5 Silly American Questions for Canada

1. Is there a real speed limit?

• About 15 minutes after we crossed the bridge from Saulte St. Marie we had a serious confusion on our hands. It wasn’t how to change the newer cars from the US to metric system. That was fixed quickly for the speed limits. The confusion was we were the only ones following it! Yes friends! But then my new husband did something that would probably make a lot of us sweat. After some hours of debate on whether or not to follow the traffic or speed limit, he asked a local! Turns out the speed limit is more of a guideline. He told us what speed to not go over and to keep it under 50 kph over. Fantastic!

2. Where is everybody?

• Not the silliest of questions after about four hours on the Trans-Canadian Highway. The thing is Canada is populated, but other than a couple of one house towns and a few gas stations we didn’t see major towns for about eight hours. It turns out that the highway is kept clear of development and you have to get off and go a few km either direction. It seemed like a good idea to keep traffic moving on a two lane highway across major distances.

3. How does one prepay for petroleum?

• This trip has humbled a world traveler like Bee. I have learned that the US is full of convenience. I have traveled to 36 countries and yet this one thing caught me off guard. I have paid at the pump for my gas for so long in a self-service style that besides prepaying in cash, I was left laughing at my inability to solve how to get gas. Luckily my new husband has a head on him and knew exactly what to do and he also gets a good laugh. It has now become our running joke during this trip. Bee can’t even pump her own gas.

4. I just saw a what?

• During the trip we have seen some amazing things. All of them worth every minute of the 18 hour drive down a two lane highway. The first we saw a wolf cross the road with a turkey in its mouth. It stunned me as wolves have been missing from Michigan for some time. I was very excited to see that. My husband’s hopes were set on a moose. And he did see one per se. There was a gentleman that had one on a flat-bed truck while we were driving east of Montreal. It was a very large male and so he got to glimpse one even if it wasn’t alive. The next thing was a shock to both of us. A wild boar. They are an invasive species and so this one was hunted, but there all the same.

5. What does the sign say?

• The signs have kept us very entertained. The public awareness is placed on signs like ‘Do not feed the bears’, ‘Driving high is impaired driving’, and so on. We thought maybe the US should adopt some of the more fun ones. At some point they were all in french which my husband can understand but I cannot. Then it declined to an amusing game of just stick figures and emojis. We made things up for all of them. Some of them were obvious like men at work. But others like gears and atoms were very confusing. Either way we laughed well and made up our own understanding. Like the marriage chapels instead of restrooms since they were holding hands which then could lead to baptisms since there were signs of hands and a raindrop. I am so glad though that they were so informative, it was very useful in traveling through Canada on the way to Maine.