Part 3 - The long journey home

As we write this entry, we are in Telkwa, BC, and we have traveled 13,750 kilometers in 98 days. We have a little over 50 days to go. In that time we will travel another 12,000 kilometers or so, making our total trip close to 26,000 k. Our gas mileage has been decent, at 16.5 litres/100 kilometers, or about 14.3 miles per gallon. We have towed the Taj-ma-Haul for 8,935 kilometers of our 13,750 total.

Here is a map of our planned route. Just a plan, we make make a left or right turn along the way if something catches our fancy.

Along the way we have many friends to stop and visit: in Prince George, Dawson Creek, Grande Prairie, Thunder Bay, Owen Sound, Exeter, London, Port Dover. It is always nice to stop and chat with people that have been part of our lives.

We have not reserved any campsites along the way, with the exception of Neys Provincial Park on Lake Superior, where we will stay over the Labour Day Weekend. A check of their vacancies revealed only about 10 sites(out of 150) un-booked at this point. Better to be safe than sorry over the last major holiday we will encounter along the road. While at Neys, we will get to Pukaskwa National Park, one of the few we have not visited in our travels.

We will scoot across the prairies on our way east. We plan to cross Alberta on our first day out of Dawson Creek. About 850 kilometers of driving. We have lots of plans in Ontario for our last full month on the road and plan to be back on the prairies in 2021 for an extensive visit so no need to dawdle. We'll stop for 3 nights in Lloydminster and another 3 in Regina and then do the last bit in 48 hours to get us into Kenora Ontario. We will do an overnight stop at a Walmart in Winnipeg on our way...always a fun thing to do.

We want to do the boat tour of the Lake of the Woods while in Kenora and we liked the town on our visit on the way out, but everything was still closed in late May.

The Chi-cheemaun Ferry, from South Baymouth, on Manitoulin Island, to Tobermory, on the Bruce Peninsula is another item we want to cross off the list. The Bruce Peninsula is amazing and well worth a 5 day stop.

At Point Pelee National Park we hope to see more of the Monarch Butterfly migration. We tried last year, but missed by a day or two the main migration. For those of you who do not know, the Monarchs gather at the tip of Point Pelee, where they hang in the trees until there is a wind from the north to blow them across Lake Erie on their migration to Mexico for the winter. Quite the sight to see.

After that we stop in Port Dover to visit an old work buddy of Jennys. After that we get to the business of getting home. Two 3 night stops and a night at the Walmart in Fredericton and we are home in Nova Scotia.

Sully, our 2016 Honda Pilot, is reaching middle age and is starting to show signs of wear and tear from towing our 2017 R-pod trailer, affectionately known as the TaJ-ma-Haul. In total we will have towed about 55,000 kilometers at the end of this trip. We worry about the light weight axle on the R-pod trailer, and tires are always an issue with a trailer that has a single axle.

We took delivery of TaJ in April, 2017, and will have slept in her for just over 400 nights in the 2 1/2 years we will have owned her. Not bad value for money when you think that a basic motel room costs an average of $100 a night. Traveling with the TaJ has also meant we could cook our own meals, saving bundles of money on food costs. The experiences so far have been amazing and we love our time on the road.