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Published: October 8th 2006
Nancy, Doug & Copper
2006 NORTH AMERICAN TOUR
September 2006
Please be advised that this is written for the second time, starting on October 2, 2006, while I sit at a campsite in Blue River, British Columbia, you don’t want to know what I did with the first copy !!!!!!!!!!!!! So no Daily weather reports and a slightly shorter version of what we did. By the way Nancy is still with me !!! even though she advised me some time ago to print as we go !!!!
September 1/ 06 through September 4/06
We left Point Edward, Ontario after visiting with Tom & Bonnie and Nancy’s sister and brother in law, Mary and Don. We are headed for Auburn Campgrounds, just east of Goderich. We visited the salt mines in Goderich and did some shopping. The campgrounds roasted a pig on the BBQ for Sunday dinner, it was delicious, had all the trimmings
September 4/06 through September 5/06
We left Auburn Campgrounds and headed for Port Severn, Nancy picked out a “beautiful campground” which we booked into, only to find that the Campground was closing for good at the end of
October, it was also the most expensive site to date, needless to say we left early the next day and headed for Spragge, Ontario.
September 5 through September 6/06
Our first KOA Campground, we saw an old train wreck being cleared off the main line between Sudbury and the Soo. We took a drive to Elliott Lake in the afternoon, a pretty little town, about half the population are retired. The town was a bustling community during the use of uranium in Nuclear Power Plant. Up early and headed to Wawa, Ontario.
September 6 through September 7/06
We arrived in Wawa (Indian translation meaning “Wild Goose”) in the early afternoon. Got up at 6:00 am and went pickerel fishing, on the advice of the campground keeper, who didn’t know what fishing was all about, so needless to say I didn’t even get excited, never mind a bite !! Nancy spent the morning taking pictures of “friggin” geese, they were everywhere, on roof tops, overlooking the town, and under foot. Left Wawa and headed for Marathon We where introduced to the Winnie The Pooh legend at White Lake,, a neat story about a WW1 officer in the
Veterinary Corp. from Winnipeg on his way overseas. He bought a cub bear (named him Winnie after his home town of Winnipeg) and took him to England, Winnie ended up in a zoo in England where H.H. Milne and his son became infatuated with him. Hense the birth of Winnie the Pooh. A park and statue have been erected in the town of White Lake. We stayed at a tiny Campground at Nay’s overnight.
September 8 through September 9/06
We headed to Thunder Bay, beautiful drive through Northern Ontario, where we stayed at a KOA Campground. We stayed two nights in Thunder Bay where we toured the city to see Angela’s old stomping grounds. We visited the Terry Fox Memorial, what an amazing job they have done with this truly Canadian memory.
September 10/06 through September 11/06
Left Thunder Bay and headed to Ignace where we found a nice campsite on a small lake, run by a nice young couple. Copper was in heaven with the 500 km of trails which she ran off leash to her hearts content. Nancy was the only one who was tired. Doug went fishing in the afternoon and returned very
successful!
September 11/06 through September 13 /06
We drove through Northern Ontario and reflected on the date, September 11, and were calmed by the fact we were so far away from civilization. We noticed once we left the Precambrian watershed and got onto the Artic watershed how flat the land was. We arrived eventually at Kenora, the navigator was asleep at the switch. So after an hour and a half extra drive, we turned around at a fire station and went back to Kenora. I spent some time fishing a windy Lake of the Woods the next day, not as successful as Ignace, but we sure enjoyed the Lake of the Woods beauty. Left Kenora and headed to Brandon, Manitoba.
September 13/06 through September 15/06
We drove across the last of Northern Ontario with it’s rugged landscapes, rocks and trees. We suddenly came upon the flat landscape of the prairies. Winnipeg, you skirt around on your way to Brandon. The prairies are flat and treeless, not as treeless as I suspected, but never the less treeless. We arrive in Brandon, another city made famous by Angela, she took her teaching degree there. We toured the City
and saw all the places she and Nancy had visited when she first went to school there. Leave Brandon and head for Regina, Saskatchewan.
