day 1: tuesday 28th march 2006
this marks the first day of our - meaning me and ben - impromptu weeklong road trip. technically it should be the first *night*, considering tt we started out at 9.00 pm on tuesday night, but you get what i mean don't you?
anyway before i digress too much, i have this to say:
ben is *mad*.
he may continue to deny it as vehemently as he wants, but we all know tt for a fact.
i've always led a relatively normal and uneventful existance (by my standards at least), but every adventure with him has continued to surpass the previous one. and it is no joke.
from travelling greater vancouver via public transport in 8 hours, to a lonely planet trip to mexico involving hanging out at a cyber cafe at 5am in the morning and taking impromptu salsa lessons the next night, to a 4 hour "stroll" in richmond when trying out go-karting, to the last one - a literal death-defying bike stunt into a ditch in tofino... every time each adventure got erm... bigger and bigger... and each time i would have this nagging feeling tt we *ain't seen anything yet*.
and each time i am right. we always continue to surpass ourselves.
ben rented a pontiac g6 from avis car rentals. when they gave him the car, the distance meter registered a total of 2000 km.
when ben drove me back to totem park on monday night, this is what the meter registered:
5299 km.
in the space of 1 week, we had travelled 5299 km - 2000 km = 3299 km. which coincedentally explains the title of this blog.
we'd driven the car tt total distance, from vancouver to banff to jasper to edmonton to calgary, and then back to vancouver.
and just a break-down of the distance:
vancouver to banff: 857 km
banff to jasper: 288 km
jasper to edmonton: 357 km
edmonton to calgary: 300 km
calgary back to vancouver: 1073km
so the first way in which this adventure totally surpassed all our previous ones... was distance. sheer distance.
we started out at 9.00pm on tuesday night, or thereabouts. after i'd hurriedly done my laundry and packed my bag (it was so impromptu i hadn't done *anything* for the trip at all, and it was the same day after my 2nd presentation in 2 consecutive days (and after i'd had to rush the damn paper for tt presentation). and from there it was a night drive in almost total darkness 857 km all the way from vancouver to banff in the canadian rockies in alberta.
for the uninitiated, the canadian rockies is this magnificent mountain range tt is considered one of the natural wonders of the world, not to mention one of the attractions tt canada is proudest of. it rests on the border between the states of british columbia and alberta, but banff and jasper, both town which are in the rockies, are situated in the province of alberta.
anyway yeah. it was a fucking dark journey. namely because canada is so fucking huge tt most of the roads aren't lit. if you're lucky, all you have are reflectors. if not, you have to rely on your own hopefully powerful headlights. and you have to wrestle for space on winding 1-laned roads in almost complete darkness with massive tankers and truckers transporting goods between the states.
damn stressful. seriously. i couldn't fall asleep at all even though ben was the official driver (i have no liscence lah) because i was as stressed as he was and i was trying to help him look out for curves in the road and oncoming vehicles (you couldn't see a fucking thing, so you really couldn't take the risk of running your car off the road, coz you wouldn't know if you're also going to go off a cliff and possibly plunge into a deep ravine or into one of b.c.'s many rivers in the meantime). and we got lost a fair bit. a few roundabouts and illegal u-turns.
fortunately, the sun rises very very early in spring. by 5-something am, we began to get light. although the fact tt we were by tt trime driving through another mountain range where the entire fuck place was almost completely snow-covered meant tt we got pretty good natural light reflectors.
so yeah.
a view from the car around 5-something am.
and then... as the sky lightens and we ease into the rocky mountains...
the driver.
very resilient. all he needs is a smoke every now and then (both inside and outside of the car), and he's pretty much good to go. bwahaha.
and in the bright morning light...
mountains to the side... mountains to the front...
and by the time 7.05 am rolls around, we're easing into the town of banff.
welcome to the town of banff!!!
okay. we'd better get on to day 2. yay. wahaha.
anyway before i digress too much, i have this to say:
ben is *mad*.
he may continue to deny it as vehemently as he wants, but we all know tt for a fact.
i've always led a relatively normal and uneventful existance (by my standards at least), but every adventure with him has continued to surpass the previous one. and it is no joke.
from travelling greater vancouver via public transport in 8 hours, to a lonely planet trip to mexico involving hanging out at a cyber cafe at 5am in the morning and taking impromptu salsa lessons the next night, to a 4 hour "stroll" in richmond when trying out go-karting, to the last one - a literal death-defying bike stunt into a ditch in tofino... every time each adventure got erm... bigger and bigger... and each time i would have this nagging feeling tt we *ain't seen anything yet*.
and each time i am right. we always continue to surpass ourselves.
ben rented a pontiac g6 from avis car rentals. when they gave him the car, the distance meter registered a total of 2000 km.
when ben drove me back to totem park on monday night, this is what the meter registered:
5299 km.
in the space of 1 week, we had travelled 5299 km - 2000 km = 3299 km. which coincedentally explains the title of this blog.
we'd driven the car tt total distance, from vancouver to banff to jasper to edmonton to calgary, and then back to vancouver.
and just a break-down of the distance:
vancouver to banff: 857 km
banff to jasper: 288 km
jasper to edmonton: 357 km
edmonton to calgary: 300 km
calgary back to vancouver: 1073km
so the first way in which this adventure totally surpassed all our previous ones... was distance. sheer distance.
we started out at 9.00pm on tuesday night, or thereabouts. after i'd hurriedly done my laundry and packed my bag (it was so impromptu i hadn't done *anything* for the trip at all, and it was the same day after my 2nd presentation in 2 consecutive days (and after i'd had to rush the damn paper for tt presentation). and from there it was a night drive in almost total darkness 857 km all the way from vancouver to banff in the canadian rockies in alberta.
for the uninitiated, the canadian rockies is this magnificent mountain range tt is considered one of the natural wonders of the world, not to mention one of the attractions tt canada is proudest of. it rests on the border between the states of british columbia and alberta, but banff and jasper, both town which are in the rockies, are situated in the province of alberta.
anyway yeah. it was a fucking dark journey. namely because canada is so fucking huge tt most of the roads aren't lit. if you're lucky, all you have are reflectors. if not, you have to rely on your own hopefully powerful headlights. and you have to wrestle for space on winding 1-laned roads in almost complete darkness with massive tankers and truckers transporting goods between the states.
damn stressful. seriously. i couldn't fall asleep at all even though ben was the official driver (i have no liscence lah) because i was as stressed as he was and i was trying to help him look out for curves in the road and oncoming vehicles (you couldn't see a fucking thing, so you really couldn't take the risk of running your car off the road, coz you wouldn't know if you're also going to go off a cliff and possibly plunge into a deep ravine or into one of b.c.'s many rivers in the meantime). and we got lost a fair bit. a few roundabouts and illegal u-turns.
fortunately, the sun rises very very early in spring. by 5-something am, we began to get light. although the fact tt we were by tt trime driving through another mountain range where the entire fuck place was almost completely snow-covered meant tt we got pretty good natural light reflectors.
so yeah.
a view from the car around 5-something am.
and then... as the sky lightens and we ease into the rocky mountains...
the driver.
very resilient. all he needs is a smoke every now and then (both inside and outside of the car), and he's pretty much good to go. bwahaha.
and in the bright morning light...
mountains to the side... mountains to the front...
and by the time 7.05 am rolls around, we're easing into the town of banff.
welcome to the town of banff!!!
okay. we'd better get on to day 2. yay. wahaha.
posted by Kitana at 4:15 AM
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