MacsTravel Blog

We took almost three weeks to wind our way out to British Columbia.

We took four days to come home.

Initially we had thought we might explore a few of the northern states, perhaps linger in Chicago for a few days. However we had been travelling for 7 weeks, and that length of time, combined with the turning of the season from summer towards fall, reset our sights on heading home.

We decided that 8-9 hours a day was enough driving time, and plotted out our route, dipping absurdly low towards the U.S. border in Estevan, Saskatchewan and Fort Frances, Ontario due to hotel availability, but by and large sticking with the Trans Canada Highway.

Over 4 days, we crossed 5 provinces, 3 time zones, the continental divide, the 100th meridian, the longitudinal center of the country, the boundary between the Hudson and Atlantic watershed, and dozens and dozens of Indigenous and Métis communities and traditional territories. The scope and scale of this country often brought us to silence as we drove.

We fit in a brief, rainy visit to Yoho National Park and Emerald Lake, but focused on the drive for the most part.

BC and Western Alberta were stunning

and the prairies starkly beautiful.

The north shore of Superior is an absolute jewel, one of the top five drives on this trip (the others, in no particular order, include the Icefields Parkway, Rogers Pass, Whistler to Kelowna along BC99, and Nanaimo to Tofino).

Manitoba has to work a little harder apparently.

As we learned on our drive, many communities put up giant statues or structures to mark something significant about their region. Most communities that do this seem to keep things in perspective.

Not in Manitoba.

The town of Melita Manitoba put up this statue to mark the (relatively) temperate microclimate for this area.

The statue artist took a page from the Camel in Glenboro Manitoba and went “big picture” with “Sunny” the banana, although adding the wrestling belt and tiny blue jay companion in one of the banana’s hands (and, for that matter, hands, arms and a rather frightening face) seem like the work of a consensus decision making model at the committee level rather than the vision of one disturbed individual.

Fact check: there are no camels or banana groves in Manitoba.

We hope you enjoyed reading about our Summer 23 adventures. We had a blast, and loved all of the feedback on our pictures and posts. Thanks for the support!

R&R