Epilogue

So in the end, this was a great trip for me. Much of it was about the “journey”, actually travelling through these remote areas, viewing the scenery and getting a view of life from another perspective. Though it would have been nice to have had someone to take the trip with, being on my own made things a lot easier and less stressful in many ways. I'm also really glad that I decided not to take my trailer. First, it would have been too big for just me, and it would have made a lot of the drives more difficult. I didn't really have any issues with my camping set up during the first part of the trip, and I have to say, living out of my car for the final 4 nights of the trip worked out REALLY well. I guess this proves that proper planning really pays off!

I took some really nice hikes, had a lot of fun riding my bike on both the mountain biking trails I rode, as well as on some of the bike paths too, saw a lot of beautiful scenery and met some really nice people along the way.

In total, I drove 4689 miles over 14 days. Unfortunately, the day after I returned home, my car developed a major problem with one of the front brake calipers and I had to have some repair work done. Fortunately, this DIDN'T happen during the trip!!!

The only part of the trip that I wasn't thrilled with was the day when I drove from Labrador City to Quebec City. In addition to Route 389 being a difficult road, there was also more traffic on that road than on many of the other drives I did. In some cases, I would get behind a really slow moving vehicle, which was frustrating, while at others, there were cars that were behind me, that were getting frustrated with me. I always made an effort to move to the side of the road so that cars could pass me, but in most cases, other drivers in front of me would not extend the same courtesy.

Once I got off Route 389 and onto Route 138, I was expecting things to go better, but as I described, they didn't. In hindsight, I definitely would not have continued from Baie-Comeau to Quebec City on the same day I drove from Labrador City to Baie-Comeau.

As the Canadian government continues to pave some of these roads, and make other improvements, driving the “loop” through Labrador will probably become somewhat less of an adventure. I'm really glad I got the chance to take this trip, but I don't know that I would ever do it again. I would definitely go back to New Brunswick, and Fundy National Park as well as Newfoundland, but I can't say there would be any reason for me to go back to Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia or Labrador.

I have been in all 50 U.S. States, and now, I've been in 6 of the 13 Canadian provinces. When I originally started planning my travel through Canada several years ago, I had drawn up a plan to visit 12 of the 13 provinces on one trip. The 13th province, Nunavut, cannot be reached by car, and is so remote and difficult to travel to and through, that I did not attempt to include it in my plan. That original plan was a 56 day expedition, that would cover 14,190 miles, and that was just the “point-to-point” driving, and didn't include any additional driving once I arrived at a destination.

So, now that I've completed the eastern portion of that journey, maybe the next adventure will be to do the rest of it … I guess I'll have to wait and see!