Sault Ste Marie locks
Sault Ste Marie locks
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worlds largest jack-knife railway bridge 

June 29 Thursday 59’ sunny 6:30 We get a early start as we have 705 kms(440 mi) to go. We are really impressed with the beauty of the Prairies but being in Ontario made us feel at home except the trees are too small. The area is heavily forested and dotted with dozens of small lakes and marshes. We arrive at Sault Ste Marie at 3pm. It is on the boarder of Michigan USA. We are staying at another KOA- 35 a night we sign up for 2 nights. They have free WIFI. Good in our rig, we are only 15 min from downtown. After supper we drive into town and

walk the waterfront. We fuel up and pay the most so far-103 a liter.

June 30 Friday Beautiful sunny day. Sault Ste Marie is a lovely town despite our preconceived idea of it being nothing but a steel producing town. Sault is pronounced Sue. The locks connect the river to Lake Superior and Lake Huron. Today Bill goes to the Bushplane museum $10. He said it was really interesting. I stay home and play with my computer. After lunch we do the lock tour-$25 ea. A 2hr. boat ride through the locks . First through the Americian side, under the International bridge, past the Algoma Steel corp. We see the worlds largest jack-knife railway bridge, the St Mary’s rapids and back through the Canadian locks. A perfect day for boating.

Kakabeka Falls
Fort Williams Thunder Bay
Fort Williams
Fort Williams Thunder Bay 

June 28 Wednesday beautiful and sunny. Kakabeka Falls just out side Thunder Bay. Really something to see. Well worth a stop. Next we go to Fort Williams a replica of the old fort. Very well done. They had a set back as they had a big flood here in the spring. They have WIFI at this KOA park so I am on line and Bill went to see a miniature train display. We are leaving for Sault St Marie tomorrow.

Terry Fox memorial Thunder Bay
 

June 27 Tuesday overcast. We traveled 3106 miles and spent $975.63 on fuel so far all told. We drive into town and do some shopping. We visit the Terry Fox memorial. Lake Superior is the second largest freshwater lake in the world by area and holds 10% of the worlds surface fresh water. Thunder Bay is Canada’s 3rd largest freshwater port. Their massive grain elevators dominate the waterfront. Thunder Bay is approximately halfway between Canada’s east & west limits. The U.S. state of Michigan is across the lake.

June 26 Monday 65’-7am Today we leave for Thunder Bay, the half way point between west and east coast. We go hwy 11 then branch off to hwy71. It’s a little longer but more scenic. (lots of little lakes.) We stop at Fort Frances for lunch at McDonalds, come out to pouring rain. We take hwy 11-17-102-11 Thunder Bay expressway. It rains (pours) of and on all day. We are going to visit our former neighbours from Coquitlam. Bonnie & Tom, Missy and Shawn and family ( Sherri’s best friend in school. We stay at a KOA on the north side of town. $32 a night ,we will stay 3 nights. We traveled 480mi(773km) a long day.

the mint where our coins are made
Lower Fort Garry Selkiet
Fort is all original as made of stone
Maritime museum Selkirt

I think this might be out of order
June 25 Sunday 72’am beautiful and sunny. Today we drive 20 miles north to Selkirk on the Red River, to see Lower Fort Garry .This is a national historic site. (1830) We are greeted by costumed interpreters. They said most of the fort is in it’s original state (original wood supplies etc. A large stone wall surrounds the establishment. The Big house, the oldest building on site was the HBC posts dwelling for officers. we view the fur-loft, the blacksmith shop, the mens house and the warehouse. We see the doctor’s house, one of the last of the Red River frame building left in Canada. We have a picnic lunch, then move on to the maritime museum where 7 historic ships are restored and are there to view. Beautiful and sunny 83’

June 25 Sunday 72’am beautiful and sunny. Today we drive 20 miles north to Selkirk on the Red River, to see Lower Fort Garry .This is a national historic site. (1830) We are greeted by costumed interpreters. They said most of the fort is in it’s original state (original wood supplies etc. A large stone wall surrounds the establishment. The Big house, the oldest building on site was the HBC posts dwelling for officers. we view the fur-loft, the blacksmith shop, the mens house and the warehouse. We see the doctor’s house, one of the last of the Red River frame building left in Canada. We have a picnic lunch, then move on to the maritime museum where 7 historic ships are restored and are there to view. Beautiful and sunny 83’

Ron Newcomes cabin
Catfish Creek
Ron's yellow jeep. We had a fun ride
 

June 23 Friday Winnipeg -beautiful and sunny. Today we head to Victoria Beach north of Winnipeg, to visit Ron Newcome a BYC member. He shows us around and makes us pizza for lunch. Beautiful beaches and great play areas, bakery and store. We have a great visit.

