PICTURES Visiting

View cottage from lake

Ruth Anne, Frank and Boo

View from dock

PICTURES Tugfest 2011

The PRESCOTONT

Just a little push

A few good tugs

Glenn and Ken watching, Captain Paul at helm

Crew, including Admiral Carol

Crew Brad

Motley crew, not to be confused with real crew

Captain my Captain

Updating to September 17, 2011

September 8th & 9^th, 2011          

On the road to Saskatoon – weather very hot 30-34 still.  There are a lot of fields along the way, the wheat is actually golden.  Not a lot of people along the roads – large farms and fields.  None of the side roads are paved or even stone – as people and machinery drive along the road, it is a virtual dust bowl.  Can see how the early pioneers needed to a lot of fortitude to live and prosper in the area.  Oil is another large industry in Saskatchewan as well.  We stayed in Saskatoon for two nights. While driving in passed a beach – the Saskatchewan River flows through and around Saskatoon –and it was packed, this was a Thursday and Friday.  The Saskatchewan flows through Alberta as well.  

September 10^th and 11^th, 2011

Drove to Lloydminster, SK stayed in trailer park on Saskatchewan side and then went for dinner on Alberta side – the city is split down the middle with ½ in SK and the other in AB (50^th St).  Got down to 2degrees here overnight – Ken still in shorts, refuses to wear long pants!  Not much claim to fame here other than the border.   As everyone says, Saskatchewan is very flat – not particularly boring as have never been this way before – when I moved out west I flew and the few times we went back to Ontario, was straight driving and through the US.

September 12 & 13, 2011

Drove to Edmonton, country side changing, more trees and hills, cattle and horses.  Passed the largest Pysanka in Vegreville.

Arrived in Edmonton today – GPS not really good around areas that are newly growing; off track,  a little bit of LOUD speaking but we did get there all in one piece.  First night just settled in, sent email off to Wanda at my – the Edmonton office to say we may be around, but they were moving the offices around this week so did not get a chance to drop in.  Did have a short visit which my old IT guy, Gord who is moving to Edmonton with a new position end of September, he and Jackie were looking at houses and did buy one.

Next day we did some touring, had sent an email to my daughter and our niece about things to see in area. First we went down to the Welcome center down Gateway Rd to get information and maps.  They had the original oil rig for the first producing oil wells in Alberta. 

 Ken wanted to see West Edmonton Mall so we did to that.  The place is really amazing.  I did not really even look at store while we were there.  There is actually an indoor wave pool (bigger that the one at the resort we went to in Mexico), chairs and waterslides and bar, just like a resort – enclosed and 29 degrees.  There is also an aquarium in the middle, we saw the sea lions, went down the hall to a full size ice rink and then to the amusement arcade – huge roller coaster – all had to be seen to be believed.  Sam, I can see how you could spend a lot of time in there!

Next we went to the TELUS Science Museum – all different displays, info on the body – functions and why things work, a section on greening of the environment (sponsored by the oil companies) – we did learn something there as well as there was a bird we were trying to identify and could not find in our book – but Mrs. Green’s garden had one (Terry and Rick – it was a yellow billed magpie – black and white on back wings). Space station replica which was neat as well.  On our way to Calgary in am.

September 14, 2011

Headed to Calgary today – again changing country side, fields with more trees, then as you are nearing Calgary, you can see the mountains in the background, it is almost as if they had just been pasted behind the city – almost look like a mural coming up behind the city. Decided to go to Banff and Lake Louise tomorrow.

September 15 &16, 2011

Left in am headed to Banff, Lake Louise and the Ice fields if time permitted.  We went to Banff National Park, and bought a day pass, which would be good until 4:00 pm tomorrow.  Driving through mountains towards Banff, beautiful scenery.  Stopped at info center in Banff and they advised we could do the ice fields in a day so we headed that way. Banff is a tourist and skiing destination.  All kinds of lodges, hotels and restaurants, also very pricey.  Had to stop to say we were there.

  On the way, we went to Lake Louise – beautiful (emerald green).Walked around, reading information on the Lake.  The area has really been developed though.  Fairmont Lake Louise has a huge resort; there is a boardwalk around one side of the lake, parking for thousands of vehicles, rentals of canoes.  When I was there (approx. 40 years ago!) you just drove up to the lake, there was a small area for parking – I remember a large teepee in the center that had information on the lake and not much more.  The smaller hotel was there but not to the extent it is now.  Even at this time of year, the area was packed.

