If you’re caught up with my other blog posts from Canada already, then you probably easily picked up this sentiment, but the Canadian leg of my road trip has been my favorite segment so far. Pretty much everything Canada has been a stellar experience, but I decided to highlight some of the things that left a lasting impression on me. (Note that these are in no particular order, and they’re not my favorite things—they just happen to be things that stuck in my memory.)

• British Columbia Highway 5 (also known as the Southern Yellowhead Highway) and the Trans-Canada Highway, starting from Hope and ending in Calgary, is my favorite location of all time. The quality of scenery on this stretch of highway exceeds what you would see in even some of the best National Parks in the United States, and this scenery is literally just hugging the road on all sides, everywhere.

• I’ve noticed that Canadian people are noticeably nicer and have a strong sense of community—sort of like my experience in Montana, but to an even greater degree. People I’ve spoken with through random encounter on the street or while hiking will greet me as if we had already known each other for a long time, and opt for some more meaningful, relevant conversation as opposed to filler small talk.

• On average, I’ve noticed that Canadian people are more physically attractive. It seems like Canadians care more about maintaining their health and appearance. There are still obviously some plump people in Canada, but I don’t recall seeing a single person throughout my entire stay in Canada who I would consider as obese… which is a dramatic difference from when I visited the southeastern United States, where literally over half the people I encountered appeared to me as unmanageably obese.

• I am a huge fan of Diet Coca-Cola and would say it is my favorite beverage (along with Coca-Cola Zero) if you exclude just plain water. A lot of people claim they are cola enthusiasts, but when they do blind taste tests, they can’t tell the difference among different kinds of cola. Well, I have done blind taste tests, and have been so accurate as to even be able to point out when my friends were trying to trick me and mixed half Coca-Cola and half Pepsi into a single cup. With that claim of “expertise” having been said, I think Canadian Diet Coca-Cola tastes significantly better than that of the United States. I am not really sure exactly why that is, but it just leaves a cleaner, crisper aftertaste. I think that it’s because the sweetener might be different, but I’m not certain; all I know is that I definitely like it better.

• Throughout my travels, I’ve managed to earn Ambassador Elite status in Marriott’s Bonvoy loyalty program, which entitles me to free upgrades and a lot of special treatment. However, because I am specially eligible (unrelated to the standard loyalty program) for a pretty substantial discount off regular rates, I generally don’t mind if I don’t always get the best upgrades or the best perks in the United States—I’m already very thankful that Marriott allows me to travel full-time at an affordable rate. However, in Canada, every single hotel I stayed at honored the full benefits of my Ambassador Elite status, gave me the maximum available upgrades, provided me with over-the-top welcome gifts, and overall just had stellar service that dwarfed what I came to expect from United States hotels.

• The absence of firearms in Canada was a bit strange at first. I obviously left my gun in the United States, as I did not have the credentials to carry it with me into Canada, and I kept doing double-takes for the first week or so while I was still accustomed to not having a firearm with me. However, people in Canada just don’t really act suspiciously in general, and I never really felt that I was ever in a situation where I would even potentially need a firearm. Eventually, it felt a lot more peaceful after getting getting used to it.

• Compared to the United States, Canadian drivers are a lot more reasonable and drive in a much more predictable manner. I’m used to driving in a very wide variety of conditions, from bustling, aggressive cities all the way to quite literally the middle of nowhere surrounded by wild grasses, and I’d say that the median driver in Canada is about the equivalent to the median driver in Utah, a state which I’ve spoken highly about in the past about how great their drivers are. On a related note, there is an overall lower travel speed on Canadian highways, so I actually ended up getting better fuel economy by not having to keep up with the flow of traffic at 85+ MPH (137+ KPH) like in the United States.

With those general thoughts and impressions out of the way, here are some leftover photos I had from Canada that didn’t fit in with any of my previous blog posts.

The first is the Canada Border Services Agency checkpoint in Abbotsford, British Columbia, across from Sumas, Washington. I had to drive quite a bit through what felt like local roads in order to get here. I decided to enter through Abbotsford instead of Surrey because I skipped Vancouver, as a stay in Vancouver was a bit too expensive due to tourism picking up for the summer.

