Ottawa to Montreal: Lean, mean, green machine… 3.8 litres / 100 km. Wowee!
Monday, May 11, 2009 @ 23:55
There are two routes from Ottawa to Montreal: the slow route with large trucks, and the fast route with large trucks. What’s an Insight driver to do?
Take both, is what my driver did today, moving with the flow of traffic when the roads were busy, and slowing a bit when they weren’t. My routes took me from Ottawa to Hawkesbury via the two-lane Highway 17, and from Hawkesbury to Montreal on the multi-lane 417. A sunny day, 15-degrees, and Honda’s celebrated “blue skies”—seemingly provided to order—set the tone for this portion of my cross-country journey.
My driver’s task was to drive me, Insight Canada1, to Montreal’s Biosphere Museum, a distance of about 220 kilometres, and do it as fuel efficiently as I could. They told my driver that I had already returned 4.1 L/100km on a couple of my Western legs, and that’s already better than my “official” rating of 4.5 L/100km (highway).
My driver knows that I generously reward the driver who employs a fuel efficient driving style. So, no ‘jack-rabbit’ starts, he mutters to himself, no excessive speed, a smooth application of the gas pedal. ‘Timing’ green lights to avoid stopping pays off. These are techniques that will save fuel in any vehicle, by the way.
I further help with my display that indicates fuel consumption (cumulative and actual) and another that graphically represents the IMA drivetrain in action. This latter display can help you practise fuel efficient driving by indicating whether electricity or gasoline (or both) is providing motive power. Obviously, the more you can drive me on battery alone, the less gasoline you’ll consume.
This technique is not particularly easy, in the sense that you can’t simply set me to run on battery, then engage “cruise.” When I need torque (accelerating for any reason), my gasoline engine kicks in. But when decelerating, even slightly, taking your foot off the gas pedal for a second will shut down the engine and you’ll see I’m running on electricity. You can do this for 100 metres, 300 metres, 400 metres. On a few occasions today, my driver ran me for 500 metres like this! Over a couple of hundred kilometres, you’ll save maybe 10-percent more fuel using this approach.
So if you’re not in a hurry, you, too, can get 3.8 L/100km (74 MPG) in a 2010 Honda Insight!
One more thing, if you’re in Montreal, do check out the Biosphere. The building, a geodesic dome, was designed (invented, actually) by R. Buckminster Fuller. Here’s a guy who would have loved things like me, a hybrid car and Integrated Motor Assist systems. Ah, oui!
Demain, la ville de Québec!
Toronto to Ottawa: Let me tell you ’bout the birds and the bees… at Birdhouse City
Friday, May 8, 2009 @ 18:46
Lots of people want to know: am I a female car or a male car? And I say yes! That’s one of the things I’ve come to like about Toronto during our two days here. Nobody cares which side your gas door’s on: it’s just drive and let drive.
Strange, though. On the way, I heard several of my journalist drivers badmouthing Toronto. That must be the beer talking.
Sure, this place is an easy target: it sprawls unnecessarily – not as environmentally enlightened as some of us. There’s a cornucopia of monstrous architecture (even the good stuff’s ugly; how do they do that?). And the natural landmarks aren’t as apparent as the mountains in cities like Vancouver, Montreal and St John’s. But it’s not without its own beauty too.
Natural beauty formed when the mile-high glaciers of the last ice age receded. Consider the Toronto Islands. Our day began at the Harbour Castle Westin (it used to be the Hilton and rumour has it that Niki was going to be called Hogtown) with a view of these magnificent islands. Several are inaccessible and have been left utterly wild, populated only by birds and butterflies.
In some ways Toronto’s been conservational since long before it was cool to be.
We drove north to the 401 through the Don Valley. Here again, it’s not all bad news. Hikers and cyclists love this wild corridor which funnels wild life into downtown Toronto. It’s not uncommon to see fox trotting the streets of tony Rosedale. And a wild coyote is evading the residents of the Beach (Toronto’s answer to the ‘couve’s Kitsilano) appearing regularly on the news but never standing still long enough to be caught.
