Day 20 and off to Auntie Roxy's we go

Salutations from Saskatoon
Well the day got off to a bit of a bleak start. It was lightly raining and 7 degrees when we left Red Deer this morning. Good thing we planned this trip for the summer. I wouldn't want to do this thing when we were cold and wet. Oh wait a minute........
As I have said before, one of the things about our trip that truly amazes me is the speed at which the landscape changes. Yesterday we were standing on glaciers and today, the topographical highlight of the morning was this

Pretty far cry from the mountains, but if you are a flat-lander like we are, this is just as beautiful. It was really quite an uneventful ride other than it was cold. And damp. And did I mention cold?
That reminds me. I will have to figure out a way to introduce the Saskatchewan Minister of Goat Paths and Cart Trails to his counterpart in Alberta. Yes I know they have more money over there in the land of oil, but come on. Gravel highways?
Late afternoon saw us checking into our hotel for the night. Lets just say the interior decor was, uh, interesting. Watch out for the hallway gnomes!

After a nice supper, we went over to visit Linda's Aunt Roxy. Linda was all set for a one-on-one visit so imagine her surprise when we opened the door and there was Linda's cousin Cindy, Cindy's husband Harvey, and Cindy's daughter Zinovia (I hope that is spelled correctly). What a special treat.

We spent the evening catching up and telling stories. It seemed like we had just barely arrived, when we noticed our time was getting late, and we had to start saying our goodbyes. Tomorrow is a little ambitious, we hope to get from Saskatoon, through Yorkton, and on to Brandon, so we need to get a decent night's sleep. Wish us luck and we will talk to you then.

Day 19 and back on level ground

A hearty hello from Red Deer. We are back on the bikes and heading east. We only had a couple of days in Jasper, so Linda and I went into the town of Jasper and did the tourist thing. It is a really nice little place. Very tourist oriented (no duh!) but pretty just the same.

From Jasper we went to the Athabasca Falls,
and on to Mt. Edith Carvell and the glacier trial. Definitely very worth the walk. We have both decided that this is one magnificent part of the world. We are very lucky to have been able to see it.All to soon it was time to repack and get back on the road. Besides, Jeff and Gloria needed their shower back, and seeing that that was where our luggage was stowed.
Shortly after heading down the highway, we came to the Columbia Icefield. Talk about amazing. Just the mountains and the sheer size of the glacier, and the beautiful sky and on and on. Probably one of my biggest regrets is that I can't take pictures to show all the beauty and grandeur.

Too soon we were saying so long to the glaciers, and hello to the foothills. We stopped in to Norbegg for some gas, and left with full bellies and some new-found respect for the coal miners and loggers we read about in the museum at the Miner's Cafe.

Just after we left Norbegg we saw what we think will be the last glimpse of that awesome aqua-marine coloured water this time in the Saskatchewan river reservoir near Rocky Mountain House.

Amazingly enough, we were right back onto the prairies in the blink of an eye. Actually it was about an hour of driving, but the transformation from mountain to flat prairie was surprisingly fast. A short time later we were snuggled up in our Holiday Inn bed, and looking forward to tomorrow and Saskatoon. See you then.

Day 17 and camping has never been better.

A hearty hello from Jasper. We are live and on the net thanks to Linda's brother and his fancy air card. It is hard to believe that you can sit in a camper in Jasper national park and surf the net on a laptop. Man has camping ever changed.
Well the day got off to a wet start this morning. We were only 20 minutes down the road when we saw our first sign of impending rain
We decided that discretion would be the better part of valor especially today, so it was rain suits on and a couple of sumos were soon rolling down the highway. We had lunch in Valemount and the soup was delicious.
After lunch and a fuel up it was back on the road, and on to Jasper. Not a lot of stops today because the temperature was a tad lower than we are used to, and stopping wasn't helping us warm up. Shortly outside of Valemount, we were treated to Mount Robson. Unfortunately there were clouds, but not a bad view

Soon enough we found Jeff and Gloria slumming at the Fairmount Jasper Park Lodge. What a nice place (thanks Cheryl).
We went back to the trailer and had buffalo steaks for supper. Man what a feed. I am afraid it will be lots of exercise and walks for me when I get home. We hope to spend a couple of days here with Jeff and Gloria and then we are off again toward Brandon. Hopefully we will get to the icefields while we are here. Until next time.

