As I write this I am sitting on a BC Ferry from Vancouver to Nanaimo before continuing on to Victoria tomorrow to complete my Colossal Cross-Canada Road Trip!!
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Eighth leg: Regina, SK to Cochrane, AB (Calgary)
Mileage: 500 km
Time: 8 hours
Pee breaks: four
Gas stops: one
Comfort Level: Actually my back felt pretty good! The stabbing bum pain comes and goes…but mostly doesn’t hurt while I am sitting. Yay!
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Day Ten saw me head out from my Regina hotel in search of a good coffee. Because the hotel had a restaurant there was no free continental…boooo! I didn’t want to pay $10 for a full meal so I Googled to find the closest Starbucks. :) Oddly Regina only has the small Starbucks that are located in Chapters or Safeway. Conveniently though, there was a Safeway just up the road on the way back to the highway.
Don’t worry I supplemented that sugary carb-bomb with fruit :)
Soon I was back on the road…
My drive took me through Swift Current where I saw the washed out piece of highway. I had been so worried that there would be a major detour because of the sink hole…but as it turns out it was really nothing to be concerned about. It will definitely be a major job for highway crews, but it only affects the two Westbound lanes so they just had us sharing the Eastbound lanes instead. No biggie!
Swift Current was also home to one of the friendliest Tim Horton’s ever. :) I sipped on an Iced Coffee while I drove…
And munched on an Egg Salad Sandwich a while later.
FYI: those new buns are really good (apparently I’ve become a Timmy’s spokesperson…noooooooo!)
Soon I was crossing the Alberta border!!
I ran into a bit more rain. In fact, I actually saw a really amazing fork of lightening way down the road in the distance. Freaky but sooo cool!
World’s Largest TeePee in Medicine Hat…
I also went over the bridge that was destroyed by the flooding a few weeks ago. Yet another one of those things that had me worried about detours, but they just had us drive over the other side of the bridge! :)
I ended up blasting right through Calgary as I was running a bit late (sorry to everyone that had wanted to get together!!! I’m a lot closer now so we’ll arrange a long weekend or something!!) and headed straight out to Cochrane. I was pretty excited to get my first views of the Rocky Mountains!
Once in Cochrane I made my way to an old school friend’s house. Carol and I attended school together all the way from Grade 3 thru graduation…but we hadn’t seen each other since about 1994. She saw me talking about my trip on Facebook and offered me a place to stay and I thought that was a lovely offer and a great idea.
We munched take-out sushi and enjoyed a few beers while chatting the night away.
I so wish I’d had more time. We had so much to catch up on and had fun with her little boy giggling and just talking about whatever we thought of. Calgary, I guess I have to come back!
6 comments:
Absolutely, you need to come back! Of course, I haven't been to Victoria since 1999...
=)
And, just like that, a new chapter begins! Hope you're having a great visit with your Mom.
Wow, that ten days went by fast! Isn't it amazing to think you can drive for 10 days in the same country. Looks like you had a charmed trip. And now, the new adventure begins!
I'm very happy everything went so smoothly for you and Mr. Stoopy.
Come back anytime!
Mr. Cat is noticeably missing from this post.
Did you hide him?
I miss his drunken face.
yes! where is stoopy! I hope you shared your food with him!
Mmmm, sushi!
I hope you come back, mostly because I don't think I was in town the day you came through (I was gone for the 7, 8, and most of the 9th), and I was afraid I'd miss you anyway! But if you come back for us Calgary bloggers, that would be cool. :o)
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