Signs we see

I'm moving away from our road trip, for now. Whenever we take a trip, i always bring my camera. I use it to record our trip, the places we stay. I also like ot have some fun with it. Point, shoot, doesn't turn out, delete, start again. When we stay anywhere, we like to venture out, kind of get a feel for the place we are visiting. We did this in Missoula. Spent several hours in the downtown, with its many historic building. A watchful eye told me there we several points of interest and i noticed many signs. I like to look at them, read them and try to figure out what they really are saying, or maybe just put a far side twist on them. So in our walk about i took some pictures of signs in Missoula. The first one i came across was in a parking lot, next to a bar. Kind of funny, but what are they really saying? The sign was put up by the bar, so, if you come in here, we'll serve you until your falling down drug. Is that what its saying? If that were the case, then the owners are irresponsible. I like fun, have a sense of humour, but have some concerns about this sign.

I took the picture and looked across the street, another sign. Wordens, another bar, and they always have a beer on sale. Fitting you could get fallen down drug, crawl across the street to wordens, and buy a beer on sale. Perhaps I'm seeing this all wrong but i often wonder, how much thought is ever given to signs.

The other day i was driving down the road. We have a lot of the sandwich type billboards cluttering our boulevards. Many businesses use these as direct marketing, especially to let everyone know they are hiring. The sign i saw the other day was in front of a furniture store advertising for a store manager. I wondered, did they have an assistant manager now. If so, i tried to imagine how they felt coming to work everyday seeing the "wanted store manager" sign. What about the assistant, was he not promotable, if so, why wouldn't they give them a shot at store manager. And if that assistant was not offered a shot, what are they telling he, his career really isn't one in their business?

Just some thoughts i have as i look at signs, trying to figure out their real meaning...

Second leg of the road trip

We left Calgary, heading for Vancouver. Our trip took us through or should i say our first side trip was into Banff. A beautiful resort town nestled in the Rockies. This side trip was necessary for two reasons: we needed a pit stop, we needed a coffee. We accomplished both tasks by stopping into...Starbucks. Grande house blend, grand pit stop. Back on the road it was through the Rockies we went. We were fooled though. We searched in vain for wild life, hoping to see an elk, maybe a mountain goat, anything. We obeyed the signs on the road..."wild life for 3kms, 10kms, looked left and right, scanned the river beds, the mountains. The only thing moving was the odd car in front of us. The Rockies are absolutely fabulous. As we cruised down the road i wondered what it was like for the explorers, coming across these mountains.How did they manage or better yet survive. I'm grateful to those who built this highway for it gave me great pleasure enjoying the scenery and snapping more pictures. Our second stop on this leg was at Field, where of course we needed another pit stop. Thank-you Starbucks. Field is a connect point for the C.P.R., not much in the town and we felt it wasn't worth a drive through. I had been there before, like 50 years ago, when i was a kid. My uncle was a superintendent with the C.P.R. and i had the privilege of going there with him, by rail, in his private coach. Now that was a road trip. Imagine, being in your own private rail car, with your own waiters, personal cook, silver service...life back then was good. In any event, Field is Field, and we continued towards Vancouver, continued looking for wild life and there it was.Approaching Golden, as we turned a corner...WILDLIFE!!...some mountain goats on the side hill. I'm glad i wasn't driving, for when I'm a passenger, i have my camera ready for action and just in time, got a shot of a mountain goat, or is it a ram, standing guard atop the hill. Awesome!! Wild life at last. Our next stop would be Revelstoke, just in time for lunch...

