A blog following my Cross Canadian extended road trip to visit all ten provinces in 2017 - the 150th year of the Confederation of our great country! Travelling with my Buick Encore AWD :)
Visiting Mom and Dad: Cold Lake, Alberta
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Almost time to move on after a few weeks in Cold Lake. Had a great visit with my Mom and Dad and my brother's family. My nephew Haiden is only 8 and he is almost as tall as I am!
Cold Lake is first and foremost an Air Force town, and you can often hear the CF-18s and Hornets flying around, but the area was first mentioned in the late 18th century and there used to be commercial fishing on the Lake.... now there are a lot of people (including my brother) who work for the oil patch. Hard work, long hours and good pay.
There is a Wal-Mart, a Winners (yeah!), three Tim Hortons and two grocery stores. There is a good Mexican restaurant, a neat Newfoundlander store/restaurant that just opened and did I mention they have a Winners?
The lake was frozen when I got here, but I actually forgot to take photos... so I took Mom for a drive and got some photos to post today, and a short video of a jet that gets lost in the blue sky, but you can still hear it!
You can hear it, but not see it!
A view of Cold Lake - it is huge!
The Marina - surprisingly few boats moored and the restaurant is closed (Dad and I were going to go for lunch!)
There is a large Metis and First Nations population here with many different tribes.
The Lake
Hope the spots fill in before too long...
Flat as a pancake.
Shadow selfie (I bought a new hat!) and little fish you can't see.
After driving 3,500+ km across five provinces and lots of different terrain - and a couple months in Quebec where I drove more than the average - I decided to add a review of my car to the blog. My car cleaned and ready for the trip! All my time in the UAE I rented - for the most part a Honda Accord - which was fine and good on gas, but not what I wanted for Canada. I had rented a Trax and an Encore last summer and knew I liked them... and my Dad has been pushing for the Encore for a couple of years (he loves Buicks). So with the help of an awesome broker (email for his name if you live around Rosemere, QC) I got a 2017 Buick Encore AWD - the Premium edition (because I wanted the bigger engine and heated seats). So first what I LOVE 💗 The heated seats - really it was on my list of "musts" after so many years living in the desert I know I have turned into a wimp! Also the lumbar support is spectacular - I wasn't stiff at all after 5 days of long days of drivin...
I finally made it to my parent's in Cold Lake, Alberta! This is NOT where we grew up (PArksville on Vancouver Island, the real West Coast), but my brother works in the oil fields so this is where they live now :) Day 5 by the numbers: Km travelled: 611 km Time travelled: Almost 7 hours (gravel roads do no let you drive very fast!) Wildlife see: 1 wolf running across the gravel "highway", Canadian geese, a pheasant (yes, I know what "eating" birds look like, elk (which got me excited until I saw 6 of them and realized it was an elk farm), a few hawks/falcons and cows and horses. Cost-Co pit stops: 1 in Saskatoon, also got gas and hot pickled green beans. Times a bit nervous: more than 1 as the numbered highway in Northern Saskatchewan was like a gravel road in the middle of no where!!! Observations: I have begun to like cruise control, which I always resisted. When you have a lead foot and open highways (and don't want a ticket) you really ...
Another busy day driving through three States and a long visit to Crow Country and the Little Big Horn Battlefield - met some nice people and chatted loads... also did a tour of the Battle Site with a member of the Crow Nation. It was so spectacular I will do a blog post just on that... but not tonight as I have another full day ahead of me tomorrow! The day in numbers: 12: deer and animals that look like deer in the fields and close to the fence on the I90 (a GORGEOUS highway) 3: States visited - Montana, Wyoming and South Dakota 386: miles in the car 6: hours driving 1: amount of times I wished I had not corrected a man who looked like he would fit into a Trump rally that Jesus was crucified on Mount Calvary not Mount Calgary (he was very forceful that he was right, I should have let him live with his beliefs, but I told him I was positive). At all times I was safe as it was a biggish group, but I kept my mouth shut after that. 4: hours with the sun roof open (no rain,...
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