Hot Springs

Our final stop on the roadtrip was a visit to Lussier Hot Springs. They are outdoors, hot, and FREE. A nice ending to a long drive.

Ontario Tourism

We made sure we visited the most important Ontario tourist traps: Niagara Falls and the CN Tower.I was at the falls 10 years ago and I'm happy to report that they are still falling. Very beautiful. Reg and I paid the $11 to go in the tunnels behind the falls. For future reference, save your money. This is what you will see--not worth it. They give you a plastic poncho before you go down. I think the poncho cost $10 and the view from the tunnel was a dollar.
The CN Tower was nice I guess. We were up there during a storm and at night so visibility was not great. I walked on the glass floor. Man that's a weird feeling.

The Hello Deli

This was about as close to fame as we got. The Hello Deli is a tiny Deli in the same building as the Ed Sullivan Theater -- Home of the The Late Show with David Letterman. And Rupert from the Hello Deli often appears on the show. Anyway, Rupert was working the till the day we were there so we ate the Hello Deli and were served by Rupert. I thought that was cool. Reg didn't know who he was, but now he's going to watch Letterman more.

NYC Part 4 - The Sights

Times Square - Wow, that place is insane. And the PEOPLE. If you have ever seen on TV or in the movies the hoards of people on the sidewalks and thought "is it really that crowded?" For Times Square the answer is YES, even late at night. It is home to so many things including: Hard Rock Cafe and The flashiest McDonalds I've ever seen. Also...
My Dad caught me on the Earthcam - Check it out at http://www.earthcam.com/usa/newyork/timessquare
ABC Studios
Lots of street performers - These guys were really good.
and Naked Cowboy
Brooklyn Bridge - As seen from the Staten Island Ferry.
Central Park - SO BIG. The picture above is taken from the top of a castle in the park. Behind me is The Great Lawn, which holds 6 baseball diamonds. It is a blip in the map of central park.
Carnegie Hall - "Saw" it, but couldn't go in.
The Plaza - Reg tells me it appears in "Home Alone".
Inside CNN/Time Warner Building - Time Warner building is enormous and impressive. The tour was actually more lame than I expected it would be.
Radio City - We were there the day they were doing the MTV Video Music Awards, so there were a bunch of celebrities showing up. I think they were famous, I mean a whole crowd of screaming black girls can't be wrong.
Rockefeller Center - Just a bunch of buildings. Whatever.
Macy's - The largest department store in the world. It is a full New York City block, and 9 floors! Also the location for the film "Miracle on 34th Street".
The New York Public Library - Crazy! So elaborate I didn't see a single book until I got to the 3rd floor! It was more like a museum than a library. But it is a public library so at least it was free.
The Statue of Liberty/Staten Island Ferry - Also free (amazingly). It travels right past the Statue of Liberty. That's as close as I got (Reg visited Lady Liberty personally).
Ground Zero - That's a huge area right in the heart of the business district. It's amazing some of the surrounding buildings are still there. One skyscraper that was right beside the World Trade Center property was damaged and so they are currently deconstructing it, floor by floor.
The New York Stock Exchange - Lots of suits running around the outside of that place. Security is so tight around there that since 9/11 they have blocked off all the roads in that area.
The Cathedrals - My goodness it's like stepping into Europe. There are several big cathedrals downtown.
Madison Square Garden - We saw it, it's still there.
The United Nations Headquarters - That's a big place. I guess there's lots to do in order to keep so many countries united.
Empire State Building - Expensive but a good view of New York (for the record, the 86th floor is the main observation deck, and is really good. Don't bother paying the extra 14 bucks to go to the 102nd floor, it's not worth it)
Grand Central Terminal - Saw it. I can say I was there. That's about it.
New York Subways - Convenient, fast, frequent and functional. But wow, those terminals are hot.
Steaming Manholes - Apparently the city has central heating so many downtown buildings are heated by steam, carried through pipes underground. Some pipes have leaks, and thus the steaming manholes.

Whew, those were the main things. It was definitely an experience I will never forget. I highly recommend it.

NYC Part 3 - Getting Around

Being in New York, there is a level of fitness expected of you. The transit system is very good, but if something is less than 10 blocks, they will think you're weird to try to take transit. "It's not that far, it's only 10 blocks!" the city worker said to me (except we'd been walking for the last 2 hours). Lower Manhattan (everything South of Central Park) is considered the "downtown core" of New York City. That's where all the famous landmarks, buildings and businesses reside. But you could fit probably about 5 downtown Vancouvers into Lower Manhattan. It's Really Big. Thankfully the subway system is very extensive, fast and frequent. The wait is less than 5 minutes for a train.
Or you can take a taxi. I always wondered how people on TV would just raise their arm and get a taxi. Now I understand.