First leg of our road trip

We've completed our road trip, arriving home on November 12th. Now the recording of the adventure begins. Our original plan was to leave October 23rd, run through the states of Montana, Idaho, Washington, ending up in Vancouver to visit our family. Like many of our trips we were delayed by a week, this not because we got lost or had a misstart, but because our plans kept changing. With some debate we managed to get our plans jelled and decided that, due to a 60th birthday party in Calgary, we would head there first, then to Vancouver, THEN through the states. Communications played a part in our road trip. I understood we would spend two days in Calgary only to arrive there finding we were going to be three days. I suppose when one has time on their hands they are expected to be flexible, so, three days it was. Two days of visiting and the third day exploring. While my better half decided to check out linen and things, their going out of business and she was looking for "deals", I ventured out of Calgary, heading south and ending up at Bragg Creek. With camera in hand, it was time to have some fun with photography. Capture anything, look for something different, point, shoot. I came across a river and decided to follow. I found some interesting river rock, multi colors, and pointed and shot. I followed a path into the woods and captured reflections upon water, fallen trees ,moss covered trees and a lone purple daisy embedded in the river bed. Lots of pictures, lots of fun. This would be our final day in Calgary, the next day heading to Vancouver.

Third trip to the storage space

Arrived home last nite from Calgary. During our trip home we encountered an early snow fall. It seemed impossible, for its not the end of October yet but i was quickly reminded, if you want to know what the weather is like in Edmonton, ask in five minutes. This first white blanket was just a skiff, but it made a trip to the storage space a necessity, remove the boxes and get out the one that held our winter clothes. So thats what i did, hauled the box up and proceeded to go through it, removing my warm winter clothes, getting ready for when it really snows here...

Letters

While down in the storage room, once again trying to organize the space and de-junk, i came across a small box containing letters. Further review revealed they were letters i had written to my mother 40 years ago, when i was a young lad and traveling through Europe. The though came upon me that i should now try to catalogue these letters and perhaps write a bit about my adventures on my blog. Unlike the slides, these letters have meaning to me, so over the next couple of days, I'm going to sift through the letters, put them in chronological order and then start posting them on my blog. I'll try to capture some of the experiences i had, seen through the eyes of a 20 year old, some 40 years ago. More to follow...

the slide carousel

Went back to our storage space today. This, because i made it a goal to have the slides removed from their carousel and catalogued. I went down after lunch, fully intending to complete my goal, removed the slides from the storage space and looked. Twelve boxes of slides, thirty six slides to a box. These slides were all taken by my late father, and he dutifully marked each box indicating what the slides were. Nothing there showed they were pictures of family. Pictures of trips he and my mother had taken, pictures of Mexico, Australia, hong kong, Europe. Pictures that i realized, after reading the carousel, meant nothing to me. I have been carrying these carousels around for years and my thought now was, what am i going to do with them. Am i going to take them out of the carousel, catalogue them, only to but them back into storage for who knows how many more years? Am i going to take them in and have them converted onto photo CD's, only to store them somewhere again? Do all these slides have meaning to me? After a short pondering, i decided they really meant nothing to me, i didn't go to any of those places, so there are no memories. So i left them in the plastic storage container, carried them to our garbage container, and put them in. I didn't accomplish my original goal, and that was to catalogue the slides, but i did manage to have less stuff.

Clean-up

We made a to do list when we arrived home. The idea was to make use of our time before we travel elsewhere and we felt we needed to dejunk. We decided before we could dejunk our living space upstairs, we had to clear out our storage space downstairs, a task which seemed overwhelming to us, but, we were determined. So after having a sleep in, we tickled the storage space in the mid afternoon. We pulled all the boxes from the storage room, put them in our parking spot and started going through them . We made a throw away spot, a goodwill spot and a keeper spot. We manage to put five cardboard boxes into two plastic boxes, we made a pile for good will which included a couple of folding chairs, a picnic box, a picnic table and some xmas items we knew we would never use. We broke the cardboard boxes down for recycling, and we went through the remaining boxes. We managed to put all our pictures into one box, the xmas stuff we think we'll use into another box. I have about 12 carousels of old slides, which although i didn't get at today, my task is to go through them, pulling them from the carousel, cataloging them and putting them into a smaller box. I've made this may priority to have it completed by the end of the week. We'll see about that one. We reorganized the plastic storage boxes, putting the ones we know we will not need immediately on the bottom.
It was a fun exercise. Its amazing how much "stuff" you collect over time. We feel we made a good start, we'll leave what we have for now, and then revisit the space in a month or two and go through the process again. You have to wonder if this is necessary, but, dejunking is not easy. The question of, I'll need that, always crops up, even though we haven't used any of those items in months. I'll give us a 7 out of 10, because we started and i think each time you deal with you "stuff" it gets easier the next time. I'm hoping one day I'll go into my storage space and all I'll see is a couple of boxes, or, maybe none.

