Home!

I don't have one photo for this blog.  But the title says it all.

We arrived home around 4:45 pm this afternoon.  We really enjoyed our trip.  We saw a lot of things we wouldn't normally see.  But it's great to be home.

We unpacked the RV, cleared out the fridge and opened it up.  We watched the rest of the ball game (whew!) for a while, then wiped out the fridge and took the RV back to its storage home.  It hasn't been there since Feb 22nd.

We grabbed a bite to eat, then came home for the night.  Lots of things to do tomorrow, and we'll probably head to the cottage as soon as we can.  So we didn't unpack entirely.  We'll just move stuff.

This blog is done!  Thanks for reading.

Mackinac Island

Today was our visit to Mackinac Island.  Mackinac Island has no motor cars, nor motor anything, whatsoever.  You get around by walking, bicycle, or horse-drawn carriage.  It's been 25-26 years since we were on the Island last.  So we took our bikes this time.  Great opportunity.  It costs $10 to take them over and back on the ferry.  It costs $10/hr to rent a bike on the island.  And there are lots of bike rental places.  You can get regular bikes, tandem bikes, bikes with child carriers or child wagons.  We're waiting for the shuttle to pick us up from the RV park and take us to the ferry terminal.

Last time we were here, David was just a little guy.  He was only 3-4 yrs old, and couldn't ride a bike on his own, but he was too big to ride on the back of a bike.  One place wouldn't rent us the bike because of it.  But we found one who would.  That's really all we remember of the place.  And it's in Lake Huron.

We're on a hydro-jet.

It took us under the Bridge.  Just a little side tour which was nice.

I lied, this is the other thing I remember about the island.  This large, imposing hotel.

So we hopped on our bikes and started around the island.  It's about 13 kms around, and with stops, it took us about 2 hours.  Just an enjoyable, fun ride to do.

This is one of the stops we made...up to Arch Rock.  No other name, just "Arch Rock".  It's like climbing up the Niagara Escarpment.  Same limestone rock.  The middle of the island is quite high.  207 steps to climb up.

A view along the shore from Arch Rock.

Here's another hydro jet going by.

After we completed our loop, we had lunch in the town.  There are beautiful homes here, inns, and even a school for kids who live here.  We could have taken time to browse in the shops and that sort of thing, but we're not really into that...at least not today.

We headed back to the mainland and our RV.  Gerard went off to get the truck loaded with guzzleline for tomorrow's trip.  Our talk all day today has been about getting home and what we're going to do when we get there.  It's time.  We're ready to go home (so we can go to the cottage).

Great Lakes Drive

How many times do you see 3 of our great lakes in the same day?

Superior

Michigan

Huron

We had a shortish drive today to Mackinaw City.  It started out kinda rainy, but cleared up.  The sun even came out for a while.  It has certainly cooled off in the UP.

Along the way we saw this sign (actually saw it twice).  It made me laugh.  There's another use for that word too.  They could be interesting if homemade.

So we finally reached the Straits of Mackinac.  This is the Mackinac Suspension Bridge over the strait from about 2-3 miles away.



Had to stop to pay a toll.  And damned if we would drive around the lake!  You're kind of stuck.

Here's the suspension part of the bridge.  It's pretty big.  (The bridge isn't really tilted, nor swinging.)

So, is it Mackinaw or Mackinac?  I'm not sure -- as we see it both ways.  Mackinaw City, Straits of Mackinac.  And perhaps they pronounce it without either on the end, as in Mackina.  Beats me.

We set up our RV and took a walk around.  We're right on Lake Huron (actually, part of the Strait, but the Huron side of it).  Here are some ducks trying out surfing.

We're staying here tomorrow as well and heading over to Mackinac Island for a good chunk of the day.

Michigamme

(I actually forgot to do this last night!  So this is written as if yesterday.)

Isn't there a song something about the "shores of Michigamme" -- or maybe that's "shores of Gitchagumi".  Same diff, except the lake is much smaller.

Well, here we are on the shores of Michigamme - Lake Michigamme that is.  We had a long day of driving yesterday through the rest of Minnesota and a drive through Wisconsin as well.  It's just a short piece of Wisconsin up on the northern end.

We arrived in the UP of Michigan just before 2:30 central time, then crossed back into the eastern time zone!  Getting closer.

Just coming into Duluth, Minnesota.  We saw this plane taking off.

Hee hee.

This is a bridge over a bay in Duluth.  We crossed that bridge.

