The adventures of a Chinese guy, his sports car, and an instant pot

Woke up really early today, and drove to Thunder Bay. Found a cute little boutique “Victorian” style hotel on the booking app for a very reasonable price.

It’s very clean, the elevators are very old and “retro” and the 5th floor view of Lake Superior was, superior! I just wish their wifi was more reliable. I see they all use Ubiquiti equipment in this property! Unfortunately, half the APs here appear not to be powered on, or mounted properly. I’ll upload some pictures later of the view outside when I have some better connections.

Slept in very late, did a little exploring and had dinner at Ikea of all places. lol

Saw this Reddit article. Sound familiar? https://old.reddit.com/r/AskMen/comments/dakkhh/fellas_how_often_do_you_go_midnight_driving/

The grind begins again tomorrow, and believe it or not, I have been enjoying every second of it.

I didn’t make it to the hotel yeterday until 2AM!

I left Kamloops, and drove to Calgary. I was planning to explore the city, and stay overnight. As I drove deep into the city, I received a phone call from my mom. Apparently, there is a serious freak snow storm reaching Calgary the next day. The forecast called for almost -40C weather, with lots of snow! My car is NOT snow ready. I rushed out of the city, fighting a major rain storm at night on the highway, and drove Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan. I slept for a few hours, until a dumbass friend called me at 8AM! I think I drove for almost 20 hours straight, crossed two provinces, and gained an hour in time zone differences!

I knew I couldn’t stay in Moose Jaw long either, since I knew the snow storm was approaching there also. So I immediately drove further east to Winnipeg. I didn’t arrive at the hotel until almost 10 at night. If the weather reports are to be trusted, it looks like I don’t have to worry about snow storm reaching further east for the next week or so. I decide to stay an extra night in Winnipeg to rest after driving driving so much these past two days.

I’ll be sleeping in tomorrow. Please, this time, nobody call me!

Oh it appeared that I am officially an Uncle, while I was sleeping in Moose Jaw around 4AM local time. At least, that was when my mom messaged my phone when the baby was delivered! This baby truly has amazing timing!

It looks like I will miss meeting my future nephew by a few hours. Darn!

I’m currently resting in Kamloops. I’ve already passed Coquihalla, so the scary part is behind me. It doesn’t look like there is much to see or do in this town. They do have a Costco here, but I have never seen one that is so empty!

This road trip has been a dream come true. I had a blast every point of the way. My biggest goal was to meet my future nephew in real life before I leave Vancouver. Unfortunately, it looks like that might not happen. According to my sister-in-law, the weather of the mountain path to Coquihalla (which I will be driving through) is predicted to snow this Friday. I’m not thrilled with the idea of driving up a mountain in snow with a rear wheel drive vehicle with all season rubber. My brothers friend offered to loan me tire chains to make the climb, but I don’t think that’s not really necessary. So since the weather forecast calls for sunny weather this Wednesday, it looks like I will be leaving early that day. Also, I have been told that the path between British Columbia and Alberta has a mandatory snow tire law by October 1st. If my vehicle is not equipped with snow tires by then, I woud’ve been turned around, and refused entry on the highway by the RCMP!

I’ll miss this city. I have absolutely every intention to make this road trip again. So with great sadness, the next final entries of this blog will be detailing my adventures of driving back home.

They say time flies when you’re having fun. These past few weeks truly have passed quite quickly.

This morning, I woke up to an empty house. My mom wasn’t home, neither was my brother, or sister in law. The hood range light was on, the Instant Pot was Instant Pot’ing. And I thought to myself, this is it! I’m about to become an Uncle!

I could barely eat. I’m all excited, anxious to meet my new nephew. I’m too nervous to leave the house to grab breakfast or coffee, so I just stayed at home and grabbed a small snack as I nervously waited while sitting in the dining room with my laptop. I know that if they are at the medical facilities giving birth, the last thing they need would be some dumb ass calling their cell phones to ask whats up.

Several hours elapsed. And suddenly, I hear my brothers car turn into the driveway. (The STI has a very distinct engine tone…) I’m all smiles as I reach out of the house to meet the new bundle of joy. Until I saw my sister in law was still very pregnant. Darn.

They all had a good laugh. Apparently, they all went out for breakfast, and a bit of shopping. They decided to let me sleep in for a bit over the weekend.

It appears the little baby is quite at home, and not ready to come out yet. As we patiently wait for him to meet us, we decided to spend some more time exploring this wonderful city, since it was unseasonably sunny today. Might as well take advantage of this, right?

The first stop we went to was Cates Park. Again, it was very big, and beautiful there. And because it was not prime tourist season, I did not have to fight other tourists for parking, or the crowds in the park. We practically had the whole park to ourselves to explore!

Next was the Cleveland Dam. Damn, the hiking was very satisfying in this park. Also, seeing such a large Dam up close in real life was quite a humbling experience.

I agree, the weather currently is not very pleasant. It’s rainy, gray, and gloomy. Right now it is 14 degrees C in Vancouver at 10:30PM local time. It is cold, but still pleasant enough where I easily drive with my windows rolled down to McDonalds for my evening coffee to unwind. I say all this, because I just saw a girl walk into McD with a full length Canada Goose jacket!

Let me just preface this by saying that I *love* my full length Canada Goose Expedition jacket back in Toronto. It makes the -25 degrees C winter blizzards almost tolerable as I walk to my car from my house. However, how can people wear jackets like that in above freezing temperatures? If I was wearing a jacket like that in this kind of climate, I’d be sweating non stop! This isn’t a one off situation either, I see plenty of people wearing really thick winter jackets as they walk into the coffee shop. I see malls turning up their heat already, and people I still see people wearing several layers of clothing to keep warm.

You guys don’t know what cold is!

I’ll be making the big road trip back home soon. I need to start before October 1st, since winter tires are mandatory by then in BC. I went to my brothers friends place, and we did the usual fluid changes after purchasing the supplies from a store called Lordco. If there is one thing that can convince me to stay in Vancouver, that would be Lordco. That store is massive!

Second oil change in about a month. Looking forward to my road trip back home!

I love how much public parks, sites and attractions to be explored in this beautiful city. My brother told me I should go check out a place called Horseshoe Bay. Luckily, since we are at the tail end of peak tourist season, parking was easy to be found, and we didn’t have to fight much of a crowd to see the various attractions. I think my Mom enjoyed the scenery. It also helped that it was super sunny today, making things much more enjoyable.

Oh, what’s this? Cypress Provincial Park is right beside us… Perhaps I should make a hill climb up there again with the sun! I actually saw so much more since it wasn’t rainy or foggy today.

One of the best parts of this road trip so far is that I am able to explore everything on my own terms, with my own vehicle. I don’t need to rely on friends or families to drive me, and be my tour guide, since all I need is a cell phone connection with a data plan. I know, I can always rent a car at my destination, but it isn’t the same as having your own car that you actually enjoy driving, instead of driving some (potentially) abused American budget sedan. If things work out, I truly hope to make this a regular occurrence in the future. Hell, I might drive to Vancouver again next year and actually drive out to Victoria! Let me see if I can convince my youngest brother to join me by then. That way I can get an extra co-driver.