Day 16 and (back) on the road again

Well if Willy Nelson is reading this, I have to apologize. We butchered his song this morning and I am glad nobody else could hear us. But to catch up, let's go back to Cloverdale. Mike, Karen, Vanessa, Brandon and Jazz the dog were the best. From the open arms, the hospitality, the food (oh man, the food..my bike whimpers when I sit on it now), the friendship, and definitely best of all the warm acceptance and welcome. It was truly the high point of the trip. Many thanks to Karen for taking time out of her busy schedule to tour guide us around. Our first visit Monday was a walking tour of Cloverdale. Vanessa and Brandon were very good tour guides. Next we were off to the waterfront community of White Rock. We had a great afternoon walking on the pier, scoping out the local architecture, and keeping an eye out for giant squids!

Tuesday we got the bikes out from under the garage, and Karen very adeptly led us to one of our chosen focal points. After all this riding, we wanted a picture near the Lion's Gate Bridge and Stanley Park in Vancouver. Those who know North Vancouver will hopefully recognize Ambleside Park and it's view of the bridge.
After the bridge and inner harbour tour, it was off to Metrotown mall. Apparently, one cannot visit Vancouver without checking out this 3 storey homage to modern shopping. Man would Kate ever love this place!

Sadly, all good things must come to an end, and so it was with our visit. Wednesday saw us loading up again, despite the threat of rain. After all the hugs and kisses poor little Nolan could stand, some last minute tears and hopefully some lasting memories, we struck out for home. The first stretch is along the the mighty Fraser river, past Hope and up the Trans-Canada Highway to Hell's GateTo say it was windy there is an understatement! Apparently Linda has some history here, so rather than dredge up the past, I just made sure she was well secured to the rope, and stayed away from the edge. Shortly after we left the Hell's Gate area and less then 60 Kms north of the very verdant Hope, we stated to notice a definitive change to the landscape. Gone were the lush trees and green everything, and back to sage and desert

I still think some of these places look more like Arizona than Arizona does! A little late and low on fuel we pulled into Kamloops and collapsed for the night. Tomorrow we should be in Jasper and visiting with Jeff and Gloria. Unfortunately, we will be without internet access for a couple of days so our next post will be a couple of days late. TTFN.

Day 14. Yeah I missed a day. So sue me.

Greetings from the road. This is the view of the south end of Penticton and the terrian in the area. Surprisingly very arid and desert-like. Good for growing grapes as this is the heart of Okanagan wine country.

More scenery on the way to Princeton. By now we are back on the Crowsnest highway (BC Hwy 3) and are making our way over to Hope. We stopped in the little town of Hedley to tour a gold mine. Well the tour itself was over 4 hours, so we didn't do the tour, but we did visit the museum and look through the displays. Very impressive. This is what the surrounding mountains looked like
And this is the mine head Lunch was in Hope and with the help of some local people we had made up our minds to run up to Hell's Gate. When we came out from the restaurant we were greeted with this scene of good old BC liquid sunshine heading our way. We no sooner abandoned our plans for Hells Gate and got into our rain suits when the skys opened.
We made it safely (if a little slowly) down to Cloverdale and shortly after 3 in the afternoon, we were treated to.......................................................................

Our happy little Nolan baby. A great night laughter and fun followed and all too soon it was into bed for the next days activities. We walked through the town of Cloverdale with Brandon and Vanessa, we visited White Rock and it's amazing beach with Karen providing the tour guide services, and we ended the day with a campfire in the back yard. Whew. I am glad we are doing all this relaxing. Tomorrow will see us off to the big smoke for a tour of Stanley Park and the Lion's Gate bridge. Wish us well. More pictures are coming, I promise.