Left there and headed to Hwy 93 into Jasper National Park –Ice field Promenade to the ice fields.  Driving through huge mountains up to 7000 ft. at some points.  Could see the ice capped glaciers as we drove – took some stunning pictures of ice caps and low lying lakes. Bow Lake is same colour as Lake Louise and very beautiful, nothing around but nature, there are a few camping areas but a lot a just for tenting.  Arrived at Athabasca Glacier which is fed from the Columbia ice fields.  We walked up to the “toe” which is at 6300 ft.  Long walk straight up, couple of stops along the way.  Could feel the temperature falling as we got closer.  Got right to the edge so could do a photo opportunity for Ken, in of course shorts. (as an aside I brought him jeans in case, which he did not know until we got back home).  They discourage people from actually walking on it as there are splits and crevices and they warn that if a child were to fall through, they could die quickly of hyperthermia. They did have rovers that went out onto the ice and I offered Ken to take one, but he did not want to so we spent a while there and then headed back home.  In all this was our longest tourist day but well worth it. 

We will spending some time today around Calgary, again it has been a long time since I was here – it used to be you came into town on Deerfoot Trail and left on Macleod Trail (or vice versa). Now as we came in there were all kinds of signs on highways and thoroughfares saying “New Community” so I guess the people here aren’t even sure any more.  GPS not very reliable when it gets to these areas that have so many under and overpasses that are just getting built and rebuilt.  We have had a few loud discussions because of these and in the end decided better to just stop and ask someone.

We went to do some grocery shopping – as I said very expensive, toured the Olympic Stadium (1988) as it is just over by our site.  They had the winter Olympics here and the venue is still open.  One thing they are doing right now is biking on the trails.  They are using the chair lists to take riders and their mountain bikes up to the top, there are three levels of trails at top, beginner, intermediate and advanced, they go through these and then ride right down the ski hills on their bikes, all different age groups.  Really neat to see.

When we came back to our site a fellow came over from his trailer, he saw the Ontario plates and he was originally from Sarnia.  We talked for a few minutes and said where we were heading and he said he would be glad to tell us some of the highlights.  We went over to Bill and Marlene’s trailer and mentioned that our first stop from Calgary was going to be Creston BC and that is where they live.  We discussed  a couple of different options and things to see along the way  They also knew where the RV park we were looking at was located – they live at the top of the hill almost from where it is.  They are in Calgary for a couple of days, but we will try to time our being there when they are back so we can meet up with them again.  This is the best part of our travels, people and where they are from and where they are going.

 Everyone out here has been very helpful in our travels, if we were on “lost time” some even followed us around to get us on the right track!

September 17, 2011

Left at 8:49 this morning, heading to Creston. BC.  Left Calgary with no incident, nice roads, boogying along and then stop.  There was an accident on the highway where the construction was and traffic was stopped b oth ways.  There was a truck that went off the road, facing our way and caught on fire, Police cars, fire trucks everyone was heading that way.  There was black smoke across the highway, we did not realize the the fires trucks had come from the other way (we were south on 2).  We were there for

about ½ hour, then a grader came up on the old highway they were working on and moved the lanes across so we could get through, did not see ambulance but since we were moved around, probably no death, just injury.

We were then having a nice drive through Crowsnest Pass, stopped at Frank where the town had collapsed in 1903, burying most of the town underneath, and proceeded through pass.  Just through Blairmore, there was another accident up the road – we were maybe 15 minutes after it happened.   Apparently there was a fellow at the local inn beating up on his wife/girlfriend, someone tried to stop him and he took off in his pickup when they said they were going to call the police.  He drove up the highway he tried to pass a car, there was a tractor trailer coming through and he hit the wheel of the tractor trailer and ran head on into an oncoming car.  One of the locals went up to check and that is when they found out what happened.  There were a couple of ambulances roaring up to the scene, but they both eventually came back down without their sirens.  We were told that people were dead and that they road could be closed down for about 8 hours as they needed to get the authorities in and that was four hours away.  Ken talked to the tractor trailer driver and he was OK but the truck was damaged, but he is OK.  We back tracked and went to an RV area not far back towards Alberta – Crowsnest Park Campground and staid for the night.

It is hard to get really excited about wheat fields and cattle ranges through the rest of the provinces so my notes may not be as long on them, but the changing scenery of all of the provinces was well worth travelling the way we did.  Also seeing oil rigs and large refineries, define the rest of our country side.

INFO ONLY

Just an aside on all this touring, we have been finding that all booze is more expensive out here than it is in Ontario – all the provinces are different, prices change quite drastically.  Quite often taxes are on top of shelf price, which it is not in Ontario.  Case in point is wine – Fuzion red and white in Ontario retails at $7.95 750 ml, tax in, deposit extra.  In Edmonton, the price was $10.00 plus HST of 5% and $.20 deposit.

