July 1, 2017

"A LOT more beautiful (breathtaking, actually) places in Canada than that."

Said Original Mike in "The Canada Café," apparently under the impression that I am searching for what is beautiful/breathtaking as I do my virtual traveling and frame selections in Google Street view. That made me want to put up some more selections:

island drive, thunder bay

pacific avenue thunder bay

silver islet

mckellar street thunder bay

26 comments:

Original Mike said...

Oh, I was just thinking out loud as to the peculiarities of travel by Google street view.

It ocurrs to me that the biggest shortcoming, after the fact that you can't travel to Sarah Lake in Quetico (just to pick one example) is the absence of memeories.

Ann Althouse said...

Could be bad memories. Memories of time spent in vehicles, etc.

Original Mike said...

I don't tend to retain those. Seriously.

I'm not arguing against this exercise; just that it has little or nothing in common with "travel". For good or ill.

rcocean said...

Where's the snow? That's the real Canada.

Original Mike said...

"Where's the snow? That's the real Canada."

And the mosquitos? (speaking of bad things)

tcrosse said...

"Where's the snow? That's the real Canada."

And the mosquitos? (speaking of bad things)

And the Tim Horton's

Ralph L said...

Althouse: In your face, Original Mike. More crappy Canada.

That's a weird bridge superstructure.
A train ride will show you the old underbelly of cities, as the river boat ride did in song.

We traveled a lot by car when we were kids (dad in Navy). My brother was always reading a book on long trips, so when he began driving, he would invariably turn the wrong way out of our street or at major intersections. His sense of direction and where things were was terrible. I guess he wasn't paying attention on the short trips, either.

I was the reverse and at 5 yo pointed out the stops on my kindergarten bus ride around Newport RI to my visiting grandmother.

Yo passes spellcheck

tcrosse said...

That's a weird bridge superstructure.

They must be counterweights, because it looks like a bascule bridge, the hinge toward us.

Original Mike said...

There's an analogy here with astronomical observing. What you can see through an amateur telescope vs the same object in pictures on the internet are worlds apart. I enjoy both, and looking at objects online to suss out what I observe in the telescope is instructive. But they really are two different activities.

rehajm said...

Where's the snow? That's the real Canada."

Boston is getting an Earl's by Fall. So....Boston.

Caesars.

Ralph L said...

tcrosse, then that white stuff is concrete? I've never seen anything like it; guess steel was cheap at the time, but IANAE.

traditionalguy said...

Canada is even flatter than Wisconsin. The Glaciers all came down from there, but it makes great farmland. Plowing in the Appalachians is hard to do; and the cows have to have 2 long legs on one side and two short legs on the other.

Check out Stratford, Ontario.

tcrosse said...

Canada is even flatter than Wisconsin.

Except for the Laurentians and the Rockies.

roesch/voltaire said...

We spent a great vacation hiking starting in Jasper and evenrullay endIng up in Bainf just majestic including the elk, the bears and the retreating glaciErs.

eric said...

I remain convinced that as long as we have such highways upon which we are free to travel, and the internet, our nation will remain free.

Once they take away those two things, we're doomed.

Crimso said...

I'm thinking the bottom one is more what OM had in mind.

rcocean said...

"And the mosquitos? (speaking of bad things)"

Lol. Yeah, it reminds me of all the tourist brochures/movies about "Tropical paradises" - they just leave out the bugs.

Ralph L said...

the cows have to have 2 long legs on one side and two short legs on the other.
A former co-worker went to a funeral outside Asheville NC. The funeral home had someone hold each chair horizontal so the family wouldn't roll down the hill sideways during the service.

Original Mike said...

"I remain convinced that as long as we have such highways upon which we are free to travel, and the internet, our nation will remain free.
Once they take away those two things, we're doomed."


Self-driving cars are a threat to our freedoms.

mockturtle said...

Try the Icefield Parkway in western Alberta, the route from Banff to Jasper. Breathtaking.

Anonymous said...

What the hell is that yellow/black checkered sign in the bottom pic? Have I entered the realm of the Duke of Molson? No checkers on the bridge? Macramé crossing?

Maybe it's in French!?!!

Ralph L said...

It distracts you so you drive into the creek.

Etienne said...

I once drove from Calgary to Minot AFB, North Dakota using the Trans-Canada Highway 1. Luckily it was summer.

I always thought "Regina" was pronounced rah-jeen-ah until the locals corrected me.

"No, No, you f'n yank, eh, it's Rah-jine-ah, you know eh, like Vah-jine-ah eh?

OK, OK, thank you, you Moose-lipped pelican bastard.

Funny thing was, there was more trees, and it was warmer there, than it was in Minot. The one thing I remembered about Minot, was my white underwear turned yellow in the wash.

I guess they had severe hard water. I learned to add Borax from the laundromat ladies.

"Yah loser, put this mule shit in there, yah know? Yah just get off the boat yah?"

OK, OK, Thank you, you Moose-lipped pelican bastards.

Etienne said...

Quote:

The Checkerboard sign indicates the termination of a road. It is applied where the driver cannot proceed either straight ahead or to the left or right at the terminal point.

The sign should be installed at the point at which a road terminates, and should always be located directly in line with the path of the approaching vehicle.

richardsson said...

I've driven across western Canada twice. Yes, western Alberta and British Columbia are quite amazing. But, I also drove westward across Ontario, Manitoba, and Saskatchewan. Saskatchewan in the 1990's was like a trip back in time, say Kansas or Oklahoma in the 1930's. Mostly it had that feeling because the Transcanada Hwy (Route 1) was a two lane highway. It had long lines of cars traveling behind large double trailer trucks. It was suicidal. People would scoot out to pass in both directions, and sometimes having to back track back behind the truck. Instead, I would stop along the road and wait for traffic to clear up and meanwhile "make friends" with the cows. By now, I imagine it's four lanes from Winnipeg to Regina.

Then, when driving north from Regina to Saskatoon, the countryside was almost completely deserted. I remember there was an abandoned A&W Root Beer stand on the outskirts of Regina and nothing from there until halfway to Saskatoon where there was a farm house on top of the hill. It was the most sparsely populated stretch of road I can remember.

Be said...

Two things:

1.) Have you ever read any of Farley Mowat's writings of travels around Canada (and the World)? I think you would appreciate both his enjoyment of the Experience of Being Somewhere, vs the Nastiness of Travelling There.

Good Starter Stories:

a.) "The Boat Who Wouldn't Float"
b.) "The Dog Who Wouldn't Be."

He'd written about a trip to Siberia in the 1960s that I found captivating. Just passed away a year or so back; a Canadian National Treasure.

2.) Finally getting the Courage back together to revisit the Heimatstadt (Buffalo/Toronto area). Leaving in two days. Am both anxious to Get There and Anxious to Not Be There.