Post trip reflections...September 4, 2013

Now that we have been back a few days, thought we end this blog with a few random facts:

• 18,2000 km. on the bike during the six week coast to coast trip through the ten provinces
• spent $1300 on gas
• spent $3500 on accommodation (would have been more but we were lucky that family put us up for 8 days!)

We have had quite a few people ask us what our most memorable moments were and what struck us most about this vast country of ours...

• there are a lot of trees and bush and rock in this country! :)
• pristine, heart-stopping scenery in every single province.
• special time with family:  Barb, Gil and family; Heather, Eli and Easton in Saskatoon (both on our way down east and on our return trip...could not believe how much the little guy changed in 5 short weeks!); Aunt Kay and Gerry in Ottawa; and Bill and Bev in North Battleford.
• great to spend time with Newfoundland family...thanks Ralph, Nellie and Lynn, and our "kids" Rob, Melanie and granddaughter, Amelia for more great memories!
• were surprised with how prosperous the Maritimes were.  Guess we still had the 'view' of hard times because of the fishery challenges, and had not realized how much oil has changed the face of the eastern provinces.
• the amount of construction going on in the parts of Quebec we passed through.
• how friendly and helpful people in every province were.
• how lucky we are to live in a country that is both breathtakingly beautiful and safe.
• how much we both love the prairies.

For now we are settling back into our new home, getting used to retirement, reconnecting with family and friends and thinking about what new adventures await us. 

Thanks for reading the blog and for sharing emails with us along the way. We had so much fun - every day was a new adventure!!!  We have been having fun watching The Amazing Race Canada as we saw many of the places featured in the TV show.

And remember - to just do whatever your bliss is, make a bucket list and cross things off, and never regret anything that makes you smile!

We saw so much and left much more unseen....Janice and Harry

Sunday September 1, 2013 ... time to end our amazing cross Canadamotorcycle adventure!

We woke in good time, having had a great sleep, but apparently Easton woke several times in the night so his parents were tired.  We didn't hear a thing.  I figure he was annoyed he'd been denied the pleasure of eating smores the night before and sitting around the campfire!

Eli made us a delicious breakfast...omelettes are his specialty and they were really tasty.  It was so nice to have home cooked meals the two days we were at Heather's and Eli's!  We had our fill of coffee and then packed up as we wanted to get home by 6 p.m. or so.  Left their place around 9:45 a.m.  It was hard to say goodbye to them all...know Easton will have changed so much by the time we see him again.  He is such fun...we will miss him....oh yeah, and his mom and dad too! :)

Gramma says carrots are good for me - and I agree!  Still working on what to do with my tongue but it's amazing how much I can get down!

I don't know why my parents are tired - I feel great! :)

We stopped in North Battleford for a visit with Harry's brother, Bill, and his wife, Bev.  Turns out we arrived on the day of their 48th wedding anniversary, so congrats were in order.  We should have been treating them, but instead Bev made us a delicious lunch...homemade borscht and cucumber sandwiches...the cukes were from Aunt Mary's garden.  It sure hit the spot after all the restaurant cooking we have been indulging in.

Turns out North Battleford has murals on some of its walls downtown too! :)

Back onto the bike and homeward bound.  It was fun seeing all the work going on in the fields.  Some crops were already harvested and some looked like they still had a lot of ripening to do before they'd be ready for thrashing.

The land isn't as green here as it was down east, but the views are every bit as spectacular! :)

We stopped in Lloyd for gas and in Vegreville to stretch our legs and get a photo of the giant psyanka.  We had passed it on the highway many times but never stopped to see it, so thought it fitting that we do so as one of the last stops on our Cross Canada Motorcycle Adventure!  I had no idea it had been made piece by piece...what we couldn't figure out was how it was actually put together.  They had some itneresting stats about the process and details about the construction, but nothing about that particular piece of it.

Drove into our driveway at 6:30 p.m.  Tired but feeling a great sense of accomplishment...will do one final post in a couple of days after we have had time to process and gather a few last thoughts...

Saturday August 31 ... Saskatoon Family Day

Easton let us sleep in his room last night while he bunked in with his parents.  After a good sleep we all woke feeling good.  Another photo session with Easton and then it was time to head for Eli's basketball game.  The team won their game so doesn't play again until Sunday afternoon.

Yoga pose...

I really, really, really love my momma!

Yes, I can do this for a really long time - WAY longer than Gramma and Grampa Harry!

Say what?

The daddy airplane...that guy is SO much fun Easton told us!