Ah, nature!
We quit the Don Valley for the 401, heading east through Scarborough. (Insert tired joke, here.) We crossed the Rouge Valley, a vast, protected wilderness in the middle of Canada’s worst sprawl. Imagine seeing deer just minutes from the Scarborough Town Centre. It’s another of the region’s unsung stories of conservation that deserves singing.
Then we were in Pickering. Then Ajax. Then Oshawa. Then the sprawl was lessening somewhat and genuine country would appear. It’s lovely right now. After a virourous winter and genuine spring with lots of rain and very few freak heatwaves, things have responded appropriately and the blooms and blossoms are frothing.
Whoops, keep your eyes on the road, human.
The 401 between Toronto and Kingston (aka the Highway of Headaches) is reputedly the worst stretch of road in the country. I thought the road was fine – but oh, the drivers.
So after two dull hours I was glad to exit at the Wooler Road and head into scenic Prince Edward County. It’s a lovely corner of the province. 150-year old stone buildings grace farms so quaint Norman Rockwell would pinch himself. What a delightful spot to simply revel in nature. We visited Birdhouse City. This Valhalla for folk art loving conservationists features rows and rows of handbuilt birdhouses (hence the cryptic name) mounted atop 15-foot poles.
Minutes later in Picton, the humans parked me at a charming Victorian Inn with a breath-taking view of the Bay of Quinte. The Inn was also a Spa (a detailing shop for humans) but they limited their stay to a fuel-up.
Next we crossed the Bay of Quinte (aka the Bay of Quainte) aboard the Glenora Ferry. Garry, the human with the racing world record, suggested we stay off the 401 the remainder of the day. It added perhaps a half hour to our drive but lowered the humans blood pressure and likely added lots more time to the back-end of their lives. We arrived in the nation’s capital feeling fine, not at all stressed by a day on the road.
Insight out.
Toronto to, um… Toronto
Thursday, May 7, 2009 @ 20:35
Earth Rangers Centre | Bird-friendly windows
Today was the first day I headed back to the same parking spot where I’d spent the previous night in 17 days! It was a cinch to tackle the downtown streets of Canada’s busiest city, but we couldn’t spend the whole time toodling around Toronto.
It wasn’t long before the drivers pointed my wheels north, up to Woodbridge, and the first stop of the day at the Kortright Centre for Conservation. We were there to visit the Earth Rangers’ environmentally sound headquarters, which is a 60,000 square-foot building that’s completely off any ‘grid’. It also was an opportunity for a little family reunion, as I had the chance to catch up with one of the Earth Rangers’ new Insights as well. Oh, the gossip!
Honda Insight family reunion outside Earth Rangers headquarters
Anyway, while I was outside kvetching, the humans were given a tour of the place by Earth Rangers Executive Director Peter Kendall, and Communications Manager Christine Maloney. The level of engineering and thinking that went into creating such an environmentally friendly building is nearly what Honda engineers put into designing me!
There are flushless toilets, solar-powered faucets and high-efficiency hand dryers… and those are just the washrooms. Everything from geothermal heating and cooling to treating its own wastewater is on site. All the better to protect and house the various birds, reptiles and wild furry animals the Earth Rangers use in their travelling school programs.
Most of the world's people must walk at least 3 hours to fetch water
Lisa with Echo, her Barn Owl
After a photo op with animal-handler Lisa and her barn owl Echo, we packed up and headed east to Markham, where my parents are building their new home. Honda Canada’s headquarters has been under construction for about a year now, and everyone expects to move in by this time next year. Because it rained early this morning, the parking lot was a mud-pit. Thankfully the humans changed their shoes for workboots, meaning my carpets stayed very clean!
