Blogs from Medicine Hat, Alberta, Canada, North America

Thursday 30th May 2019 The Cypress Hills lie about fifty kilometres to the south of the Trans Canada Highway. It is a lush high-altitude area, pine backwoods, lakes and rugged hills surrounded by ranch land, grasslands where large steers graze and are herded by cowboys (and girls) on horseback. The USA border to Montana lies just another fifty kilometres to the south. We knew that moose and elk roamed these woodlands as well as wolverine; arriving to see notices warning about encounters with cougars, however, took us a bit by surprise, especially as we are camping here two nights. With our campgrounds maps we were given a pamphlet “Cougar Safety in the Cypress Hills”. The advice is basically the same as for bear encounters, don’t run, back away slowly and calmly, act big and speak in ... read more

Vancouver to Medicine Hat We left Vancouver late Thursday morning as the weather started to close in, and it was expected to rain later that day with heavy rain on Friday. We took a loop through downtown Vancouver following my GPS and to give Bones a look around. We made it to Hope and Tim Horton's for lunch, as you do. We were heading over to Penticton, but when I booked the hotel I inadvertently punched in Princeton!! So it was not quite as far that day as we had planned, but seeing as we left so late in the morning by default it was a good mistake. We stayed at Castle Resort at Rainbow Lake, all sounds great and fairytale like, but it had seen better days. We had a big lodge all to ourselves ... read more

So as I was on day 4 (possibly 5) of my latest work trip, I was driving from Drumheller to Calgary after another Consumer Event. It was dark, my eyes are not great, and despite our 'distracted driving' laws in AB The classic David Letterman top ten list kept running through my head, Sales Manager style. So I called upon my dear friend (yet slightly hearing challenged) Siri to help me remember them via dictation and this is what I came up with: The top 10 things I discovered on my latest excursion to Southern, Sunny, Windy Alberta: Rule number one: Never, ever, ever, ever trust Apple maps (unless of course you prefer dead ends, wrong turns, closed roads and gravel roads and are behind schedule) Rule number two: the Strathmore Starbucks always opens tomorrow. Regardless ... read more

Okay...tomorrow's the day!! The movers are coming to take away the potpurri of stuff we are keeping. Actually, we have done a really good job of purging our decades of packratting (I use the plural...Nadine would point squarely at me...guilty as charged!). Now we only require two 18 wheelers to fit what's left . Nadine was kind enough to make large piles of my stuff to go through to purge...I never saw any piles for her! It has been a long road to getting ready in the relatively short period of time. We learned our house sold about the third week of July and reconfirmed our commitment to take Alex, Gabriel, and Nicolas on a world tour before it was too late. In that time we have been planning the tour, packing the house, having garage ... read more

Day 54. 14,832Km Just a couple hundred K down the road but I was tired and finding a place on the weekend is getting more difficult. Besides, there is a blues bar just down the road. It was after 0230hrs when I got to bed this morning so I did'nt hit the open highway till after 1100hrs. It's hot again. Over 30 and sunny. Not as humid as it would be at home though. I was pleased to see more wind turbines today. The other thing I'm seeing more and more of is giant sprinklers in the fields. I was wondering where the water came from. I wondered if the farmers had big underground water tanks that slowly filled and then they pumped it all out but then I had the answer. Every 10 or 15 ... read more