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All Photos Eva Holland
Starting Point: Ottawa, Ontario
Finish Line: Whitehorse, Yukon
Days on the road: 12
Days spent actually driving: 9.5
Kilometers driven: 7866
Time zones visited: 4
Provinces and territories passed through: 6
Dollars spent on gas: $960.98
Highest gas price paid: $1.19 per litre
Lowest gas price paid: $0.84 per litre
Cups of coffee/tea consumed: 24
PB & J sandwiches made and eaten roadside: 4
Power Bars choked down while driving in lieu of a lunch stop: 3
Fast food meals eaten (including Veggie Delite subs and Tim Horton’s bagels): 6
Fast food meals eaten (not including Veggie Delite subs and Tim Horton’s bagels): 1
Cups of Mr. Noodles prepared in gas station microwaves and consumed while idling in the station parking lot: 1
Strangers at gas stations who spotted my Ontario plates and told me I was “a long way from home”: 3
Days in which that sort of exchange was my most substantial conversation with another human being: 4
Gas station restrooms visited: 17
Gas station restrooms with sketchy malfunctioning locks that resulted in a trucker walking in on me: 1
Establishments dubiously named “The Beaver Motel” spotted en route: 2
Motel rooms rented (not at The Beaver Motel): 4
Dorm beds crashed in: 2
Friends and relations imposed on for couches, hide-a-beds and spare rooms en route: 3
Outrageously marked-up pay-per-view movies purchased in motel rooms: 1
Number of minutes spent waiting in line to see “The Twilight Saga: New Moon” in a mining town in northern British Columbia: 30
Number of times I was served by an Australian on a WHV at a coffee shop/restaurant/hostel in the Rockies: 5
Wildlife spotted roadside: 1 buck deer, 10+ elk, 4 coyotes, 2 bighorn sheep, 1 grizzly bear, 1 bald eagle, 5 moose, 1 fox, 60+ bison
Giant roadside “world’s largest” sculptures visited: 3
Number of times I topped up my wiper fluid: 4
Number of times I cleaned caked-on mud off my headlight covers: 3
Number of times I forgot to clean my headlight covers and drove blind through the darkness for an hour, following the tail lights of the car ahead of me and hoping for the best: 1
Days I spent dreaming about my next trans-Canada trip: Days 1 through 9
Days I spent vowing never to do another trans-Canada trip, and questioning why I ever wanted to do the first one: Days 10, 11
Days I spent dreaming about my next trans-Canada trip all over again: Day 12
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Who doesn’t like a good road trip? If the open road is calling you check out 6 Rules of the American Roadtrip & The Great Matador Roadtrip: Vancouver to San Francisco
Eva Holland
Eva Holland is a freelance writer, Senior Editor of World Hum and a longtime contributor to the Matador community. She lives in Canada’s Yukon Territory and blogs about Alaska and Yukon travel at Travelers North.
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I liked the stats. I really wanna get up to Canada and do that drive. Maybe in the summer. Nice Beaver Motel stats, haha.
Come on up!
This is a trip that I’ve always wanted to take. I’ve had friends who drove the trip in an RV that they delivered for a company. Sounds interesting. Now I’ll have your numbers to consult for the long drive across Canada.
Definitely recommended, Donna! Let me know if you ever decide to go for it.
These are freaking awesome, especially The Beaver Motel.
Ha, indeed.
Loved following your journey via Twitter/blogs, Eva, and this just caps it off. So psyched for you.
Thanks, Hal! I’m psyched too. Keep me posted as you guys start the homecoming process.
Departures did the exact same thing, except they went all the way to Nunavut.
PS: If you didn’t know Departures is an incredible Canadian travel show.
Sounds sweet – though they must have flown in. No roads into Nunavut that I know of.
Yeah they did.
Awesome. See you up in the Great White North one of these days?
I sure hope so! You still aiming to be around Van in February? I land on the 20th.
Yep, we’ll be landing on the 17th. See u there! We’ll go watch a team Canada hockey game in a pub somewhere
Nice!! It’s a plan.
My brother road his bike across Canada (coast to coast). Took longer than your drive (just a bit), but he enjoyed it. I can’t imagine biking or driving. I just can’t do anything that long — I get antsy after 3 hour drives!
Love your post though! It captures the trip rather nicely and we can all relate.
Haha cool stats. I especially like the one about New Moon! =)
Me and 12 friends had a hitchhiking race from Halifax to Vancouver 4 years ago with HI letting us stay at the hostels for free… took us a week. A great way to travel