Large hills, the sun cresting over the horizon, as it breaks through the clouds in the mountains, as the city lies asleep, ready to awaken and welcome the new day. The gentle rolling hills, fields of grass for miles and miles and miles and miles, the farming, the crops. The Rockies to the prairies, the Great Dividing Range and what you are greeted by when you cross over it & Gippsland. It’s surely. Here I am in the middle of a country, after people telling me “don’t waste your time with the Prairie Provinces, there is nothing there” and I reminded so much of some regions of Victoria. Whilst it’s not quite the same, the beauty is in the land, with the gentle rolls and dips along the way. This past week has seen me cover approximately 3,500 kms. Here in lies the chronicle of this past week.
Sunday, 6th June 2010
We left Camrose, and returned to the “big” city of Edmonton, for me to board a bus. I still had not decided which bus to take or where I might be headed. I arrived at the bus depot in Edmonton with 3 tags from the greyhound ticketing guy, one for BC (White), one for Alberta (Yellow) and one for Saskatchewan (blue). After sitting there considering the bus options (all leaving around midnight) I chose the bus that would take me 5 hours down the road to Jasper, Alberta. I almost got on this bus and stayed on it all the way through to Prince George (the tar sands in fort McMurray also were an option but no…) but I decided against it as I discovered that my exit strategy from Prince George was not quite as simple as jasper (5 or so buses a day versus 1) so I boarded my bus, after saying Farwell to Sam, and headed towards a new bit of the world. Well I had visited jasper briefly last time I was in Canada.
Monday, 7th June 2010
After sleeping on and off for a few hours, I stepped off the bus in jasper at approximately 04:30 local time. The city was asleep, the roads deserted and the pre dawn was in the sky behind the mountains to the east. Light cloud cover prevented any break thoughts but it was majestic. After watching the sunrise in jasper, I boarded a bus at 07:00 for Edmonton. I arrived back in town around lunch time and after doing some of the boring work, such as closing bank accounts and cancelling telephones, I spend a number o hours exploring around the heart of Edmonton. To be blunt Edmonton is a dirty city and is probably the most unpleasant city I have visited, in all honesty. But the staff at the bust depot is fabulous. That night I boarded yet another bus, with a 12:10 departure time, from Edmonton to Saskatoon, SK.
Tuesday, 8th June 2010
I arrive in Saskatoon to approach the guy at the ticket counter and asked what time bus I could take to Regina with my greyhound pass. He then informed me that I was unable to us that pass to travel from Saskatoon to Regina, my options were to head one of three ways, Calgary, Winnipeg or Edmonton (Saskatchewan is one of the few provinces that maintain an independent bus service to the greyhound). I figured I would go and explore Saskatoon for the day and then worry about where I was going that night. After being pointed to the town hall for tourism information and then being informed that the information I desired was at a different location, I moved on and got some information on where to go and what to see. I walked up to the Art gallery in town, appreciated some very fine and not so fine pieces of work, wandered alongside the river, visited the Anglican cathedral, which is a magnificent building, continued in my walk alongside the river, found a museum about Saskatoon and why it was formed and settled (it was a temperance colony separate from Toronto) and explored the town. I then visited the library to do some writing and update my blogs and to catch up with my emails to keep me up to date. Unfortunately as there really is only a half day of things to do in town I then decided to cash in some of my free movie points, dropped in at the cinema and watched Russell Crowe play robin hood. It was nice to fell normal for a short while. Then it was back up the bus depot and on to a bus to Alberta (headed back the wrong way) to Calgary, with STC, the Saskatoon transport company.
