Road Trip to P.E.I.

 

July 26, 2024 (by Loretta)

We had just spent a number of days at our kids’ place, just outside of Edmonton, Alberta. Our son and his wife had gone on vacation in Prince Edward Island, and we were staying at their place to keep the grandkids and cats company. Normally, we could be found in our lovely apartment in Westman Village in S.E. Calgary.

It was July 21, and we were on our way back to Calgary. We had said our good-byes to the grandkids and cats with the promise to see them soon. “Soon” we would be unable to keep that promise.

July 21 was a very smoky day. The forest fires in B.C. and Alberta were creating a lot of smoke. One fire in Alberta was so bad that a portion of the iconic Jasper National Park was destroyed by fire, along with about one-third of the town of Jasper. The previous summer of 2023 had also been very smoky in Alberta, and was the worst year on record for smoke and wildfires. Many days had air quality rated “very high risk level”. We were both alarmed by the smoke and fires, and neither of us held much hope for the future of Alberta’s forests.

On the drive home to Calgary, I looked around at the smoky skies and, not for the first time since moving back from Thailand, became very depressed. I knew what we had to do: move again.

So I put the question to Darrel: “Would you ever consider moving back to PEI?”

I could imagine what was running through Darrel’s mind while he considered my question:

-           We had just been admiring all the photos that our son and his wife had been sending us while on vacation in PEI. The island looked, as we remembered, beautiful and inviting. The air was clear.

-           We had lived in PEI for almost eight years, back in 1986 – 1994. We had fond memories of the place and people, and had considered moving back to PEI directly from Thailand, but decided we would move to Alberta to be closer to family.

-          While we were both impressed by the Rockies, both of us love the sea even more.

When Darrel answered my question, all I heard was “Yes”. He still claims to this day that there had been a “but” along with the yes, but I chose to ignore it. He reminded me later that it might be difficult to find a nice apartment in PEI, and that we had signed a 3-year lease for our current apartment.

Neither of his concerns proved to be a problem. Darrel found us a 2-bedroom 2-bathroom apartment in Charlottetown very similar to the one in Westman Village, top floor, with underground heated parking. Then, we were able to break our lease because the property manager had someone who wanted to move into our unit the next month.

The next month! We would have to be out of our apartment on August 31. A wee problem: our apartment in Charlottetown was not available until October 1. We would be homeless for the month of September. Let’s reword that: we would be vagabonds for a month. Time for adventure.

We very quickly arranged for movers, disposed of excess belongings, cancelled utilities, and planned a road trip to PEI. What better way to spend part of our vagabond month than travelling by car from Calgary to Charlottetown.

Following is a brief summary of our trip, along with photos, based on an email sent from Darrel to family members after we safely arrived in PEI on September 9^th.

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“Well we have reached our destination and I thought you may be interested in some of my observations during the past nine days.

BUGS

By the way, I am not referring to the four wheeled ones, I am referring to the ones that, when they hit your car, they leave a streak of yellow and red gook. When driving in Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba, after a few hours the front of the car, mirrors and windscreen are covered with the remains of a trillion of bugs ranging from small mosquitoes to four-inch-long dragonflies and grasshoppers. Their remains remained on the car even after driving through three days of rain. I got gas twice on many days so took advantage of scrubbing the windshield with the squeegee thing. But the reason I am mentioning bugs is because after leaving the prairies, we never got hit by any other bugs.

Through a clean screen.

MISHAPS

I have always respected semi-truck-drivers and considered them as the professionals on the highways. During this trip, we came across five accidents. The first was a semi towing two trailers full of grain. He hit the ditch and the entire rig flipped on its side dumping the full load. The second was a semi who had driven off the highway into a swamp. The third was a semi who had driven into the rear-end of another semi who had slowed down at a construction zone. The fourth was a semi who had burnt up completely on the side of the highway.  And the fifth was a semi who had hit the ditch and flipped on its side. I am not sure of the reason, but driving fatigue is what I suspect.  There are numerous signs warning drivers of this along the way. I now have even more respect for semi-truck-drivers after getting a closer look at the challenges they face on the roads.

MILEAGE 

During our time in Alberta, I noticed the mileage of our car seemed to always hover around 5.7 l/100 kms. I know this was a mix of city and highway miles, but even when driving to Saskatoon at 100 kmph it seemed to stay at 5.7. When we were driving the North-Ontario route from Hearst to North Bay at 95 kmph it dropped to 5.0 for most of the day and 4.9 for an hour or two. I know the speed was less but it was up and down hills for most of the day, so I can offer no explanation.

I planned all of our fuel stops at ESSO stations since we have an Optimum Card. I had estimated that we would use about $400 in fuel so I was curious as to how many points we would accumulate during the trip. Well in the end we had accumulated about 2400 points which equates to about two and a half dollars. In summary, you should not expect to save money by being loyal.

