Typical morning, minus Kelly of course. We slacked a little this morning, so we didn’t leave Minot until around 10:00am. Today, we’re hoping, is our last day of driving. As we drove today, the landscape became more and more open with fields. It started to look more and more like Alberta as we went. Large yellow fields of sunflowers passed us by as we drove through Berthold. At exactly 12:00pm, we entered into Montana. Montana would be the 23rd and last state we enter for the trip. To get to Calgary, we’re going to drive 3/4 of the way across it too, to Shelby, where we will turn North for the final time. Entering Montana also means entering into Mountain time, so 12:00pm is now 11:00am for us.

So much driving today. Chris and I drove in two hour intervals as the long, open road can play tricks on the eyes, and with nothing much to look at, getting sleeping is common. At 3:50pm in the afternoon we hit Havre, Montana where the temperature was 37 degrees (or 98 for you Americans). Now we’re talking. Right back into the heat as we were for so long before. The Gatorades were a great addition today. At 5:00pm, we hit the record temp of 38. I’m going to miss the heat during the day. Not at night, but during the day. Also, when we stopped at a rest area for a bathroom break, the same two trucks with RV campers pulled in right behind us. One of the ladies came over and we chatted for a bit. They had spent the night in Bagley and were on their way to Alaska. They said they were passing through Calgary on their way too. Who knows, maybe we’ll see them again.

There have been plenty of birds hanging out on the road today, some of which managed to just miss our zooming vehicle. But about 15 miles east of Shelby, Montana, we got a small surprise when we finally ended up hitting a small bird, smack on the windshield. The poor thing hit with a crack and got stuck under the left windshield wiper, it’s two tiny legs pointing skyward. I turned on the wiper in an attempt to clear it off, but that didn’t help. I ended up stopped just before Shelby to remove the small bird with the ice scraper. Poor thing. A sign that the end is here, I’m sure.

After hitting Shelby and then heading north, we finally came to Sweetgrass, Montana. We stopped into the duty-free shop before crossing to examine the cheap booze, but never ended up getting any as funding is at the all-time low for the trip. We cross the border from Montana into Couttes, Alberta, Canada where we drove off into the western sunset on the final stretch. We passed through Lethbridge where we grabbed some Subway for dinner and at exactly 10:00pm on Saturday, July 29th, we entered back into Calgary. Immediately the thought of the very day we left entered into my mind. The thoughts of when we left the city on our way to Banff, our eyes wide with anticipation, kept going through my head. I couldn’t believe it. It was really over. 59 days on the road, travelling over 12,000 miles through two countries with two great friends, was over. The trip may not have lasted a lifetime, but the memories sure will.

Someday I know I’ll do it again. Someday. But for now, it’s back to reality. Time to find a job. Time to find a place to live. Time to sort through the 1,700 photos Kelly and I took along the way. Time to… remember.

We departed from the Top ‘O The Morn’ Campground at 8:30am this morning. Chris started off the driving and at 9:21am we crossed into Minnesota. We managed to find a deli today, so when we had lunch at 12:45, we were able to have ham sandwiches. At the rest area, two trucks with large RV trailers pulled in and two elderly couples had their lunch as well. At around 1:20pm we stopped for gas and guessed we were just below Manitoba because holy-moly is was damn windy. We lost a plastic bag out the window because of it. Heh.

Being back in the States, we were able to pick up cheap Gatorade again too. We grabbed two 8-packs for $10 today. Smoke’n deal!

Somewhere around 3:00pm we drove through Nelson County, North Dakota. Ohhhh, the memories with Kelly. Not too sure what time we hit North Dakota either. We drove a long way today as we wanted to ensure we got home to Calgary sometime tomorrow. At 6:00pm we passed through Rugby, North Dakota and sometime after that we found Roughrider Campground in Minot, North Dakota where we grabbed a campsite. After dinner, which consisted of roasting hotdogs over the fire (of which I managed to drop mine directly into the fire and when I attempted to “flick” it out, managed to get it covered in sand and ash) we headed to the store where we couldn’t turn down $1.99 pints of ice cream. Ooooh, another reminder of Kelly. I remember when we payed $4.99 for these things along the way. We’ll see how long after the trip my ice cream addiction sticks around.

At some point today, before reaching Minot, we passed through Bagley, North Dakota. Bagley is apparently the direct center of North America. Pretty cool.

Pancakes for breakfast at Kelly’s this morning. Chris and Kelly had plain while I decided to drop some chocolate chips into mine. Mmm, good. Despite having the pancakes, however, today is a sad day. Today we departed from Kelly for the last time, not knowing if or when we would ever meet up with her again. Its back to reality for Kelly now and soon for Chris and I as well.

Kelly, thank you so much for the wonderful time. You were a blast to hang out with and you made the trip worth while. We roughed it at times and you stuck with us and you were always there to calm the moments of frustration. The memories you helped create are enough to last a lifetime and for that, you will always be a great friend and never forgotten. Hopefully at some point down the road (pun intended) we can get together again and create some more lasting memories while remembering the time we packed ourselves into a Jeep and drove around the country together. It may have been 43 days this time, but you are the kind of person someone could travel with forever.

