Let's just get one thing straight; Canada is a pretty big country.

I don't think I really took that in when we booked the Canadian Roadtrip with Trek America. 25 days of travelling from the West Coast to the East. Seattle to New York. Straight across that giant continent in a van. Wow.

Needless to say, the middle portion of our trip that stretched across the prairies and took us from the majestic beauty of the National Parks and into the city portion of our trip (Niagara, Montreal, Quebec, Toronto, New York were all still lying in wait) was pretty much one long, endless roadtrip.

I'll say it; it got a little boring. It was pretty much a case of wake up early, pack up, get in the van, drive for hours, stop off at gas stations (eat lots of Cheetos and ice cream sandwiches), stop off and see something for an hour or two, drive for hours, get to the campsite, eye up the swimming pool, set up camp, cook dinner, wash up, finish our chores just as the pool closed, sit around the campfire, go to bed, get up early... it could really have done with one or two break days just so we could chill out and stretch our legs a bit.

But even so, the journey wasn't all that bad.

We got to see both the world's largest tee pee just outside of Calgary and the world's second largest moose just outside of Moose Jaw. (What kind of a weird name is Moose Jaw? On that note, we also stopped at Medicine Hat - what is this naming system?!)

We also got to see buffalo running through the prairies and visited the old tunnels beneath Moose Jaw where prohibition-era gangsters are rumoured to have smuggled alcohol under the instruction of Al Capone. We also had a blissful night sleeping in proper beds in a trailer park (including having a rather tipsy trailer party) and wandered around a covered market on the outskirts of Winnipeg before driving home to the sounds and sights of a storm on the horizon (which freaked us all out because camping. Luckily it didn't quite reach us!)

After those endless days in the van, we finished in a campground near the ginormous Lake Superior and sprinkled magic dust on the fire to turn it blue before traipsing off into the dark woods surrounding the camp, looking for moose (we didn't find any).

By the end of it all, we were tired and a little cramped up. But we were more than ready for the next set of adventures along the shores of Lake Superior.