Snowbirds, Womyns Day and Thunder Bay!

Okay! So I finally have some decent Internet access! We're at the Thunder Bay International Hostel in Thunder Bay... obviously. And I have to say, this place is pretty neat. Run by a very nice older couple. You have to see it to believe it and the best part it that its $20 for the night. So definitely in our budget.

Anyways! Where was I? Oh yes! We toured the Snowbirds at CFB Moose Jaw on Friday. One of my friends from Cadets is the Public Affairs Officer for them so we got a real nice tour. We met the Deputy CO of the Squadron as well as Snowbird #1. Got to check out the Flight-line and the whole Hangar.

A couple shots for my fellow Aviation Nerds.







So, after our tour there we hot-footed it off to Winnipeg. With a stop in Rouleau, Saskatchewan aka "Dog River".






Heading in to Manitoba we ran into some serious Fog. It was so thick we tailed a Semi just to make sure we could follow the road without incident. We even picked up icing on the front of the Car! I'd never seen icing not on an aircraft before so that was kind of amusing really.





Once we got to Winnipeg, we stayed in the Hosteling International Hostel in Downtown Winnipeg. Found they had a a Bar downstairs (as most Hostels I've been to seem to have) called "The Lo"... turns out there was a party going on for International Women's Day. So Jon and I went and joined the fun after having a go at the bottle of Fireball we had from the previous evening. Have to say, the DJ they had playing at this Bar was awesome! She dropped an awesome Madonna - Hung Up v. Orgy - Blue Monday Mashup as well as some great dancefloor friendly classics. DJ Beekeeni was her name. They even had "Cunt Cake" at the back of the Bar. Yes, you read that correctly. I didn't sample any as Fort Garry Pale Ale would agree too well with Chocolate Cake.

Started off this morning after begrudgingly getting up at 8:30am. The weather has been amazing still! We must be dragging the Okanagan Sun with us. Drive from Winnipeg into Ontario was an interesting change. Went from flat with trees back into hills, valleys, rocks and trees. Very nice countryside we have here. The road in to Thunder Bay is pretty much the worst stretch we've encountered so far... well except for Saskatchewan Route 714 which was all dirt road leading into Rouleau. Amazed at the amount of Semi-trailer traffic there is in this part. Saw a convoy of about 8 of them at one point. Nothing too much else spectacular to say for this leg so I'll end this entry with a couple pics from today.





Tomorrow we head to Sault St. Marie for our next overnight. After that... we'll see. Thinking maybe Barrie or in to Owen Sound to visit some of my friends.

Moose Jaw!

Well the Internet here is slower than molasses going uphill on a cold piece of glass so the entry for yesterday is postponed until I can find something faster.

Basically we made it from Strathmore to Moose Jaw. Once again we had amazing weather.

Got drunk at the only "club" in town and now we're heading off to check out 17 Wing at CFB Moose Jaw before heading out to Winnipeg for the night.

More to come later today!

Strathmore Station Pub

Check it out if you're in this neck of the Woods.

Just had some great food, decent prices and they also had Kokanee Gold on tap.

Also as a very nice bonus the waitresses were of a very fine quality.

This concludes the Food Review portion for today.

Day One

Left Kamloops at 9am Pacific. We just pulled in to Strathmore, Alberta at around 6:30pm Mountain. Not bad time at all!

The weather was absolutely amazing! Nothing but blue skies and barely a cloud at all.

Gas in BC was about 106.4 but once we hit Calgary it dropped to a lovely 92.9. Excellent!

Amazing how fast the land goes from huge rocks to rolling fields as far as the eye can see.

So here's a couple pics from the first day:










There's a few for now. You can check out the rest of the pics by the Flickr Widget on the right side of the page.

Just discovered that Lightroom does mass resize and export! Awesome.

That's it for now! More to come!

T-3 Days

Well the date of departure is close enough that the excitement is starting to build.

Also! I just got a call from my friend Jon. He's decided to just go for it and join me on the trip. This is great as he can also drive stick and won't mind listening to Drum'n'Bass along the way at barely tolerable volume levels.

Another update... I've been booked to DJ at a Fundraiser in Barrie, ON on the 18th. If you're in the area, come check it out as it's for a good cause. Sleeping Children Around the World.

So I'm taking the Wagen in to the good folks at Wolverine Auto here in Logan Lake on Tuesday. Got a couple electrical things for them to fix and then fluid changes. This will have her all prepped for departure on Wednesday morning.

First overnight will be in Calgary. We're taking suggestions for cheap places to overnight and/or have a pint.

So yeah, 72 hours before we kick this blog into cruising gear!