For a truly unfathomable reason, I thought it was possible to drive from Inuvik directly to Yellowknife, through the NWT. So, in my mind, next spring I was driving to Whitehorse, Dawson City, taking the Dempster to Inuvik, going to Yellowknife, and then heading south through Edmonton.

I have no idea where my head was. I knew better than that.

So, here is my revised cross-country itinerary:

Rae should be banned for life from Google maps

I know how insane that looks, but it’s actually reasonably doable if I save days by riding hard to Winnipeg (averaging 500km per day).

The most likely scenario, though, will be that I’ll return to Alberta and Saskatchewan as planned in the spring and just go straight from Brandon to Saskatoon to Edmonton to Yellowknife to interior BC by the most direct route.

Wow. Quite the carrot.

Rae goes nuts with Google maps

Rae acknowledges that she ‘cannot see everything’ in the 28 days she has to cross the country, knows that she has a year ahead of her, but still decides to play the ‘let’s pretend this is the only chance I’ve got’ game.

Next thing you know, she’s going from Ottawa to Val D’Or to Thunder Bay to Winnipeg to Brandon to Regina to Moosejaw to Saskatoon to Edmonton to Calgary to Banff and Canmore to Medicine Hat to Fort MacLeod to the Crowsnest Pass to Kelowna to Victoria.

Total mileage (or kilometrage, as I like to put it): 5,950

Total km per day I’d have to do: 200

Which means this is totally doable if I alternate long days and stay put days.

Needless to say, I plan to revise this itinerary. 😀

So far my only MUST is that I hit Brandon, MB, at some point since it is home to the largest reptile zoo in Canada!!! I’ll be able to see the longest snake in Canada AND the only two Nile crocodiles in this country!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It’s been fun to look at the maps, but now it’s back to serious, get on the road, sort of planning. Oh, and I wish a GPS would fall out of the sky; those things are hard to shop for. At least, I’ve narrowed it to a Garmin something.