I was left hanging out in the parking lot again! This is getting really tiresome, guys… Get it? Tiresome? I crack me up…
So yes, I was left in the mud-bath while the humans went for a closer look. Honda Canada’s Senior Manager of Administrative Services, Lois Ferg, gave them a tour during lunch hour. They came back amazed at the raised floors, sheltered cafeteria, and proposed soccer field and jogging paths. Even the big loads of stuff that looks like garbage are sifted through and sorted into recyclable piles.
They shuffled me into position for another photo or two before heading back downtown for a well-deserved rest. I’ll definitely need a good shower to get off some of this mud!
Insight visits the new Honda Canada campus
Have to be all shiny and clean for my visit to Ottawa, the capital city of Canada, this weekend!
Sudbury to Toronto: Sam the Snapping Turtle teaches Insight Canada1 a thing or two
Wednesday, May 6, 2009 @ 23:20
I started out the day in Sudbury with a trip to the Jane Goodall Reclamation Trail, where it seemed a city of Sudbury pickup truck was waiting there to open the gates and let me in. Alas, its driver had just parked there for a break. He told my new co-drivers that the parking lot wouldn’t be open until after the long weekend.
So they left me sitting at the gates, walked in and trekked the 1-km long hiking trail. Sigh.
I could hear them talking when they returned about the amazing transformation made to an area that had been devastated by the pollution from years of smelting nickel. They said there was even a big rock carved to commemorate the two millionth tree planted in the reclamation project that started in 1978.
After that we drove south to the town of Midland and a visit to the Wye Marsh. This is a conservation area of 3,500 acres where there are many protected species, included Ontario’s only poisonous snake, the Massassauga rattler.
Laurel Finney, the marsh’s program director, and Nicole Saltsman, communications director, gave my drivers a tour of the place where the trumpeter swan was successfully reintroduced to Ontario in 1988.
Again, I was left cooling my tires in the parking lot.
But soon Laurel and Nicole returned with my drivers, carrying a big blue box. Inside was a snapping turtle named Sam and Laurel let me have a closer look by placing him on the ground in front of me.
The point was to show my drivers how to properly help a turtle to cross the road without getting snapped at (and to pass the information along to you). Laurel says never, ever, prod the turtle with a stick or your shoe. Instead, grab it by the tail, then carefully put both hands underneath the shell, still gripping the base of the tail tail firmly to avoid the sharp claws on it hind feet.
You always approach a snapping turtle this way because it can reach back three-quarters of the length of it shell with its powerful jaws.
If the turtle is small enough, you can pick it up this way. If it’s bigger, just gently drag it across the road. Just remember which direction the turtle was headed. You wouldn’t want to take him back to the side of the road he’d already left and make him or her risk lumbering across in front of traffic again.
Turtles on the road are almost always females, heading back to their favourite place to lay eggs.
And remember to wash your hands before eating, because turtles can carry salmonella bacteria.
It was a neat experience, and I hope every driver I get in the future will respect slow-moving wildlife as much as the two I had today.
Sault Ste. Marie to Sudbury – GREENIN’ IN THE ROCK WORLD!
Tuesday, May 5, 2009 @ 23:52
Insight Canada1 here, on another glorious sunny day, still sniffing around for examples of Concerned Composting Canadians during National Composting Week but I’m having a hard time finding them. I know they’re out there!
I guess when you’re on the move, the smell of compost doesn’t really linger in ones air vents. But one thing the citizens of Sault Ste. Marie will be smelling a lot less of come next Tuesday May 12 is exhaust fumes.
Thanks to motivated and dedicated people like Councillor Steve Butland of Ward 1 and Madison Saunders, the Coordinator of the Municipal Environmental Initiatives Committee (aka the Green Committee ’cause boy, that’s a mouthful!), the City of Sault Ste. Marie will be Idle-Free.
Councillor Steve Butland and Donna Hilsinger show off the Idle Free Zone signs around Sault Ste. Marie.
