Moncton Forum

So we were talking about this yesterday and now I can't stop thinking about it. We're looking to drive all the way to BC and maybe fly back, we figured a month might be enough time to get there and not miss out on too much of the scenery. There's a lot of details to figure out, but we're aiming at doing this in May/June of next year.

Has anyone here done this before? Any tips, advice, anecdotes?

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www.myspace.com/morsecodealphabet
www.myspace.com/theumph

Is this a band tour or just a pleasure trip? If it's a band tour you can write a lot of expenses off and still have a great time.

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Remember yesterday, respect tomorrow, live for today.

A cross Canada band tour would be pretty awesome but we're not there yet. This is just for the fun of it. The experience, the scenery. I've always wanted to do this.

But since you brought it up, we are working on setting up a little maritime tour with the band this spring. This should be a lot of fun too.

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www.myspace.com/morsecodealphabet
www.myspace.com/theumph

I did it once, crossing off one of the things on to-do list  before I get dead.  My goal was to drive a lot of the back roads, never go in a mall, go in as many local hardware stores along the way, meet the locals and spend time in the small towns.  It took a month driving out and back.  I carried a lobster trap to give to my son who was living in Alberta at the time.  I could have sold it a dozen times for a good price.  People just came up to me when they saw New Brunswick licence plates and a lobster trap telling me their stories re/moving out west and being homesick for the Maritimes.  In one small town a girl actually hugged me and cried, she was so homesick.  It was the best trip I ever had.  It cost me in total about $2,000 for everything.  I kept track of every dime spent, even if it was for a chocolate bar.  I also kept a diary but that's long gone now.  I also drove up the Alaska highway as far as.....oh sugar, I forget the name.....St. something, I think.  I was looking for a a couple of Ididarod mushers whom I had read about in a magazine.  I, too was a musher at the time and my dream was to meet some of the race people......ramble....ramble.......I ran in one race here in NB....came next to last.  Ya don't get dickall for being last in a mushing race.  If you're last ya get the red latern award.  I got zilch, haha!

I would love to drive across Canada again.  The neat thing, too, was meeting people who were doing the same thing.  We would sometimes meet up three or four days later at the same rest stops......or......by a pretty lake.  I could have stayed away longer on that trip, but one evening, sitting, looking at the mountains in Bamff, I got the call of the Miramichi river and the St. John River Valley.....no prettier places on earth, in my opinion.  Anywayz, I figured if I could get back home in time, I might be able to catch the tail end of the July Salmon run.  I did and caught a nice grilse about a day later after getting home.  It sure was good to be home.

With a small bit of imagination I can look at PEI and pretend it's a Mini Canada. If so then I've crossed Canada a few times. I mean look at PEI.......That place must have one of the highest name stealing rates in the world. Anywhere you want to go in Canada I'm sure you can find a place with the same name in PEI.

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Remember yesterday, respect tomorrow, live for today.

". . . we figured a month might be enough time to get there and not miss out on too much of the scenery."

Back in the day, a buddy of mine and I and my Buick Wildcat decided to do the east west thing. A bucket of Atlantic water on the trunk and then a bucket of Pacific on the hood, just to say we did it. We were both working for the National Air Photo Library in Ottawa, so maps were plentiful. We planned for a month and then in July we packed a tent, the Coleman stove, guitars and a conga drum ('cause I couldn't fit my whole kit in the car) into the trunk and headed for the nearest music store. We each purchased about 50 cassettes, bought enough cases to hold them and headed for Nfld. via the north shore of the St. Lawrence. Yes we knew the road pretty much petered out at Bay Comeau, but we had to see the Saugenay. We back-tracked from Comeau to the ferry crossing that would take us to PEI., and then the south shore to the Gaspesie where we caught another ferry in New Glasgow to Nfld. All in all we figured two to three weeks for the eastern drive and two to three weeks from Nfld. to the Queen Charlotte Islands BC. Well we screwed up royally when we ended up spending three weeks in Nfld. covering the entire island and visiting St. Pierre Miquelon Islands. From there it was back to the mainland and the south shore and the Trans Canada Hwy. to the Charlottes. Blew a water pump in Thunder Bay and had to wait a day and a half at the Lincoln Motel, beside the garage for the pump to be sent by bus from the closest Cdn Tire store. Anyhoo, from the Charlottes back to Vancouver and Vancouver Island then back to Vancouver (where I scored a job at the Taxation Dept. on Georgia St. W. to replenish my account) took two and a half months of travelling. Granted, we didn't have a time limit, but if you are going for scenery, you can pretty much be guaranteed that you will find a place (in this most beautiful country in the world) that will knock your iternery for a loop. Good luck and good weather.

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Nothing in life is so exhilerating as to be shot at without result. Winston Churchill