Looking back on a Prairie Town......

July 7th.  We are back on the coast and the adventure has come to a quiet end.  Yesterday we travelled  from Trail to Grand Forks, got the Lewis's Woodpecker, 6 to be exact, and then made to trek on Highway 3 to Hope, then the Number 1, also know as the Daytona Speedway North, to the coast.  The trip yesterday was mostly uneventful, at least until we hit Hope.  The speed of travel increased considerably as fellow travellers, seemingly unconcerned for the their own personal safety, or for that of others, rocketed their way through heavy traffic and torrential downpours.  By the time we reached Point Roberts I needed at least 1 beer and 45 minutes of quiet time before enjoying leftovers from the Colander Ristorante in Trail.

I checked the running time clock on the 4Runner yesterday and when we rolled into the farm it clicked over to 100 hours.  Coincidentally that is about the same as for our Yukon Adventure (http://yukonorbust2017.blogspot.com/).  Over the past 3 weeks we have logged over 7,000 kms.  To think that we only went halfway across this great country and one gets a sense of how big Canada really is.

This morning I was asked if I could pick a highlight for the trip.  That's a tough one.  It seems everyday there was something that was memorable, mostly good.  We packed a lot into this adventure.  Still, most days even though they may have been long and eventful we were often left wanting more of the same, settling instead for a good or bad meal and early to bed.  Many days we headed out on the road to destinations unknown.  We often opted to take the longest rather than the shortest route between 2 points on the map.  We visited 4 National Parks.  I have to say the Grasslands National Park was by far the best.  (We will return there one day soon.....).  Our visit to our friend Rob's island in Lake of the Woods was awesome.  Seeing the big lakes in Manitoba was a terrific experience.

We saw a lot of the prairie in a very short period of time.  We learned that not all the prairies are flat and that there is a lot more water on the prairies than one would think.  We also learned that on the prairie cars are for cities and the shortest distance between two points is straight line which is why the roads are arrow straight.  We learned that in small prairie towns the local heroes are the boys that made it to the National Hockey League, except in Hanna, Alberta where the local heroes are the members of Nickelback, the Canadian rock band whose hits include; Rock Star, How you remind me and Burn it to the ground.  (Angelique, bet you are surprised I knew this???)  Pretty good local choice even it they are not hockey stars like Byran Trottier from Val Marie, Sk, Patrick Marleau from Aneroid, Sk. and Bernie Federko from Foam Lake, Sk to name a few.

Small towns across this great land are changing and nowhere is this more evident than in the prairie provinces.  Some are being choked to death by the Walmart plague while others are simply dying a slow death due to the need for fewer farmers to farm bigger farms.  Throw in automation and technology and you quickly get the picture.  Many towns are fighting back, looking for ways to draw in new residents and hang onto the ones they have.  Tourism and smaller cottage style industries may save some while others will eventually fade into history like many of the small settlements of our forefathers and foremothers.

I got to visit the graveyards of some of my ancestors; Creston and Elko, B.C. as well as in Poplar Point, Manitoba.  While motivation is not needed this has increased my interest in family history.  Getting to visit with a couple of cousins for the first time was also very special.

When we were planning our adventure and telling friends what we had in mind for our summer trip we often would say we were planning to bird out way across the prairie to Lake of the Woods and back.  Well, turns out that is exactly what we did.  Our interest in birding and my passion for bird photography took us off the beaten path and into deep into of the open prairie.  I don't know how many kilometres of gravel road we drove but it is significant.  Having our 4Runner made route choices simple.  The 4Runner is awesome for our kind of adventuring.  Often we would get to an intersection with a couple of paved and gravel roads.  We would look at the map, or in many cases paper maps, Garmin, Gracie and Apple and/or Google maps and then take the gravel road as it could yield the best opportunity to find birds.  Of course there were many places that we did not have access to technology and we had to just feel our way along or go by instinct.  There were a few occasions where we wondered if we were doing the right thing.  Most times we would turn around, opting for personal safety and other times we would plow ahead knowing that we would be safe, or someone would would eventually find our bodies, picked clean by the Vultures, Coyotes and other creatures.  Hopefully the card in my camera would survive so that people could see the great birds we saw before we perished at the hands of nature..... Ha!