No surprise - prices varied considerably.

NORTHERN ROUTE

When I planned this trip, I had to choose either the Northern route in Ontario or the more scenic route which follows the shore of Lake Superior. I opted for the north route to avoid the numerous hills, winding highways and semis. I had taken this latter route when we travelled to Kenora in 1984 to meet up with family. I remember riding on the tail of a semi waiting for the opportunity to pass which was not that often due to the hills and winding highway. Just after I was finally able to pass one semi, Dylan politely said "I have to pee, Dad". 

The northern route is more remote but flatter and straighter. It travels up through Dryden (Louis told Loretta during our visit "I’ve always wanted to go to Dryden" but I think he was pulling her leg). Anyways, all this to say that when I plotted this route it seemed that we were travelling quite a bit north. I had Loretta Google how close we were to James Bay which is at the south end of Hudson's Bay. It was only three hundred and some kms away. But when I looked at it on Google maps, the highest part of the route was around the 49th parallel which is the USA and Canadian border at the prairies.

We saw a lot of trees on the trip. 

Some days were very grey.

Sunrise and sunset was usually viewed from a hotel window.

DISTANCE AND TIME

The total distance from Calgary to Charlottetown was 5066 km with a driving time of 56 Hours 26 Minutes. Our average speed overall was 90 kmph and mileage was 5.7 l/100 km.

STAYS

Our best stay was at Marleen and Larry's and our worst stay was at the Travelodge in North Bay (dark and dingey). The best price was at Marleen and Larry's (free), and the worst price was at Microtel in Dryden ($310). All hotels included free breakfast but the advantage was convenience, not quality.

We had a family reunion at Marleen and Larry's.

This hotel room was dark and dingey.

DAILY DISTANCE

When I first planned the trip, I was going to do it in seven days with an average 8-hour drive per day. I later changed it to nine days with an average 6-hour day. I am glad I changed this especially considering three of those days were in rain which is much more exhausting.  I schedule our lunch stop about four hours after departing the hotel at 8:00am which only left two hours driving after lunch. This meant we were usually at our destination by 3:00 pm (4:00 pm when we went through a time change). We spent 1 day driving through Alberta, 1 day through Saskatchewan, 1 day through Manitoba, 5 days through Ontario, and 1 day through New Brunswick.  My gawd Ontario is big!

ANIMALS

While driving through Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec and New Brunswick we saw about 100 warning signs about Moose on the highway. It was interesting seeing the different images used in the different provinces. They varied from a small moose prancing along to a huge, very formidable looking moose in Quebec. We can attest, based on Candy and Scott's accident, that even the smaller image used in Saskatchewan is not something you want to hit. We purposely avoided driving early morning and evening. But what is incredible is that, other than 4 pronghorns that we saw in Saskatchewan,  we did not see any living four legged animals after driving five or six days through forests.

HIGHWAY CONDITIONS/SPEED

The entire TransCanada highway is twinned from Calgary to PEI except for four of the five days of driving through Ontario and the last bit in New Brunswick leading to the PEI Bridge. The speed (posted that is) on the twinned portion is 110 in Alberta, Saskatchewan, Ontario and New Brunswick. 

The only toll was in Montreal,
but it was free when we went through.

MOTORCYCLES 

We had two groups of six motorcyclists stay at the same hotel as us in Ontario during the cold wet weather. We had a great discussion with them over breakfast. They thought we were living a very adventurous life but I thought they were braver than us given the trip they were on and the awful weather. They explained they were wearing gear that plugged into the bike and was heated. I told them I prefer having a heated seat and steering wheel while being encapsulated by steel and glass.

GOOGLE MAPS

Every night I would plan a Google map route showing all our stops, i.e. gas, lunch and final destination for the next day. The next morning when we got in the car we would open the route on the phone and it automatically loaded onto the car navigation system. No plugging in necessary and, once it loaded, we could shut down the phone. Very slick and helpful.

OUR ONLY MISHAP

One rainy day when I stopped to get gas, a car pulled up behind me before I got out of the car. I took the garbage from the car and emptied it into one of the bins. Then I went to the pump and performed all the necessary steps in the right order but after lifting the nozzle and pushing the fuel grade button, I could not open the fuel lid on the car. I have never had this problem so was not sure what to do. So, I first tried to pry open the lid, and when that didn't work I started to lightly bang on the lid and then increasing the force of the bangs. Thankfully, before I damaged the lid, the guy in the car behind me opened his door and told me I had to unlock the doors. Crap, I had walked far enough away from the car to dispose of the garbage and unknowingly the car went into protection mode. As I was filling the tank I recalled reading about the locking gas lid feature a year and a half ago but had forgotten. Hopefully I will remember this for next time.

