The main reason, heck, lets admit it, the only reason we choose to head north this time of year is to visit with family and friends who are important to us. Once we get across the worst roads in North America, namely southern Manitoba, we stop for a relaxing visit with my baby sister, Brenda and her hubby Harry near Neepawa Manitoba.
Our timing is impeccable. Next day we are invited to a family dinner to celebrate my niece Cassandras birthday which we enjoyed with her and her husband Jim, daughter Samara and Brendas grandson Logan. A jolly bunch I must say. Great food and a chance to catch up on family stories.
After a few days of great food and company, its time to head out on the next leg of our adventure. Being anal like I am, any bug carcasses are cause for a full frontal cleaning. Almost sounds dirty when I put it that way.
We made friends with a great couple in Bradenton Florida and they made the mistake of inviting us to visit sometime. Well, this is sometime. We called and stopped over for a couple of days of great memories, good food and a tour of the largest farm I've ever seen. I grew up on a farm with 3 quarters; their 48 quarters in seed kinda impressed me. Loved their entrance, 16' high and 20' wide. Those Saskatchewan farmers!
This surprised me. We saw about 10 moose as we inspected their hobby farm. I didn't even know there was mooses in southern Saskatchewan. Well, colour me impressed.
And oil pumpers. If they put in any more, they'll give Alberta a run for its money. Don't worry about Canada running out of oil, Saskatchewan is just getting started. Unfortunately, our friends, Dick and Barb Stewart haven't yet gotten many pumpers on their land, although surveyors were on their land when we visited. Maybe they can still add oil baron to their resume.
After leaving our friends, we next stopped at Swift Current Saskatchewan and enjoyed a break from all that visiting and a beautiful sunset.
Our next stop was a visit with my dad in Calgary. After boring ourselves with all our exploits, we went for a nice drive to the badlands area near Calgary. We took the back roads to Drumheller which involved a ferry ride across the Red Deer river.
A visit to the Hoo Doos was next. I'd never heard of them near Calgary but they were fascinating.
In the early part of the 20th century, miners, near Drumheller, crossed this swinging bridge (not built quite so safely then) to get to the coal mine on the other side. I walked across and back, thankful I wasn't one of the miners who had to cross every day. Just too lazy to work that hard.
It was great to spend a few days with dad and he made sure we were well fed. Grammie appreciated not having to cook for awhile.
We had a great visit but, too soon, it was time to hit the dusty trail.
What dust? After 3 days of beautiful sunny weather, it decided to snow the day we had to leave. We haven't driven in this stuff for a long time but my survival instinct kicked in and we triumphed once again. Our windshield washer wouldn't work and it wasn't too long before we had to pull over and wash the window with snow so we could see. We stopped for coffee and I poured some coffee on the washer outlets and, wonder of wonders, the washer worked after that. Froze up but not defeated. The end of our visiting but not of our journey. A bit closer to California.
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