Wednesday 9th June 2010
Calgary, what to tell you about Calgary. Well for one it rained almost all day. Good place to visit if you got money, but on the cheap they don’t really want to know you or deal with you. That being said I like Calgary. It’s got lots of nice things through the town, it has a big city feel with a real country vibe, but they were warming up to the Calgary stampede. But there is a lot to like about it, you can in fact go thought a lot of the city without touching the ground, using the +15 network in Calgary. Whilst not comprehensive and not all internal, it’s quite good and covers a large portion of the down town core. Also within the city centre, the C-train is free and you can use it to shuttle yourself from one end to the other. But be careful once you are outside of that core, because penalties are then enforced. After visiting the china town area, and a large number of other parts of the city, I decided it was time to head back to the bus depot and freshen up. It was at this stage I realized what I had managed to forget in Camrose, my toiletry bag & sewing kits. Well I have since replaced what I need to and I have carried on but it’s one of those “DAMIT” moments when your realize that the stuff you really need is in a different city. But it was onto another bus and into another town, this time Regina, SK
Thursday 10th June 2010
There are days where you just don’t know how a town can be this good. And I mean that in all seriousness. Regina, the capital of the province, I expected very little from. Well I got off the bus, with my bag on as always, having checked with the clerk as to when my bus was that night, and walked out into the street. As I stood in the street looking to get my bearings (as I had looked up the location of the tourist info place), a gentleman approached me and asked if I knew where I was going. I told him and he offered to show me around the town. Whilst talking to strangers is not advised I was willing to trust this guy and it proved to be a good morning for me. After taking a walk down the main mall, exploring the Victoria bridge and the Legislature and the surrounding grounds, walking up to the area of town called cathedral, discovering that the “ Cathedral” Church was closed and public couldn’t go in to see it we called it a day. In 4 and a bit hours this gentleman had showed me a large chunk of what the city had to offer. The only thing left on my agenda was a walk down to the home of the Rough Riders, a CFL team. After a short library stop, I started wondering down to the stadium, armed with directions and I knew where I was headed. Well I came to the intersection where I was going to cross over to see that stadium when a car pulled over and asked if I knew where I was going. Well I told them where I was headed and they said to me that it wasn’t in the best bit of town and they were more than happy to take me down there. Turns out that they are in broadcasting and work in the stadium all the time and where able to get me into the stadium to have a look. So to say the least, I (Regina and think it’s a fabulous place. Also the province of Saskatchewan is doing their best to turn Regina and Saskatoon into wireless hotspots, so as I waited for my bus, I was able to access the internet and watched 3 episodes of TV from the internet (so I am only a few weeks behind on Dr Who and have caught up with everything else). The on the bus yet again this time bound for a few day of R&R and companion ship with Dwayne in Winnipeg
Friday 11th June 2010
Well what to say about Friday. Not a lot really. I got to see the 4 legislature building, in my fourth province, I got to walk around the down town core and explored the heart of the city, visited the Forks Market (seriously these people don’t know how a market should be) visited the train station, explored the tunnels and bridges that link building throughout the city and just had a nice afternoon. After cooking dinner I kind of crashed and SLEPT for which my body was grateful.
Saturday 12th June 2010
Well a late start to the day and it was into the car. We drove about an hour and a half to Dwayne’s cousin’s place, a dairy and beef farm. Well as soon as I got out of the car I was hit with this smell of COWS. They smell the same, dogs behave the same and horses look the same. The only biggest difference was the barn, where the cows live during the cold and harsh Manitoba winter (I wouldn’t want to walk in there after curry night). After exploring and seeing the farm for a while it was back to town, Aussie Style Hamburgers for dinner and damper for afternoon tea.
Sunday 13th June 2010
S is for sport or so I would like to think sometimes, Sunday, the day for spiritual reflections a lot of the time. But this time it was a sport Sunday. It was off to a CFL game for me. Whilst it wasn’t a regular season game, I can now say I haven to a CFL game, I understand the rules and the calls, and I would rather watch CFL than NHL or NFL. The game is better flowing; more consistent calls and the rules make sense (for the most part). Well the Winnipeg Blue Bombers accounted for the Montreal Alouets rather comfortably and it was time to head to lacrosse training. I assisted with some of the drills with being a physical body, who they had to roll off and play off and I even took a shot at throwing and trying to catch the ball, which I was, begin to get the hang of. But I think Lacrosse is a good sport and I would like to try to play a game at some stage. But the lacrosse sticks are a lot more difficult to use than the softcosss ticks that we use in schools in Australia. But I am glad I age it a crack
On Friday I had discovered a minor challenge and a need to figure out a solution. The bus from Winnipeg to Chicago only runs on Tuesday, Thursday Saturday and Sunday. But I wanted to travel on Monday. Well the solution was simple it turned out. I was re routing, going through Toronto and not doing border crossing and all these things, but Dwayne offered to drive south to Fargo, in the USA so I could take the bus from there.
Monday 14th June 2010
So Monday. That’s today. I am sitting on a Jefferson bus lines coach that has power, satellite radio and wireless internet capabilities and TVs and guess what. None of them work as yet. I believe that it is one of the first of their new generation of buses and they are waiting until they can offer it on all services on this route prior to turn on all the switches but it is a bit frustrating to realize that I could be surfing the internet at 80MPH (stupid imperial system) but such is life. The seats are comfortable have miles of legroom and each seat has a seatbelt, which I am using.
Crossing the border was fairly routine, the boarder agent was surprised to see and international coming through their neck of the woods. Well after everyone saying I had to do an ESTA and be pre approved before boarding my plane, they were wrong. I still had to fill out the green card. After the slow and tedious process of them talking to you and trying to trick you into saying something so they tell you to get out, I was granted entry into the United States of America. I have three stops this week planned for the USA and 2 stops planned for Canada, so I will have another border crossing later in the week to deal with. We shall see how I go.
Well that’s it from the road at this stage and I guess it’s a bit of a long one because I acutely did and saw quite a bit. From the bus on its way to Minneapolis so I can go “building to building to building to building to building” and trying not to see the “outside world” as much as possible, this is Richard “Gonzo” McCoy signing off. And for the love of god, don’t do anything I wouldn’t.
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