Wednesday, August 29, 2007

Aug 27, 28, 29 We all a wanna go ... back to On ....



We landed back in Ontario at Fort Frances and were welcomed warmly into the Maki home. Bert especially liked the after dinner Scotch nosing courtesy of Steve and his substantial collection of single malts. Mikaela came away (once again) with more clothes than she arrived with as well as some new rocker dance moves courtesy of a prolonged X box training session. Thanks Lori and Steve for a great visit in the Rainy River district. Halle ... I'll snap that picture of you yet ... just you wait!

Trip down the road to Thunderbay (half way from Atikokan) brought a new species to our critter count ... 3 Lynx including two kitchens strutting across the road in front of us ... too much traffic for a good picture ... no matter says Mikaela ... "I'll never forget that cute little guy peeking over the crest looking for mom."

Golf tomorrow I think.

BOSgone

Tuesday, August 28, 2007

Aug 25 Prehistoric Canada -- Drumheller Alberta




We had to decide between highway 16 (a different highway than transcanada)east to Winnipeg and the QE2 south to Drumheller and dinosaur central for North America. Dude in the OPA! restaurant said Drumheller is like visiting moon (cool terrain) and I was sold. It helped that we found out Mitchell does not need to be back early to Toronto to register for high school.

Badlands turned out to be good ... descending into Drumheller was really cool. Royal Tyrell museum was filled to capacity but worth stopping under any circumstance. Excellent displays set to draw in audiences of all ages to a trip back in time to prehistoric Alberta ... a sea side tropical land bordering the Devonian Sea, with a cornucopia of large flesh eating dinosaur monsters battling it out for survival every day. Talk about the wild wild west ... makes to perils of the Chilikoot look like a walk in the park.

Leaving town we missed a turn and ended up staying down in the badlands for an extended tour on a brand new highway including a stop at Hoo Doos. Not "Hoo Dee" (Kara) but Hoo Doo (Alberta) ya think you are, mister big rock. Instruction here is that missing your turn off to the main hiway and staying on the back roads often turns out to be a good thing. Maybe we will all be forced to learn how to turn off "plot shortest time" or "plot shortest route" settings on the GPS technology that will surely be standard in every vehicle in the next few years.

Next is drive straight back to Ontario stopping at Medicine Hat (1); Winnipeg (1); Fort Frances (2); Thunderbay (2) ... maybe take interstate down to Port Huron / Sarnia for labour day.

BOSgone

Friday, August 24, 2007

Aug 23, 24 Let's go Buff-a-lo




Thanks to Kelly (who knows these parts) we decided to take Alaska highway route down to Liard Hot Springs. Wow. What a drive. More proof that Yukon really is "larger than life" and B.C. really is "supernatural" ... we saw wild buffalo and caribou herds (small) moose, deer, hawks and gas at $1.40 per litre ... all unchartered territory for us. Spectacular scenery poking through the mist and fog and sun and cloud all the way into Alberta big sky country ... more $60K trucks than at the Dawson city mud run spectacular. Everything is fast in Alberta ... petal to the metal and 16 hours later we are in West Edmonton and touring the decidedly not natural west edmonton mall. M+M liked the indoor water park, Karen and I found a Starbucks and some fruit of the loom reinforcements for the long road ahead ... likely taking us tomorrow 3 hours south to the Canadian Badlands and Drumheller Alta. dinasour dig.

BOSgone

Wednesday, August 22, 2007

Aug 19-20 Klondike fever





Drove with the Lanigan's straight north to Dawson City. Seeing a sign on turnoff for Ft. McPherson / Inuvik (Dempster highway) was a unique experience for me. All of Dawson is a National Historic site ... takes little imagination to see the characters of the Klondike days walking up the board walk ... whole town seemed to be in a good mood .... probably combination of weather (25C) ... time of year (discovery days long weekend) and spirits from the present and past.

Thanks again to local knowledge (Kelly) we were able to visit "Dredge No. 4" National Historic site and Dome mountain (pic showing whole town and two rivers) and gain a deeper understanding of why Dawson City is here ... the Klondike and Yukons rivers meet here and provide conduit to a place where the search for commerce sometimes ends at Bonanza but more often ends just up the Creek without a paddle.

And speaking of spirits ... not sure about the strength of the spirits that may have guided the traveller driving car in the pic ... inches from taking the fast route down a very large/steep slope to the river. Cabin is that of Robert Service ... google "cremation of sam mcgee" ...There are strange things done in the midnight sun By the men who moil for gold ...

Thanks to Tan and Kelly for the wonderful Yukon holiday. Time to hit the ol dusty trail ... off to Liard Hot Springs and then east to west Edmonton mall.

BOSgone

Saturday, August 18, 2007

Aug. 13-18 Yukon GOLD!









We headed directly to Tagish for a few days at the "cabin". Apparently we brought the good weather we have enjoyed from day one with us ... Whitehorse summer started Aug 13 with temperatures in the 25-30 range. The river and lake were like glass for most of our stay. Water is also at a 200 year high this year, as evidenced by the pic of submerged Lanigan dock anchored in the river with 45 gallon drums. Fishing was good and tubing and skiing was even better. Our Tagish sojourn with it's sights (spectacular dusk skies lingering until midnight) and smells (sweet pure pine on the trail to the NWMP 1898 stampeder outpost) and sounds (local wolves doing there version of late night MSN messenger) scored a perfect Yukon gold with us. Tomorrow we are up early for excursion to Dawson city ... overnight camping with Tan and Kelly and Meg and Hobbie ... Jack is kickin' butt (soccer ball) in Calgary.