The Anti-Idling Campaign involves awareness sessions for those responsible for the management and operation of the City’s fleet, and an official launch at various municipal buildings on May 12, 2009.
Councillor Steve was behind my wheel today giving me a quick tour and filling me in on the municipality’s projects underway and almost completed. He told me the Soo, as the city is affectionately called, is on its way to being declared the Alternative Energy Capital of North America.
As we made our way over to Sault College to check out the wind turbine on campus, I asked, “Councillor Steve, what makes you think the Soo could be the Alternative Energy Capital of North America?”
“Well, for starters, IC1, we already have Canada’s second-largest wind farm, and a $450 million solar farm is almost complete. The steel mill here has a co-generation plant, too.”
“OK, I’ve heard that word thrown around, way back west in Edmonton first, and then a few other places, too. What the heck is this co-generation plant??”
Councillor Steve patiently explained that it’s a facility at the mill that is fueled by waste industrial byproduct gases and generates electricity.
“The new process eliminates about 400 tonnes of nitrous oxide and the steelmaker can produce about half of the electricity it needs right there, saving money and doing something useful with that waste stuff!”
I could tell that Councillor Steve used to be a teacher.
We were just pulling up to the impressive wind turbine on the campus of Sault College where a friendly crowd was waiting.
Brian Punch, Chair of The Natural Environment and Technology Department, explained that the wind turbine, donated by Brookfield Power, generates 50% of the power needed by the Student’s Centre. The turbine is also used as a lab for electrical students to learn maintenance and upkeep on wind turbines. The winds of change are upon us and Sault College is ready!
Time to hit the road. Between Sault Ste. Marie and Sudbury, the land alternates between rolling farmlands, bogs and lakes. The road is carved into the giant rocks of the Canadian Shield, the oldest rock formation on Earth and the first part of North America to be permanently elevated above sea level.
And whizzing past my windows, those ubiquitous pine trees that have been by the roadside since leaving Manitoba. What a country I’ve landed in, eh?
Thunder Bay to Sault Ste. Marie: ROCKIN’ IN THE GREEN WORLD
Monday, May 4, 2009 @ 20:06
I just passed the halfway point (at Wawa, Ontario) of my drive across Canada on this, the first day of National Composting Week and I’ve got to say, it’s been a heckuva ride so far, made even better by my latest musical discovery, Fork in the Road by Canadian rock legend and social activist, Neil Young.
Most of the songs on this disc refer to Young’s LincVolt project – converting a 2.5-ton 1959 Lincoln Continental Mk IV convertible to a new series bio-fuel hybrid system; its goal being to achieve 100 miles per (US) gallon, allowing it to qualify for competition in the Automotive X Prize.
I may be a relative newcomer to this grand country, having only been in showrooms for two weeks now, but I’m quickly coming to love it here – the wide open spaces, the pristine waters, clean air and deep, blue skies.
And moose! I saw a moose! It was awesome.
But I digress…
While I and the LincVolt share little in common other than our desire to lead the automotive world in changing for the better, I consider it a brother in arms. And Young’s music just gets me all fired up in demonstrating clean burning automobile propulsion technology that serves the needs of the 21st Century.
The Canada Geese were honkin’, and this car was rockin’!
I listened to Fork in the Road repeatedly as I ferried my sole carbon unit (a smooth driver who coaxed from me an average 4.8 L/100 km) on this 700-plus kilometre leg of the journey along the Trans-Canada Highway north of Lake Superior. Weather-wise, it was the best day of the trip so far, with temperatures crowding 20-degrees C and clear, blue skies overhead. What a day; I won’t soon forget it.