Home for Eli to shower and then off for lunch at Jerry's, a local restaurant that serves delicious food.  After filling up we headed for home and Harry and I were on grandson babysitting duty while Heather and Eli went grocery shopping.  Easton had a nap, I did the dishes and Harry washed the bugs off the bike.  Felt kinda nice to be doing everyday things again.

After a yummy taco supper prepared by Heather, the four of us played a fun gin rummy card game that Harry and I had never played before.  Heather was the big winner!  Then it was time for Easton to go to bed and the adults went outside for a fire in the firepit Eli built in the back yard. Smores were on the menu so that was a delicious treat!  Early to bed for us all as it's time for us to hit the road for home in the morning.

Friday August 30 ... Weyburn to Saskatoon ... Grandson playtime!

On the road by 8:30 a.m. on the way to Saskatoon to visit and spend a couple of days with Heather, Eli and Easton.   Saw lots of fields that had already been harvested.

We saw Heather, Eli and Easton when we started our trip almost five weeks ago and yet, we could not believe how much Easton had changed during that time.  He is almost six months old...very tall for his age.  He is getting up on all fours and will soon be crawling.  For now he is scooting all over the place by rolling his way to wherever he wants to get.  We were amazed at how strong he is ... he can lay on his tummy for a very long time holding both his head and feet up in the air...think he is going to be a yogi! :) He is extremely good natured and always seems to have a smile on his face.  Needless to say, the camera got a work out!

Heather made a delicious supper of crockpot meatloaf, spaghetti, meat sauce, mixed veggies and biscuits.  Despite our intentions to quit eating so much, we couldn't resist the yummy meal and seconds called our names.  Easton had carrots ... and enjoyed them so much he thought he'd get every last drop by licking them off the baby chair tray!

After supper it was off to see a basketball game...Eli is on a team playing in a tournament this weekend.  Their team won and that means an 11:00 a.m. game on Saturday.  It was the first basketball game Harry has ever seen "in person" so that was fun.  Very fast moving...hard to get good pics with the gym lighting and speed of the game but here are a couple... Eli is #11 in the white jersey. Eli's sister, Sarah, came to the game so it was nice to meet her for the first time.

Back to the house for Eli to shower and then we headed downtown to take in the fireworks festival show.  It's a fireworks display choreographed to music...and is held down by the river.  Lots of people lined the banks to watch the show...a lovely spectacle of light and sound.  Easton slept through the whole thing!

Very hot here today...over 30'.  Saturday is supposed to be a bit cooler so that will make things more comfortable. We called it a night about 11 p.m.

Thursday August 29 ... Grand Forks, Minnesota to Weyburn, Saskatchewan

Woke in Grand Forks to a noisy thunderstorm!  By 10 a.m. the skies were starting to clear so we suited up and headed out.  Grand Forks and it's sister city across the Red River are the commercial hub of northeastern Dakota and an agricultural processing centre for potatoes, sugar beets and wheat.

Love these windmills...apropos of nothing took do with the text above...:)

On our journey one thing we noticed in almost every field we passed, we're tall stands of cattails in lots of standing water.  Sometimes these were on the sides of fields and at other times they were smack dab in the centre of fields...wondered if they are always there or if this is a particularly wet year.

Grand Forks to Devils Lake, to Rugby and Minot.  On the stretch of highway beyond that, between Minot and Kenmare, we went through a very beautiful stretch...kind of in an area that looked like it could have been a river bed at one time.  It reminded us of southern Alberta's rolling hills and farm fields.  

LOVE this one of a crooked old red barn...

There were lots of "numbers" on the hills, made from white painted rocks it looked like.  We made an assumption that this was someone local high school students did to commemorate their graduation year.

Nearing the customs crossing into Canada we came upon a sight that made us feel like we would soon be back in Saskatchewan! :). Hope you can spot the oil pump jack...

Bienfait, a coal strip mining operation for the power plant, was another roadside view we saw.  It came upon us out of nowhere...looked like a huge operation! 

We could tell the area had a lot of rain...look at this photo...where you see the water on both sides of the road, it is generally just grass!

We came across a lot of rail traffic today and instead of taking photos I decided to count the cars on two particularly long trains...one had 117 cars and the other 113, many of them with two containers stacked on top of each other on each car, and both trains pulled by only two engines.  You must be thinking by now that I have WAY too much time on my hands on the back of the blue machine! :)

We pulled into Weyburn for the night about 6:30 p.m. and we're greeted by these impressive sculptures.

A light supper and time to write the blog and relax a bit.  On to Saskatoon tomorrow to see Heather, Eli and Easton.  Looking forward to the visit...