I'm willing to show you) uploaded. Yes, some have been censored, and are not available for your
viewing. Don't worry, you're not missing out on too much. As for the route. I started in Toronto, OK, not quite, Mississauga, Ontario, but that's close enough. I continued north through northern Ontario, (Sudbury, Sault Ste. Marie, Thunder Bay, ...). It's a very scenic drive, but it's also a long one. One is amazed on just how long it takes to drive through Ontario. One thing I regret, is taking practically no pictures before reaching Sault Ste. Marie, and also not spending enough time in those regions, but I guess that's close enough to home that I can go back relatively easily. My trip continued through the Canadian prairies, through Winnipeg and Regina. Nice towns, but I hear that you wouldn't want to be there in the winter. I was amazed at the swarms of Monarch butterflies in this region. At times it was crazy. You saw nothing but clouds of butterflies. My car was sure thankful for a wash after this stretch of the road. One word of advice to the people considering this route. Saskatchewan allows the use of radar detectors - use them and watch your speed. Plenty of cops with nothing better to do than stop and rip the tourist off. I've seen next to no cops in all of Ontario and Manitoba, but as soon as I crossed into Saskatchewan, I was instantly welcomed by the welcome committee - fortunately I behaved relatively well, and with a little heads up from my radar detector a.k.a. "guardian angel" I didn't run into any problem - in Saskatchewan at least. I finally made it into Alberta. The route was still undecided at this point, but I knew what I wanted to see. After stopping by the World Tallest Tepee near Medicine Hat, and saying hello to a few of the buffalo/bison there I decided on the route through Alberta. It would take me from Medicine Hat to Edmonton through Drumheller - the site of the world's tallest dinosaur, many dinosaur discoveries, Hoodoos and the Royal Tyrrell Museum, and also the world's smallest chapel (north of Drumheller). I highly recommend Drumheller if you have the time. From Edmonton (home of the biggest mall in North America - ladies pay attention here), the road took me to Jasper National Park, Athabasca Glacier -a.k.a. Columbia Icefield - home of 1 of the only 2 know 3-way continental divides in the world - water from the glacier streams into three different oceans - north to the Arctic, east to the Atlantic and west to the Pacific. From the Columbia Icefield it was off to Lake Louise, Lake Moraine - the inspiration for the back of the 20 dollar bill, Banff and finally to Calgary - home of the 1988 Winter Olympics. I need not go into details about Jasper and Banff - truly spectacular, awesome mountains, "hot" hot springs, great scenery, nice rivers and waterfalls, towns, "wild" - wildlife, a bear in a tree, a few mountain goats, a bunny or two, a deer, moose, ... I spent over a week in Alberta and my only regret is not having a year to spend here. |
From Alberta, into British Columbia through Golden, Kelowna and Big White to Vancouver and ultimately Whistler/Blackcomb. The drive from Calgary to Vancouver is breathtaking. Along the way, beautiful mountains, rivers, and waterfalls. Kelowna and Vancouver itself is very beautiful. In Vancouver you must stop by Stanley Park.
From Vancouver off to Seattle, California via Oregon, Sacramento - home of the Vagabond Inn that screwed me over big time - never stay at a Vagabond Inn, San Francisco site of the Golden Gate Bridge and Alcatraz. From there I was off to Santa Barbara, Los Angeles, Venice Beach and Huntington Beach along Highway No. 1 - California's Coastal highway. This route is very pleasant and scenic. If you have the time to drive along the coast do it, you won't regret it, but at the same time, be prepared for traffic and quite slow speed limits.
The drive from Los Angeles to Las Vegas is quite interesting as you are on a constant incline. I've never seen a real desert before except for Drumheller, Alberta and so this drive gave me plenty to look at. Las Vegas, you have to hit a few casinos, perhaps a few shows, ..., and if you get a chance do a little flight over the Grand Canyon - I did and loved it (be prepared for a bumpy ride). Once in Las Vegas, I highly recommend a visit to the Hoover Dam and the Grand Canyon. I did the South Rim and the North Rim as well. It's a long, long drive from the South Rim to the North Rim with Flagstaff in between the two points. Meteor Creator, just east of Flagstaff, Arizona might also interest you along the way - A huge hole in the earth caused by the crash of a huge meteor to earth many years ago. The Colorado River flows through the canyon and a huge bridge makes the crossing from on side to the other possible. BTW, Arizona is the only place, in fact the first time I ever got caught for speeding. Boy was I relieve when I was told that I "was going 66mph back there" - I thought to myself - oh, is that it?. I though I wouldn't be pulled me over for that - come on 66 in a 45 zone? (Slight misjudgment on my behalf, I was trying to keep it to 65 after my guardian angel spoke up). Fortunately my guardian angel had been going nuts for like the last 3 minutes and so it was my fault for getting pulled over - instead of slowing down to 66 I should have slowed down to 44. Thanks to my guardian, and a very good officer, I got nothing more than a friendly warning, perhaps that was my birthday present delayed by two days. Boy was I thankful for that to both the cop and my guardian. I don't want to think of the alternative scenario if my guardian angel fell asleep or malfunctioned.
At this time I was well above my allowed budgeted time, and had to rush back to Toronto via Salt Lake City (couldn't not stop at the Bonneville Speedway - too bad it was still a little too wet for my liking - others were having plenty of fun - but my car was too new for that). From Salt Lake City it was off to Idaho, then a quick drive through of the Yellowstone National Park with a quick visit to the Old Faithful, on the way to Rapid City which off course is near Mt. Rushmore. There are some amazing roads and views east of Yellowstone National Park - especially around the Granite Pass (Wyoming) - just make sure you're filled up and lookout for the wildlife on the road - fortunately it was nothing more than a close call.
At this point, I was seriously low on time. Heading east the speed limits seem to decrease almost with each passing state but that didn't slow me down. Sioux Falls, Sioux City, then Omaha, then Chicago and Toronto via Windsor. Windsor was the only place to register my stop on the last stretch. After visiting so many casinos along the way, I couldn't not stop at the Windsor Casino in Windsor, Ontario.
Back to Main Page | View Pictures from the beginning
Now we all know how much I like numbers and "sad"istics, here are a few numbers you might like to see:
| Total Kilometers/Miles Traveled: | 16,502 KM / 10,250 Miles |
| Total Amount of Gas consumed: | 1,327 L / 351 Gal. (US) |
| Total Cost of Gas: | $879 CAD / $549 USD (a lot more if it was today) |
| Day on the Road: | 28 |
| Days needed for this trip: | 280 |
| Biggest Nightmare (in fact only one): | Vagabond Inn - Don't stay there at all costs! |
| Average Speed: | ~130 Km/h / 81 mph |
| Top Speed: | ~ 180Km/h / ~112 mph |
| Number of Speeding Tickets: | Very close to 1 - let off with a warning |
| Hours of video footage taken: | 5 |
| Number of Casinos visited: | No fewer than 26 |
| Total Casino Winnings: | Nill - broke even |
| Would I recommend this trip? | Absolutely! |
| Monarch Butterflies killed along the way: | Too many to count |
| Windshield repairs: | one - irony - chipped by window repair van |
Thanks to "The Great Dick Anderson" for the MIDI Squence
Comments, ideas, questions and suggestions are always welcome at
jackstrashREMOVETHIS@hotmail.com.
For this address to work you must delete the "REMOVETHIS" from the address.