Although I have not reviewed all our bird lists my rough estimate is that we added 16 new species to our World List.  We dipped (birder term for didn't find the damn bird) on many species that were likely present.  I'm okay with this as it just means we will have to go back and find them!

Well, that's about it.  Time to bring down the curtain on another adventure with Barry and Dana.   Hope you have enjoyed reading the blog and following along with us.  As always I have in some cases taken considerable editorial licence in describing places, events and happenings.  It is possible that I have offended some and while not my intention I apologize for being insensitive.

What's our next adventure?  Whatever it is, it will most certainly be a a road least traveled......

I leave you with the final verse from Randy Bachman's "Prairie Town".

Looking back at a prairie town

People ask me why I went away

To fly with the best, sometimes you have to leave the nest

But the prairies made me what I am today

Take the road least traveled for surprises.....

July 5th.  For 20 days we have travelled roads least, or is it less, traveled.  We were travelling the back roads long before it was classified as a "style" of travel.  Rick Steves coined the phrase "through the backdoor" and voila, this style of travel has become all the rage.  Call it what you want but the reason we prefer this style of travel is that you frequently get to see some authentic places, meet the nicest people and have some great, and not so great food experiences.  Today we had one of the great ones.  But I digress.....

Dana and I decided to sleep in this morning so when the alarm was set last night it was moved ahead to 6:30 a.m.  Lights out and lights on, pack, eat and we were on the road from Red Deer to our next destination, Castlegar, B.C.  Say what?  We have put in many long days on the road over the last 20 days but those were just hours not miles/kilometers.  Today we decided to go long.  The reason being is that we are hoping for one more life bird to close out our latest adventure.  The target bird is the Lewis's Woodpecker.   We have on good authority that there are several in Grand Forks, B.C.  Getting to Castlegar will mean a short drive tomorrow morning to Grand Forks to, hopefully, find our bird.

We broke our rules today and opted for the shortest route between Red Deer and Castlegar.  We drove straight down Hwy 2 from Red Deer to Calgary and connected to the Trans Canada westbound via the 210/1A bypass.  As soon as we pointed south on the #2 we knew we were "bushed".  The traffic was heavy all the way to Calgary.  Driving was uncomfortable.  When we hit the #1 westbound we found out what "heavy traffic" really was.  Westbound on the Trans Canada was a grind.  There was so much traffic I wondered to myself if there was an evacuation order in Calgary.  Or, heaven forbid, Calgarians were moving en mass to British Columbia.  Turns out neither was true, thankfully, and everyone was just heading to the mountains for holidays.

We first started seeing the mountains about halfway to Calgary on the #2.  The further west we got the bigger they became until before we knew it we were surrounded by mountains, trees and rivers.  Ahhhh.....it felt good to be home.  Not that we did not love the flat land.  There is something magical about standing still, doing a 360 and being able to see forever in every direction.  The sky just seems so much bigger in flat land country.

After a few hours in the mountains we were ejected into the Columbia valley.  We stopped for ice-cream in Invermere and thought about family and friends who once lived in the valley.  From there we were southbound to Hwy 3 for our trip west.  We went through Creston where the temperature was 32C.  It was a quick trip "over the hump" to Salmo where we made a quick decision to travel to Trail rather than Castlegar.   Recalling our collective memory of Trail we were understandably  hesitant.  Nothing ventured, nothing gained and off we went to Trail.

We hast visited Trail back in the 1970's.  If any of you were there during that time you will know that when you travel westbound from Fruitvale down the hill into Trail, the first thing you noticed was the barren landscape.  It seemed nothing grew in the Trail valley, not grass, shrubs or trees.  Time for a reality check.  Today the valley is green.  Not just green, but green - green.  There are trees, shrubs and grass.  We were shocked.  We got into Trail checked into a very nice hotel and walked into the downtown area in search of the one and only "Colander Ristorante".  Like so many towns and small cities, Trail has fallen victim to Walmart, which is perched like a praying (preying?) mantis on the outskirts of the city.  None the less, the downtown is clean and tidy.  There are hanging baskets hanging from posts throughout the downtown.  You would not have seen any of these back in the 60's or 70's.  I should mention that Trail's main employer is Teck-Cominco's lead smelter.  It was a major polluter until it was forced to clean itself up.  Since that action the environment has recovered.