June 22 Thursday Winnipeg-7:10am sun and cloud 59’ on our way to Winnipeg. Another time zone, 3 hours ahead of Vancouver. We see lots of RV’s in the parking lot of Wal-mart & even the Superstore parking lot in Yorkton. We travel hwy 16-1-100 a bypass in Winnipeg. 5 -1/2 hours latter we arrive. We pass beautiful canola fields. We stay at Travelers RV park . it is a Coast to Coast park so we only pay 8.00 a night. We sign up for 3 nights. 73’ and sunny

June 21 Wednesday Yorkton sun clouds,rain mixed. We go to the Western Development museum$3:50 ,we have 2 for 1 coupons. We try to go inside the Ukrainian Catholic church to see the beautiful dome inside but it is locked. The Best Western next to log on and update the blog. Then we go toYorkton’s cemetery where we find Bill grandparents grave. It starts to pour rain. Bill fuels up 167.00

June 23 Friday beautiful and sunny. Today we head to Victoria Beach north of Winnipeg, to visit Ron Newcome a BYC member. He shows us around and makes us pizza for lunch. Beautiful beaches and great play areas, bakery and store. We have a great visit.

June 22 Thursday 7:10am sun and cloud 59’ on our way to Winnipeg. Another time zone, 3 hours ahead of Vancouver. We see lots of RV’s in the parking lot of Wal-mart & even the Superstore parking lot in Yorkton. We travel hwy 16-1-100 a bypass in Winnipeg. 5 -1/2 hours latter we arrive. We pass beautiful canola fields. We stay at Travelers RV park . it is a Coast to Coast park so we only pay 8.00 a night. We sign up for 3 nights. 73’ and sunny

June 21 Wednesday sun clouds,rain mixed. We go to the Western Development museum$3:50 ,we have 2 for 1 coupons. We try to go inside the Ukrainian Catholic church to see the beautiful dome inside but it is locked. The Best Western next to log on and update the blog. Then we go toYorkton’s cemetery where we find Bill grandparents grave. It starts to pour rain. Bill fuels up 167.00

Key hole Castle Prtince Albert
Canora fields
Bills grandparents 

June 20, 2006 Tuesday Yorkton 8:45 am Trying to rain. 61’We are leaving to Yorkton where Bill was born. We take Hwy5-35-16. Arrive at1:30 73’ and sunny. We stay at the city Campground 22.00 a night. We go to the visitor’s center for a city map then go to the Superstore. We just relax in our rig.

June19 Monday Prince Albert Sask -We go to Bill & Annettte. Bill helps me install my scanner I got from Ron.It works great. We stay for lunch and supper. Uncle Bill and Auntie Olga come too (his parents).

June 18 Sunday we leave for Prince Albert. Overcast 59’ 9:15am we fueled up yesterday. 10:45 we arrive we stop at the visitors center to find out where the RV parks are. We go to the expedition grounds. We p[hone my cousins and they come and visit. (Bill and Annette ). We phone another cousin in Paddockwood and they invite us for supper at their place. They had a great barbeque.

western transportation museum Saskatoon
sod house
only 100 miles on it

cottonwood seeds looks

snowbirds
RCMP acadamy

June 16 Saskatoon-Friday 8:40am 61” sunny with clouds now & then. We leave for Saskatoon. Hwy2-hwy11-hwy16. We arrive 11:30 its 63” .We are staying at Saskatoon 16 West RV park. I picked it as they have free WIFI. We are here to visit a cousin. He picks us up and takes us to his place for dinner. A good time was had by all. Rain during the night. Jeannine gives us fresh rhubarb from her garden .Yum.

June 17 Saskatoon Saturday rain. Tom & Jeannine take us around Saskatoon we go to their Museum. Very well done. They come to our place for dinner.

June 14 Wednesday- Moose Jaw-We stop at the visitors center across the street. We go to the History of transportation museum where there are old cars ,planes.trains and other land water & ait tranaportation. The museum also houses an observatory. The home of the Snowbirds also put on a display.. It was very well done and is worth a visit. $6.25 ea. Its lunch time so we go to Coffee encounters where they have free WIFI. I try to get my e-mail but Hotmail is down but I am able to update my blog. After we pay for parking we are told parking is free for visitors downtown. Next we do the tunnels of Moose Jaw. 2 tours $9.10 - the Chicago connection and Al Capone and the prohibition to escape the Americian authorities and the Chinese Labour and laundry and passage to fortune. Very interesting. The tunnels were originally there for the steam heat. We walk around town and look at lots of murals on the sides of buildings. We visit the Burrowing owl interpretive center but it is too windy for the owls to be out. So we see the ones in cages rehabilitating. 4pm it starts to thunder and lightning. Then comes the rain. It was an exciting night it even knocked the satalite system down.


