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Growing up in Ontario and hitch hiking to Alberta at 19, I have never seen much of the east coast. Wow, what a beautiful part of Canada! Oh yes, I plan to go back and spend more time there one day. Tim and I began our trip in Prince Edward Island, crossing the amazing 12.9 kilometer Confederation Bridge! Wow, I hear it is the longest bridge in the world? Tim knew Keith and Luc, a couple of friends from their winter campsite (resort) in Florida. Keith, who grew up in Prince Edward Island, showed Tim and I most of the Island. Along the way, we looked at a house that Tim might buy for a summer cottage. Located on the water, it was very well priced from my prior Real Estate knowledge. Further along, we met Keith’s parents, very nice people. We saw some fishermen bringing in their catch for the day, very picturesque! I learned so much about the local fishermen, as a government official checks fish quota’s everyday.. Most fishermen were done their quotas for the year. I so have to thank the guys for the tour around the beautiful PEI!.... On to Nova Scotia, Cape Breton Island and the Cabot Trail. From PEI, we drove about 8 hours along the scenic Cabot Trail. As the sun was setting, we pulled into a cozy campsite. Next day, to our surprise, we learned that we were next to Canada’s # 1 ranked golf course and 19th best golf course in the world! We had no time for golf that day, but one day I will be back to Play history! We only spent three days in Nova Scotia, but the beauty there will bring me back for sure!!.... On to Newfoundland, where we took the ferry from North Sydney, Nova Scotia to Channel-Port Aux Basques Newfoundland. The boat trip takes about 7 hours, and upon our late arrival, we found a campsite about an hour from the port. We made quite a few overnight, sightseeing stops along the 3 day destination to St John’s. Oh love George Street, where we went bar hopping and got “screeched” in and ‘kiss the cod (fish)”, all in fun of course!. So mush to see and do around St John’s. We went site seeing, and about a half hour drive from St John’s, saw the most easterly point in North America, Cape-Spear Lighthouse.
I still can’t believe how many cruise ship ports there are in Eastern Canada! I learned so many new things while traveling Eastern Canada. One day we saw three cruise ships in the small City of Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island. Pete Montgomery WorldTripPete.com and traveling with Tim Schmidt TimsHorsePowerHaven.com
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Our first stop was in Montreal we stopped at Tim’s step Daughter Kim's place. We hung out with Kim, her husband Joe, and their three daughters for a couple of days. It was wonderful, and we also had a chance to have a birthday party for his step son in-law Joe. From Montreal, we headed east to Marina Village campsite near Batiscan Quebec. Tim wanted to visit a couple of friends, Pierre and Luc from his winter resort in Margate Florida (Aztec resort). The first day Luc, with the owner Mario of the campsite, took us out fishing on the Saint-Lawrence River. Tim was the best, caught most of the fish! We all caught enough fish to feed 10 people that night and many more for our trip down the road. We also visited St Tite, Quebec for their rodeo (stampede). Unbelievable how many people were there! People camped everywhere on the streets! Most town residences even had their RV’s parked on their lawns….Wow! Estimated about 600,000 people will show up for the 10 day event [city Population is only about 4,000 people!]. Again, thanks to all the people I met for their friendship and hospitality. In addition, another great city we stopped at was Quebec City, so beautiful and so much history. Truly an historical landmark in Canada! We drove to New Brunswick where we met up with an old friend of Tim’s. Her name was Jill. She was visiting her friends Dawn, Paul and their three boys, Carson, Jack and Kyle. They took us all over the province, we were so grateful! They just moved and gave us great hospitality [we had 8 acres of land to camp on again]. We met many old friends and thanks to Facebook, we met up with Tim Wade a boyhood friend who lives in Moncton NB near Dawn and Paul.
