Four States and Four Provinces

This morning I spent some time looking at my serious atlas, an early 2000s edition of the DK World Atlas, as opposed to the road atlases I’ve been consulting daily since we drove off toward the Canadian Rockies on July 1. It was a sort of review of the territory we crossed, the flat farmlands of northern Illinois, central Wisconsin and Minnesota, and eastern North Dakota, on the U.S. side; and southern Manitoba and Saskatchewan north of border, much the same sort of territory. But I also took another look at our goal for the trip, the mountainous Alberta and British Columbia.

We made it. We returned late last night after a total drive, over 15 days, of 4,849 miles, or 7,758 or so kilometers, to acknowledge the Canadian way of measuring roads.

We trended northwest on the way out. Schaumburg, Illinois, our starting point, is slightly north of 42 degrees North latitude and slightly west of 88 degrees West. A small town called Pocahontas, Alberta, was as far north as we got—about 53.2 degrees North. Our westernmost ultima, just west of Jasper Townsite, Alberta, was at about 118.4 degrees West. This shift in our position on the Earth’s surface was most noticeable in the length of daylight. It didn’t get dark near Jasper till after 11, whereas in northern Illinois it’s now just after 9.

I could (and may yet) describe many marvelous things, especially those in the Rockies, for the terrain offers up marvels seemingly without effort and sometimes without pause. But what strikes me as truly astonishing, at least from a human point of view, is that my family and I, who have no special skills when it comes to exploring, can back out of our driveway and follow macadamized roads all the way to Banff, Jasper and Kootenay national parks in Canada. This might bother Earth First!, but it doesn’t bother me. My driveway is connected to marvels.

Alas, it was a more costly trip than it would have been, say, in 1999, when the U.S. dollar was strong versus the Canadian, and the price of gas was historically low. No more. The Canadian dollar is strong, and as everyone knows, gas is high, in real terms about as high as it’s ever been. Gas was even higher in Canada, though it’s sold in liters and Canadian dollars, so it took some calculation to figure that out.

So, to sum up: very long drives, a lousy exchange rate, high fuel costs. Was it worth it? Was it ever.