I left Brooks and headed toward Medicine Hat, discovering that Canada appears to be entirely unaware of a common site along northern highways in the States -- drift fences. Drift fences, for those who haven't had the pleasure of driving across the high plains in winter, are fences with horizontal wood slats that prevent snow from drifting onto the highway. But in Alberta, they apparently just let the snow go wherever it wants, even if it means no one can see. So I ended up in what was essentially a white-out. I did the only thing I really could do, which was to follow a semi, the theory being that if he hit something, he wouldn't stop right away and I'd have time to brake before becoming part of a pile-up. In other words, better him than me.
Once I got to Medicine Hat, the weather cleared and I made good time for the rest of the day, finally ending up in Winnipeg for the night. I've seen a remarkably small amount of wildlife on this trip, but I did see a snowy owl, which is a bird usually associated with the Arctic, but which winters in the northern US and about the southern two thirds of Canada. Apart from the owl and some bald eagles, all I saw was one, small herd of antelope and a couple of coyotes.
The next morning I left Winnipeg and crossed over into Ontario, where the speed limit immediately dropped to 90 KPH, the highway dropped to one lane, and quality of the roads became reminiscent of driving in Mexico. I suddenly found myself making lousy time, not only because the roads were bad, but because Ontario is a lot wider than the rest of the provinces I had already crossed, so what seemed like it should be a day's drive turned out to be about 24 hours of driving, which is only a day's drive if you don't sleep, which I barely did. By afternoon the first day, I had only made it to Thunder Bay, which is not as cool as its name. I pushed on and managed to get to within about 150 kilometers of Sault Ste. Marie, where I parked in a turnout and slept in the back of the truck from about 2:30 AM to around 7. I got up and kept pushing, making it to Toronto by around 5 PM.
Like the rest of the trip so far, there was very little wildlife to be seen from the road; I saw a couple of foxes, some eagles, and a lot of ravens. There are a lot of porcupine-killed birch trees along the roads, and I found trees gnawed down by beavers in a few spots, but never saw either animal. From all the signs you'd think there were millions of moose lined up along the highway competing for the opportunity to be mowed down, and yet I never saw a single one. I saw one deer -- the first deer I've seen the whole trip; driving across the States, even in the dead of winter, I'd have seen hundreds of antelope, at least 20 deer, and maybe some elk. I don't know why there seems to be more wildlife in the US; it doesn't seem like it should be that way, when I know the forest is full of wolves, grizzly bears, and other species we have far fewer of down south.
I managed to get my first Canadian speeding ticket from the nicest, most polite cop I've ever met.
I have a rescue in Syracuse, so I decided to drop down into New York tonight, which, from the time I arrived in Toronto, only took about three and a half hours. (Yes, I am implying that it took a really long time.) Instead of the snow I've been driving through all week, in Toronto it was raining -- hard. I could barely see the lines on the highway. It wasn't necessarily the weather or the traffic that kept me from making good time through Toronto, but rather, the fact that Toronto is huge. The map is misleading, because the Toronto area is so much more developed than the rest of the province that it looks like a detail map, but it isn't. It's just an enormous area with millions of people, and it takes forever to get across it.
But I did manage to make it through, and I figured if I was in Buffalo, I had better find the place where Buffalo wings were invented and eat my dinner there. I got directions from the Border Patrol officer, and drove only a few blocks to the Anchor Bar, birthplace of the Buffalo wing. I started with ten Suicidal wings, and cooled down with ten hot wings; a shot of crappy Tequila and a couple of 7-Ups completed the meal. It ended up costing almost $40 after the tip, which I suppose I'm willing to pay once, but at the risk of committing some kind of chicken wing blasphemy, I like Jim's Wings in Fort Collins, CO better. After that, Mr. Magic's in Jaco, Costa Rica is a close second, and he's definitely number one when it comes to variety, and the size of the wings. But if I hadn't found the Anchor Bar, I know I'd be kicking myself for years to come, and the wings were still really good. It was also nice to be in a real bar; I don't drink much, and I don't like drunk people, but there's something I like about a good bar -- it's a chance to be with a lot of people without being with a lot of people. It's one of the big things missing from Forks -- sure, we have bars, but they're logger bars, and I just can't get into it.
Tonight I'm staying in Buffalo, and after I pick up the dog in Syracuse, I'll decide if I want to go the rest of the way across Canada or abbreviate my route a little. To finish the entire Transcanadienne is about 1800 extra miles, and if Quebec is anything like Ontario, we're talking about two full days of driving. The question is, will I regret it if I don't do it now when I have the chance? Another option is to skip going back to Toronto and miss Niagara Falls, and just go from Syracuse, which will save me driving across the rest of Ontario, and cut the extra drive down to about 1500 miles. If nothing else, I'm definitely going to Maine, Vermont, and New Hampshire, even if it's just a quick loop across their lower corners, which is admittedly pretty weak. I guess I'll see how I feel tomorrow; yesterday I probably wouldn't have done it, but today I probably would have. Either way, here are the pictures I've taken out the window of the truck; I don't know what's going on with the layout, but until I figure it out, scroll down:
British Columbia: | |||
 I expected this town to have more Medieval costumes and hair metal. |  |  |  |
 |  |  A backhoe was scooping up pieces of this semi and putting them into a dumptruck. | |
Alberta: | |||
 |  Banff National Park |  |  |
 |  |  Calgary |  Calgary children's hospital |
 Dirty |  The white-out: this wasn't that bad; when it was really bad I couldn't take pictures. |  The truck I followed through it |  All clear |
 Giant teepee in Medicine Hat | |||
Saskatchewan: | |||
 |  You'll have to trust me. |  |  Different generations think of different things. |
 I remember wondering why anyone would live in a place like this, and being a little angry at the people who did. |  | ||
Manitoba: | |||
 |  |  Winnipeg |  Capitol building |
 Train station |  |  | |
Ontario: | |||
 |  |  |  |
 |  |  |  Around Lake Superior |
 |  Lake Superior, where I parked overnight |  |  |
 Toronto |  |  |  |
Buffalo Wings: | |||
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