North to Fort St John British Columbia

       Lunch along the way.

We are happy to say the "pickup" worked well as she soared up even the highest hills. On the flat, the engine was running at 1600rpm, hardley working. It was surprising as we made our way farther and farther north that the farming was still  with us. Forest then rolling farm land, mostly crops and by far the yellow fields of canola are the majority. Acording to the net, Canola was derived from Rape seed by Canadians in the early 70s. Rape seed contained cholesteral and harmful fats. The Canola seed makes healthy oil. Canada is one of the biggest producers of Canola oil in the world. Perhaps a wonderful side benefit is the millions of acres growing in the west and still all the way up to Fort St John BC.

We passed through Dawson Creek British Columbia and mile zero of the Alaska Highway. At Taylor, we came down a horrificly, steep and long hill down to cross the Peace River. Taylor was on the river. As we went ...very slowly, down the hill the view was the most spectacular yet, except for the fact that there were no guard rails between us and the abiss far below. I yelled at Bev, "get the camera"! Bev was hanging on for dear life and we got no pictures.

Edmonton, Alberta to Grande Prairie, Alberta

The ever changing scenery makes the miles go by enjoyably. From Drumheller to Highway #2, which runs north and south between Edmonton and Calgary, was constant rolling hills and the long views from the top of each hill were spectacular. We could see the Rockies from as far as 100km away. The picture is about 80km away.

Our reason to be camped near Edmonton was to go and see the world famous West Edmonton Mall. We are not city folks, but this was worth the stay. Besides being the largest Mall in North America, I believe, it has a life size model of the Santa Maria, an NHL size hockey rink, a show of performing Sea Lions, a huge wave pool, an amusement park the size of a department store complete with a three story high ferris wheel and a grand mini golf course among other interesting things. It is so big that most stores have two or more outlets throughout the mall.

One day was enough of city life and traffic for us , so we were off the next morning. I did the hookup in heavy rain, thankfully I had kept my rain slicker from our sailing days. I changed and we were on the road again. Half an hour up the highway and we drove out of the rain and into blue skys. That was the only rain so far in three weeks on the road. Just blue skys. We had two days of 34c but that was all. The scenery once again changed from forest to rolling farmland. An hour of one then back to the other as we have had since leaving Thunderbay.
We arrived in Grande Prairie by mid afternoon and I was surprised to see such a busy city. A city population of just over 50,000, but they serve a huge area around. As we travel farther north in Alberta the oil industry is very evident with so many industry related trucks, who seem to think they have the rightaway. As far as I am concerned they do!
We were concerned with our dear old van pulling this relativly big trailer, 29ft overall. She has brought us up and over many hills so far, but we were begining to think we were pushing her too hard, and for how long?

From Grande Prairie the hills only get bigger for the rest of the trip. We paid for another night at the park and went to look at pickup trucks. If one is to live in Alberta, one must have a "pickup". We seldom saw a car, van or suv, everyone has a "pickup" So we bought a Dodge Ram 1500 "pickup"with a Hemi 5.7 V8. They transferred the trailer braking system to the truck and I went to have a Tonneau (cover) installed over the back complete with a lock. All this in one day, from decision to hooking up the trailer to the new vehicle. So hopefully this will give us and all of you some comfort.
We have driven 5268km in the old van on this trip and now we have put her to rest. About 4450km of that pulling the trailer up and down hills, she had performed well.

More of Drumheller

Our third experience here inDrumheller was the Bad Lands Passion Play. As I mentioned before, this is the Canadian Bad Lands. The play is in its twentieth year of presenting the Easter Story. There are 220 performers and only two are professional actors, all the others are volunteers, some have volunteered for many years. The play is presented outside in the midst of the HooDoos. The performers, dressed for the times, looked very realistic as they walked between and over the hills. You could very well imagine them in Isreal 2,000 years ago. All of the storys and miracles were covered and all of the performers were appreciated for their fine acting, by the 800 or so people sitting there. No one was allowed to take pictures during the performance, which was a shame. There would have been many great shots. One would be at the end of the play when on the tops of all the hills which surrounded us were perhaps 50 people in white representing Angels. That of course followed the scene of Jesus high on the cross. As he hung there the sun was setting behind us and the crosses were half in sun and half in the shade. Whether a believer or not, it was a wonerful presentation. The crosses can be seen on the right half way up the hill.
We have enjoyed our stay here in the Bad Lands, the weather has been near perfect, just a couple of small thunder storms during the evening. The Hot weather did not follow us here, 17c yesterday and other than that we have enjoyed 24c average and bright sunshine.

Drumheller, Alberta.

There is so much to see and do here in Drumheller, which is why we have planned to stay four days. First on the list was the Tyrrell Donosaur Museum. About 70 million years ago Alberta was home to many different types of Dinosaurs. The museum was started in the early 80s and is now a large rambling building filled with amazing displays of ancient bones. They think, don't know, that the Dinosaurs were killed off by a combination of climate change and a massive Meteor which hit Mexico at about the same time, 60 million years ago. There bodies were sealed in the sandstone and preserved. Hundreds of bones are found each year by Paleontologists from around the world as well as University students on any of the numerous digs.   