On the way here, I missed a lot of people I wanted to catch up with. Next time I will try and drop in to see you all on my way back home after Newfoundland. Bon Voyage….! Pete Montgomery WorldTripPete.com and traveling with Tim Schmidt TimsHorsePowerHaven.com We started our trip by driving from my place in Calgary to Tim's place in King City just north of Toronto. We had an overnight in Saskatchewan (Wal-Mart), then drove direct to northern Ontario the next night. Next spring, we plan to again travel Saskatchewan and Manitoba on our way to Yellowknife, NWT and Nunavut. The photos and video below are at Tim's farm in King City. Exploring King City it has been amazing above video and photos are at Tim's place in King City. We visited with old friends and met new people. Tim’s friends, family and farm workers all agree that Tim has a big heart. He does so much for others in this world. It is great to see someone of his wealth act like all of us. In his eyes, we are basically all the same. He will walk up to a stranger and just say hi how areyou doing, with a smile! Everyone loves him and he treats everyone with respect. It’s great to see Tim treat the CEO of a company the same way as a gas station attended serving us fuel. This video is from facebook, I have to figure out how to take the video from Tim's phone to my website.(click this link to see video) I grew up in Ontario housing with a single mom and three sisters. I always had a great relationship with my father. I will admit that growing up in these housing projects was a bit humbling, but I have never forgot where I came from. Neither has Tim. I grew up a couple of blocks from where Tim lived. His parents owned the home that they lived in. Both of our parents were immigrants. Tim’s family were from Germany and mine Ireland. Can you believe that both sides had nothing coming to this great country of ours (love Canada). This video is from facebook, I have to figure out how to take the video from Tim's phone to my website. (click this link to see video) Tim and I drove through the area where we grew up and I shot a video of the neighbourhood. It was very emotional for me, brought a tear to my eye! What a difference from then till now! We are special travellers just living the dream! While shooting the video, a stranger pulled over to ask us what we were doing in front of my old house? [We did grow up here but we were in a beautiful Rolls Royce convertible]! I walked over to him and said “buddy, I never forgot where I came from, can you believe this is where I grew up”? The person responded by saying ”can I play you a tune with my guitar”? I said wow, absolutely, and I have it on video! It’s amazing how Tim and I attract so many people at the right time. Like the street singer, we meet for a reason. I traded my campervan “Old Faithful” plus $ to Tim for his Mercedes campervan. Yipee, I can now keep up with him on our travels. BTW, Tim just bought a new Mercedes campervan similar to mine including a few upgrades like an outside TV….
Our next journey is to the East Coast of Canada…. Pease, Love and Happiness to all…. Pete Montgomery WorldTripPete.com and traveling with Tim Schmidt TimsHorsePowerHaven.com Road trip across Canada, Northern British Columbia, Yukon, Northwest Territories and Alberta...8/21/2016
Highways to see so scenic; #99 from Vancouver to highway #97 near Cache Creek, as well as the Alaskan highway from Whitehorse to Dawson Creek and from Hinton through Jasper to Banff. Tim and traveled on highway #99 and wow what beautiful views. We were above mountain tops looking down in the valleys from Whistler to highway #97 it took us two days to arrive in Whitehorse,Yukon, where we stopped at an B&B on the way. We met a few people there, three of them rode their motorcycles from Argentina heading to Alaska. I travel by the comforts of a campervan but I can't believe how many people travel the whole world by motorcycle, bicycle, cars etc.. and so many with campervans crossing the Americas. The Alaskan highway from Whitehorse to Dawson Creek wow! breathtaking! Must stop in Watson Lake Yukon (sign post forest)! They have a place where people from around the world drop off their License plates, street and city signs, name of family signs, there is about 72.000 signs, plates and so much more. We also were going off the Alaskan highway to Fort Liard, Northwest Territories where we drove for about 30 minutes without seeing a car even coming the other way. Another must stop is in Fort Nelson BC where they have an old museum that have everything from autos, trackers, oil & gas, mining a real hoarder that had everything you can think of... Wow! unbelievable. http://www.watsonlake.ca/our-community/sign-post-forest/ Entering Alberta, the drive from Hinton to Canmore again breathtaking. We stopped in Jasper where Tim wanted to release his brother Frank's ashes from the top of Whistler Mountain, one of the places where Frank loved to come to. Then we went off camping, and the girl in charge gave us a bear warning I said great, I am a thrill seeker as I get to sleep with the bears in my tent. OK she said, No food in the tent because I will attract these wild animals... lol.. The final leg on the trip we checked out the ice fields and the new sky walk. All well worth checking out and so close to home. Don't know why I have never done it before. Home stretch to Calgary we saw a Grizzly bear where we Pulled over like everyone else ....So close to Banff, and we were lucky it was behind the fence. What a small world we live in. My sister Carol has been following us on facebook. She knew we were in B.C. and she was on her way to Tofino to see her boyfriends daughter. When sis was waiting for the ferry from Tsawwassen, she text me to see where we were in B.C. It ended up that we were in different rows to board the same ferry to go to Victoria. Tim and I didn't have a place booked but sis and her guy Don were staying at the Ocean Village Resort where Don's daughter Christel works. We ended up camping one night and having a cabin the second night at the resort next door to them and really enjoyed getting together at night for fires on the beach. It really is a sight to see when the whole beach is lit up with fire pits and people releasing Chinese lanterns. We dipped our feet into the ocean in Tofino which as far west as you can go in this beautiful country. We are soon heading as far east as you can go to dip our feet into the ocean in Newfoundland. It was awesome to go whale watching in Tofino and now looking forward to see what whale watching is like in Newfoundland. Stay tuned friends!!! Many more adventures for you to follow!!! Cheers!!!
