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| You'll see everything motorized at RAM. If you're in the hood, GO! |
THINGS look positively scary in Oil City central. Leduc and Nisku are home to pretty much any and all oil field equipment repair and distribution for the west. Every lot is overflowing, I'm told that Americans are coming up by the train load to cart off dozers and skidders and derricks and trucks at an alarming rate to transport back south. With the dollar exchange and the virtual "dead" stop in the industry, it's not surprising that so many Canadians are out of work.
Right throughout the country from West coast to St John's NFLD... thousands, no tens of thousands are out
of a job. We can even see it on our little Island.
I've heard tremendous criticism about FM and it's huge oil sands deposits for years. Most times after News? coverage of some celebrity bad mouthing the industry, while they fly there in private jets and are carted around in Hummers or chauffeur driven limos.
What a joke.
Fact is a hell of a lot of people have earned top wages working in some level of oil and gas in this country and that money has translated into living conditions unheard of prior to the oil sands.
So I drove to Leduc for a couple days of visiting with eldest niece Liz and her family, well not her entire family as Jesse was indisposed at the time. I did get to cart around little Madison though and shy at first we did okay for the short time I was there.
Got Liz's Suzuki Savage started with some repair work, it toured me round western Canada last year for several thousands kilometers and at 65 mpg, a heck of a lot cheaper to ride than Arnold's H 1.
There never quite seems like enough time to see everyone but I did get in a visit with long time ago friend Merv S. at his nice home in Wetaskiwin. Back in our "Yute's" Merv and I did some crazy things. Privacy laws don't allow me to go into any of it, but I will say that both of us can still laugh about some of the antics we were involved with back in the day.
From there Liz and I traveled to the famous Reynolds Alberta Museum, for a quiet stroll,
some photos and a low pressure visit. A few years ago Reynolds hosted a 2 season motorcycle display that rocked. Called the "Life and times of the Motorcycle" it was perhaps the best display of bikes I'd ever seen before or since. I was all set to do a story for CB during the press launch, first of May 2005 when I ended up in the Foothills after a heart attack and triple bypass. Of course I missed the press launch, the cardiologist deaf to my pleadings to patch me up so I could attend!! I did get top service in the O. R. and to this day the old ticker is still tick
Fooled you!
Still ticking!
I made up for missing the launch with a personally guided tour some months later, the story of which appeared in the November 2005 issue of Canadian Biker.
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| The Reynold's Alberta museum. If your in the hood, a must see. |
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| Mach III Kawasaki's first real Superbike Taken 2005 |
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| Taken 2005 My first motorcycle was one of these! Honda S 90 |
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| Taken 2005 Indian Chief |
While there I picked up such a cute little official RCAF flight jacket for baby William. I'm sure his daddy (Rick) who is a pilot himself was just a tad jealous and proud at the same time!
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| Trouble making love to Williams new flight jacket! |
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| Cute or what?! |
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| Really... how cute is this. The jacket I mean... |
It was going to be a very hot and sweaty drive but for those of you that think Saskatchewan is flat and boring, nothing could be further from the truth. There are many deep valleys and wandering rivers and shallow lakes to keep one entertained. At least in the northern reaches of the province... the trans Canada # 1 I admit, is a bore to travel, but this time at least I had fond memories of my very first XC trip in 1975 when I stopped for a bite in Lanigan. The place hasn't changed much in 41 years...
At Yorkton I turned south on route 9, finding my way via GPS to Ed's country road and farm.
He looked great, I'd only met him a couple of times, they were the parents of my daughter Holly's best friend Gillian. We walked around the property (not all of it of course) and Ed recounted much of the history of this little homestead. I met the freindly little kitty that keeps him company, and had to admire his resolve to stay there on his own, miles from any center of civilization.
Some people value fame and fortune, some looks and celebrity, others yet baubles like the aforementioned Hummer or jewels or $$. Ed is quite content to have a piece of land, a home that has been added to over the years to meet the family needs and of course, his kitty.
I was actually sad to leave, wish I had another day to kick back and just talk, seems we are always on the move to somewhere from someplace... but I wanted to be back on the Island if possible, for Brenda's birthday at the end of June. Last year several weeks in advance, knowing I would be away west for 6 weeks, I'd prepared a treasure hunt for her and Anna as a birthday greeting. Of course Anna found the edibles well in advance of the actual hunt and Brenda was left with bits of a maps with clues on them. It's hard to engage Anna in some of the more simple and finer points of life.
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| English River motel, clean spacious gorgeous setting. The right place at the right time! |
I hooked up with the TCH and turned left towards Manitoba and Ontario. You know you're on the Prairies when your GPS says 'go straight for 647 km, then turn left'.
I was hoping to find a little sweet spot for an overnight and in Dryden I had a bite to eat, got the dust from Ed's access road washed off the Dodge (I always feel better driving/riding a clean machine) and made it all the way to the English River INN half way between two nowhere's... Ignace and Upsala, on Ontario route 17. It was the perfect spot for an overnight after another 1000km day traveled.
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| Not hard to wake up to this... |
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