My first overnight stop was in Kamloops, British Columbia. I got a nice, upgraded corner suite on the top floor of the Fairfield Inn and Suites by Marriott Kamloops, which had a nice view of the mountains.

My next overnight stop was at the Fairfield Inn and Suites by Marriott Revelstoke, where again, I got a nice upgraded suite on the top floor, and again, with an amazing view of the mountains.

My longest stop was in Calgary, where I selected the Element by Westin Calgary Airport. I got a great rate, and it had a convenient central location in Calgary. I got upgraded to a corner studio on the highest floor with a great view of both downtown and the suburbs, and their hot breakfast service had recently been reinstated, so I was able to get a different fresh dish every morning. There was plenty of space, there was a wired Internet connection available, and the sink even had a water filter built into it. I don’t think I could’ve asked for a better place to call my temporary home during my stay in Calgary.

After spending a night at the Fairfield Inn and Suites by Marriott Lethbridge, I continued my way down south back home to the United States. I made my final Tim Hortons stop in Cranbrook, British Columbia, where I enjoyed a few Timbits with iced coffee and enjoyed the clear skies and mountain views.

I ended up running into some construction traffic during my final stretch southbound on British Columbia Highway 95, but the scenery was so nice that even traffic somehow became enjoyable.

As if acting like a harsh reality check, when I arrived at the United States Customs and Border Protection’s Eastport Port of Entry in Bonners Ferry, Idaho, the officer basically acted as if I was committing a crime by attempting to re-enter the United States—a polar opposite experience from when I entered Canada for tourism.

Having formerly been in law enforcement, his “angry for no reason” demeanor made me disappointed, as he was a great example of officers who leave a bad impression of law enforcement on the community and make it more difficult for everyone else in the field. It was particularly upsetting because I had spent the last few weeks being showered with kindness by Canadians, and it felt very unjust to have an officer with a bad attitude greeting these kind Canadians at the border.

Hopefully this port has a refresher course on community policing and public relations coming up soon.

If Canada was part of the United States and relocation logistics were easy, I 100% would move there… though I guess it wouldn’t be how it is today if it was part of the United States. I guess the next best alternative would be to move to Montana, which I may consider at some point. Or, another option could be to maintain United States citizenship and spend 51% of my time in the US and 49% of my time in Canada on visitor visas… though I imagine that’s a decision I would only make after I settle down with a wife.

Regardless, the point is, visiting Canada has opened my eyes up to many new possibilities. I was never really that curious about Europe, but after making this trip to Canada and traveling internationally for the very first time, I’m more interested in visiting other countries, in hopes of seeing things that I would have never imagined was possible just from my limited scope and understanding of the United States.

Considering that a majority of Tempo‘s new employees are in the Seattle Metropolitan Area and I’ve been spending more time here, I’m thinking I will seize any future opportunities to make more trips to Canada, considering how close it is.

After entering through the southeast in late April, I made my way all the way across the state of Montana, stopping for medium-to-long stays in four out of the five biggest Montanan cities: Billings, Bozeman, Helena, and Missoula.

Prior to visiting Montana for the first time ever as part of this road trip, my favorite state was Colorado, with Utah coming in at second. I really enjoyed South Dakota, but I wouldn’t consider South Dakota as a whole as one of my favorite states; just like how I wouldn’t call Nevada my favorite state just be­cause I love Las Vegas, I felt like I couldn’t generalize my experience in southwestern South Dakota and apply it to the entire state.

Now, I can pretty confidently say that Montana is my favorite state in the United States, bumping the other states down one place. I obviously don’t have comprehensive exposure to either Mon­tana or Colorado, but with my limited experience, as well as the knowledge I have about the areas of the states that I haven’t been to yet, I still think Colorado is amazing, but Montana beats it out by a little bit.

I’ve briefly touched on almost all of these points already sparingly throughout my previous Montana blog posts, but I figured I would do a summarized round-up and try to pinpoint some of the key reasons why Montana has taken my #1 spot:

• The cities are not congested. Montanan cities have seem to found a sweet spot of equilibrium between density and sprawl. There are enough shops, restaurants, and activities for everyone to enjoy, and there are enough people around that businesspeople are incentivized to set up and make a good living, but it’s also spread out enough that everyone can have their own space.