Well, back on the road. Not far for Chris and I today as we headed to Guelph, Ontario to hang out with some more friends we haven’t seen in a while. We played 9-hole round of golf with our friend Ted before returning to his place to play some poker and have dinner with him and his girlfriend Danielle. That evening we hit the town for pool, drinks, free pizza, and good times. Oh yeah, the good times were finalized when we got pulled over on the way home thanks to some yelling out the car window… *caugh, Ted, caugh*. Danielle was our designated driver, so we got to go free after the officer quizzed her. We laughed afterwards. An afternoon and evening well spent in Guelph. Thanks Ted and D.

Well, it’s been nine days since we returned to our hometown. Instead of giving a summary for each day (as I did very little for some days and don’t know what the others did) I’m simply going to give a summary of what I did over the last nine days.

Most of my days consisted of waking up, having breakfast, and then hanging out in and by the pool. I bought some CDs as well and backed up all of the photos I took. 16 CDs for the raw format and 4 for the JPEGs (of which I burned for Kelly). With the Tour De France on television, I rotated throughout the day between watching the television and swimming. I played a round of golf with my friend Jeremys, Craig, and Jeff on the Monday. I hadn’t swung a club in almost 2.5 years, so I was a tad rusty. It was good to get back at it though. I have my clubs back home in Calgary and really want to hit up some links after I return.

Anyway, other than trying to gain back the 7.5 pounds I lost on our 45 day drive, I didn’t do a whole lot. I got to see my grandfather and my aunt and uncle for dinner and played some poker with Chris and our friend Jeremy. On Saturday the 22nd, Chris and I attended the first wedding of our high school friends. Good times. Open bar from 2:30pm to 1:00am. It was great to see friends I hadn’t seen in years and I even ripped up the dance floor a couple of times. Something I don’t normally do. Congratulations Erin and Adam! All the best in your years to come!

So, after being home for nine days, it is now time to complete the trip. At 9:30am this morning after saying good-bye to our families, we headed out on the road to Kelly’s in Toronto. We got there around 12:30pm and spent the afternoon checking out a couple of sites in the city. We met up with my younger brother at Union Station and headed to the CN Tower. I had never gone up it before, so we figured we’d do it so that we could at least say we did. I mean common, it is the tallest building in the world. The view was similar to most other towers we went up (Space Needle, Stratosphere, and Calgary tower). What the CN Tower has that no other tower has, is the glass floor. Pretty cool. Lots of people were scared to walk over it, but most were not. People were laying down and taking photos while others jumped on the glass to prove their courage. Chris and I walked out, but Kelly merely took a few steps before stepping back. It was pretty neat.

After the CN Tower we headed to the Hockey Hall of Fame. My brother decided to depart as he wasn’t much for museum-style activities, so Chris, Kelly and myself spent just over an hour checking out the history of hockey.

Not wanting to walk anymore, we headed back to Kelly’s house where we spent the evening. We had spaghetti and meatballs for dinner and watched a movie. Oh and we watched a slide show of all of our photos while remembering the trip. It took almost 2.5 hours to go through. It was fun to look back at the things we had done and what we had seen. Something we will all surely remember for the rest of our lives.

An early rise today. We packed up after an excellent night of free camping. Our destination today is The Big Apple. Eager to get there, Chris started off the driving by scoring himself a speeding ticket. Needless to say, this set the pace for his mood for the day.

The drive into the city wasn’t too shabby. We got to Liberty State Park in decent time and stopped for a look around and some photos of the Statue Of Liberty. Unfortunately all we could see was her back, but it was alright. After the park it was off to Manhattan and it’s action-packed streets of pedestrians and automobiles.

Downtown New York was the same as I remembered, as I had been there back in high school for a Rugby tournament. People everywhere, bikes, cars, and the constant sound of horns. We parked in a sketchy lot just outside of Little Italy where we basically handed the keys to our vehicle over to some guy who parked it for us in a lot that seemed packed to the max.

Our first stop was ground zero, the giant hole that is all that remains of the World Trade Centre. Once a towering staple in the New York City skyline, the twin towers are completely gone. The giant hole that remains after September 11th wasn’t what I expected either. I thought there was going to be some type of memorial, but all we saw was people staring into the large hole while taking photos. There was a large printed timeline for people to see and names of the many people who died were listed. I mean, I guess I shouldn’t have expected much, but it seemed like not much was being done there. A few of the surrounding buildings were under construction, but other than the large hole, we didn’t see much.

After ground zero, we headed up towards Times Square. Stopping for lunch at a small patio restaurant we sipped (and chugged) some well-needed lemonade. The rest of the day was spent walking up towards Central Park where we tested the subway. Taking the train back down to a “close” proximity to where we parked, then walking the remainder of the way to the parking lot. By now we were all tired, but Chris’ mood decided to get the better of him at this point. After getting into traffic and cooling down, we finally made our way out of the city and headed to Beaver Pond Campground, our last camping night before getting home to the parents’ houses.

A nice little campground that seemed to have lots of spiders. The only thing that seemed odd was that they had wooden platforms for the tents. Seemed odd because you can’t drive a tent peg into wood. Anyway, we cooked up a whole bunch of pasta (even though we weren’t THAT hungry), hung out for a bit, burned lots of stuff (okay, Kelly burned lots of stuff), then we headed to bed.