There’s a long trip, then there is a proper road trip. What’s the difference? The long trip is where I pack gear in the car, hit the Interstates for a few hours’ worth of driving and get to my destination on time…the end. The road trip, on the other hand, is where I throw a bag or two in the car filled with clothes, a cooler for drinks and snacks in the back seat footwell in easy reach, and hit the road and don’t stop driving until I’m out of time and have to head back home. I’ve done a few trips like that and I’m well overdue for another one…the last trip I took like that was November 2010, when I scouted for a house in Arizona, met Brian and my wife at SEMA (three firsts checked off in Vegas!) and drove up through California back to Tacoma, where I started gearing up for a move.

I had a friend once tell me that I am never more at peace than I am behind the wheel…any awkwardness, any attitude problems, any stress I seem to have melts away with every mile. And he was on to something…every thousand miles or so, I just feel…better. And that’s why one of my bucket-list items is to drive the entirety of the Trans-Canada Highway…all of it, every single section of the 4,860-mile stretch, from St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador, to Vancouver, British Columbia. Opened since 1962 and completed officially since 1971, the Trans-Canada route is the main artery that crosses the majority of the provinces in the southern half of the country. It has feeder routes that connect up to the Yukon, the Northwest Territories and Nunavut. I’m pretty sure I’d run it east-to-west if I get the chance, but either way…this one route would cover over half of the longest trip I’ve ever taken in the continental United States and counting the return trip, would be the longest trip I think I’d ever be able to take. From the mountainous Canadian Rockies in the west to Thunder Bay and onwards to the Atlantic islands…I’d be in absolute heaven. So much to see, so much to do, so much seat time on some of the most beautiful roads out there.

This is a compressed trip from Vancouver to Toronto that was undertaken a couple of years ago. You’ll be covering over 2,700 miles in an hour and a half over the course of six days and you’ll see just what our neighbor to the north offers up. What would you drive on this beauty of a road?