Back Home

We're back home now. Having spend the last three weeks in Saskatoon working, its always great to be home. Saskatoon was another great adventure. Our job as floaters is giving us a real insight into how different facilities are run. Although it is the ultimate goal of the company to have all its facilities run the same, its a difficult task, which makes it challenging for us as we float from one facility to another.
While is Saskatoon, we did our usual adventures. We traveled north to La Ronge and toured some of the lake country that is so plentiful in northern Saskatchewan. We went to Waskesiu and took the scenic route home. This area is absolutely fabulous and was full of color. There are many lakes in the area and we had the opportunity to check a few out. Beautiful parks, plenty of space and great picnic sites. It was too bad during this trip the weather was against us, raining, preventing us from stopping in more places and getting out to explore. Its an area we would definitely consider coming back to. One area we did stop into was Elk Ridge. This is a relatively new resort development, offering a 27 hole golf course, a resort spa, condo's and single family residents. We dropped into their pub for lunch. A great fare, potato bacon soup, served hot and a BLT with sweet potato fries. An wonderful lunch served at a reasonable. Another area we would like to go back to. We're home now, for awhile, and its good to be here

bound for saskatoon

Heading to saskatoon on september 29th started in our usual fashion. We were approximately 15 kms out of edmonton when, uhhuh, wrong turn, headed south instead of east. This "getting lost" is really starting to bother me. There was a time when i could go somewhere once, and then months, or even years later, i could go back without getting lost. Could it be due to the fact i'm older now or ?. In any event, we did manage to turn around, get back on track, and without further delay, except a stop for lunch, bathroom breaks and a quick smoke, arrived in saskatoon mid-afternoon. Finding our work place in saskatoon was easier than when we worked in regina. Perhaps it was because we had directions or arrived in daylight, instead of darkness. In any event we settled into our suite. We're lucky. We get to take our kids, harry, dawg and daisy with us and usually get a one bedroom apartment, allowing enough room for the five of us. Working as floating managers is interesting. We get paid to travel to the place of work, we get paid mileage to get there, and we get paid while we are there. We get all the benefits, yet none of the responsibilty. In a nut shell, we are the babysitters; we get to raid the fridge, eat the food, drink the pop, and when "mom and dad" come home, we get paid and leave. How sweet is that?? Along with all the perks we have the oportunity to turn down work if we choose to do so. So, unlike before where we got all stressed and burned out, we can pick and choose the amount of time we want to work and the best part of it all is we get to go home after we're done. Life is good!!
We're in saskatoon until the 18th of october. We have thursday and friday off work and then work saturday, sunday, and monday. Three days you say. not bad stuff, but keep in mind, those are three 24 hour days. We're planning some day trips and i'll be back with further updates.

Another road trip

We had a lot of fun in Saskatchewan. True, its flat, but there were many things to do and see and it has its own beauty. When they say its the land of the living skies, they really mean it. We saw incredible sunrises and sun sets. The entire sky was ablaze it the beauty of the morning sun, bright reds and the sunset bounced its color off the clouds, turning greys into pinks.
We're home now, but in a few days head back on another road trip too...yep, Saskatchewan, but this time to Saskatoon, where we'll be working for three weeks. I'm hoping I'll have more road trips stories to write about and since this is my first effort, next time I'll try to be a little more informative, post a few more pictures and hopefully, not got lost, because....i have a map!!