Pete Montgomery WorldTripPete.com traveling with Tim Schmidt TimsHorsePowerHaven.com Road Trip Across Canada- Journey 1: Banff, Lake Louise and beautiful southern British Columbia...8/19/2016  On our first day on the road my camper van "old faithful" broke down, lucky I still had a warranty on the transmission since I just had it repaired from my last road trip. We ended up at Hi hostel in Banff where I stayed while Tim stayed in his motor home in the parking lot at the hostel; however, at about 4:00 am in the morning a security guard told Tim that he cannot camp in the parking lot he would have to go to a campsite. I did tell the lady at reception at the hostel that Tim would be staying in his camper; I guess she did not know the rules of parks Canada and the NO camping outside the campsites. I did not know this rule until we went to Jasper and I called the Hi hostel and the women told me it is a national parks Canada rule. We spent a couple of days in Banff and Lake Louise where Tim started a heartfelt releasing of his brother Frank. Banff and Lake Louise were a couple of places where Frank loved to go to when he was alive. Tim released Frank in the mountain tops of Whistler and Jasper.
After Banff we headed west to visit friends we grew up with from Rexdale (Toronto). First Anthony in Kelowna and his family. I stayed in a hostel the first night and then Antony’s back yard in my new tent. We then headed west to Chilliwack to meet up with Sue and her husband we went out for lunch and it was time to get on the road again.
We spent a couple of days in Vancouver camping then headed up to Whistler to visit Tim’s friend’s son Harrison, Kris and Andrew. A couple of young bucks they were, so we ended up doing the Zip line called Sasquatch, they say it is one of the biggest in the world and you go 140 kilometres an hour. You should have seen Tim’s face, it was priceless, he is afraid of heights and we were side by side going down. Tim took off ahead of me he did not hit the third step like he was suppose to do, it was way too funny and what a great ride over the mountains. We also did the peak to peak in Whistler that I recommend for its amazing views.
I got to stay at Kris’s place and Tim camped out in his parking lot, thanks a lot Kris for the awesome hospitality. This blog is one of three just getting caught up while time off in Toronto. Pete Montgomery WorldTripPete.com traveling with Tim Schmidt timshorsepowerhaven.com Just over six weeks ago my buddy Tim, whom I grew up with in Rexdale (Toronto), called me and asked if I wanted to take another road trip with him across Canada. I never thought of taking a trip around my own great country before, but I gladly accepted. I thought it would be fun as well as working on new information for my travel website starting soon in Canada.
It all started with Tim coming to Calgary in July to catch a bit of the Stampede. A week later we hit the road, and about an hour out of Calgary (Canmore), I had to pull Old Faithful over because of problems with my transmission. I immediately called the transmission shop where I got it fixed for my last road trip to Panama, and happily it was still under warranty. They would replace the transmission for a small fee. Great, no more rebuilt transmissions!
