Westward

By Ben Robicheau ~ brobicheau@cogeco.ca

For the past forty years, my summer vacations have consisted mainly of driving east from Ontario to visit friends and family in Nova Scotia, or driving west from Nova Scotia to visit friends and family in Ontario. This summer we made a big change in our routine and headed west to visit friends and family in British Columbia. We came to this conclusion mainly because our son Michael had moved to Fernie, B.C. a year ago and we decided that was long enough without seeing him. Also, there was the fact that I had never really been west of Ontario and this was a good excuse to see that part of Canada.

We set out on Monday morning. Mike was performing at the Fernie Festival on the week-end so we had to be there by Friday. Since the shortest route was straight west through the States, we headed to Sarnia and crossed the border into Michigan where we planned to go down through Indiana, around Lake Michigan, up through Illinois into Wisconsin, then west on a northern slant across Minnesota, North Dakota and Montana to re-enter Canada south of Lethbridge, Alberta, then west through the Rocky Mountains via the Crowsnest Pass to Fernie. Before leaving, we thoroughly researched this route, printing off information on roadside attractions, points of interest and places to spend the night. As it turned out, we ended up throwing all our research out the window and taking a totally different route.

As soon as we crossed the border, it seemed that everyone we talked to, said “oh, you must be going to Mount Rushmore”. Taking out the map, we discovered that to get to Mount Rushmore we would have to take a longer, more southerly route. We were hemming and hawing about changing our plans when we noticed that this would also take us through the Badlands, The Black Hills of Dakota and the Little Bighorn where Custer’s last stand took place. The intersection for I-90 was coming up, we made a quick decision and headed out to experience a little bit of the old west.

The first place where I felt like I was getting into new territory was when we crossed the Mississippi River in Minnesota. As a young boy, I had read both the Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn books several times and the river seemed like a mysterious and romantic place to me. I hadn’t realized that it came this far north and it was a pleasant surprise to find myself on the banks of the Mississippi.

Minnesota held even more surprises for us, we found yet another famous American symbol a little father down the road. Austin, Minn. is the home of the canned meat product, Spam. The factory is a main feature of the town and right next door is the Spam Museum, detailing the exciting history of Spam. The Midwest featured a variety of attractions, we came across a sixty-foot Jolly Green Giant, a building decorated in corn husks and a sculpture park featuring the world’s largest steer head and a giant hammer, just to name a few. In Wall, South Dakota we stopped at the Wall Drug store which is famous for being advertised all over the world. Randi has a picture of herself from 1975 standing outside the Amsterdam train station beside a signpost indicating 6,329 miles to Wall Drug, she was excited to finally have a chance to visit the store.

After driving for hours upon hours through flat, nearly barren landscape across Minnesota and into South Dakota, we suddenly came upon The Badlands. The dramatic appearance of this miles-wide ravine in the middle of a level plain made me wonder what the early settlers must have felt when they came upon this seemingly impassable barrier of broken and jagged rock, it must have been an extremely discouraging sight.

We made it to Mount Rushmore just before dark. The pavilion and entrance was quite elaborate and did a good job of explaining the work that went into creating the carvings. The monument itself, carved into the side of a mountain, was most impressive. We stayed for the after-dark lighting ceremony and then headed north to spend the night in Sturgis, a quiet little town that for one week a year hosts the world’s largest motorcycle rally and has become a sort of Mecca for bikers from around the world.

The next morning we headed up through the Black Hills to Deadwood, the town where Wild Bill Hickok was shot and killed. We visited the original “Boot Hill” where he and Calamity Jane are buried. From here we headed to Buffalo, Wyoming and a visit to the Occidental Hotel. The Occidental hasn’t changed much since 1880 and is still a functioning hotel. Guests can stay in the same rooms that Butch Cassidy, The Sundance Kid, Buffalo Bill Cody or Ernest Hemingway stayed in.

From here we crossed into the High Plains area of Montana and made our way to the site of Custer’s Last Stand. The area is a National Park and a Ranger did a very good job of explaining the events that led up to the battle and caused it to turn out the way it did. Walking over the fields and ridges with white markers showing where the 263 men fell, I felt a very close connection with the history that I had only read about or seen in movies.

By now time was getting short and we had to make a run for the Alberta border. Crossing back into Canada, we headed west towards the Crowsnest Pass. Making our way through the Rocky Mountains, we suddenly found ourselves surrounded by rubble and broken rock. Frank, Alberta was founded as a mining town at the foot of Turtle Mountain. In 1903 ninety millions tons of rock slid down the face of the mountain and in less than two minutes, buried half the town, the train tracks and the mine entrance killing nearly a hundred people. Moving at up to 120 Kms per hour, the landslide swept two Kms across the valley and up the other side. A hundred years later the evidence is still obvious in the huge scar on the mountain’s face and the cascade of rubble with boulders as big as a house that still fills the valley.

We made it to Fernie in time to see Mike do his solo acoustic guitar set on Saturday afternoon and then again playing bass with the group “Shred Kelly”. Fernie is a ski town on the B.C. side of the Rockies, surrounded by mountains and filled with young people from all over the country and the world. Over the next few days we travelled to Nelson, B.C. and then to Banff and up to Jasper, where we said good-bye to an amazing and beautiful part of the world and headed east.

Coming out of the mountains, we made our way to Edmonton and back onto the wide open spaces of the prairies. Just south of Regina, Sask. we made a stop in the tiny town of Rouleau, better known as Dog River. We visited Corner Gas and all the familiar locations from the TV show. The views across Saskatchewan and Manitoba just went on for ever and ever, it really is the kind of country where you can watch your dog run away for three days!

The trip through Ontario north of The Great Lakes was spectacular with the leaves just beginning to change. After stopping to see the Big Goose in Wawa and the Big Nickel in Sudbury, we were relieved to finally make it back to Hamilton and get out of the car.

The other side of Canada is a long way from Nova Scotia, but even in the Rocky Mountains, the East Coast kept nudging me. In Nelson, B.C. I was coming out of a store when a lady going in called me by name. It was our neighbour from when we lived in Kentville, she happened to be visiting Calgary and was on a day trip to Nelson.

In Banff I had arranged to visit my friend Heather who I had worked with at Fortress Louisburg thirty years ago. Later we were sight-seeing in town when I stopped to read a sign on a historical house. A man came up and told us we could come in and see the garden and he’d tell us about the house. Somehow Randi mentioned that I was from Brier Island and the man replied that he was from Digby County! He turned out to be Lance Woolaver from Digby who I hadn’t seen for over forty years.

Just outside of Thunder Bay we were stopped at a park when a woman walking across the parking lot said, “Are you from Nova Scotia?” This time it was Trudi, who had worked for me ten years earlier at the Paramount Theatre in Kentville.

Anyone heading east or west across Canada has to go through the little town of Nipigon at the top of Lake Superior, this is where Jan and Vern Maynard live. Jan had been following our trip on Facebook and when she realized we were heading in her direction, kindly offered a bed for the night. So it turned out that I ended my cross country trip with a pleasant evening spent reminiscing and catching up on Brier Island news.

You may think you are far from home, but no matter where you are, don’t be surprised if someone comes up and taps you on the shoulder. East Coasters are everywhere.