So, lots has changed in Trail.  Fortunately one thing that has not changed is the "Colander Ristorante".  We last ate there nearly 40 years ago.  They have made subtle changes to both decor and food but the ambiance and experience is the same.  While we knew that we would be taking food away with us we both ordered the Colander Special.  This is a shared garden salad to start, shared platter of spaghetti, 2 golf ball size meat balls each, 2 pieces of chicken each and a generous portion of grilled baby potatoes.  We washed it down with some house red wine which I think is a requirement.  What a delightful dinner.  One of those good surprises.

So, we are in one of the nicest hotels that we have stayed in on our adventure; the city is clean;  the people are friendly and the food was not only great but the food experience will be a lasting memory. We are in Trail, B.C.  If we had not made that last minute decision to come to Trail we would have missed this experience.  That's what traveling the roads least, or less traveled is all about.  Often you get a memorable experience.  Sometime it is a great experience and a great memory.

Tomorrow we search for Lewis's Woodpeckers.  Wish us luck.  Here are a couple of pics from the day.

The "Colander Ristorante" in Trail, BC.  "When the moon hits your eye like a big pizza pie......."

Downtown Trail, BC.  Note the green hills!!

Go big or go home!  Ice cream in Invermere, B.C.

So far no red deer in Red Deer....

July 4th.   This is the day we celebrate being Canadian.  Over the past 20 days Dana and I have travelled the back roads of British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and part of the province to the east of Manitoba and I can affirm to the world that I am so proud to live in Canada.  We have our struggles and our challenges.  Small communities are trying to reinvent themselves in the face of socio-economic changes that threaten their mere existence.  Some will survive but others will not.  It is hard to predict how the changes will effect the broader communities in these provinces.  But I digress....

Yorkton, Sk. seems to be a distant memory, although a bad one.  Last night we tucked ourselves into a very nice motel/hotel in Hanna, Alberta.  The CanAlta motel/hotel chain seems to be a new venture.  A definite upgrade from the accommodations we have been staying in.  Random thought:  We started our adventure ready to tent as much as we could.  Who knew that this time of year on the prairies afternoon thunderstorms were a daily occurrence.  If you want to camp on the prairies this time of year you better have a hard roof over your head.

On top of the nice accommodations in Hanna, Ab., I finally got my steak dinner that I have been craving.  Dana had the Chicken Kiev.  In the end, plates were empty.  Yum-yum.....

I don't have any landscape photos of our Alberta travel.  Oh sure, the landscape is interesting enough, if you like flat earth, a few trees and sky.

So, what have we been up to for the past few days?  Birding!  Yesterday will be a day we will remember for a very long time.  Now, not everyone will "get" this, but we were privileged to see an endangered bird species called Piping Plover.  Some estimate that World wide there are fewer than 10,000 of these birds left.  Yesterday we saw 2 of them.  Add them to our world life list.

Today we travelled gravel back roads in search of birds.  We were rewarded by a flock of Black Terns doing their acrobatic maneuvers over a small wetland.

Tonight we are in Red Deer.  We have been here since 1:30 and so far we have not seen any Deer and certainly no red Deer.  We did however see a couple of  dear friends we met in Arizona.  We had a terrific visit.

Tomorrow we leave Alberta and return to British Columbia.  What adventures lie ahead?  Stay tuned.

Here are a couple of photos of birds we saw and photographed over the past 2 days.  Enjoy....

Black Tern

Black Tern

Piping Plover

Running back to Saskatoon, sing another prairie tune.....

All together now!

Moose Jaw, Broadview, Moosomin too
Runnin' back to Saskatoon
Red Deer, Terrace, Hanna, Medicine Hat
Sing another prairie tune
Sing another prairie tune

Yes, this is a verse from the classic Guess Who Song, "Running Back To Saskatoon".  And I must say from what we saw of Saskatoon today, albeit briefly, it is a fine city.  It is however a "city" and for this trip we are avoiding city life.  Speaking of avoidance, did I mention Yorkton?  Boy, now that was a disappointment.  But I digress......

Saskatchewan.  Tomorrow we leave this green province and slink ever so carefully through the back door into Alberta.  Rachel, we promise to spend the minimum amount of time in your province.  We will fill our tank with Saskatchewan gasoline, eat food we packed in Saskatchewan, drink wine from Europe, not that you make or bottle wine, and drink beer from Manitoba (I'll give a shout out to Farmery Estate Brewery, Neepawa, Manitoba).  All that is left to do is breath and fortunately most of your fresh air comes from British Columbia.  Boy, that's what I call going off on a tangent!  Hold it.  We have been away for a few weeks.  Is the pipeline war over?  But I digress....