Jenny Goldthorpe is owner of Jen’s Place Bistro where healthy, wholesome foods are the order of the day
We departed the Valhalla Inn in Thunder Bay at a civilized hour (8:30 am), heading first for Nipigon, about an hour east of T. Bay, where Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced in 2007 the Lake Superior National Marine Conservation Area, most of which is under water. It is home to more than 70 species of fish and above water birds: ring-billed and herring gulls, cormorants, great blue herons and white pelicans. Not to mention all kinds of shipwrecks – there may be as many as 50 wrecks within its boundaries. Famed marine explorer, Jacques Cousteau, characterized one of them as the most beautiful wrecks in the world: the 50 metre luxury steam yacht, Gunilda, now lying in 75 metres of water, ran aground and sank in 1911 after its millionaire owner refused to pay piloting fees into safe harbour at Rossport.
Dock at Rossport
At White River, where nearby was born that famed children’s story icon, Winnie the Pooh, we met Jenny Goldthorpe, another kind of social activist and owner of Jen’s Place Bistro where healthy, wholesome foods are the order of the day. No deep-fried, artery-clogging fare here – Jenny prepares everything fresh herself, without the aid of deep friers and fatty oils. It’s her statement of environmentalism for the human body.
We stopped numerous times along the way to Sault Ste. Marie throughout the day, mostly to enjoy and soak up the pristine wilderness, to relax in the profound quiet of northern Ontario.
Around 6:30 pm we pulled into the Water Tower Inn at S.S. Marie, to call it a day. The Inn is registered with the Canadian Hotel Association’s ECOmmodation Program, and has been ‘eco-rated’ by the Green Hotel Initiative.
Next stop: Sudbury.
Nipigon Mural
Ignace to Thunder Bay: Puttering along the Canadian Shield
Sunday, May 3, 2009 @ 20:04
The Kaministiquia River flows along and plunges over a cliff to make the spectacular Kakabeka Falls located in this provincial park of the same name. After squeezing through a gorge, this river then empties into Lake Superior in Thunder Bay, Ontario.
The human carbon units, who work with words and phrases woke up bright and early and took me several feet to a truck stop. Ignace, Ontario, not a hybrid cousin “insight”. They needed to fuel up on animal protein and a processed cheese product called Cheez Whiz which is a violent orange color. Much to my chagrin, they parked me along big hulking trucks that spit out more pollutants in a minute than I do in a lifetime. The trucks started taunting me calling me “eco weenie” and “green queen”. I must admit wiper fluid started to trickle out of my nozzles after a while. They just don’t get me.
Soon the human carbon units saved me from my misery and whisked me a way back on the highway. Here in the middle of nowhere, I knew if we stopped again, it would be much of the same. I checked my range and at almost 900kms, we could get to a major city where my virtues would be appreciated by a more urban crowd. I started to feel much better as the carbon units were cheering every time my fuel consumption reading fell a point and at 4.1l highway. I was doing much better than even my creators had imagined. The sun was shining, my battery and engine were working in perfect harmony and the human carbon units kept encouraging me. I started singing “it ain’t easy being green” and the human carbon units joined in. Life is good.
Winnipeg, Manitoba to Ignace, Ontario: Out of the flats, into the forest
Saturday, May 2, 2009 @ 20:51
Oomph! Feels like another journalist has taken a seat behind my wheel. It’s none other than Inside Story’s Michael Clark from Canadian Driver. Before leaving the Winnipeg city limits, my pilot stopped by Botanical Paperworks. Peeking through the window, I watched as owner Heidi Reimer-Epp took time to explain their recycled paper products. I figured it was just the usual recycled paper, until I noticed a strong little Basil plant waving his leaves at me. Turns out that these paper products have seeds inside them! When you’re done with the paper, you can plant it, and enjoy everything from fresh herbs to wildflowers. What a great way to keep your thoughts alive, even if they were just “pick up dry-cleaning”.
Botanical Paperworks' owner, Heidi Reimer-Epp, takes time to explain their recycled paper products.
Something weird happened when Clark was told about my recent fuel consumption through Saskatchewan. His left eye started twitching in my rear-view mirror, and I think I heard him mutter “It’s On!”
