Sunday 30 August 2015

Saskatoon




So how does Saskatchewan get such a bad rap for boring prairies?  The countryside is beautiful,  great patterns flowing across hillsides from rows of crops waiting to be bailed.  The smell of new mown hay along the highways. Late in the day wetlands full of migrating birds. The only downside is that there are too few places to pull over to stop and take pictures.


I loved Saskatoon and I love my navigation system.  I wanted to go to the Mandel Gallery and my navigator guided me effortlessly there.  Although it was closed for renovations it was right next to the river.   I jumped on my bike and road the bike paths all the way through town.  It was a beautiful day and everyone was out.  There were all kinds of activities, a fall fair, kayakers, skate board park, a river boat for tourists, sculptures, and my favourite a graffiti wall under the bridge for people to write "What I want to see before I die".  The paths lead across the river to the University which was just beautiful.  What a great city.


A great graffiti space under the bridge

Dumont is a big hero here
Play Park along the river
Moose Jaw

Riding my bike perked me up for the drive to Moose Jaw where my navigator found another good campground in Wakamow Valley. It is a big park, my site is right on the little river, and a 5 minute bike ride to down town. Having my bike makes all the difference.  Everything feels so accessible and easy especially when I want a break from driving.  I wanted to see the Tunnels and expected I would be too late on a Sunday but when I got to the office they were still open and I was able to get on a tour of the Chinese Tunnels right away. The guide, who's picture said she was 'Broadway Bound', did a great job for her audience of  one.  Being alone down there without the distractions of others made the reality of their lives all seem so real, an ugly time in our history. When we finished the place was packed and they were oversold for the rest of the evening.  I was lucky.


Afterwards, in need of a perk me up, I went to the Temple Gardens to see the spa.  Very nice and I could have gone for a swim but too little too late. I was content to ride back,  put my house in order and happy to  have internet connection to write this.



Frenchman's Butte and the Battlefords




The original plan was to head south through Medicine Hat and revisit some favourite photography places in southern Saskatchewan. Smoke from forest fires in the north west US blanketed the area so I am now travelling the northern route.


Most of the day was great thanks to friend George's recommendation to take the roads less travelled and go to Frenchman's Butte.  It was a good decision.  By Vegreville I began settling into the beauty of the rolling countryside and then as I worked my way along the range roads I realized this isn't my first rodeo and any first day nervousness disappeared. 


When I found my way to Frenchman's Butte I had a personal tour for over 2 hours with a guide whose family had lived there forever.  They won an award for best small town museum in Saskatchewan and after seeing all the sign's for museum's in every little town I drove through they had a lot of competition.  It would have been even more of an experience if I had stayed with him and the other volunteers for juice but I'm not ready to set aside 'destinations' yet. As it was it took me over 8 hours to get to Battleford, made easier with Saskatchewan's girl Joanie Mitchell and Alberta's Ian Tyson. 


Why doesn't anyone talk about how beautiful Battleford is?  It was past dinner when finally I pulled in.  My campsite has a spectacular view out over the whole valley. I tried to have dinner at the picnic table but eaten alive by mosquito's. They left me alone when I went for a great walk along the valley crest to the Fort, big sky's and big clouds moving in.

So that was the good now for the ugly. Before I left I had decided to drain my tanks at my first campground. On the roads less travelled there was a longish stretch of construction with slippery muddy clay. Anyway, to keep it short, the whole drainage system was caked with cement like dried clay that required an ax, a knife, big pots of water, whisk brooms, and well over half an hour on my knees to get it unhooked, drain it and hook it back up.  I have a maochistic sense of pride born of desperation that I problem solved my way through it. Of corse it then required a trip to the ice cream shop in order to recover.

So alls well that ends well.  Time to read about Sitting Bull, Sam Steel and the Riel Rebellion.





In the beginning

A little background

When I first retired 10 years ago I planned to travel across Canada, head down the east coast across to the south west and back home.  Life intervened and it wasn't until this spring that I had the opportunity to buy a camper van and test out the dream. I owned a van earlier in my life so adjusting to driving it wasn't a problem.  In fact there are so many memories of the good times I had with my children in that van that as soon as I got behind the wheel it was as if my body remembered and I happily relaxed into it. It is a Chevy Road Trek Ranger and I call it Strider for the ranger who fearlessly led his companions on their adventures.



Test Drives and Reality Checks

Learning how to operate the mechanical, electrical, water,  sewage, and heating systems was not so easy. I had a lot of help from people who wanted a 68 year old novice to succeed.  My cousin David taught me all about what is under the hood and under the chassis and gave me lots of helpful advice.  I am forever grateful to Gary, my friend and travel companion on the maiden trip to Utah and Yellowstone to meet up with our friends Ray & Nancy.  He patiently taught me how everything worked, made it enjoyable and gave me confidence that I could do it on my own.  Just to be sure he later accompanied me in his own RV to Jasper and down the Parkway to test out what I had learned.  Now I feel pretty comfortable getting ready for the big Odyssey.

The Plan

This trip has 3 stages, linked to each other by friendships, family and photography.  I plan to take six weeks to cross the prairies, circle the Great Lakes to Algonquin, onto Ottawa to see what election fever looks like in the Capital then through Quebec to the Saugany at the hight of fall colours.  From Quebec and the Gaspe I'll travel to PEI and onto the Magdeline Islands. The Canadian travels end in St. John New Brunswick just before Thanksgiving.

From there it is a quick run down the coast to Portland Maine, over to the Big Whites and a visit with my son and his family in Chelmsford.  I have a week in Washington then return to the family for Halloween and my son's birthday.  I will leave Strider in Chelmsford until spring when the driving part of the adventure will continue.

The last leg of the trip is to Japan, a country I have always wanted to visit.  Luckily there is a direct flight from Boston and good connections home making both the coming and the going easier.

The Execution

The travelling part seems easy in comparison to the preparation for leaving.  I have pages of To Do's and lists for all stages of the trip.  As I check things off and the count down speeds up I am more and more eager to be on the road.  I didn't want to leave my home unattended and luckily my neigbour's son found two great house sitters.  Lastly I have been learning how to set up this blog and am now ready to upload this my first post.

And so it begins.