Tim and I continued traveling in his campervan after we sent old faithful back to Calgary to get repaired. The objective of the trip was to find and visit with old friends that we grew up with back home in Toronto. This would be so much fun, visiting with friends and seeing the vast area of Canada. Our plan was to travel by campervan until winter, then head to Florida for the winter. After driving Tim’s comfortable, brand new Mercedes campervan a few weeks, we agreed that I should upgrade my campervan to a newer model that has everything like a bathroom, kitchen and a generator. The hunt is on for a newer van for myself! My new blogging domain name changed from Travel Cheap with Pete to “World Trip Pete”! Hey, Just maybe it’s time for me to travel the world. Pete Montgomery from WorldTripPete.com with Tim Schmidt from TimHorsePowerHaven.com  I will have a domain name change from travelcheapwithpete.com to worldtrippete.com. I also have been working on a new website where I will be selling travel, flights/hotels, all-inclusive, autos, cruises, advertising and so much more. So far I am affiliated with Expedia.ca and Hostelz.com and talking with two more travel agencies. From the new website I will be advertising accommodations and things to see and do while in those Cities. I will start the new website first in Canada then off to the world next fall. The new website will be up soon, I will keep everyone posted. Looks like I'm off to another road trip across Canada this summer to promote the new website.  We are now affiliated with Hostelz, they are more than a hostel. You can book B&B'S, private homes, cabins and so much more.  I am affiliated with Expedia.ca but not ready to sell tickets yet. We will have it set up on my new website.
Additional affiliates/partners coming soon!  Panama City Beach, Florida After leaving Tim’s place in Margate, Florida, I headed North West to Panama City, Florida. This City felt personally good, and, as soon as I arrived I knew I was going to stay for a couple of days. I got in late, and ended up camping out in the Wal Mart parking lot for the first night. I met and chatted with a nice father and son from Germany that were also traveling in a campervan like mine. The next morning, I left to find a campsite or hostel nearby. I found a campsite near the beach, but there was no hostel in that City. That was a surprise for the size of the city! That started me thinking about an idea to build a hostel here [I do own the domain name “Panama Pete’s Hostel”]. I took the next step and saw a realtor, but there was nothing worth looking at right now. I know it would be a great location year round because of the heavy population from the neighbouring States. After a couple of days in Panama City, Florida, I began to plan making my way home for Easter to be with my family, friends and my friend Margaret’s 103rd birthday (she was on the news before I left) what an amazing lady. I decided to look at my US road map for the first time. Most days, I would wake up and rely on my intuition to look for new adventures. I initially choose a warmer Southern route and wanted to avoid the cold Northern route. After checking out the best weather for travel, I chose the middle route. I would travel through Montgomery Alabama [I own the city of course], Nashville, St Louis, Kansas City, Denver and Montana. I heard Nashville was the place to see! After arriving late in Nashville, I found the campsite was closed. I checked Google maps on my phone and found a Wal Mart, where I could stay the night. The next morning I searched for a campsite on the outskirts of the City. I stayed two more nights because I loved Nashville. Wow, where else could you see a one man band playing in McDonald’s restaurant! Took a $10 return shuttle to downtown to see a hockey game and experience a fun filled city full of noisy bars, museums and music madness! The people were friendly and the mood electric! I WILL return! After leaving bright lights of Nashville, it was time to get serious about getting home. I experienced some problems along the way with Old Faithful. Who knows, maybe the cooler weather was not acceptable to both of us…lol. Some mechanical problems occurred but I kept focused on achieving my destination. Maybe I pushed her to much? Had to buy her a new re built transmission but I had a lot to be thankful for .Old Faithful was totally reliable, dependable, honourable my rock and my trustworthy campion. Took me return from Calgary to Panama City, Panama, and, in five months, covered over 22,500 kilometers. SHE IS A KEEPER! It took me almost two weeks to get my campervan back from customs; and after all that the company that shipped my van here ended up charging me more than double of the quote. I ended up staying in hostels around the south beach area in Miami and they were the most expensive hostels on the whole trip. They charge what the market dictates, I got charged from $33.00 to $56.00 a night for 6 bed mixed dorms. I had a great time there I met a lot of good people and enjoyed so many events going on every weekend.