September 15/06 through September 18/06
We arrive in Regina about 3:00 PM, a city we visited back in 1992, when we attended the Brier, along with John & Cheryl, and a host of others, including, Helen & John Doty, Steve Doty, Ray (and eventually) Kim Dumouchel, Bonnie & Wally Morris, Gord Kritsch, Ross and Debbie Davies, Patti McKnight and too many others. Anyway we started by visiting the old Regina Curling Club, which brought back some fond memories of Gladdy and the Twits, Elvis and so many others, only to find that the club had closed. Probably went downhill once we all left, then on to downtown, where we had stayed at some hotel, where the wake up calls were never on time, the shooter bars all close way too soon, and the swimming pools had no bars connected too them, but we somehow managed to get our drinks into the hot tubs. (do you remember John & Cheryl?) I guess this is where the expression “you should never go back” comes from. We
spent the next day at a spa for COPPER, she had never been to a spa before and thoroughly enjoyed being washed and pampered about. Nancy left her for a full two hours!!! It rained for the whole time we were in Regina and the Sunday we just hunkered down and spent the day in the motor home (the first time this has happened since we started our incredible journey) We headed for Saskatoon early that morning.
September 18/6 through September 19/06
We stopped in Saskatoon and bought the ingredients for a typical Ukrainian meal, perogies and Mennonite home made garlic sausage. The choice was exceptional! The Brier in 2000 was there, but we weren’t, we were in the Dominican Republic instead, much warmer and much dryer, I’m sure.
September 19/06 through September 20/06
We left for Lloydminister this morning, and can’t get over the flatness of the prairies. You drive along, seeing as far as the eye can see on both sides, the Big Sky, and then suddenly you hit upon a draw, some three or four miles wide and 500 to 600 feet deep, with the North Saskatchewan River in the bottom of it.
So breathtaking, so beautiful, We arrive in Lloydminister in the early afternoon,
September 20/06
We leave Lloydminister and head to Edmonton, only a short distance away, we stop at a Flying J Gas bar in Edmonton and pay .71 cents per liter for diesel fuel. They know how to live in Alberta. We arrive at Ray and Kim’s after the driver doesn’t listen to the navigator and we end up on a “Cul de Sac” and have to unhook the car from the back of the motor home in order to turn it around in a laneway. Ray meets us at the house and we have a “welcome drink” (s) until Kim gets home. Ray was worried that their dog wouldn’t get along with Copper but first introduction went well and Copper spent the next five days taking over the house. After a great meal we headed out to the Saville Center where Ray had to curl. Nancy, Kim and I had a few drinks, visited with some of the members and Ray was highly insulted that we only saw him throw a few rocks.
September 21/06
Spent Thursday relaxing, Ray came home and we BBQ steaks with all the trimmings.
September 22/06
Up after Ray & Kim headed to work and headed to the West Edmonton Mall. What a fantastic sight. It’s huge, took lots of pictures, and saw all the points of interest on the list that Kim had furnished us with the night before. That evening we went to a fabulous Greek Restaurant, complete with Greek music, the traditional breaking of the plates, and BELLY DANCING. We all had to dance with the belly dancer, After supper their son, Greg took us on a tour of Edmonton by night.
September 23/06
Got up and had bacon & eggs, some of us had Eggs benedict, before we went on a tour of Edmonton from North, south, east and west, and the University, where Ray works. Then home for a quick drink (s) and off to the hockey game, Edmonton vs Calgary. Then later that night we were treated to a spectacular show of the Northern Lights.
September 24/06
We left for a tour of Leduc # 1, the first oil well to ever be tamed in Alberta, in 1947, and what a difference that has made to the Alberta economy. Then it was home to a truly fantastic meal pork tenderloin on the barbie (Thanks Juliet) for all your Aussie sayings and for your great desert, that you spent all afternoon preparing. Rob and his girlfriend joined us for dinner.
September 25/06
We waddled to the motor coach, after 5 days of the most spectacular meals, Kim is a firm believer of the old saying “If you eat well, you will feel well” so we should be all set for at least a week or two !! Traveled to Calgary to-day, found the grave sites of my Mothers’ father and mother after some searching. Mom could only tell me that they were buried in North Calgary, but now North Calgary is central Calgary.
September 26/06 to September 30/06
We traveled from Calgary to Banff, on to Lake Louise and then to Jasper. All we can say is “Fantastic, incredible, spectacular, breathtaking”, we did so many things during these 5 days that it would take as long to write about them as it took to do them. Three highlights of our adventure were 1. Nancy actually went on the cable car at Lake Louise, 2. Viewed the Columbia Ice fields on our way to Jasper, 3. Doug went horse back riding in Jasper and we saw more friggin’ Elk in our National Campground than you could shake a stick at !! Well maybe there were four items, one our dearest friends turned 50, we called and wished her well !!!
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diana brady
non-member comment
hi there
hi nancy and doug angie just sent me you blog address so i thought i'd say hi looks like your having a great thus far i will checkin once in awhile to see how your adventure is progressing ... have a nice day ....di