Day 12 and a big Happy Birthday to Kelly

Well it is not much of a picture day today. We left Golden early in some fog and it wasn't until we climbed up to Roger's Pass that we got above the fog (hey dear, I think we are in a cloud) and into some sunshine. A little cool this morning (8'C) and the threat of rain. Roger's Pass was very interesting. I am constantly in awe of the people who explored this land, the men and women who made the roads and rail lines and who settled and cleared the land. When you see the challenges they faced up close, it makes their achievements so much more incredible. We joke back and forth as we are riding about ...."you want a railroad where?????", but I could not imagine the sacrifices they made.

The trip on into Penticton was uneventful but busy. The road just keeps going downhill so our mileage is way up and so is the volume of traffic. This country is nothing if not beautiful and no sooner were we in Sicamous than the mountains receded, and the Okanagan valley stretched out all around us. The ride down to Kelowna is very reminiscent of the Niagara region. We stopped in to check out the new BMW touring bikes at Southwest Motorad in Kelowna (www.southwestmotorrad.com), but Linda didn't see anything she liked, so it was back on the road and into Penticton at the bottom of the Okanagan valley, and home to the Penticton Ironman being held......you guessed it, tomorrow! Roads are a mess, cyclists and runners are everywhere, events are happening all over the city. It is a very feverish, almost festival feel to the town. We are planning to be up early to try and clear town before the roads close for the bike and run portion of the race so we won't be around for the race, but our best wishes go out to all the participants tomorrow.

After a delicious supper at Earl's, Linda and I went on a walk through some of the neighborhoods. Not only did we spot an original Honda CVCC (the original Civic), we came across an electric motor repair shop. If you look closely at the motor, you should spot a familiar name.

Now on a personal note, I would like to take this time to wish my sister Kelly a happy birthday tomorrow. For those who don't know, she is in Afghanistan as a civilian support employee for the Department of National Defence helping the soldiers. I believe it is already tomorrow there so Happy Birthday kiddo. Our thoughts and prayers are with you especially on this day. We love you.

Our plan for tomorrow is to reach Cloverdale and NOLAN! If all goes well, we should be there around 2 in the afternoon, and hopefully, someone (i.e. me) will stop a little more to take some more pictures. As always, your emails and comments are much appreciated. So long from Penticton.

Day 11. B.B.C. or Norman, I can see your house from here

Greetings from Golden and according to Anna at the liquor store, home to the highest restaurant in Canada. The Eagle's Eye at the Kicking Horse Ski Resort is 7700 feet above sea level! Take that Pizza Hut!



Well as I said yesterday, the Lethbridge Viaduct is a sight to behold, and it is. I don't know whether it is cooler that the bridge is almost 100 years old, or just that it is sooooooo big.



After leaving Lethbridge and climbing ever so slightly , we happened along Pincher Creek and probably our best, first look at the foothills



Lunch was in Fernie, and I gotta tell you, they take their trucks very seriously here. I have never seen so many 3/4 and 1 ton diesel pickups in my life. And not old pieces of sh-t either. We are talking about nice equipment here.


From Fernie it was onwards and upwards (really) to our evening destination of Golden. Along the way we passed Columbia lake - the head waters of the mighty Columbia river and home to some of the worlds rarest wildlife - the grizzzly bear, the big horn sheep, the Osprey

the north Cavan cougar

Just outside of Golden, we stopped at a rest area to try and un-square out butts, when we discovered what appeared to be an abandoned cabin. A little investigating shows why it was abandoned. The stream nearby evidently flooded and washed gravel over the banks almost completely covering two sides of the cabin including the door.

Oh well, as they say in real estate......location, location, location. From the rest stop into Golden was only a short drive, so it was out to supper at Apostles for some Greek salad, and back to the room for some well deserved rest. Tomorrow is Kelowna and the Okanagan Valley, so stay tuned.