• The outdoors in Montana are unparalleled by anything else I’ve seen in America—and I already think this, even though I haven’t been to the north­western corner of Montana yet, which allegedly is the most beautiful part. There are many outdoors activity opportunities (as you might have seen from all the hikes I’ve done). There is always interesting scenery to look at, and when you’re out in the wilderness, the air is probably the clean­est, purest, crispest air I’ve ever breathed.

• The people are very kind and considerate. All the hikers I’ve encountered radiate warmth, peace, and happiness. Everyone has been proactively friendly to me, initiating conversation, but remaining respectful enough as to not pry too much unless I volunteer the information first.

• The culture has a strong sense of community. I can’t quite pinpoint what exactly made me feel this way, but I immediately felt a sense of belonging through­out a majority of Montana (the only exceptions being the main university areas in Bozeman and Missoula, but even then, it was “normal” at worst). It’s as if everyone was genuinely interested in getting to know their neighbors so they can be there for one another when they need each other.

• One silly (but meaningful) thing I really liked was the abundance of no-leash parks and hikes—it evokes great joy when a happy dog comes skip­ping towards you asking for pets, not only because I love animals, but also because it sends a clear message about the culture that people trust each other to be responsible and reasonable—something that is basically impossible in major cities.

• Although there seems to be a lean towards conservatism, there is still good political balance across the state. Especially in the past few years, I’ve learned about the importance of politics and how it can shape a community. When it comes to important matters, failure to have differing o­pin­ions can be harmful, as we can see in states like California and in cities like Seattle and Portland. In Montana, people seem much more willing to actually share their conflicting view­points, discuss controversial topics, and listen to each other, rather than simply trying to shut down everyone who disagrees with them.

• This isn’t quite as applicable to me because I don’t think I’m going to move to Montana, but for those who do, it seems like a good place to raise a family, with good in-state education options and low cost of living. There are also some more obscure perks, like no state sales tax.

I have plans to head into Canada for a bit over the summer, and because of how positive my experience has been in Montana, I’m looking to cross the border back into the United States through Montana, which would give me an opportunity to drive through Glacier National Park.

 
For now, with the current leg of my Montana visit wrapped up, I wanted to share some of the leftover photos I had that weren’t quite good enough to war­rant their own individual blog post, but collectively were enough for a round-up.

This first set of photos comes from the Holter Museum of Art in Helena, Montana. This was a relatively small museum with free admission (though I made a donation of US$5 to serve as an admission fee) that seemed to primarily feature art made by the children of Helena. I’m used to going to major museums with famous art pieces, but looking at art made by kids was a very unique experience and gave me some insight on how the current youth per­ceives the world.

I went through a phase a little while back of being very interested in “luxury” books with full-grain leather covers, gold foil wrapping, and other unique features. One of the things I liked was art painted on the side of the book that morphed perspective when you opened and closed the book. I found something similar at this museum, which isn’t bad, considering it was painted by someone in middle school.

With my adoration of cats, and having lived with three cats with my most recent previous roommate, I liked this multi-layer art piece, which had thread link­ing the hearts of the girl and the cat. Pudding the Persian liked to sleep by my head on or beside my pillow, and this reminded me of him.

Funny enough, my favorite art piece wasn’t exactly an art piece, but rather, a satire label of the water fountain titled “Ever-Flowing Tears.”

One section of the museum had wireframe models hung up on the ceiling, which I thought were very interesting. I also found it very impressive that a student managed to put all this together and have it come out so well.

My next batch of photographs comes from Spring Meadow Lake State Park, also in Helena.

While in Bozeman, I stayed at the Residence Inn by Marriott Bozeman Downtown and was lucky enough to get a room with a balcony that had an a­maz­ing view to the northwest. It was snowy on the day I arrived, but once the snow melted, the cloud cover and fog cleared and revealed an amazing lay­er of snow-tipped mountains.

