Tripping Over the 49th Parallel
14:43 on Thursday, August 05, 2004 • 5 responses
Tell people you’re going to drive through central Canada and you’ll get the same response you get when you tell people you’re going to drive through the midwestern United States: ”“Why?”
It’s true—there’s a whole lot of absolute nothing in the middle of Canada. The landscape seems violently monotonous, and does so in a more visceral way than does Kansas, Nebraska, or North Dakota. The small towns off Trans Canada Highway 16 (locally known as the Yellowhead), somehow lack the local flavor of small towns on similar U.S. roads. One of the great things about traveling two-lane highways in the U.S. is the food—oh my the food can be good. When traveling the interstate highways in the U.S., your only options outside large cities are usually national fastfood chains or gas-station “quikmarts”, but on most two-lane U.S. highways McDonald’s and KFCs are actually hard to come by, thankfully, and the local mom and pop diners serve up some criminally delicious and even healthy meals. In Canada, most of the small towns I drove through featured only the fairly predictable lineup of Tim Horton’s, McDonald’s, Dairy Queen, and A&W.
As far as I can tell, the epic “roadtrip” isn’t a concept which translates with much precision over the border. Part of the reason for this is that Canada’s version of the U.S. Interstate—the Trans Canada System is, for the most part, a series of 2-lane highways, of which a very small percentage is maintained with any kind of regularity. The drive from Winnipeg to Saskatoon was about as smooth as a rusted washboard, and the route from Saskatoon to Edmonton was only slightly better. In the summer months on U.S. highways, both two-lane and interstate, you’ll find license plates from all over the continent, but on Canada’s highways, seeing a license plate from a neighboring province makes for a pretty special occasion.
The point of this entry isn’t necessarily to compare the quality of Canadian and American traveling experiences. It goes without saying that the U.S. has the dubious distinction of being the most automobile-centered culture on the planet, which makes for a great roadtrip experience, but I’d gladly sacrifice the convenience of driving from place to place in the U.S. for an excellent rail system, which Canada has. From most major cities in Canada, you can hop onto a train like the one below and end up in the middle of Jasper National Park, without having to worry about gas or traffic. Do any trains in the U.S. stop at national parks? Not to my knowledge. Standing in front of the train station at Jasper watching young and old alike disembark with ratty backpacks and wheeled Gucci suitcases, it’s hard not to think of my travels in Europe. my bicycle along with my luggage.
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