Thursday 28 May 2015

Trailer brakes.....

Whoever has heard of electrically operated drum brakes? Not me until today. The trailer brakes decided to give me cause for concern by locking up at road junctions flattening the tyres. It seems they dont self adjust and need to be done manually which is fiddley. A quote of $500 for someone to come and have a look has converted me into something of a brake speciallist. Each wheel takes about two hours fix so will be staying in Moose Jaw a while longer. The upside is that have been using the local hotels naturally warm mineral spa pool complex.........what a life.

Wednesday 27 May 2015

Beer and stuff......

Everything in Canada is BIG. The trucks, the highways, the trains, the sky and the beer cans. Supermarkets dont sell booze but the government own and control liquor stores and you can only buy by the case, 18 or 24 cans. Also, the cans are huge, 710 ml. Cheers!

Tuesday 26 May 2015

Saskatchewan and beyond.....

Crossing the boundary into Saskatchewan and you are definitely in prairie country. The roads really do stretch for as far as you can see which i think is about 20 miles? At one point we spotted a frieght train about 5 miles away running parallel to the road, it was so long we couldn't see the end of it, had to be half a mile long! Imagine that pulling into Truro station? We stopped at Moose Jaw which is a proper cowboy/railroad/cattle station type town but cleaned up a bit. Back in the roaring twenties Al Capone, the wealthiest gangster in north America holed up here as things were getting hot in Chicago. From Moose Jaw he sent tons of grain by rail down to Chicago to brew his illicit whisky earning him over $100,000,000  per year, that was in the 1920s! He had a series of tunnels dug under the streets from the buildings he owned in case he needed to flee, although the police chief, who incidentally owned a very big house and a cattle ranch nearby, never seemed to be able to catch Mr Capone. The buildings remain as a "Live museum" to tell the tale, very entertaining afternoon in the cool tunnels and hidden cellars below a very hot Main Street. Might stop here a few more days to explore the very posh pool & spa on the 4th floor of the hotel & casino.(Huge pool and jacuzzi on the 4th floor!)





Friday 22 May 2015

Canada Facts

Winnipeg in the very heart of Canada is multicultural in the extreme with more than 100 languages being spoken. They've never heard of Cakey tea though...........

Winnipeg, Manitoba.

Winnipeg seems to be roughly our halfway point. Huge city with a ringroad a bit like the M25. However we took a detour into the city and paid a visit to the Royal Canadian Mint. Unable to obtain any samples, just as well, they only strike the coins here with all notes printed in Vancouver. After the tour we met a very big man in what appeared to be police uniform but he was the mint security guard and was armed🔫. He took us to a platform on which sat a bar of pure 24 carat gold. I was invited to pick up the bar (which was chained to the platform 💰) Surprisingly heavy for a strong old boy that I am! Worth about $500,000, never done that before. Headed west on the Trans Canada Highway we stopped at Brandon for the weekend to sample a wartime airforce museum where the RAF sent budding pilots to train in safety before sending them to their imminent premature deaths in Europe.       The weather is once again with us, 28c today and more for a while. Tomorrow finds us in need of a spot of shopping and maybe a drive in movie............

Thursday 21 May 2015

Canada Facts

Black bears have no taste buds and do not like bananas.........how do they know?

Driving

Drivings going well. We average about 5 hours a day then relax on a site for 2 or 3 days, chance to meet some people, have a beer etc. The highways are mostly two lanes each way and in awful condition due to the bad weather I guess. Our only companions on the Trans Canada Highway seem to be 52 foot artics with 48 foot trailers on the back! 100 foot plus and they dont give way! Anyway, the truckstop filling stations always have a Tim Horton coffee house alongside. So heres a top tip if you do this trip. Dont take a wrong turn when leaving the filling station only to find yourself and your 40 foot trailer in the drive thru for Tim Hortons.......... Lyn had to ask all the traffic behind to backup so I could reverse out of the queue and back to the carpark. DOH!


Ontario......

Ontario is a big place. After almost three weeks of travelling we finally crossed the border into Manitoba, the difference in scenery was dramatic. Gone are the lakes and forest, given way to flat prairie land. The roads are straight and forever. Someone told us you can watch your dog run away for three days! I don't have a dog............. The weather has improved though, clear blue skies and warm breeze, still only about 18c but better than the snow two days ago. Plenty of signs warning us to be "Bear aware" and there are wolves about, wish i had a dog...... We pulled into a "chip stand" for lunch, hot dog (it didn't run away) chips in cheese and gravy and some drinks. Our debit card and credit card refused to play with the machine so the chip lady, Debbie, said looks like lunch is on me! What a lovely lady, turns out she fosters problem children, what an angel. Were staying on this site for three days before we head for Winnipeg and a tour of the national mint, I wonder if they give away samples? As i dont have to hitch up the trailer in the morning, I think it might be time for a beer and watch the sun go down...cheers.


Wednesday 13 May 2015

Bear country........

We are in black bear country. Rules apply. The campsite owners wife Tammy is a professional "bear baiter" meaning she takes groups of wealthy Americam hunters into the forest. While the brave hunters hide away Tammy will lay out sweeties to attract the bears then she leaves. You can imagine what happens next. Whether you agree with it or not black bears are a big problem so the provincial government encourage their hunting by means of a heavily regulated licence system. Anyway, Tammy, with her 9mm pistol always on her belt, has written a very interesting pamphlet highlighting various local events through the ages including prison of war camps, gold mining and the history of the Canadian Pacific Railway. Not my best idea to point out the spelling mistakes..........

Monday 11 May 2015

Canada facts

Lake Superior, which belongs jointly to the US and Canada is 3/4 the size of England!

On the road at last......

Insurance sorted, essential supplies sorted, satnav acquired......time to go. The plan is to cross Canada and be in Vancouver to meet up with Archie for mid June. Heading north across the top of Lake Superior it began to get a bit chilly. Looking out to the horizon on the lake were icebergs! We can drive about 300 kms a day then pitch up for a couple of nights. Horseshoe Bay was fun, really nice people and a curious chipmunk visited us. I put some Bombay mix down for him, havent seen him since........... On again to Blueberry Hill, what a dump of a campsite. People living in trailers, trucks in various stages of decay, kids screaming and dogs barking all night. Advertised pool had an oil film on the surface that reminded me of the Torrey Canyon. Just the one night there then and on Marathon and a smallish site in the forest. Bleddy freezing heavy rain, put the heating on and the kettle for a cuppa and blew all the fuses! The man said "only one appliance at a time". Also the pipes are all still frozen so we have no running water to connect, lucky we have a 55 gallon tank of fresh water on board. Saw a moose on the roadside but no bears yet.



Sunday 10 May 2015

Canadream

We fell in love with this 32  foot trailer and truck. All mod cons, AC, central heating, slide out lounge and bedroom. Lyn christened the trailer Doreen.........
The truck.
Tim & Michael at Canadream, Toronto.

Toronto

Toronto is the cleanest city I have ever seen. Typically American made of concrete and roads, occasionally spotting a human in the open air. Getting around downtown one hardly ever sees the sky as because of the severe winter months, Torontonians go deep underground. From the Union rail station one can walk for miles past restaurants, shopping malls, all manner of offices, theatres blah blah all in clean heated labyrinths under the upper world. Once in central downtown we all return to the sunshine and breeze. I can tell you about you about breezes! We took the lift up 1800 feet to the top of th CN tower..............holy samosa's! And glass floors, what's that all about?