Along the Trans-Canada Highway

In my last post and in the next few days too, you will hear a lot of mention of the Trans-Canada Highway, we will be on it now until Tuesday the 21st.  So I thought I'd share a wider perspective on the road, not just our experience of it this holiday.

Trans-Canada Highway

The Trans-Canada Highway sign in Ontario 

The Trans-Canada Highway rolls on into the distance

The Trans-Canada Highway is an amazing road, and well worth a visit if you've not yet travelled along it. But from East to West (St. John's, Newfoundland to Victoria, British Columbia) it is 8030 kilometres which is 4990 miles, a daunting journey even for seasoned travellers. Luckily for us we had done part of the route before as we shall explore later. 

The Trans-Canada Highway - Courtesy of Encyclopedia Brittanica

Previous Travels in the USA

Over the years I have travelled by car from the Eastern to the Western USA five times (in 1997, 2000, 2002, 2013 and 2015).  In 1997 my sister, her husband and I travelled from New York to San Francisco via New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, South Dakota, Wyoming, Montana, Utah and Nevada. In 2000 we travelled from the east on to Chicago and followed the general direction of Route 66 to California via Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico and Arizona. In 2002 Drew and I went from New York to San Francisco along a southern route and in 2013 from Washington DC to San Francisco and in 2015 from New York to Las Vegas. So why not do the same in Canada?

What is Possible in the USA is not in Canada

But it is a bit of a shock to find that East to West in the contiguous USA is only 2,802 miles when Canada coast to coast is more than double that at 5,780 miles. So you see it was probably a bit far to do in one holiday, so this year we focussed on the parts we had not visited before.

Having travelled along the Highway in New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island and Nova Scotia in 2011, we only had Quebec, Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta and British Columbia to do. So far we have travelled on the route in the first of these two and should be in Manitoba on Tuesday. 

Even local authors, like Jane McLean for example, think that Montreal to Vancouver is The Ultimate Canada Road Trip and we started even earlier than this on our route along this amazing road. By the end of the holiday we will have done it all. Another local author extols the roads virtues here. As you'll know, if you have read the previous blog posts.

So, we will soon have part 1 of the journey complete:

The first 'half' of our route

Then it will be time to head to the West Coast following this route:

The second half of our route - starting at Winnipeg

We are ready for the journey, I hope you are still willing to come along with us for the ride, at least on the blog. I wish you happy reading, and us happy travelling.