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 townPeople ask me why I went awayTo fly with the best, sometimes you have to leave the nestBut the prairies made me what I am today
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