Long Road

I woke up the next morning before dawn. Had a shower and listened to some music. I then just waited for the time when I would leave. The bus was to leave Sudbury at 7:30 AM. Heres a video I did before leaving the Hotel:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uVjFm23C-wE

By the time I got to the bus station it had already been there. There were quite a few people there who were waiting. In the end two buses left Sudbury, both were completely full when we left. I sat at the very back of the bus directly beside the bathroom door. There I would stay until we switched buses in Winnipeg the following morning.
A few hours into the trip my back started to hurt which was a bad sign for me. Afterall I had another two and a half days to go before I'd arrive in Vancouver. The stops proved to be very helpful. We stopped for lunch in Sault Ste. Marie. The last time I was there was for the Neil Young and Gordon Lightfoot concerts back in April. Over that weekend I got to know the downtown area fairly well which came in handy. Most people went to Tim Horton's, I went to The Pita Pit which was around the block.
Shortly before The Sault a 19 year old aspiring sci-fi writer came on the bus. For about two hours I listened to him talk about a world he had created for his stories. I asked him a few questions about how its society worked and things like that and was surprised when he had an answer and explained many things in great detail. I eventually got bored with it though and started listening to some podcasts from the CBC. He quickly found another listener though. Eventually he pulled out a laptop and started writing. I was tempted to do the same but I had three days and one battery to live off. Instead I just took in the scenery.
After The Sault there is a lot of great views of Lake Superior. The last time I had travelled that far on the Trans Canada Highway was 1998. I was 10 and was with my grandmother and an aunt. That trip took me to Schreiber for about three days and then to Thunder Bay overnight. That was as far west as I had been up until this trip. Along this route I found myself remembering that trip from 11 years before. That was the first time I had seen one of the Great Lakes and it was quite a sight. It was the first time I had seen water stretch out beyond the horizon, even now that type of view has an effect on me. I find myself wondering what lies beyond even though I do know, Michigan, and Minnesota.
Also around this leg of the trip I met a Viet Nam vet who I would end up talking to regularly all the way to Vancouver. He told me that he makes this bus trip from Windsor to Vancouver several times a year. I asked him if one gets used to such a long trip, "Sort of". He was very open about his war experiences which interested me greatly. He had been wounded several times and even lost most of one of his arms a month into his second tour. He moved to Canada less than a year after returning from Viet Nam. I never got his name unfortunately. Actually, I never got a name from most of the people I met on the trip.
I watched a movie later that night about the aftermath of Gram Parson's death. Pretty funny but I dont remember what it was called. When I looked up after the movie was over I could see the Sleeping Giant. I knew then that Thunder Bay was near, as was the dividing line between the known and unknown for me. By the time we actually got into Thunder Bay it was dark. We were there for about an hour or so. I had something to eat in the restaurant and met someone else who was going to somewhere in Alberta. We started talking about Henry David Thoreau as we were both reading the same edition of "Walden". I was only about fifty pages in at the time and he was almost finished. We only talked about five or ten minutes before we both returned to the actual book. Also in Thunder Bay I bought a phone card as my cell phone was not getting any signal, and hadnt been since shortly after leaving The Sault. Thunder Bay was the low point of the whole trip. I had been on a bus all day and was not liking it. I asked myself if I was crazy for getting myself into this. I wanted to sleep in a bed. But I pressed on.
We left Thunder Bay shortly after 11. I would not see another lake til we got into British Columbia. At around one in the morning I took a swig from my bottle of nyquil which quickly took effect. I awoke the next morning shortly after dawn literally seconds before crossing over into Manitoba. I was amazed at how quickly the landscape changed from the rocky Canadian shield into the vast open Prarie. To my right was the north and to my left was the south and both were completely open as far as the horizon. Ahead the Trans Canada highway went in one straight line towards the horizon as well. I had never been in a place so wide open. It was the first of many such moments I would have on the trip. Also when I woke up that morning a peaceful feeling came over me. I guess I had accepted that this bus trip was going to be a long one and it no longer bothered me. From then on long bus rides stopped bothering me at all. A few hours later we arrived in Winnipeg where we would transfer to another bus. By then my cell phone worked and I noticed its time had automatically switched when we changed time zones. I really liked the look of Manitoba, very clean from what I saw of it. After we arrived I took a walk around the downtown area seeing as we had a few hours to kill and the weather was great. Down the street from the Greyhound station was the provincial legislature. I found it kind of odd that it was the first one I had ever seen. Even now I find it odd that Ive been to the capital of every western province but I still have never been to Toronto. Oh well, maybe someday. Its not really on my to-do list though. The only sight I wanted to see in Winnipeg was the grave of Louis Riel. To me Riel is one of the most interesting figures in Canadian history and to see his grave would make him more real. I had calculated in advance how long it would take me to walk to his grave and back to the bus station and unfortunately it was a little to risky to make the trip now. Had I gone it was possible I would miss the bus out of Winnipeg and have to wait 10 to 12 hours for the next one.

Part III will come at a later time.