NYC Part 2 - The New York Attitude

New Yorkers have quite an attitude. It's kind of hard to explain. You can ask anyone directions for something and they'll give you an answer, it's just the way they do it that takes some getting used to. They like to keep things moving. They don't revel in conversational formalities. It seems like they want the conversation to be as short as possible, so they can get back to doing whatever it is they're doing. Everyone is on the move, always walking, listening to their iPods and talking on their wireless cell phones. Nobody waits for the walk sign, if there are no cars coming, they walk. If a car is coming and people are walking across, they just lay on the horn and speed on through.

NYC Part 1 - Driving

My first experience in New York City was navigating the highways to the JFK Airport (which is where we had decided to store our car). That was quite an experience, not for the faint of heart. Stopped in Bronxville (almost in the Bronx!) and got directions from some guy who was hanging around the gas station. He gives me 3 different sets of directions to get to Kennedy Airport. Well there's like 5 different highways you can take. Very confusing, so I went with the last set of directions which was the simplest. New Yorkers seem to be nice enough to give you directions, but whether they make sense is another story.
I've always heard about "The Projects" where the really poor people live. They are sort of a landmark of The Bronx, and I got to see them (I skipped visiting them).

New York State

New York state was very different from what I expected. Most of the state looks like BC! Trees and forest abound. Lots of small towns, lots of room. So different from New York City!

Another interesting note is that New York has several Tim Hortons. Our Canadian Coffeeshop is slipping into the States! Aaaaaaaah! What a world, what a world...

Ottawa & Montreal

Next stop was Ottawa Ontario. We had just enough time to tour the parlement buildings. Took the official tour and they even let you go up into the bell tower.
We found another use for Duck Tape: Holding the parlement buildings together! Several spots on the front of the building were patched with the handyman's secret weapon.
We have no pictures of Montreal, Quebec, we just drove through, so I've "been" to Montreal. I have experienced Montreal enough to know that it is a VERY big and the highways are insane.

Red Rock & Ontario

After Winnipeg we made a stop over to see Steve G. at Red Rock Bible Camp. That was fun. We hung out, relaxed and mountain biked. After that, it was into Ontario.

The road from Winnipeg to Ottawa is long and boring. The rolling hills are just high enough that you can never quite see over the trees. After a day of driving your reward is Thunder Bay, Ontario. Another day of driving and your reward is Sault Ste. Marie. Hoorah. (Well it's not all bad. I've discovered there are a lot of cute and friendly girls that work at fast food restaurants--I'm talking to you Sault Ste. Marie Arby's and Irving NY Tim Hortons ;-)

I've learned a couple of things about flying-by-the-seat-of-your-pants camping:
1. There are a lot of people that have houses at the end of gravel roads off desolate highways in the middle of nowhere.
2. Finding a good spot to camp is really hard to do at 2am when you can't drive or think anymore.
3. If you pull into a camp site late at night (or even early in the morning), and are honest about it, it will cost you about $25. A couple times I just wanted to leave because we didn't even use their facilities. But we registered the next morning because it is the right thing to do.

Fortunately we found some unused side roads and were able to have a peaceful sleep for free. That was nice.

Car-bed

I have built a bed into my Toyota Echo. It may sound crazy, but it has 6'4" of length! This was more of a challenge than a necessity. We have a tent, but if it's raining, it is so much nicer to be "indoors" than out in a wet tent. Incidentally, it was 10 summers ago that I went across Canada with Myron, and we slept in the back of his Honda Civic Stationwagon (yes, there was such a car). So this is kinda cool that 10 years later I am doing the same kind of thing.

Moving

We helped Myron & Cyndi move from Sundre AB back to Winnipeg MB. The girls flew and the guys drove. Reg, Myron and I each had a vehicle to drive. Just before we left, we heard a little bit of scratching in the back of the moving truck. When we opened up the back, two kittens popped out! They just about relocated to Winnipeg.

We bought Walkie Talkies so we could communicate without having to always pull over. (Technical note: we purchased Cobra brand FRS/GMRS 2-way handheld radios. They advertised as having a 16km range--ya right! We were lucky if we got 1/2 km! Granted it said 16km under ideal conditions such as good weather and unobstructed line of sight, but that's what we had! We were in the prairies in sunny weather for crying out loud. Anyway, for any future walkie talkie buyers, you have been warned.)

The great thing about the prairies is that when you get tired, you can just find a quiet gravel road and sleep. So that's what we did. I've always wanted to camp in the median on a divided highway (you know the ones between Surrey and Hope). Well I guess my dream kinda came true because we pitched our tent in the middle of a divided highway. I say "kinda" because it hardly felt like it. There was a whole mile between the two directions of traffic. It was a nice quiet camping spot, free and alone, just the way I like it.

It took us two days of driving to get us from Sundre to Winnipeg. We had to go the speed limit. Not because we couldn't afford a ticket, but because if Myron went over 100, the moving truck would start to shake. And Myron & Cyndi's van gets the shakes around 110. My car (or my foot) is built such that it always wants to go 120km/h on the highway, so it was a constant fight to keep the speed down. On the plus side, we got no tickets.

After arriving in Winnipeg, Reg and I became "two small guys with big hearts" as we moved all their stuff into storage lockers. On our way back we may end up moving all that stuff once more if they find a house.