It seems that Clark likes a challenge, with his official goal set on finding my lowest fuel consumption to date. He mentioned how his Dad used to follow semi-trailers on the highway, possibly reducing the wind resistance I might receive on my paint. I’ve never felt such a gentle caress on my throttle pedal. (Goodness! My hood is blushing!) Once Clark entered Ontario, he used my Honda-rific steering wheel-mounted cruise control tabs to modulate my speed. I’ve heard some of these auto scribes can be a little aggressive with their right foot, or right thumb. Clark kept my speed display dead on, at the 90 KPH posted limit.
Clark’s left eyeball had stopped twitching by the time we rolled into Ignace, Ontario. Now he had a goofy grin on his face, as he looked at my fuel economy read-out. No wonder I still feel full! I had only drank 4.1 litres of fuel per 100 kilometres from Winnipeg to Ignace! I wonder how I’ll do when I roll into Thunder Bay tomorrow.
Regina to Winnipeg: When it grains, it pours!
Friday, May 1, 2009 @ 21:47
Fuel, it seems, is a recurring theme for my drive across Canada. I was able to drive the 596 kilometres from Regina to Winnipeg on three-quarters of a tank of 87 octane, while my driver for the day needed Smoked Salmon Eggs Benedict and a six-inch Black Angus submarine. Toasted really is better, or at least that’s what my human said to himself as we left Brandon.
Emissions also played a role. My driver needed three trips to water recycling depots, or at least that’s what he called them. I suspect they were really just your run-of-the-mill urinals. Oh, and someone should mention to all my drivers that the technology to install methane collectors in the driver’s seat cushion just hasn’t been invented yet. With an average of 4.6 litres per 100 km for the journey, I can proudly say my emissions were nowhere near as drastic.
Fuel also played a part in my main stop for the day. This time, it’s food for the hungry in economically challenged countries such as Zimbabwe and Sudan. Ray Baloun, a grain buyer at Viterra Inc. north of Brandon, is one of the lead architects of a program called Kernels of Hope. A program of the Canadian FoodGrains Bank and several churches – and supported with matching relief from the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) – Kernels of Hope brings together ordinary Canadians, farmers and relief agencies in an effort to deliver food and aid to the starving.
I'm with Steve Marvin and Ray Baloun (Right), on Steve's farm north of Brandon. They hope to fill many more of these bushel bags with wheat grown on Steve's farm.
Ray the Grain Guy – really, that’s his nickname – told my human that urban Canadians sponsor acres of cropland for $200 an acre, which is used to pay a farmer to cultivate, seed, fertilize and harvest crops such as wheat, canola or even pulses such as peas. Wheat is shipped directly to the country in need while other crops are sold with proceeds donated to supplying aid. Ray said all donations are matched by CIDA on a four-to-one basis, so a $200 donation from Kernels of Hope expands to $800 before it is delivered. Ray said the program has, in four years, directed $965,000 to hunger relief.
My driver took Ray and I to the farm of Steve and Loni Marvin. Steve, who this year is farming 10 of his acres as wheat for the program, said that while a farmer’s costs are largely covered, the opportunity cost at harvest becomes his donation to the program. “It costs me $225 an acre,” he explained. “I get $200 from the program, but I’m hoping to get 50 bushels per acre, which at $6 a bushel (the approximate price at the time of writing), that’s $300. So that $100 is a donation on my part.” Steve said knowing that his efforts are quadrupled by CIDA, and that food equals hope for the disadvantaged, makes his participation in the program more than worthwhile.
Manitoba Hydro's solar chimney
Ray and Steve said another benefit to the program is it introduces farming to Canadians who may not have the slightest idea where food comes from. This year, 225 people have signed up to sponsor acres on two farms in each of the three Prairie provinces. “All those people are now, essentially, farmers,” Steve said. Ray sends them regular updates on progress, from seeding to fertilization to harvest, along with current pricing and other details designed to educate the sponsors about the business of agriculture.