This is a picture of a perfect example of a HooDoo. The entire Drumheller Valley is made up of HooDoos. The ones in the picture are only about 8ft high, but they are the best example. Most are upwards of one hundred feet high. When the land was covered with sandstone after the oceans fell and the seas in Alberta dried up, over  the ensuing several millions of years the sandstone eroded away. But where there was a hard rock that would not erode it created a HooDoo, as shown in the picture. Once the top rock falls off the HooDoo quickly erodes away. 

The Yellow flowers are high above the Red Deer River valley. We took a little gravel road up a steep winding hill and found this amazing view. Our campsite was on the river below.

More to come on Drumheller.

Brandon Manitoba to Saskatchewan/Alberta Border.

We were in the middle of a heat wave, 35c, but AC saved us. From Brandon to Maple Creek where we stayed next, close to the Alberta border was very interesting. We had just come from six days of Canadian forests, with endless lakes and rocks, which was beautiful, but this was a nice change of scenery. Many people, who have never driven the prairies, say how they would never drive across the prairies, as it is flat and boring. This is our third trip across the beautiful Canadian prairies. It is not all flat, as there are many low rolling grass covered hills. I know there were hills as it took second gear to get us up at 80kph for as long as 10k. Not steep, but long and add the west wind in your face and Ford was working hard.

We would drive for many miles and occasionally see a few head of beef cattle scattered across the gentle hills. Once we were into Alberta we saw very large herds, of two to three hundred head. Naturally we also saw miles of Wheat and other such crops.

Gas stations were few and far between as were the tiny villages. We seldom saw farms as we know them in Ontario; house, barn and out buildings, we saw none of those. I know that most "ranches" in the west are in the thousands of acres, but where do the ranchers live? We saw now houses! 

Our Camsite was in a huge park with very few campers. Lots of grass and trees. The office and courtyard were done in a Bahamas design, complete with palm trees, tiled floors and lots of pictures of sunny white sand beaches giving a holiday feeling. Tomorrow morning it is just a short drive to cross into Alberta And north to Drumheller for more new experiences.

Lake of the Woods to Brandon

We paddled our complementary canoe on beautiful Lake of the Woods two days.

There were deer always wondering through the our park. I saw a full grown black bear one morning just on the lawn near our trailer. I was too slow to get a picture before he bounded into the forest. Our neighbour from Wisconsin fished each morning and gave us enough filleted Pickerel for 4 dinners. A fair trade was a bottle of vintage red wine.

We stayed in Bradenton Manitoba last night( a 500km day) after finally driving out of Ontario, six days driving time and about 2,000km or 1,200 miles. Somewhere around Kenora in Ontario, a black bear bounded across the road in front of us, so we had a good look, but again no picture. To day we drove into Saskatchewan to just east of

Regina where we will stay for two nights. 

Sioux Narrows, Lake of the woods

 
   Before leaving T,Bay we spent a few hours at the Fort William Historic Park. It was the Great West Company centre where the Furs were brought by French Voyageurs east from across the west of what is now Canada on their way to Europe. Blankets from England were then taken back to the west to trade for more furs. Lots of enactments.

We enjoyed a lovely drive from T'Bay to Sioux Narrows, about 500km. The road straightened a bit, the hills were more friendly and there were a thousand beautiful lakes, with no one in sight, not a cottage. Now we were seeing white birch and poplar mixed with the now familiar pines.The traffic was almost non existant until we arrived at the town of Fort Frances which is on the US border.
We turned north there and there were many hay fields and pastures before diving back into pine forests. We had good views of Rainy Lake before Fort Frances ringed with pretty seasonal cottages. After Fort Frances we began to see Lake of the Woods, which spreads over many square km.
Our park here, Paradise Point Campground, is combined with a little marina. We are the only transients here, as it is a fishing destination for Americans. It is like stepping back into time when I fished 50 years ago. The biggest boat is probably an aluminum 16foot. The fellow behind us from Wisconsin has been coming here for 40 years.
We will be here three days before heading to Brandon Manitoba.

Thunder Bay

We drove from Sault Ste Marie to Marathon Saturday and on to Thunder Bay today for a total of about 700km. The scenery was spectacular with many overlooks of Lake Superior. Sadly, with a rather lengthy trailer in tow there is no where to get off the road. The roads are great, but very little shoulder.
We went up countless hills, down just as many and around a million rocks. The seemingly endless forest are dotted with hundres of virgin lakes. This should be a good practice for what is yet to come. Sometimes we ran in low gear 3,500 rpm at 55 km/ph. She is tough!!
We will spend three days in Thunder Bay.

Sault Ste Marie

Well first I would like to thank everyone who invited us to farewell dinners, lunches and drinks and those who came to see us off at Churchill Park.
Well we are in a beautiful park near Sault Ste Marie on the St Mary's River which is the shipping route between Lake Superior and Lake Huron.(for my English cousins). We have had easy driving so far and the trailer has pulled well. We had some minor adjustments done today so we should be good for tomorrows trip up the Trans Canada to Marathon. One night there then on the Thunder Bay for three days. That is about 700km to add to ther 950km so far and we are still not out of Ontario.