And finally, I like to share hotel room photos when I stay at a new hotel brand or one that is of a newer generation of interior design. In Helena, I stayed at the Delta Hotels by Marriott Helena Colonial, which was my first ever Delta. It seemed like it was an older hotel, though the interior was still nice and simple. The lobby area of the hotel had a vintage-feeling staircase going up to the second floor, and the building itself was actually quite large.

During my stay, I noticed that it wasn’t really that busy and the rooms weren’t getting filled, but the meeting rooms were bustling—it seemed like com­pa­nies rented out meeting rooms for corporate events during the day, and I saw that some of them were even being used for Advanced Placement ex­ams for high schoolers.

With Montana complete, here is the latest in my travel map:

I already have six blog posts dedicated to the most interesting things I did during my time in South Dakota, but I decided to do a final round-up for everything else that didn’t previously make the cut.

 
Throughout my road trip, I’ve been parking my truck at the airport at various major cities with large airports and flying back to Las Vegas to take care of some errands once every few months. When I was planning out my trip, I discovered that, strangely enough, Rapid City had a non-stop flight to Las Vegas out of their small regional airport, so I used it as an opportunity to thread in a trip back home.

I had an issue with the hotel not permitting me to use my guaranteed late check-out elite perk (which I later found out they were technically allowed to not honor, because they had a physical hallway connecting them to a water park, and thus counted as a resort hotel), so I ended up going to the airport in­credibly early. Needless to say, there were not very many flights going out of the very small airport, so for a handful of hours, I was alone in a com­pletely empty airport.

The flight I took was on Allegiant Airlines, and was probably my worst flight ever. It’s not that anything particularly bad happened, but, paired with the fact that I wasn’t able to check out late at my hotel and was just sitting at the airport for hours before my delayed flight, it was draining and ex­haust­ing.

I ordered some food at the airport restaurant and it took around 28 minutes to come out, and they closed the restaurant early (which made sense, be­cause there were no scheduled flights during the evening and nobody at the airport), so I ended up getting extremely dehydrated. When I finally made it on the plane, the seats were the most uncomfortable I’ve ever felt, and I had lower back pain in less than 20 minutes into the flight. Allegiant also ap­parently charges $3 for water, which I declined on principle, so I got even more dehydrated than before.

By the time I finally made it to Las Vegas, I had to stand in line for about 40 minutes, slowly dying, as Avis‘ two employees tried to get through a line of about 8 people with no consideration for speed or efficiency.

Shoutout to the night shift manager at the Residence Inn by Marriott Las Vegas Hughes Center for giving me a few free bottles of water upon my very, very late arrival (and quite possibly literally saving me from collapsing).

After spending just shy of a week in Las Vegas, I flew back to Rapid City (also on Allegiant Airlines on the return non-stop flight), but didn’t have as terrible of a flight experience this time, as I was able to go to a lounge to get some free lunch and beverages before leaving, and upon arriving back in Rap­id City, I was able to just walk outside the small airport and hop straight into my truck. (The seats were still inhuman levels of uncomfortable, though.)

I haven’t been posting too many photographs of hotel rooms lately like I used to at the beginning of my road trip, mainly because a majority of the hotel rooms I go to all look extremely similar, but I have some pictures from the Courtyard by Marriott Rapid City in Box Elder. This is the first Courtyard I’ve been to with this new design.

I personally think it’s great, but it’s definitely not for everyone. I like designs that are very simple and have subdued colors, so this room was nice. It also had floor-to-ceiling windows, as well as a white-and-glass modern bathroom. With that being said, the bed and couch might be a little too simple for some people; I only ever use the couch as a place to set down my belongings, so it doesn’t matter to me, but it doesn’t exactly look like the most plush and comfortable piece of furniture.

The view wasn’t bad either—the building that’s planned to be constructed in the plot of land across the street hasn’t been erected yet, so there’s a nice view of the hills in the background.

A large portion of my stay in South Dakota was very cold and very windy, so I substituted in some indoor activities in place of a few of the hiking trips that I had originally scheduled. One of the places I went to was the Dahl Arts Center, a very small art exhibit and gallery in downtown.

On the day that I drove out of Rapid City, I stopped by Rushmore Crossing to grab some food before driving to my next destination. After going through the drive-thru, I headed across the street and pulled into the back of a larger parking lot so I could eat before departing.