Saskatchewan.  To quote Dickens, "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times".  Before you organize a green posse and come lookin' for me, let me 'splain it for you, eh.  Hold my beer for me, eh.

Our time in Grasslands National Park was near magical.   We felt like pioneers when we drove across southern Saskatchewan, enduring flood, drought and tornadoes.  Our return trip on Highway 16, the Yellowhead, began with an afternoon thunderstorm and driving rain.  At one point we pulled off the highway to let the storm pass and view Black Terns flying acrobatically over a marsh only to be swarmed by mosquitoes who clearly had not been fed in over a week.  Physically drained, and needing a transfusion, we rolled into Yorkton for Canada Day.   Okay, disclaimer:  I had never been to Yorkton.  I suppose in retrospect that I had some weird and fanciful notion that it was a quaint prairie town where we would find a sweet mom and pop motel to get some badly needed rest and that we would find a nice country diner where we would enjoy a good local steak thick and rare served with local spuds and whatever seasonal veggies that the cook found in the garden out back.  All washed down with a nice local beer, cold and endless.....  Dorothy!  Dorothy wake up.  It was all a dream...  Yes, but the nightmare of Yorkton was only beginning......

Yorkton.  If you stood up, took both hands, reached behind you and grabbed what you found you would be close to Yorkton, Saskatchewan.  Let me get to the good before I trash the place.  The fellow at the motel was terrific.  Very helpful and in retrospect he might have seemed a bit apologetic at the time we checked in.  Little did I know that he was in all likelihood apologizing for what we would endure during our stay.  The motel was dated, but clean and quiet.  We arrived around 3 p.m. and before we checked in we drove down the fairly deserted main drag.  In all my travel I have never seen so many traffic lights in so little distance.  For about 8 blocks, and the blocks were about 100 meters in length, there was a traffic light.  No "on demand" system and they seemed to be synchronized so that you only made 1 green before hitting a red.  The light change was crazy long and every light had a left turn arrow even if there were no traffic turning left.  We go to the end and went out of our way not to return the same way.  After we checked in walked about a kilometre to the "Tapps Sports Bar and Brew House"  thinking it would be good for 1) Beer and 2) Steak.  Sadly we found a typical prairie cavernous bar, empty as most locals were at the Canada Day party.  I could find no evidence of beer being brewed.  Back to the hotel.  We got in the 4Runner and drove the gauntlet of traffic lights to the Casino restaurant.  Of course we had to walk through the casino to get to the restaurant.  What a depressing trek that was.  By the time we got the the restaurant we didn't feel like eating or staying.  We ended up at a Chinese restaurant for what will forever, I am 100% positive about this, be the worst Chinese food I have ever eaten.  The staff at the restaurant were kind and polite but that is the only redeeming quality of the establishment.  In the morning we endured the rather "bland" free breakfast, which of course is not breakfast at all, and hit the road.  Not so fast bucko!  Yorkton had a couple more tricks up it's sleeve.  In search of gas we got turned around twice with street names that did not match Garmin, Google Maps or Gracie.  Of course it was a holiday Monday and nothing was open.  We finally found an escape route and headed west hoping we would find a gas station before we ran out of gas.  80 kms later we found a Co-op that was open, kind of, and refueled for the day ahead. 

Tonight we are in Rosetown, 110 k's west of Saskatoon.  Rosetown, now isn't that a pretty name?  Oh, oh....  I think I hear thunder...  .......Running back to Saskatoon, sing another prairie tune.....  Tomorrow it's me and Rachel....  Can't wait....

A couple of pics to share with you....

Yet another prairie thunderstorm.  I shot this photo this evening from the parking lot at our motel here in Rosetown, Sk.

Hard to do this scene justice with such a small photo.  The contrast between the yellow Canola fields , the blue sky and the thunderheads is stunning in real life.  This photo is from the Wynyard, Sk. area.

Lesser Yellowlegs, Quill Lake, Saskatchewan
 

Marble-Godwit at Wynyard, Saskatchewan