Twisted Sisters

Not far from Regina is the village of Chamberlain. Located on the main highway is a really cool wheat elevator and...Twisted Sisters. When i saw the sign it told me, "this i have to check out". Stopping almost at its front door. As it turns out, Twisted Sisters is an ice cream and hamburger joint. The twisted part comes from the "twisted" soft ice cream they serve. I mean, its the real meal deal. Not like the frozen ice milk you get a dairy queen, nope, better and bigger. Being one to be adventurous when it comes to ice cream, i check over the different flavors, and after much thought, settle on...""soft vanilla cone please..very original i thought. If you ever head towards Regina, stop in Chamberlain, check out twisted sister, and get a cone. Great ice cream and lots of different flavors, besides vanilla

Qu'Appelle Valley

A must do trip when in Saskatchewan is to go to the Qu'Appelle valley. Approximately a 45 minute drive east of Regina. It took us two attempts to get there. Firstly, i believed it to be on the way to Moose Jaw, so off we headed, only to discover we were going WEST instead of east. Upon arriving back in Moose Jaw, i broke down, pulled into a garage, bought a map. I know its a guy thing to think we can make our way around anywhere without asking for directions but this time i knew i had gone wrong. Purchasing the map, and a cost of $5.20 proved in the long run to be invaluable. Opening the map i discover i was way off base, should have been east instead of west, and settled on the return trip with getting the the valley.

Now straightened out, our second attempt should prove successful, after all, we now have a map. We head out, again, for the Qu'Appelle valley, assured we would get there, got onto the main highway, only to discover instead of going east, we were headed NORTH. No problem here because all we had to do was find an exit, take it and go back. Of course once your on the freeway those exits are far and few between, but, we did finally make it. We arrived in the valley, actually we ended up at Fort Qu'Appelle. A quaint village. Drove around a bit, had lunch gassed up. While gassing up i asked the attendant, "where's the fort?" I was expecting an old fort, or at least the remnants of one. The look on this guys face was a puzzle. He just shrugged his shoulders, said we were in Fort Qu'Appelle and in fact, there was no fort. I couldn't believe it. No fort in Fort Qu'Appelle? Oh well, the gas was less there than in Regina so was that a bonus? Further driving led us through the valley and it was beautiful, the leaves starting to turn. We somehow got off the main road, ended up on a gravel road, which seemed to cut through the farms and with luck, found our way back onto the main highway, ALL WITHOUT USING A MAP!!. I guess the bonus was, coming upon some old farm building, seeing more of the country and having a great road trip.

saskatchewan road trip continued

After enjoying time at the spa in moose jaw we headed for a walk about in the town. WRONG...we step outside to wind and rain and figure our best bet was...the casino directly across from the spa. Entering, we check our bags and sit down at a machine, hoping for a winner...wrong...the casinos don't tell you this, or make you feel this way, but, we're all loosers when we go in there. We gladly give them our money, have high expectations of getting a return, but the fact remains, enter a casino and the real welcome is...welcome looser. So, after dropping a few bucks, we leave, heading back to regina. The drive home is uneventful but the scenery is the same, fields of golden wheat. I can't seem to get enough of the golden fields, watching the farmers harvest their crops. There are more trips to write about while we were in saskatchewan and these will follow over the next few days, and oh yeah, this blog is about our adventures with our kids and we have to let you know now, we did take them with us, of course.

more adventure: saskatchewan road trip

our adventures continue. Over the past month our never ending journey took us to regina, saskatchewan, where we worked for a month. It was a journey, as it gave us an opportunity to see more of our beautiful country. Many things amazed us as we drove from edmonton to regina, this being our first journey to the province of saskatchewan. As we drove along the highway, entering saskatchewan through lyodminster some things struck me: I thought saskatchewan was completely flat!!, which is not the case, coming in from the north; I expected to see nothing but wheat fields and grain elevators; i realized the beauty of driving in saskatchewan is you can see where you are going before you get there; the wheat fields do not cover acres but rather miles; they grow more than wheat in saskatchewan. Arriving in regina we located where we were to work, without much difficulty, but not without getting lost, which seemed to be the theme of things while we were there. Never one to sit around, our first day off was an adventure out. We were told that a must see was moose jaw, where they have tunnels, supposedly used by the infamous al capone. Moose jaw was an easy find, you just head west and about a 45 minute drive, if you don't get lost first. We ventured west, after going north, turning around to get our bearings and finally heading west, althought it felt like we were going south??. Arrived in moose jaw finding the way to the tunnels, but, alas, the tour we wanted had already started. Figured we would get a later tour, headed for the spa, we had heard it to was a must to when in moose jaw. Walked into the hotel where the spa was, firstly going to the restaraunt, wrong way, looking down the hall, no sight of a spa, and finally bowing to pressure and asking at the fron desk "wheres the spa?". Got that all straightened out, went to the change rooms, suited up and spent a glourious 1/2 hour soaking in the warmth of the hot springs. More to follow...