I just found this so funny at the time that I decided to share—while I was eating, I saw a man pull up in his subcompact crossover, without valid vehicle registration, and park diagonally across two parking spots (when other people with SUVs and full-size pickup trucks were easily able to fit into a single spot). He then proceeds to get out of his car with his dog, walks towards Michaels, stops literally right in the middle of the street, bends down, and starts petting his dog. In the middle of the street.

In the photo, you can see me pointing to his incompetent parking job, and if you look closer down the road, you will see him petting his dog.

After Rapid City, my next destination was Deadwood up in the Black Hills and in Lawrence County. I didn’t really head there with any expectations, and only decided to make a stop there because I saw there were some Marriott hotels in the area, and it would bring me closer along my path towards south­ern Montana. Deadwood ended up being a very interesting place—the valet attendant told me that it holds a lot of Western history, has a bunch of casinos, and can be seen sort of as a miniature Las Vegas.

I stayed at the Four Points by Sheraton Deadwood, which was connected to the Tin Lizzie Gaming Resort. This was my first time staying at Four Points, so I decided to snap some photos. (I’ve stayed at a Fairfield Inn in Amarillo, Texas before that was connected to a Four Points, but I was booked on the Fair­field Inn side, so I don’t consider that to count.)

For some reason, the Four Points brand tends to have consistently low reviews on the Marriott website relative to other brands. That’s one of the main rea­sons why I’ve avoided staying at Four Points and have selected other brands instead, but this Four Points in Deadwood, albeit a bit barebones in the rooms, still provided me with a clean, safe place to stay for a few nights.

I didn’t plan this ahead too well, so my stay in Deadwood ended up being on Easter weekend. Because of that, a few of the museums that I wanted to visit were closed.

However, I was able to see the Sanford Lab Homestake Visitor Center in Lead, South Dakota. It had a nice view of the mine (though I couldn’t get close enough to the edge to take a proper photo showing how deep it actually was), as well as a handful of exhibits explaining the mine and showing off some of the equipment used there. Unfortunately, the actual underground research facility was not open to the public, and it was not in-season so I wasn’t able to purchase a tour.

With the South Dakota portion of my trip complete, that brings me to 39 out of 50 states visited.

I thought South Dakota was great, though it might be because I mostly stayed in the southwestern-most tip and didn’t have to experience any of the apparent nothingness that spans the entire rest of the state. Rapid City was one of my favorite cities to visit—it had what felt like the perfect balance of being a small town, but still being populated enough that you’re able to find everything you need. Black Hills National Forest was also great, and if the weather had been better during my stay, I would’ve done much more hiking.

At the beginning of my road trip, I was planning on visiting North Dakota as well, but after doing some calculations, I figured that it’s a little bit too much out of the way and too much driving through nothingness to be able to slot in a stop in North Dakota just to say that I’ve been there before. It’s also not just the drive there—the drive out to get back on track also puts me quite a bit out of the way.

So, instead, I’ll be cutting through the northeastern corner of Wyoming through on Interstate 90, then continuing my journey across southern Montana. As for North Dakota, my current plan is to fly into Fargo at one point for a vacation.

Ever since my arrival in Rapid City, South Dakota, it has been ridiculously and unmanageably windy. I mean that in the most literal way possible—the wind is so strong that I have trouble walking in a straight line, I have to have my steering wheel perpetually turned slightly against the direction of the wind when driving or else I will be pushed off the road, and I nearly had an entire pan of pizza take off and fly away from my arms.

While waiting out the wind and hoping it settles down in the coming few days, I decided to do an indoor activity and visited the Museum of Geology, part of the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology. I’m not exactly the biggest geology enthusiast, but the museum had good reviews online and it had free admission, so I decided to check it out.

I read a majority of the informational posters and signs about the different kinds of rocks and learned a lot about how different rocks are formed, but be­cause I wasn’t already that familiar and knowledgeable about geology, I wasn’t able to retain all the precise details of each of these rocks are and what is special about them. For the sake of avoiding accidentally giving wrong information, instead, here is just a large dump of photos of rocks and formations that I thought looked interesting.