Thanks to facebook I connected with an old friend I grew up with in Toronto (Rexdale). Now it’s hard to start heading anywhere else as we are having a great time! We went to Daytona Beach for a couple of days during bike week; we saw so many nice bikes. I got to ride Tim’s pedal electric bike down the main strip and received a lot of attention. I could see lot of people trying to get their cameras out to take a photo; I was having a good laugh with it all. Hanging out with Tim at his place in Margate, Florida has been great we’ve had so much fun. It's nice to talk about the good old days when we were in our teens just a few years ago ;). It’s hard to leave here, I am a car lover and Tim has a big collection. At his home in King City Ontario he has 35 cars and trucks I would like to see his collection this summer and could also visit lots of our old friends we grew up with, perhaps a get together at Tim's place that would be great. He only has a few cars here down in Florida a Rolls-Royce, Lamborghini, Harley Davidson bike, three custom golf carts a really big campervan bus and lucky for me I got to use his Nissan GT-R sports car while I’m in town, he also has some cars here in storage.
The bottom line it’s always nice to get caught up with old friends from the past and reminisce all the old stories both good and bad, I definitely got in a bit of trouble in my day, shh don't tell my kids ;). I have two great daughters that I am missing, maybe home soon (maybe) just living and loving life and they understand. Pete Montgomery from TravelCheapWithPete.com Again, I can’t believe I ran into three young guys from Munich, West Germany. They road their bicycles more than 17,500km from Germany to Panama City they are heading to Rio de Janeiro for the Olympics later this year. The video showed the nice hostel they were staying at while in Panama City. This is an email I received from them today is unedited: Hey the reason why we camped so much in the last 10 month. Is not just too save the money for hotel. It’s even nice to have your own stuff (mattress sleeping bag also) another imported point is, to feel the nature.. Go sleeping with the sunset and get up with the sunrise.... The ride all started for them on April 27th 2015 in Munich. The countries they have travelled through so far are: Germany, France, England, Scotland, Iceland, North America, Alaska, Canada, USA , Mexico, Cuba, Guatemala, Belize, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and now Panama.  The Trio For Rio in Panama City Panama.. Translated from German to English on google: blog from their website at the start of their trip: Looking for new goals came us an idea of what has become more concrete in recent months and the decision has been made:
We radl'n to the Olympic Games to Rio de Janeiro in 2016! Our Baden-Württemberg government says yes: "We can do everything except speak High German!" So it is for us: On 01 May 2015 we go! From Munich, we want to ride our native Swabia Rottenburg-Hailfingen and birthplace Tübingen via France, England to Scotland. There goes on May 26, the plane from Glasgow to Reykjavik. In Iceland, the aircraft starts on 7 June 2015 in accordance with Anchorage, Alaska, from where we should lead the longest street in the world, the legendary Pan-American, to Tierra del Fuego. The last stage is ultimately to Brazil, where we hope to arrive in time for the Olympic Games in Rio. All in all, a nearly 30,000 km long, adventurous and fun-full travel. Their goal is to get to see the Olympic Games in Brazil, plus my other three friends, two from Canada Kyle and Jaryd and Ade from California as well as Sandro Reiter , Julian Schmieder and Nicolas Schmieder all need help to achieve their riding goals. Please donate to Team North America or team Europe (German) Just click the blue link. Now we have three countries involved in donations to these six amazing riders. Let’s see what country can raise the most. Just like our own Olympics between three counties (let the games begin) by donating. The German guys website TrioForRio Jaryd and the boys website TheHustle These six young men are all winners. Let’s help them with their goals and make their country proud. Pete Montgomery with three amazing German’s TravelCheapWithPete.com |
Now I have two websites, to help fellow travelers, find the best travel deals ever.
About MeI have been traveling for the past 18 years and I've only been blogging for only the past 10 years, some of my amazing trips, A road trip from Calgary, Canada to Panama City, Panama, when I got back to Canada, I did another road trip across Canada with an old buddy of mine I grew up with in Toronto, Canada, I wrote my blogs about the road trips from fall 2015 to fall 2016 (Archived) it was an amazing year off work. Archives
September 2019
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