going drinking

ok, another post. Over the past week, its been hot, like in the low 30'sC. Its important when its like this to keep hydrated as we should all know. What we choose to drink during these hot spells in an individual choice, the best drink of course being water. Now, dawg knows that, as indicated by this pic of him, going for a sip at the old watering hole. I wonder if the toilet was flushed, perhaps not because thats my bathroom.

a lot of searching

o.k. its been a few days since a post to our blog and the question becomes...sooo...whatta ya been doing? Well, it seems much of our time is searching for our kids, dawg and harry in particular. I wonder how this can be since we live is a space just over 1100 sq. feet, have only three rooms, discounting the main bathroom, and all on one floor. Much of our time is spent outside on our patio and dawg and harry are usually with us.We do worry though as harry has discovered, all it takes is to jump up on the chair, balance himself on the railing and then...over to freedom. With this constantly on my mind, i seem to forever be searching for harry. Dawg, on the other hand, is quite content to hang-out under anything, like, the bed, the chair, the table, anything. So the other day i spend time searching for firstly harry. Looking in the three rooms, under anything i think he could get under, and with little success. Fighting off panic i began to look high, instead of low, and yep, harry decided to hang out, or should i say, laze out, on our fireplace mantel. Hmm...a new place for him

What Will We Do Today???

It feels funny, I will admit. Waking up in the morning (when I feel like it) and not having to be anywhere at anytime. This is the first time I am unemployed by CHOICE and I must admit it feels good. Not that I will choose to be a lazy bum long term, but it is nice to just sit here on the patio playing FreeSlots.com on my laptop, drinking coffee and watching the pets snooze in the sun. What could be better??? Of course earlier I cursed the animals.........seems Harry just had to check out the plant I have on my patio which went unoticed by him until I decided to dead head a little and then he took a flying leap at it and knocked the whole thing down. If dogs could be turned into horsemeat, couldn't cats be fodder for something too?? And Daisy? Growling at us when we called her to go into the laundry room for a short while so we could get out and do some shopping....when did the pets dictate to US what they would and wouldn't do? Ah well, they really are cute when they are sleeping...........

o.k here is part of the family. Dawg is the the black cat and harry is the other cat. Harry is only 6 months old when this picture was taken. I think of dawg as being rather laid back, a " i can take it all" sorta attitude. Harry, on the other hand is a bad ass. His true name is dirty harry, he is full of mischief and just damn well does what he pleases. Harry is the vocal of the two, making little "brrrup" sounds as he wonders around the house. We'll have more about these two as time goes on, their adventures and misadventures. We'll even get a picture of ourselves and daisy too.
cheers

opening statement

this is our first try at a blog. Laurie and i decided to make a blog so we could share with others, whom we know are in the thousands, a little bit about our life adventures. We have recently finished as managers in a seniors retirement home. Although this was a very fulfilling position it came to a point where it totally consumed our lives (we lived on sight and basically worked 24/7 for three years) and we felt it necessary to recapture our own life and to start doing again the things we enjoyed most. Having said all that, we recently left this position and have taken up
"semi-retirement". This too has become an adventure. After working for so many years its strange to wake up in the morning wondering what one should do. Of course this is new, and kinda like being on a vacation, so we again felt we could share some of our adventures with anyone who happens upon this blog. Our kids, two cats(dawg and harry) and a dog(daisy) are curious to have us home with them now all day. They are rather cool animals, kinda quirky and give us lots of joy. Hence, they will play a part in this blog. If you happen upon our blog, please feel free to post a comment. We look forward to sharing our adventures, misques and anything else that happens. Cheers :)