The Road to Touchdown Atlantic

Many might not know why I started this blog. If you go back to the first post, I never actually state the purpose or goals I had. Normally, as I've seen from other bloggers, your first post is a kind of manifesto, a reason for what you are doing and what you hope to accomplish. I never did that.

I am about to now.

As much as I love the Hamilton Tiger-Cats, the reason I started writing this was actually not to cover the Ti-Cats as in-depth as I have over the last two years. I started writing because back in January 2010, myself and two friends hatched a plan to travel with the team throughout the 2011 season. We were going to hit up every game in every city. For reasons I won't go into, those plans fell through.

Now you know, and this is a story I don't think I have shared with anyone else. No one knew why I started this blog. In fact, after the cross-country trip I was going to stop writing altogether. The trip was a gift to myself for graduating university, and I thought that once I had to enter the quote-unquote real world, I wouldn't have time to maintain this blog. Now I hope to keep doing this indefinitely. I enjoy writing, and I hope you enjoy reading what I write.

Anyway, with the big trip canceled, we decided to go to a game in a different venue every season until we have seen the Tiger-Cats play in every stadium in the country. A more modest and doable proposal.

Last season, we did a pre-run of sorts by going to Montreal. It was amazing, and I wrote about it back in July 2010. That dealt solely with the football aspect of the trip, i.e. the game itself and the atmosphere surrounding Percival Molson Stadium at McGill University.

I'm going to do things a little differently this time around. Since this is a much more elaborate trip, I am going to detail what is happening and what I'm doing. I'm sure the people who come here strictly for football news and opinion are not going to care, but I know there are people out there interested in this side of the story.

The trip started yesterday morning by driving from Hamilton to Quebec City. I have been to Quebec City twice before and enjoyed it immensely both times. The plan is to stay in Quebec City today (Thursday) and take in some of the sites, since my co-travelers have not been to Quebec's capital. I am not entirely sure what sites we will be seeing, but I have no doubt it will be fun.

Then on Friday, we leave Quebec City and head to Grand Manan Island, New Brunswick. Where the hell is Grand Manan, you ask? No idea. We are going there because of a whale-watching tour were are taking on Saturday. I have never seen a whale, outside of Marineland, so this is a bit of a treat for me.

From there, it's off to Moncton to enjoy the game. That, no doubt, will be fun. I have never been to the east coast – you can count on one hand the number of places I have visited as an adult – and I have always wanted to see that part of Canada.

From there, it is a jaunt to Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, to see the site of the Charlottetown Conference (so be prepared for this site to turn into History Nerdskee Wee Wee on Monday) and probably some other stuff in PEI.

After that, it is the long trek home. That is the one part of this grand sojourn that has not been planned. It is very likely to be a two-day journey back to Hamilton.

But for the Tiger-Cat fans out there, a little Black & Gold flair will be added to the proceedings. Remember those Kevin Glenn bobbleheads they gave out to 5,000 fans at the game last week? He came with. So there will be pictures of Glenn taken at various Canadian tourist spots.

Glenn's first stop: The Big Apple in Colborne, Ontario.

Today, it's off to see some of the great historic sites in Quebec City. I wonder where Glenn will find himself today?