Ray said it’s important for all Canadians to understand rural issues, since the Canadian food supply can be negatively affected by unknowledgeable decisions by city dwellers.
Here I am, parked outside the new Manitoba Hydro skyscraper in downtown Winnipeg. The building contains a number of energy efficient features, including a dual envelope design to reduce warming in summer and heat loss in winter, as well as a solar chimney (inset), that is warmed by the sun and circulates air in the building using nothing but convection driven by the sun’s warmth.
Saskatoon to Regina: First my tire now my windshield… it’s rough out here in the real world!
Thursday, April 30, 2009 @ 12:31
It’s a beautiful spring morning in Stoon, as the hip locals call it, and me and my driver are raring to go. We are headed to the town of Craik, about two-thirds of the short distance to Regina. Since we are on a time frame for getting there, we head for the main divided highway, and there is no more flat or straight road in the country. I settled in to a little above the 110 speed limit – just on principle, you understand – and made sure my driver wasn’t getting too drowsy. My fuel consumption was about 5.5L indicated on the computer – pretty darn good, and much better than I got with that lead-foot guy yesterday!
After about half an hour, around Dundern, we saw a hitchhiker. Not that unusual, except that the sign he held said “somewhere near Toronto would be nice.” Now, I am going to Toronto and could have given him a ride, but he probably wouldn’t want to take another week to get there. He might have done better with a sign that said “Regina.” Or even “Winnipeg.” But Toronto??? My driver was laughing too hard to go back and take a photo.
So we found the Craik Ecology Centre, and my driver got a nice tour from Shirley Eade, the manager, and her colleagues Glenn Hymers and Crystal Stinson. The conception and construction of this building was a community effort, on land donated by the regional authorities. Every environmentally-friendly technology available is incorporated in this building, which is a sort of community centre and restaurant arrangement.
The toilets are composting, so no water is used. Glycol fluid is piped outside, 10 feet underground where the temperature is a constant 11C, and then piped back into the building to either heat or cool it, depending on the season. Hot water heating is via solar panels. Rainwater is captured, and treated biologically with charcoal and sand to make drinking water. The walls are insulated with hay bales. And on and on. You can check out the building at www.craikecovillage.ca.
After that, we had the afternoon free to explore the countryside, so my driver put the navigation system to good use and visited a small resort area on a lake north of Regina. The water was still a bit frozen, which was the only indication we saw that winter wasn’t that long ago. Frankly, after the snow I saw in Alberta, I was happy to see bright skies and 11C!
I was driven on many kms of gravel roads; it seems that Saskatchewan is not real big on pavement in rural areas! Saw lots of farms, but of course it was too early in the year to see fields of wheat or canola. We did, however, see lots of derelict old farm houses and barns, and even old grain elevators no longer being used. That was kind of sad, as the old way of life here on the prairie appears to be over.
We were close to getting as far south as Highway 1, the TCH, between Moose Jaw and Regina, when we were passed for the first time all day – and not because I was being driven fast, but because you can go many, many kms without even seeing another vehicle. I moved over to let this old minivan past me at what must have been 120 km/h, and sure as heck, it threw a big rock at the windshield, and officially christened my pristine new windshield. I was not a happy car.
My driver thought, maybe he’d find an auto glass shop in Regina, and sure enough, we found a Speedy Auto Glass right on Albert Street, and we were welcomed right in, whereupon technician Bart Klein used this incredible machine to almost completely eliminate what had been a big ding and cracks already extending out to the size of a twoonie.
So, if you get a big rock chip in your windshield, you may not need to replace your windshield for $1,000. Just pull into Speedy and let them work their magic. Thanks guys!
From there, we were going to drive around Regina a bit and sightsee, but the traffic was ridiculous – the big cities had nothing on this! So we went straight to the hotel, and I got a much-needed rest and a bath.
I had a great day, especially since I got my wound fixed up. On to Winnipeg tomorrow!