MEALS AND SNACKS

Breakfasts were included at all our stays and, for lunch, we always ate in a fast-food restaurant that had a washroom.  Before heading to the hotel, we always went to a grocery store and bought a pre-made salad with a dressing included, assorted nuts, some cheese and crackers, and a container of mixed fruit. This evening snack made up for all the fast food we ate at lunch, or at least we hoped. 

At the end of the day's drive,
we'd go for a walk to check out the neighbourhood.

A sampling of Canadian countryside.

OIL CHANGE

Just before we left Calgary, my maintenance screen changed remaining oil life from 60% to 50%. Given that we would be driving 5000 km I assumed we would need an oil change along the way. Every day I checked this screen and it never changed. I guess highway miles are a lot easier on the engine than city miles.

CRAZIEST DRIVERS

Because we were not in a hurry, and for fuel efficiency, I always traveled at just 5 km over the speed limit. However, during the stretch of winding single-lane highway into North Bay, I seemed to be the obstacle on the road with a line of cars and semis lining up behind me. So, I speeded up to 10 km over the limit and that didn't seem to help. Drivers were passing me even when there were double solid lines and where there were hills and curves obstructing safe passing areas. Crazy, man.

BATHROOMS

As I mentioned earlier, we used the facilities at restaurants during our stops. We had two occasions where the washrooms were far from spotless. Later during our trip in New Brunswick we saw a sign a few times that promoted restaurants with clean bathrooms. We picked them.

CONSTRUCTION ZONES

We easily passed through, or came to a complete stop, at more than one hundred construction zones. The worst stop was 10 to 15 minutes where they were blasting rock. But only about 10% of the construction zones had work underway. So even though the road was not being repaired, the speed was reduced to 70 km.

COSTS

Here is a tally of our costs for the nine-day trip:

Gas $465

Food/Groceries $382

Hotels $1407

DON'T FORGET THAT I SAVED $2.50 BY USING ESSO ALL THE WAY

Darrel”

On the bridge to PEI

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We arrived in PEI on September 9, and enjoyed weeks of being tourists until our move-in date of October 1.

We stayed at the Brackley Beach North Winds Inn and Suites. This was a perfect spot out in the country, midway between Charlottetown and some of the best beaches on the island. Our room was very comfortable, we got free coffee and muffins every morning, and they had laundry facilities. Our time was mixed between visiting beaches and getting settled in.

One of our first jobs was to get our window tint removed from the windshield and front windows of our car. Sunny Alberta was pretty lenient about window tinting, but in PEI we would not be able to pass the vehicle inspection (an annual requirement, regardless of the age of the vehicle) with our darker window tint on the front part of the car. After we got it removed, we passed the vehicle inspection with flying colours.

We then made our appointments with Maritime Electric and Bell for our electric and internet hookups. After we moved into our apartment in the West Royalty Suites, we were able to get our new car plates, get drivers licenses, and apply for our health care cards.

The move-in was rather eventful. We had driven to the local move-in company to ensure that they would deliver our load early on October 1. (They had been holding it for us after it had been delivered by Allied – date unknown to us). Unfortunately, the property manager did not have the unit ready, and was still doing patching and painting when we arrived. The disgruntled movers managed to unpack everything and get the furniture reassembled, all without touching any walls. For three days we were unsettled and inconvenienced while the property manager finished the painting and cleaning. It’s all simply a bad memory now, and the unit is like new and feeling like home.

We worried about paint getting on the furniture.

All in all, we received very good service from all the people we had to rely on to get resettled in PEI, from the movers to the staff at Brackley North Winds, our banker, the PEI provincial staff, Maritime Electric, Bell, our property manager, and even Rogers (we got a PEI phone number).

We are thrilled with the location we chose. We can walk just down our lane to a restaurant/pub, the liquor store, a hardware store, a grocery wholesaler, a fresh market, and all sorts of clinics (eye, teeth, physio, etc.). We are about a ten-minute drive to the heart of downtown Charlottetown. On the drive, we pass a major mall and all the stores and fast-food joints you can think of. We can get from here to the boarding gate at Charlottetown Airport in less than fifteen minutes, and that includes the taxi drive, check-in, and security clearance. One night, we went to a live show at the Confederation Centre of the Arts, and marvelled at the fact that it took us 9 minutes to drive there, and found parking right in front of the centre. Just before Christmas, we drove into town for the lighting of the Christmas tree. We were worried about parking, because it’s a very popular event, but were amazed to find free parking just two blocks away. And the town was all lit up in Christmas fashion, so it was a very pleasant 2-block walk to the heart of town, where all sorts of outdoor booths were set up to feed us, provide us with drinks and plenty of local crafts to buy as Christmas gifts. 

PEI is a magical place. And I’m saying this in winter time!

Until next time, Loretta & Darrel.

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