Drizzly drive through the mountains from Calgary to Kelowna. We saw some coyotes along the way, and stopped in Golden for a bit of lunch, where we got to scrawl in crayon on butcher-block paper on the table. Yay! We followed this up with a lengthy conversation on the nature of sustainability and world economies, and the mascots of chain restaurants (eg. Grimace and Hamburglar).

We took up more than our share of the Grateful Fed, as it’s a pretty narrow room and we take up a lot of space for three people. The Fed has a nice patio and big garage-door windows that give the place a big open feel, though. The food is quite good and the staff are a lot of fun.

We almost thought we’d lost our opening act, Jeremy Head, as he still hadn’t appeared at door time. It looked like he was going to continue our trend of lost openers, but just in the nick of time he made it and played a fine set during which he broke a guitar string, borrowed the only other right-handed guitar in the place which happened to be a 12-string, and valiantly kept going. Nice work, as was the closing set by the owner of the 12-string who I know only as Steve. Steve was going to fill in at the last minute and had just gone off to get his guitar when Jeremy arrived, so we had him close out the night and he did a great job on short notice.

Our set went really well and we pretty much gave it everything we had left. Some of our loyal Vancouver crew had come out to Kelowna to see us, making an adventure of it and checking out the Okanagan wineries along the way. After a month away, it was wonderful to see them there. Once we were all done and packed up we all went out for an impromptu end-of-tour party ’til the town closed down.

So that’s it. Marcus and I are back in Vancouver now, Todd is in Kelowna with his family. We’re readjusting to life not on the road for a bit, and I’m doing my best to avoid what I call Post-Ecstatic Stress Syndrome - the inevitable crash that follows a really huge event where you’ve had a really great time. It’ll help that we’re playing again in a few weeks: our homecoming show is on Friday, June 27 at the Railway Club in Vancouver. You can read all the details over on IMU’s site.

Huge thanks to everyone who helped us out during our trip - all the venues, promoters and soundpeople, everyone who gave us a place to stay, everyone who hung out and chatted with us, the other bands we shared stages with, and very importantly, everyone who listened to us play.

We’re in the process of booking another tour starting in late September. If you’re not on our mailing list, please do sign up if you’d like us to send you announcements about upcoming shows and recordings and anything else we think you might enjoy.

Thanks for coming with us!

Before I write up the last day of our trip, we wanted to tell you a bit about something we’ve been thinking and talking a lot about on the road.

Last time ARCTIC toured, we ate more Tim Horton’s and Husky meals than I think I’d ever had in my lifetime, just because that’s the easiest thing to find along the Trans-Canada Highway. This time, we wanted to make a conscious effort to support the local, independent businesses rather than the big corporations. It started out as an experiment, but after seeing over and over again how homogeneous the country is becoming, and seeing what rows of big box stores do to the heart of a town, we became even more convinced to stick to this goal.

We didn’t always succeed, of course. Sometimes when it’s 2:00 AM and you’ve just finished loading up after a show and you’re tired and you still need to drive an hour and you can’t find anything else open, a Tim Horton’s looks pretty good.

We also stayed with friends and relatives or at a room supplied by the venue, so we didn’t need a lot of hotel rooms. Once in a while the venues supplied food, as well.

We didn’t really make an effort when it came to gas, as it’s insanely hard to find non-chain gas stations along the highway. Grocery stores were a bit of a mixed bag; we hit the occasional Safeway-type thing when we were on a schedule, and independent places if we had the option. I would love to stop at more produce stands, but it’s not entirely practical for people in a car; it’s more of a hassle to wash and cut farm-fresh veggies, since we don’t have the facilities. If we were more prepared, we could have bought them, washed them in hotel rooms, and chopped them with camping supplies… but we weren’t.

If anyone has any recommendations for places along the Trans-Canada, please reply in the comments!

In case you’re interested, here are the places that we stayed or ate on our way out to Montreal and back again. I may have missed a few here and there, but according to memory and receipts:

Independent businesses

Sunshine Motel, Indian Head, SK
Craft-Tea Elevator Restaurant, Indian Head, SK
Northern Lights Motel, Wawa, ON
A truck stop (don’t know name), Pass Lake, ON
New York Sub, Toronto, ON (x2 - OMG we love this place)
Swan Restaurant, Toronto, ON
Everest Cafe, Toronto, ON
Pizzaiolo, Toronto, ON
Maggie’s Eatery, Peterborough, ON (x2 - lunch was so good we went back for breakfast)
Koi, Hamilton, ON
La Cagibi, Montreal, PQ
Abstractions Cafe, Regina, SK
The Haven, Port Au Baril, ON
Hot Belly Mama, Peterborough, ON
Bren’s Bakeshop, Belleville, ON
Big Red Barn, Moosamin, SK
Great Northern Hotel, Sault Ste Marie, ON
Bestway Motel, Windsor, ON
Gargoyle’s, Thunder Bay, ON
Viva Vietnamese, Winnipeg, AB
Some pizza place (non-chain), Medicine Hat, AB
Inn at Macleod Trail, Calgary, AB
Strathmore Station, Strathmore BC
Golden Grizzly Steakhouse, Golden, BC
PapAndreas Greek Taverna, Hope, BC

Chains

Mohawk restaurant, Hope, BC
3 x Tim Horton’s
Pita Pit, TO
Comfort Inn, Winnipeg MB x 2
Comfort Inn, Medicine Hat
Husky House, Golden BC