BOSgone

ps click on submerged dock pic to spot my dream sailboat (in the Yukon of all places) ... Macgregor 26M with dodger and bimini

Monday, August 13, 2007

Aug 13 Yukon Lanigan'd



********************************** What a great way to travel! Even if our tender, Matanuska, was part of the Alaska hobo highway fleet. So what if you had to step over granola crunchers flaked out in their hi tech sleep gear on the deck. So what if our "state room" rattled at sail worse than my Mazda on a dirt road at 125 KPH. We had glorious clear weather for the continuous mountain slide show slipping past our recliners on the holodeck ... bald eagles and humpback whales abounded and the lightning storm was saved for just past dusk (11 pm) on day 1.

Arrived Skagway at 04:45 day 3 ... checked out White Pass rail and the wooden board walks of a closed shut town ... drove the short distance back to Canada and the Yukon and finally Laniganed in Whitehorse by 10:30. Tomorrow we are off to the cabin on Tagish then maybe Dawson city and the 'top of the world highway' for a few days this weekend for long weekend (it's a YUKON thing) Discovery Days activities.

BOSgone

Saturday, August 11, 2007

Aug 11 Inner Passage to Alaska



Kicked around Prince Rupert today ... mostly down at the docks watching the fishing boats come and go. Everyone seems to own a big water tug with a super duty four by to haul it out with. Scarfed down all our New Zealand apples 'cause we are going through US customs in an hour or so and these are the verboeten fruit of the day. Big yellow signs exclaiming MARSEC (marine security) LEVEL 1 seems to be disconnected from the quaint northern town.... visibly more prosperous than Prince George ... great history lesson today ... Northern BC museum of natural history is a "don't miss"... apparently people have been conducting commerce in the area since before the first Christmas :-)

Next stop Skagway, Alaska

Friday, August 10, 2007

Aug 9 Prince of a town


Took Al Roger's advice on route to Prince George ... Drove up # 5 past Clearwater and Valemount. Excellent road, no traffic and stunning vistas of the rockies including Canada's highest (Mt Robson). Next time I will be sure to budget an extra day or two to go white water rafting here. Highway skirts north Thompson and Fraser rivers all the way up. Fast moving water with plenty of it being white.

Stayed in Prince George and, having made such good time, I decided to drive out looking for supplies. Rough town. Twenty metres from the hotel a young native woman asked if I was "looking". I'm pretty sure that she was not referring to the local Walmart.

BOSgone

Wednesday, August 8, 2007

Aug 8 Western Union



Our last day in Kelowna was more sun and relaxation plus a tour to the other side of the lake to see Al and Leanne's house ... the house that dodged the forest fire bullet the summer that BC burned (2003). It's tough to convey in a blog all that is the Kelowna lifestyle ... suffice it to say that Canada is a mighty big country and this space should make the top 3 on anyone's list of preferred place to live and live well. Our cherry on the top of a fantastic 3 days spent at Lakeview heights and the Playford house was a reunion meal with cousins Joy and Leanne Rogers who joined Marty and Al, Karen and myself and Mitchell and Mikaela...featuring salad with home grown vegetables and pinot noir from the winery a stone's throw from the deck. Tough to leave here ... but looking forward to our drive through the BC interior to Prince Rupert and our "cruise" through the inner passage to Skagway.

Tuesday, August 7, 2007

Aug 6,7 Slidin' down into Kelowna




We were determined this trip west not to miss out on Kelowna. Last time we did the circuit from Vancouver through the Rocky Mountain National Parks ... but missed out on this jewel in the desert ... home to peach and apricot orchards and 132 vineyards, mountain vistas and fresh water beaches. We pulled into cousin Joy and Marty's home up in the west bank and into what seemed like a 5 star resort ... enjoyed great food, conversation and, yes, great local wine for a 2 day respite from the road.

Karen's side of the family also gave warm welcome, just up the road in West Bank. Sitting on George and Teresa's deck, we enjoyed a lovely dinner with Kelowna in the background across the lake. The sweeping vista from most homes built into the west bank is awe inspiring .... calling into question why anyone with the choice would choose to live anywhere but the Okanagon valley of British Columbia

Monday, August 6, 2007

Aug 2nd Manitoba is


... Friendly. Everyone we passed down at The Forks national park said "Hi". The city bus driver stopped and waited for no other reason than to let me get the full video shot I was shooting of the Winnipeg city scape. Curiously, I've never seen that happen in Toronto.
Bosgone

Sunday, August 5, 2007

Rocky Mountain high Aug 4,5




************************************************************
It's great to be in Banff.
Began our stay living like hobos in a refugee camp (all campgrounds full). Notice the birthday cake serving table (cooler) ... overflow area had great view but no services including no water and no picnic tables.Inauspicious location for Mitchell's birthday cake ... somehow not a big deal to the 14 year old Mitch ... birthday's on the road seem to be the norm for RMV.
Hiked Lake Louise today. Somehow I remember it as an easier jaunt. Major vertigo happening. All worth it just to enjoy the look on Mikaela's face staring out into the Rocky Mountain imensity from the tea house at Lake Agnes. Mitchell even left his new electronic toy alone for a few hours. Wonders abound.

Bosgone

Wednesday, August 1, 2007

Lac des Mille Lacs August 1st


Yesterday's work was divided between preparing major pickerel fish fry (girls) and major lakeview cabin reconstruction effort (guys armed with duct tape). Today we drove to one hour by road and 40 minutes on the boat to Lac des Mille Lacs to restock freezer fish supply. We caught a dozen fish (pickerel, pike and bass) and kept the best for future fish fry feast. Tomorrow we try to escape the ONTARIO boundary and head west. O Canada here we come! No desktop to blog from for next week or so ... stay tuned.