Brubacher's Settle West Coast (Warren, Janice, Jason and Becky)
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December from our homestead in Nova Scotia for B.C.'s west coast.10th 1990 we set off.
Warren here, thought you'd like to get the details of our bus ride. She's a 1979 GMC Bluebird, full-size, 66 passenger, retired school bus. Of course we gutted out all the seats and built a wall behind the chesterfield, freezer and bunk which served as our living quarters up front. ( Thanks for all the help, brother Ward.)
We slept in the bus this night in our own yard as a test run before the big day. It was a good night for a trial as we had very cold temperatures down to minus 20 C., but our little ceramic, 2500watt, black box heater kept us overly warm. First thing Tuesday we gathered up the cats and Cody, our shepard and drove down to the neighbours ( Tim and Kaye ) for an early breakfast.
Some of the worst winter driving we had was from Lansdowne (our departure) to the Trans-Canada highway. Once over Mount Thom, we had dry pavement all the way to Ottawa. Edmunstun, New Brunswick the first night. It was a super cold night but again our electric heater kept us toasty. For $8.00 they let us park our bus in the motel yard for the night with the use of an outside receptacle.
Wednesday morning the bus started right up after that cold night and with no block heater. Thankyou Janice for your intuition about selecting this reliable, old bus. By 2:00 p.m. we motored through Montreal but missed our number 25 changeover. Instead, I stayed on #20, which took us through major spaghetti-junction where we had to make 2 highway changes to get back onto #40 to Ottawa. I thought we'd miss the rush hour traffic but it was thick and fast. The kids found out what I refer to as " star wars " driving. Somehow, we got pooped out the other side without any mishaps.
Let me tell you, Dad, there are advantages to winter travel, particularly around Christmas time. There is very little traffic, that is, if you don't get pulled into the big cities; very pretty scenery with the pure, sparkly snow; beautiful Christmas light displays to see and much greater chance to see lots of wildlife.
Wednesday evening late, we pulled off at a truck stop as we hit freezing rain just an hour or so from North Bay. (Mattawa) Next morning we had snow squalls to drive through and by 1:00 p.m. we victoriously pulled into Elliot Lake and into my aunt Mary and Oscars drive. They were so happy to see us and showed us so much hospitality. While Mary toured us about this retiree town, Oscar put on a huge batch of chile can carne. We had showers and a much needed rest. They wanted us to stay for a couple more days as the weather forecast was for heavy snow squalls and cold wave warnings. Friday morning it was extremely cold but clear so we said our goodbyes and were off early.
What an interesting drive this time of year along Lake Superior. Emerald green surf crashing along miles and miles of rocky shoreline. We had some hairy driving late this Friday evening in and around Wa Wa where we were lucky enough to find refuge from a snowstorm. The bus handled well in these parts where we had 8% grades to climb and descend. Much shifting and gearing down for the long grades. Unable to find parking in Terrace Bay we trudged on to Scheiller where it was much more sheltered anyway from the storm. Poor Janice was shaking for a spell after that part of the drive. I guess when you're busy concentrating on the wheel, you've no time to worry what could happen.
Once settled into our motel parking spot with cords plugged in for freezer and heater we put on supper and broke into our home-made chokecherry wine. I guess we felt like celebrating having slipped thru the worst stretch of North Ontario with Lake Superior's rugged coastline and blizzardy conditions. Wooo! Feel much better now, thankyou.
Saturday morn early we found the roads plowed and conditions fair. We passed through Nipigon next and by noon we were into Thunder Bay. We kept the kids occupied all the way by playing our old " beaver " game, you remember, just like when we were kids, moving once again and we would shout, " Beaver" !! Different color horses on a point system.
Well the kids soon tired of it after three provinces of horses so we changed the horses to different style school buses. This sparked new excitement enough for the kids well into Alberta. Satuday afternoon was a beautifull drive through Ontario's ' Lake of the Woods' region. Highway clear but very deep snow over shimmering white lakes. I was saddened to see a large forest fire had destroyed a good portion of this area. When we passed Kenora, now a complete bypass of this character town, we spotted half a dozen or more moose in a bog below the highway and the next thing ya know we were into the flatland of Manitoba. All right Janice, this is where you take the wheel.
Warren
Part 2- The Other half of
Canada ( brrrrrrrrrrr)
Part 2
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