Beer is not any better – so I guess we should not be complaining too much when we frequent our local LCBO – Privatization in Alberta did not make the prices any cheaper and they don’t really offer any bargains.

Food can also be pricey but it depends on what you want to buy and whether you check out for deals.  Only problem I have, is I don’t have a pantry the size of a small room anymore!

Have posted pictures of our house now so that those of you that don't know how we are roughing this journey, can see exactly what we have to deal with

PICTURES

Yes we do have pictures and with some better WIFI connections, will try to upload more, some are on now.

Also, timeline for posting is always WIFI dependent - we do have a Rogers stick we use for day to day and banking, but don't want to use up and pay more.  I am starting to get cheap here....


Enjoy what I have posted and you can always contact us by email.

Ken and Sandra -  safe travels!

Hi to all of you out there and more to come…….

Update

8/30/2011

While on our travels, we have had several discussions on what would happen if>>> earthquake, tornado, hurricane.  Did not expect to have to think of already.  While we were at Algonquin, we were sitting at table on the computers and I felt the trailer shaking a bit, not like when someone is walking around, just lightly.  So first thing I check is whether Ken is playing a rousing game of poker and his foot is a tapping and he wasn’t.  then went out to check to see if bear was outside – they have me freaking about bears up around here – nothing.  Later that day, we turned on news and found out there was an earthquake in Virginia and we felt it all the way up here.  – So if you know there is one, get away, if not hear in on the news!

Two days later, we had tornado warnings all day – very windy, where to go??? Well nothing happened but just another thing for me to just lay awake thinking about.  Rest of stay was lovely and uneventful.

Left on the Thursday to go to Parry Sound for the Tug Fest for 3 days and stayed at Oastler Provincial Park. Nice little park and lake.  Did not do much there as there was so much to do at Tug Fest – met up with Paul and Carol of the Prescotont (for more info on tug, key in Prescotont – very interesting) and then our Pefferlaw group.  Had the races, evening parade of lights and fireworks.  Next day was picture day and activities by some of the tugs at the dock as well as viewing of the tugs.   Numbers were around 1000 on the dock for the event.  Captain Paul and Prescotont did win a trophy.

Next day went to a friend’s (Ruth Anne) for lunch at their cottage just outside of Parry Sound, nice cottage and great setting.  Nice to see her again.

We left there on Monday the 29, 2011 for Sault Ste Marie. Bears again!

Arrived at Sault  on Monday 29^th Booked in to KOA Sault Ste Marie.  The Titanium group had a rally there the week before and we were not able to attend but did send email off the organizers of the event – Mike and Diane.  They came over on the Tuesday30th and we had a nice visit and they brought along the welcome package they had done for the TI reunion – really great job.  We would have liked to do the Soo Lock boat trip but it was US and we did not want to waste a day for a couple of hour tour. We ended up going downtown SSM that day to the Boardwalk, walked along – saw a large freighter going through the locks and walked to the Roberta Bondar park and monument – that was cool.

The next day, Wednesday the 31^st,  I did one of my “bucket list” things – at my age I have never been on a real train ride – did subway once, did subway in Paris (great but not train ride) and did one on the island of Tortola in the Caribbean (still not the same)-  We did the Agawa Canyon tour train from SSM to the Agawa canyon * yes lots of trees but we also saw Lake Superior and a really nice canyon – water falls we nice as well, but not spectacular, this is one that people that took the train up to Hearst were saying would be great if they could stop at it and finally Algoma set it up. – did the whole thing, breakfast and lunch in dining car -  my next one will need to be the Orient Express if still around (me and it).  Ken enjoyed the ride as well but he had been on trains before so the trip was not for the same reason.

 We spent an extra day in the Soo, mundane stuff, groceries, bank, etc.

September 2 2012

Left in the AM for Wawa-  not far away, only a couple of hours (more in the rig) thought we could do some sightseeing and then do the next leg up to Thunder Bay – another weather warning – high winds, rain, hail – well we got there and none of that but a lot of fog so could not see anything on the waterfront by the lake or on their tour things – we did get a look and picture of the 28’ Wawa Goose and got pictures at their welcome center – was not foggy enough there.  We stayed overnight and left the next morning for Thunder Bay.

September 3, 2012

Road to Thunder Bay around Lake Superior was AMAZING!!  Neither of us has been up this way so was really great; the lake is really beautiful, around the lake the views were breath taking; did not realize how big this lake was.  Anyone in a hurry, would not take this route.  The reason we did, is we do have the time and want to travel as much of our own country first.

