Day 7

Travel day from Regina to Winnepeg. Weather and scenery were nice. We go different directions for a few days. Janie to Ottawa to play with Tara and me to Upper Manitoba to fish with my Son in law and his brother. I will be totally out of communication for at least a week, so no new blogs until July 5 or so. We did stop in Elk Horn Manitoba, Greg's home town and bought a lottery ticket. Lottery is up to 50 million. Will worry about what to do with the millions when we win.

Day 6

Saskatoon to Moose Jaw. Makes it sound like we've actually been someplace eh? Beautiful, but flat country. Many marshlands near the highway, but some fields were obviously wetter than usual. Locals in Saskatoon said they do not remember seeing so many fields so wet so late in the year. Before we left Saskatoon we went to the Wanuskewin Cultural Interprative center about plains Indians' life style and life stories. Very well done. We grinned to see Pendleton (OR) blankets on sale at their gift shop. We had hoped to visit another neat sounding cultural museum, but it was closed because of road construction. Oh well, maybe another time.
Had to stop and see Mack the Moose in Moose Jaw. Moose are one of Janie's favorite critters, so could not pass it up. She has yet to see a real bull moose despite concerted searching on our trips to Yellowstone. We saw the same cow and calf there two years in a row. Really should see one this trip, we hope.
BIG rain and hail storm as we approached Regina. We mentioned pelting rain the other day. Not sure what the comparative or superlative forms of pelting would be, but this was. Some roads flooded and a few cars stalled out. I think they are calling for some more tonight - we will see. The Trans Canada Highway is flooded out and severely damaged in SW Saskatchewan. They were hoping for repairs by Saturday, but additional rain has hampered repair. The washout has necessitated a 200 km detour for all Hwy 1 traffic in that area.
"Judy" (the Garmin) has really been very helpful negotiating strange large cities and pretty much finding what we want when we want. Jane likes to get photos of capitol buildings when we get to state or provincial capitals. Using the GPS to get to the capitol/legislative building here in Regina made navigating a lot easier especially with some streets having water 12-16" deep!

Day 5

We are in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan arriving from Calgary, MB early afternoon. Boy, is this country flat! To go from the soaring grandeur of mountains and glaciers 10,000 ft. to rolling plains so quickly is impressive. Highest point in this province is 1,390 feet!
Road signage was quite unique at one T intersection. The road to the right was called 12 East and the one to the left (west) was labled 9 East. We wanna go East, do we take 12, or stick with 9, the one we have been following? We stuck with 9 and headed West. The route went west aways, then North for several miles, then viola, it headed East.
Plan to do some touristy stuff here tomorrow, then head for Regina. Actually, there are two very interesting sounding cultural displays we plan to take in.
People friendly and helpful. We were having a tailgate picnic next to a park missing it's tables and one of the neighborhood residents stopped to chat with us. She was proudly telling us of all the year 'round recreational activities they have in this area. Sounded rather like Bend, but we did not mention that.

Day 4

Lake Louise and the town of Banff. Lake Louise and Moraine lake were both beautiful. Overcast, but beautiful. We heard an avalanche, but since there is a 20 second delay between the fall and hearing it at the lake, we had not seen it. The mist might have concealed it from our view anyway. Jane's aunt and uncle had stayed at the huge old hotel overlooking the lake years ago and commented often on the beauty of the area. Then strolled the streets of Banff and had a great lunch. Thinly sliced buffalo salad and roast lamb naan with soup and salad. Delicious. Followed up sharing a chocolate milkshake.

Main highway goes right through the middle of Calagary - and we did it at rush hour, and the rain was pelting down! Calagary stampede took on a whole new meaning. (The actual Stampede isn't until next month. Loving crowds like we don't, we won't mind missing it.)

We are in a little motel in Strathmore, heading North, then East tomorrow heading for Saskatoon. It appears the Trans Canada Hwy. 1 will be closed at the Alberta border for quite a while.

Day 3, Banff National Park

We saw a Grizzly! Did not get a picture, but we saw 'im! Beautiful day exploring the northern half of Banff National Park, then back to Golden, B.C. for the second night. Tomorrow we head East some more, but will need to do some detouring. The Trans Canada Highway is closed at the Alberta-Saskatchewan border because of flooding in southern Alberta. We will probably head North, then East on Canada 9.

Day 2

Day 2. My boo boo. It is Golden, B.C. not Alberta. Beautiful day, High 70's low 80's, high clouds.
We are here for 2 nights to have time to play in the parks. Went through Glacier National Park enroute to Golden today and will do Banff NP tomorrow. Tara says that Alberta is experiencing severe flooding, so we need to check about possible reroute. An attraction we have not seen anywhere else was a skunk cabbage walk in Glacier. Woo hoo.

Most of the day we were driving north through the lush Okanagan Valley. Lots of vinyards and fruit orchards in really fine shape. Cherries are ripe now and really good. Apples and pears come later. Went through the town of Kelowna from which 1/3 of all apples harvested in Canada are shipped. That sounds like a lot of apples! It's nice to see thriving agriculture lovingly maintained and not being plowed under for housing developments. We have noticed some projects stopped after being started before the economy went down, but not a lot.

Drove through the small town of Vernon, BC with 26 murals illustrating the town's history. We didn't see all 26, but they were well done and were interesting. Boating, camping, lakeside homes all along the way. Had a picnic lunch in the city park of another small town.

It was a lovely leisurely day and not only Father's Day but our 46th anniversary. Since Ben and Helen were married 65 yrs and his folks 66 years, we're off to a good start.

More next time.

Day 1

We made it. Got away by 8:30 this morning. 51 degress and overcast. Start milage was: 50313.0. We stopped in Osoyoos, B.C. 82 degress and some clouds. Nice trip, pretty scenery. Good cookies given to us by our neighbor on our way out. We are following highway 97 until it hits Canada 1, then will turn right and head east. Not as much travel tomorrow, but LOTS more scenery. Shooting for Golden, Alberta. Truck is PACKED tight till we get to Ottaw and can offload two dressers. Everything is great so far.
http://www.bcadventure.com/adventure/explore/ok/cities/osoyoos.htm

The Day Before

Tomorrow is departure day. Will we get everything done that needs to be done? We will see. Portable hard drives to safe deposit box (all important documents, pictures and videos), pack for 3 kinds of weather and travel by truck, car, boat and plane. House cleaned up and ready for occupy by possible guests and our return. Yard on auto sprinkler and neighbor high schooler to mow. Appropriate contacts distributed in the neighborhood, mail forwarded to a friend, paper on hold. Truck loaded to the gills with furniture, camp gear, luggage................
We will try to keep our progress posted here for those interested in the sojourn.
AnJ

Gramma and Grampa again!

Mason Andrew McEldowney
March 11, 2010