We stopped briefly and this dedication was there.  I thought it was kind of funny, even though he was a war hero.  I shouldn't make fun, but...

We're driving along the shores of Gitchagumi!  Haven't seen this lake in some time, and never the south shore.

That's Lake Superior, in case any of you don't know about that song.  We carry on.

What a Night!

I mentioned yesterday how the nice thunderstorm would cool things off, and how good that would be.  Well, at about 3 o'clock this morning, it wasn't so nice.  I thought we were going to be in Oz.  First the rain started, then we heard clunks.  It was hail!  Fortunately not too bad, and the hail stopped after a while.  And the lightning was like a strobe light for about 20 minutes.  Unbelievable.  Then the wind.  Yikes!  The RV was rocking.  At any moment, it would take off.  But it finally ebbed away, and we fell asleep again.  I think we were awake for about an hour and a half because of it.

The area south of Winnipeg is very French.  We stayed in Ile des Chenes, and almost every other town name is French.  Even the Seine River is here!  This is the diversion, but we did cross the Seine earlier.



We crossed the border into Minnesota.  One customs guy at the border.  Not exactly a high-traffic area.



A town we stopped at for gas.

We stopped at Thief River Falls for lunch and some grocery shopping.  Interesting name for a town.

We're now just south of Bemidji, Minnesota.  We arrived around 2:30 this afternoon and set up.  More thunderstorms were around us, but not overhead.  I've had enough of those.

Next to us is an RV and the people have 2 retrievers.  They went out for a while, and there they were, looking at us.  So cute.  "How much is that doggy in the window?"  The 2nd one is sitting up on the left.



After dinner, we went on a short hike on a local trail.  Mark Woodley, we thought of you when we saw this licence plate.

Tomorrow we continue on into Michigan, and south of Lake Superior.  We're getting closer!

We're in TOBA

We left Saskatchewan this morning around 9 am.  We drove across country (didn't go back up to the TransCanada right away) from Saskatchewan to Manitoba.  We were only about 70-80 km from Manitoba as it was.  This sign is rather small, but then, we're not on a main highway at all.

We eventually joined the TransCanada about 40 km into Manitoba.  It curved down.  There wasn't much to see but beautiful open fields and big skies.  But not so much picture-worthy.

We are just south of Winnipeg at Ile des Chenes.  We crossed the Assiniboine River.

And the Red River.

Both these rivers meet in Winnipeg at The Forks.  We also crossed an overflow for the Red River.  As you know, the rivers can overflow in spring and provide pretty nasty floods at times.

So that's pretty much it for today.  When we got here, we went for a walk back to the town (about a mile back).  But a thunderstorm was looming.  We just got finished with dinner, and sure enough, the thunder rolled in and the skies opened up.  It was a pretty hot day, so this will help cool it a bit.

Tomorrow we're off to the States again (I don't think the wall has been built yet).

Significant Saskatchewan (to me)

Today was an easy day.  The first thing we did when we left our site is we went to the Fletwode area, and the Hermon United Church where my Dad's ashes are interred at his Father's grave.  It's such a nice, peaceful location, isolated on top of a hill in the middle of virtually, nowhere.

A nice dedication plaque about the church.

We left there after a bit, then drove down to Moose Mountain Provincial Park.  We saw this sign along the road, which I thought was hilarious.  Funny-looking children, if you ask me!

This is Kenosee Lake in the park taken from the Visitor's Centre.  They use the centre for weddings and the like.  It's a beautiful building and lawn.

We did a hike in the park and just generally looked around.  There are actually people who live in homes here in the park.  The only one in Saskatchewan, we understand.

The significance of the park to me is that my Grandfather worked here at the park many eons ago, after coming from the UK.  It wasn't a park then.  That would be somewhere between 1908 and 1920.  My Dad was born near here, and grew up around here.  He used to tell me about riding a horse through the park area, hunting elk for food.

We did see Bambi and his mother.  So cute.  They were gone before I could even raise the camera (phone).

After we were done there, we headed back to our RV.  Later in the day, we did a short walk around the town of Kipling.  We came across this Big Red Paperclip, apparently in the Guinness Book of World Records.

So I looked it up.  Here's a website describing what this is all about.  We didn't go to the house.  Interesting story.  http://townofkipling.ca/visitors/red-paperclip-story/

We found this millennium time capsule too.  It was surrounded by shrubs.  I guess they want people to just forget about it for some time.

So tomorrow we're off to Manitoba.  Getting closer.

And Another Visit!

