Past the Great Lakes and through the prairies

To cover a significant distance, we took four days of intense driving tours with an average of 10 hours of driving per day (without breaks and gas stops). Our route was as follows:

Sault Ste. Marie -> Thunder Bay -> Winnipeg -> Regina/Moose Jaw (in Regina, we decided to drive a bit further to Moose Jaw) -> Dinosaur Provincial Park

In these cities, we stayed overnight in Walmart parking lots. Additionally, we crossed two more time zones: currently, we have an 8-hour time difference to Germany. In Thunder Bay, we also visited Kakabeka Falls. The waterfall is beautiful and stands out due to its natural tiered structure, which makes the water flow down the rocks in a more diverse way.

About the landscape:

The area around the northern part of Lake Superior (the largest freshwater lake in the world) is breathtakingly beautiful. Lake Superior is an endless body of water with numerous amazing bays and impressive islands against a mountainous backdrop in the north. There are not many people living there, so the cities are only a few hundred inhabitants large and gas stations become less frequent. Despite the beauty, the constant view of the water and especially the forest can be exhausting in the long run, and you can't fully enjoy this otherwise stunning sight. The forests, in particular, become overwhelming over time, as you constantly see nothing but forests and no end in sight. There is simply no panoramic view, only forest, and you cannot see through the forest because the trees grow so densely together. Therefore, the prairies were a very pleasant change for us. At the beginning, the landscape was characterized by very flat and huge fields on sandy soil with only a few scattered trees, which provided an unprecedented long-distance view. The air was very pleasantly dry. From the western part of Saskatchewan, it gradually became hilly, with the hills seemingly gliding towards the horizon in a wave-like pattern.

Observations and insights:

- Gasoline was cheapest in Winnipeg by far, with gas prices being under a dollar in Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and partly in Alberta (it was the most expensive in Quebec, although the prices there fluctuated greatly, they were very consistent and relatively cheap in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, and became more expensive the further into the wilderness we went in Ontario).

- Unfortunately, you are not always notified of the time zone changes (we only received a hint in western Ontario).

- The road signs constantly look different, not only from province to province but also within a province. We noticed this very strongly in Ontario: in the beginning, moose were depicted as calm large animals that occasionally cross the road. Later, they were portrayed as constantly running aggressively across the road. By the way, we actually saw two female moose on the side of the road, which seemed almost as big as horses to us.

- Canadians are not afraid of large, tall, and oversized vehicles. We often saw bus-like RVs towing another vehicle, such as a pickup truck or SUV (after all, you have to stay mobile on vacation). Once, a car even towed a boat behind it. This would be unthinkable in Germany.