We arrived in Thunder Bay around 4:30 today, set up in campground, had dinner and will set up tomorrow for touring.

 Temperature overnight went down to 2 C – frost in some areas

Was cool today and some rain on and off. Went to Kakabeka Falls – supposedly next best to Niagara – they were great but nowhere near what Niagara is.  Also went to Fort William which was a reenactment of the old North West Trading company. All were in character and kept with it whole time.  It was cool enough that they had all the fires burning in the different buildings as they are open year round.

September 5, 2012

Thunder Bay to Kenora

Again, more amazing country side, stayed in Municipal Park, nice sites, by water, did not do much that day, went for walk around park and beach area, boardwalk

September 6, 2012

Kenora to Brandon MB

Finally left Ontario and now feel like we are travelling!  From border to here, pretty flat compared to ride around Lake Superior.  Fields, flatlands, some cattle – not many towns in between, we have been taking the Trans Canada highways all this time.  We drove through Winnipeg, were going to stop but were kind of misled as to parking situations downtown.  I was looking for large parking lot as the welcome center said there should be parking we did get to see the Royal Canadian Mint and University of Winnipeg and downtown and right back out again… With the rig, don’t want to get off on any side roads or downtowns.  Have decided city’s/towns/civilization, we will park the rig and take the truck.

We stopped and stayed in Brandon (had to stay in our Grandson’s namesake city) overnight and did some driving around here today.  Went to Discovery center, which is a welcome center as well as showing info on their birds and animals.  This is also one of the locations that were totally surrounded in the March flooding when the Assiniboine rose.  The crawl space in this building was under water, there is still quite a bit of devastation around the area and still some insurance issues to be decided. 


More to come, working on uploading pictures

We are finally on our road to adventure……

We are finally on our road to adventure……

It took us this long to get everything sorted out. 

 I retired in May after 36 years with Wajax; lots of time, lots of memories, time to go…Ken has been retired for about 3 years already and was getting lonely so we decided it was time for me to keep him company.

We wanted to put the house up for sale so we worked on getting it ready for a showing in April. We lucked out on the timing on that for sure.  We finally listed in early April 20 in the morning, viewings started at 10:00 am (about 7)  got two offers that same night and signed off the one – house sold!  We had a closing of end of July which would work out great.   Two weeks later, got a call while we’re at a friend’s for dinner party asking to have the closing changed to June 27 so had to really get cracking to get everything done and sold off.  If I had still been working, we never would have gotten the house prepared to move that quickly – we sold quite a bit off, stored some stuff – Goodwill, the scrap guy and the dump knew us quite well by the time we moved out

Sam and Jeff’s wedding was in the Dominican end of May, all his family and friends enjoyed it all.  The kids had a great time, weather was very hot but pool was great and they had lots of ice for drinks!!

We then moved into to trailer and went all the way to Milton, yes, Ontario.  Had lots of things to sign off, banking, doctors, etc. so did not leave that area until end of July.  During that time I also helped organize a ??th, birthday party for my sister in law Mary, so that was fun to do as well and kept me busy. She said she had a great time and that was the whole purpose. (Jim’s idea and budget, my execution, we did good!!)

We also sold our boat in this same time frame to a friend of ours, Terry so we were boat less for the summer.  Did not notice much as all of our boating friends offered us visits and boat rides.  Terry even let us use the boat one weekend while they were away and we took the grandkids up for the day – was great day.  Then had John and Judy and Glenn and Donna have us up for a few days, so we did get some boating in this summer – one of the best ones in years.

July 26, we left Milton and went as far as Palgrave, On and staid in that area for a few days until we could get into Heidi’s in Hawkestone.  We were there for a couple of weeks and in that time the guys had their semiannual golf game that was rained out in the spring. So went to lake one more time, staid at Sam and Jeff’s in Mississauga for a couple of days then back to park.  We have stored my Mboo for the time being at my cousin’s farm until we need it again.  No use using two vehicles at this point and pay insurance while not driving.

We are currently in Algonquin Trails, just outside of Algonquin park for a few more days, then to Parry Sound for Tugfest  on the 25^th as planned, the on to Sault SteMarie on the  29^th of August.

With all of the above happening, I think I now feel like we are on vacation and not working, it took this long – I have been too busy to think of what retirement is like.  What I am finding already though that the days are getting confused already – age or retirement??

So this is our “catch up” and blog set up – will post now once we get on the move and get some pictures happening.