BUY THE TICKET, TAKE THE RIDE. Hunter S. Thompson

Saturday, August 20, 2022 - The Birthday Party 

In addition to my Birthday, new celebrated my son Ryan, My brother Michael, my Uncle Erik who sadly could not attend, my son Sean and numerous others. I think the photos will speak for themselves.

While this is NOT a blog about family birthdays, but rather a 'travel' blog - this certainly turned out to be a main feature in the first part of out journey.  As a family, it seems hard for us to get together as often as we would like.  And so when we can get together it becomes a journey in itself.  We wish sister Barb and brother Marc could have also been there.  Next year!

August 21, 22 and 23

We travelled to Lacombe, AB, spent a wonderful night with Nancy's brother Jim and sister in law Katherine.  The morning for the 22nd early, we set sail for Saskatoon, really the first day of our journey across the country.  Nancy had promised to meet up with friends of long standing - and so we did, Loye and Pat.  We had a wonderful dinner and long chats about old times. No emphasis on the word old - it just maybe the place we are at.

Sadly we only spent one day and night in Saskatoon.  The city has grown immensely and looked very prosperous.  We missed an old car rally by a day - apparently 0ver a 1000 vintage cars from everywhere attended.  And, a terrific Picasso exhibition at the Remai Modern in Saskatoon.  I was particularly sad to have missed that.

Today on the 23rd we hit the road for The Riding Mountain National Park in Manitoba.  Our first intent was to go up to Flin Flon MB but given somewhat tight time constraints that is going to haver too wait for another trip.

We took all the backroads we could (and it seemed like in Sask and MB, they are all backroads).  passed through such iconic towns as Humboldt (sorry Mike couldn't find the socket stick); Yorkton; Wimmer; Foam Lake; Saltcoats; Waywayseecapo; and Birdtail. In fact, both the Sask and MB country sides were incredibly beautiful in their own unique way.  The golden fields gave way to greens of all 'voltages'; Prosperous looking farms were everywhere.  Hay was rolled and ready for hauling.  It seemed like we sailed through much of the countryside and we were given the most beautiful views from our position on the bridge of the SS Shirley. 

While we have only really travelled on this journey and slept overnight two times, we have learned a lot about organization and staying calm.  More on that next time.

All the best!