Tim & Bice: Driving out west to Calgary

It was a lot of driving, a lot of noise from noisy airconditioner units and/or traffic), a lot of heat, and a lot of drought.

Off we went on August 2, be it a bit worried about the forest fires in the northwest region of Ontario. We had had days that we had quite a bit of haze and could smell the smoke here on the island, with air quality warnings because of it, and looking at the maps, we were worried about possible road closures. It didn't come to that but at the end of our 2nd day we drove through an area with a visibility of maybe 300 metres and the smell of fires was overpowering. Made it to Kenora though, where the sun was shining. People there told us that we were lucky, since 2 or 3 days before they had grey skies and ashes falling down.

Kenora is a nice, little town at Lake of the Woods. This lake is bigger than we had imagined, with quite a few marinas, and boats out and about. The big attraction is apparently Husky the Musky. I had no idea what that really was and had to look it up. Here a picture of this manmade creature. My facial expression says it all.

After Kenora we went to Wolseley, SK, an 8 hr drive. We stopped halfway for a break, and some lunch. We found a nice park in Portage la Prairie with clean washrooms, picnic tables and a water diversion, where we saw a bunch of white pelicans, just devouring the fish that came by.

Driving through Manitoba and Saskatchewan was uneventful, and boring. You go from one field to the next, and everything is flat. We had heard about driving through the prairies, and all you see is fields, and cows, and wheat. Just long stretches off it, but it was something we always wanted to experience for ourselves. Also, a lot of really long trains (as in 3km long) to transport said wheat, and everything else that needs transporting. At the same time it was also depressing because of the drought. The cattle is grazing fields with hardly any grass, the sloughs are dry to the point that you see the salt, and even I, with my not-so-much-a-farmer inexperienced eyes, watching the combines harvesting the wheat, could see that the harvest was meagre.

We stopped at a small motel in Wolseley, right along the highway, and basically heard a lot of traffic noise, and those long trains coming by, announcing their arrival by blowing their horns. It was either that, or a noisy air conditioner. Oh well. The town itself was nice to walk through, old houses and an old court house, but its real claim to fame is a swinging bridge. Cables, some of them quite substantial, are what's holding it up and across.

Walking on it was an experience. At first you think that it's not that bad, but by the time you are almost across, you definitely are swaggering to keep your balance.

And then it was off to Calgary, where we finally got to meet Rob, Marjo's partner. He was very nervous about meeting us. Also met James, Rob's 14 year old son, who had moved in them with in April or so. That weekend was spent with shopping, and meeting Rob's familyand his youngest daughter McKenna who is 7 years old. We had been warned about the air there because of the fires in BC, but once again we were lucky. As soon as we arrived the air cleared up, and sunshine in abundance. It was also very hot. Too hot to explore the town. The mornings were pretty cool though.

Then it was off to the Rockies. First with Marjo and Keegan, Rob's oldest son (18), to visit Troll falls. The mountains just start out of nowhere it seems. You drive over a hilltop and there you are at the foot of the Rockies, which are just bare mountains with hardly any vegetation, contrary to the BC side, which has a lot of trees growing.