June 15 Regina -Thursday 73’ at 9am sunny. Today we are off to Regina, only 45 min away. We go to the RCMP training academy( Free.) They give us a tour. We visit their museum before we watch the Sergants Majors Parade. No red suits as nobody here now is of that rank. The Royal Saskatchewan museum next with its life science gallery, earth science and the first nations gallery. All very well done. (Donations) We drive around Wasanna Park , a beautiful park not unlike our Stanley Park.We return to moose Jaw and take a nap before we go to the street fair downtown Moose Jaw.

June 11 -Medicine Hat-Sunday 8am 54’ overcast. Today we are heading for Medicine Hat. Hwy9-hwy21,hwy1. It takes us 3 hours We stay at the Gas city campground-28 a night We pay for 2 nights.We had Ron & Pat Fox for dinner.rain, sun cloud you name it.

June12 Medicine Hat-Monday-beautiful sunny day today. We fuel up again 119 liters @93 a liter=111.00. Ron & Pat take us for a tour of Medicine Hat. We stop at the Medalta and Hycroft clay factory, Very interesting. There are lots of greenhouses here. We stop at one and buy cucumbers ,tomatoes and peppers all on the honour system. Amazing. We have a great dinner at Ron & Pats.

June13 Tuesday Medicine Hat to Moose Jaw-8am 63’ . Beautiful and sunny I am wearing shorts. We stop at the visitors center when we enter Saskatchewan. We stop at Chaplin a bird sanctuary and large salt flats. I go on a short bus ride to see shore birds. We arrive in Moose Jaw 2:15- 74’ We are staying in the Prairie Oasis Complex. 28 a night I think as we do not know how long we will stay here as we think we will go to Regina from here in the truck. We finally get to view Globle TV. Our first time since we left Vancouver.

June 10 overcast in morning in Drumheller. Today we go to the Royal Tyrrell Museum-Dinosaurs. The best museum We have ever been into. The Red River valley has one of the richest fossil deposits in the world. Dinosaurs that once roamed Alberta, are now showcasted . More than 35 skeletons and lifelike models were displayed. The collection is housed on severallevels reached by a series of ramps. took some great pictures. I will download them tonight. We spent just about 4 hours there. I wanted to see the HooDoos and the Badlands so off we go. The Visitors center first where a 80' tall T-Rex stands. Next we take Bleriot ferry,one of the only 7 cable ferries still in use.It can take only 15 cars at a time. then we walk across a swinging bridge where a coal mind used to be. We also go to the Atlas coal mine. We come back to thr RV park exhausted and take a nap.

Friday June 9, Edmonton- Drumheller-2006 8:30am 48 and raining. We leave Spruce Grove today. Our first stop is Rocky Mountain House. 4 forts on the Saskatchewan river used by the Hudson Bay Co and North West Co and the Indians for fur trading. We use our imagination to reconstruct the fort. It stopped raining so we could do the hike to the 4 forts along the river. We fueled up again. 206 liters @ 89 a liter-183.00 It tries to rain some more. We pass a small herd of elk and bison. It looked like they were raising them for restaurants. We arrive at Drumheller and pay for 2 nights (57.78) at Dinosaur RV park they have WIFI included so I can post my blog and check my e-mail.

Monday June5 57 sunny Whistlers campground Jasper We spend the morning watching a mother elk feed and protect her baby ( only a couple of days old as he can hardly walk yet). We watch her bed the baby down just behind our RV. We turned our chairs around and had a great view. 10am we leave for a picnic at Maligne Lake. We hiked down Maligne Canyon to beautiful waterfalls. Mountain sheep greeted us on the road. They were kind of scruffy trying to loose their winter coats. They were doing boat trips on the lake but we didn’t go. It was now threatening rain. We stopped at the Fairmont lodge and used their WIFI. It started to pour at 3pm, stopped by 430.

Tuesday June 6- 43 sunny at 8:30am we leave for Edmonton. We see a male elk swimming across a lake. We stop at Edson for fuel. We take on 220 liters $ 211.00 at 96 cents a liter. We also had the tire put back under the RV and get the groceries I forgot at Save on. Arrive at Spruce Grove at 230pm 63 and sunny. Bernice and Gerry have dinner for us.