Day 10 and another 600 Kms closer to Nolan

Welcome to windy Lethbridge. And I do mean windy! No-one warned us about the wind. Holy cr@p! But first things first. We were actually ahead of schedule today, so we didn't get a tour of the Gravelbourg cathedral (www.gravelbourg.ca) but we did get this cool picture

From Gravelbourg, we struck out west and south to hook back up with the Red coat trail which we found out is the route the mounties took in 1874 to help quell among other things the illegal whiskey trade in LETHBRIDGE. How is that for connecting the dots?

This is such an amazing part of the world. Every where you look you can just see forever. The sky goes on forever, the fields go on forever, the roads go on forever. It is easy to see why this is such a special place to so many people. Unfortunately for us, that pesky fourth season (road construction) got in the way and forced us north to the dreaded Trans Canada highway a little sooner than we planned. Ah well when you are given lemons, make lemonade. We stopped in Medicine Hat and I got to have my picture taken with yet another cutie. I am so lucky!
We stopped to see Linda's niece Haley. A darn smart, focused young lady who is going to do well for herself. You just wait and see. From Medicine Hat, it was on to highway 3 and Lethbridge. We battled what felt like a 50KPH headwind the whole way. That was not fun. We are hoping that tomorrow, we will lose the wind as we get closer to the rockies. For fun, check out the Lethbridge Viaduct AKA the high level bridge. It is over 1 mile long and almost 100 years old. Man, they do everything big out here. Supper at the casino next door to the hotel, catch up on the olympics (Go Canada), maybe a small rusty nail, and into bed. Tomorrow......the mountains. Stay tuned and God bless.

Day 9 and now I know where agregates come from

Greetings from Gravelbourg. Well we have managed to trek our way down the Red coat route through southern Manitoba and across southern Saskatchewan. Our first rest stop was in the town of Souris, Manitoba and home of the SECOND longest suspension bridge in Canada. Those who have been following our blog should already know where the longest is.....
After Souris, and a couple of long hours on the road, we left the unbeaten track known as highway 13 for somewhere really out of the way. Don't know much about this town except the people were friendly, lunch was good, and there was a nice 4430 John Deere at the dealership.
One of the highlights of the day was the oil patch near Weyburn. If this doesn't show what is important to the west, I don't know what will.
Got into Gravelbourg around supper time. there is a huge cathedral and a Franco seminary college here. According to Leslie at the Mayfair, Gravelbourg is undergoing a bit of a resurgence and the town is growing. Nice to see that trend in this part of the world. Hopefully, we will tour the cathedral tomorrow, and get some pictures. Happy trails.

Day 5 and Brandon bound

Welcome to the end of our first leg. We arrived safely in Brandon (Manitoba's OTHER city) and have a couple of days of family, relaxing and trying to do a better job of fixing Pete's Connie. For those interested, we have a little trivia quiz. The first one with a correct answer wins.

1) What geographical location are we in now? (Hint, look at the pictures)


Okay, I know that is probably a tough one, so I will give you another hint.....It rhymes with "THE MARY'S". Anyone? No?

Actually as we were making our way across southern Manitoba on highway 23, we came upon the town of St Leon, and this awesome sight...

we counted over 50 of these wind generators. A lot like the wind farm outside Shelburne, Ontario. As a committed eco-energy buff, I was very very impressed. Good for you St Leon, and Manitoba.

Someone noted our technical glitch with the camera yesterday. For those who don't know me, I will explain. Whenever Linda forgets to recharge batteries, that gets noted. When I forget to recharge batteries, it is a "technical glitch". Same goes for resetting odometers, forgetting sunglasses at the last rest stop and so on.

As I said at the top of this installment, we have a couple of days here in Brandon so I don't know how much will end up here, but be sure to check back next week as we head out to Slave Lake, Alberta and leg two. As always, thanks for all the comments and e-mails.