accotement mou

Canada has adapted a horrible, horrible U.S. tradition and taken it to a whole new level: the Strip Mall. Oh. My. God. They're HUGE. There are whole oceans of strip malls that have multiple highway exits, and they contain about half the same crap stores you find in the U.S. Though, for fun, we've been driving slowly past each store until we find open wifi, then sitting in the parked car while we look up hostels and make dinner.

Last night we stayed at the Backpacker's Inn Hostel in Ottawa, Ontario. For $25, it was about as cheap as we could find, and kind of awesome. It was a 3-floor house downtown that must have slept 30 or so - there were eight in our room. I'm getting used to sleeping on any available couch/bed/tree root, and that thin bunkbed mattress was amazing! We made french toast in the morning with some of our bigger bread pieces that crumbled in the car crap tornado.

Ottawa seems pretty cool but we really couldn't stay long, especially when they charge for parking in five minute increments. We went running around town and took a shortcut running up a ton of stairs along a set of locks. It was laundry day, so I put on my last clean clothing remnants, including shorts over leggings and no bra and we killed two hours playing sudoku in a tiny laundromat. Next up, the National Gallery of Canada, which was way bigger than we expected and we got super lost in all the rooms and left with bugged-out eyes from art overload.

Then on the road again! We decided on Montreal, and halfway there, after checking out yet another misleading campground sign, did our strip mall internet thing and found another hostel. This is where we discover important differences between provinces: primarily, language! What the hell? We don't speak French, and Quebec is FRENCH. We practiced (butchered) all the signs we saw on the way here, and figured out enough to get around. Our hostel is a 2-flat squashed between two others on a narrow street that reminds me of Philly or Boston. Beer is way cheaper (what a relief!) and gas seems to be getting cheaper - 1.07/liter. This city is freakin huge; we'll have to see what's actually here and report back.

nord sud est ouest

Car vomit.

I crapped my pants?!

Not so much.

The strawberry for Canadian Tire. Still not sure what they do, but I bet it includes tires.

Canada is just a big expensive United States.....

We woke up to this:

We drove 640 km. you do the math, we.. I mean, Erin did.

We saw a lot of this...

there was some weather...
it got pretty bad actually... Like the beer, gas wasn't cheap...

We went shopping in a Costco type place called Loblaws (which we pronounced low blows) and set up camp in the car.
In all honesty, we probably ate one of the best meals of the trip so far.
Salad: mixed greens with herbs, avocado, cucumber, heirloom tomatoes, feta, and tuna.
tonight we might stay in a Jail turned Hostel, we'll let ya know how that goes with no reservation.

mass servesas cie vous pleie...

We made it!
Apparently camping season is over in Canada; pulled off highway 17 so many times to find a "for sale" sign or a locked gate... but for some reason after last nights stay we remained calm, decided we wouldn't pay more than $50 for a shitty hotel and settled here, in Blind River..... Canada.
Beer is really not cheap, $11.85 for a 6pk of PBR... fuckin' import.
We settled on "Canada" beer.... literally. it tastes like the crap my mom drinks. But the room is warm, there's a microwave, and a shower. life is good.

Real pictures

Our film pictures from the last few days. Weird how so few places sell/develop film anymore.

You Pee

We've crossed the UP and stopped for a bit in Sault Ste Marie, MI to develop film and prepare for Canadian Adventure. We found a free National Park Service campground last night in the dark and pitched our tent on wet, sandy leaves and cooked dinner on the stove under the picnic table. We had assumed there'd be water there, but found none and had only a few cups, which was not enough to cook with, drink, and save for coffee in the morning, so we had to make some tough decisions. I slept like a rock in my snowpants and two sleeping bags, but Kelly had a harder time, and we woke up around 9 and finally saw our campsite in the woods. We packed to the sound of hunting gunshots. Moving on, we drove along Lake Michigan in simultaneous sun and rain and took hobo showers in a grocery store bathroom and probably have been drinking too much coffee. We hope Canada has the internet and good, free campgrounds. And no snow. Yay! iphone photos:

The lake of Michigan!
Spongy seaweed.

Seaweed (lakeweed?) piles and driftwood.
Our campsite in the mornin.
Cooking in the dark and rain! Quinoa with pepper, sweet potato and apricot. We'll have to work on our manifold stew skills tomorrow.

Things that go BUMP in the night, and/or shit that woke Kelly up.

2:52am Erin messing with her sleeping bag zipper
3:10am it started raining
leaves rustling
4:02am Truck of hunters parked in camp spot next to us, thought about raping and killing us then thought against it. drove off. Erin thinks it was probably the park ranger.....
4:47am Erin farted loudly
leaves rustling
5:02am loud airplane
leaves rustling
6:00am morning came and went
9:30am we woke up