We left Maple Creek, Sask., this morning around 10 am.  It was a fairly long drive to our destination today, but it was straight and mostly flat, as you can imagine.  Yep, flat.  Big, big sky though.



We headed to southeast Saskatchewan, the area where my Dad grew up.  This is an example of the grain elevator of today.

This is an example of the grain elevator of yesteryear, without the silo.  My uncle used to run one of these grain elevators in a small town called Osage, on another road southeast of Regina.

We saw a couple of small potash mines along the way.  Sorry, the photo isn't great - other side of the road.

It's flat enough you can see the grain elevators clearly from about 10-15 km away.  You think it's only a kilometre or 2 down the road, but you never seem to get there!  This is the City of Regina.  We are about 25-30 km from it.



We arrived at our destination, Kipling, around 4 pm.  It's just a small town, but very nice.  They had this pot sitting in the middle of the main intersection in town.

So when I knew we were coming to this area, I contacted my cousins to let them know, and if they had a spare evening, to come and see us.  It turns out the only timing that would work for all of us was tonight.  So, Laura took it upon herself to organize food for the evening.  She knew we would just be landing, and Kathy had to work until 6:30.  As Laura said, the important thing is getting together.  It was perfect.  We had a great visit, and Laura brought her sister out as well.  I haven't seen Evelyn for 28 years, and neither of us remember, so it was great chatting with her and her husband, Tony.

Here we all are - from left to right - Evelyn, Kathy, Don her husband (standing behind her), Tony, Laura (standing behind him), Gerard.

What a great evening with some cousins.

I think that's the end of our visits for this trip!  We've had 4, which has been really unusual, and 3 in the last 3 days.  Just love it.

Another Visit

We left Elkton Valley this morning.  The day started out as a great driving day.  Although cloudy, you could see the mountains in the west, about 80 km away.  They're such a contrast to the land when you get out of the mountains.

We drove down to Cochrane, about 45 minutes south of where we were, and toward the TransCanada Highway.  We happened to line up Dave's day off with our passing through this area.  He happens to be working near Bragg Creek, just south of here off the same highway we were on.  He transported others of his crew into Cochrane to do laundry and enjoy the day off.  This is the crummy he drives.  It transports 11 people.



So glad to see him!

We left him after a while and proceeded to the TransCanada to continue east.  First, Calgary.  The TC actually goes through part of the city and has oodles of traffic lights.

Then it started to rain.  And it rained and rained and rained.  The next 2 photos are through a wet windshield.  This is supposedly the tallest tepee in the world, near Medicine Hat.

Then we arrived in Saskatchewan.

We're staying only about 40 km into Saskatchewan very near the TC.  We haven't had to set up in pouring rain like this!  We sort of just planted in our site and waited for the rain to quit around 9:30.  Then we kind of redid the set-up so it was more stable and even.

We continue on in Saskatchewan tomorrow.

What a Reunion

(Written as if last night.)

Tonight we have a small BBQ planned at our RV with some old friends.  This morning we headed into Sundre to pick up some groceries...and stuff.

These dogs were pretty cute in the back of this truck.  The one on the right looks pretty ripped!

Our campground is on the Little Red Deer River...just down the road from where we are parked.

Andy and Gladys came down to our site around 5:30 or so.  They're the reason for us being here.  We met up with them in Orillia in January at John Hollinger's Mom's funeral.  We talked about coming out here, and Andy said, "We're just off the TransCanada."  So we decided, what the heck.  Sure we'll come.



At about 6 pm, the rest arrived.  Hilary Rosebrugh (nee Reid) and I just kind of stared at each other for a bit, then we hugged and cried.  It was so incredible seeing her after almost 40 years.  What an emotional moment.  We were in each other's weddings.  In fact, I was her maid-of-honour.



It's also incredible how much people have not changed in all that time.  We were great friends in elementary and high school.  We hung out together a LOT.  As did Judy Hollinger (nee Payne).

Maybe I did change.  I didn't realize I had a hook on my arm!



Hilary's sister, Barb, came along too.  Barb is only a year older than Hilary, so Barb was often part of our group.  It was so great to see her too.  And this is Bert, Hilary's husband.  We also hugged and cried.

And the 3 of us.

5 Orillia people!  Andy, Bert, Barb, me, and Hilary.  Take that all you non-Orillians.  We've outnumbered people once again.

We threw some burgers on the BBQ and had a couple of salads.  All in all, it was a terrific night.  So emotional, and so satisfying.  We can't let it be another 40 years!