Road Trip, and more

Dear reader,

Hahaha. So... here is my report to you all, mostly about my trip out West. The first pictures show you some other things from the week and weekend before I left, you can read more about it in the post before this one.

This is the staff of Jersey Canada at the office in Guelph. From left to right you see Jill, Phyllis, Ryan and Russell.

Wow, bald eagles... How awesome can you be... This is a picture of a fourteen year old one at the bird of prey show at the African Lion Safari. Later, during the trip, I have seen and pictured two wild ones!!!

Yes; there you see the Falls! With some surrounding commercial stuff (several streets look like Las Vegas, as far as I know how that city looks like). The ones on the right are the American Falls by night, straight, lower and smaller, but its definetily a good thing when the view of your hotelroom contains a look over these!

Just a beautiful butterfly


Tuesday morning around 7 Dietrich picked me up at Garsholm Farms and after a final look at the Jerseys and everything, we were on the road! First we had to drive North for quite some time, just to get around the big lakes.

We followed the coast of Lake Huron, till Tobermory, where we took the ferry to Manitoulin Island (the worlds largest fresh water island, just that you know), where a lot of native people live. The water was the clearest water I had ever seen (that didnt came out of a tap or bottle). Shortly after we arrived on the land again, we were able to head NW or even W, following the coastline (a kind of) of Lake Superior. The first night while I was driving there was a dead moose on the road, wow, they are SO huge... We slept a couple of hours in the car, besides the road in Lake Superior Provincial Park, till the sun woke us again. During an early bird walk we saw the two bald eagles, together in the top of a dead tree. After every step that I was able to come closer without them flying away, I took a picture...

Just a few minutes later we saw a male moose, and this one was alive! When we first stopped and got out of the car he was just looking at us and than he went on, eating the water plants till he walked on for a bit, totally relaxed. I guess he doesnt have a lot of enemies...
Before we entered boring and ugly Thunderbay we visited the Sleeping Giant Provincial Park, packed with almost tame deer. After a very, very, very quick visit to Thunderbay we saw Kakabeka Falls, where brown water thunders through a canyon. We drove till after midnight and slept in the car beside the road again. It is fun driving in this part of Ontario, ever since we left the ferry the road was curvy, hilly and not to busy, with an incredible view!

Sleeping Giant Provincial Park and my two travel partners for the week

On Thursday (May 18th) I woke up while the car was driving, just before Winnipeg. When I got up from the back seats of the car I saw that the road was straight, the view endless and the landscape almost flat. What a change! We arrived in Winnipeg around 6 am, drove through the city centre, nothing too special, and walked through the park with very nice sculpture part while we were waiting for the Royal Canadian Mint to open.

Yeah, lets celebrate the important things in life; the arrival of the Dutch in Manitoba!!! Other picture is of the Cadillac sign, with Winnipegs city centre in the background ;)

The only way to visit the Mint was with a guided tour and the first one started at 10.30, so we left this city after we visited the gift shop (how interesting!) and kept on driving to the West on highway 1 for many hours. We decided to try camping in a park for a night, so we drove South for a bit, till we arrived in Moose Mountain Provincial Park around 3 pm. The temperature was quite a bit higher than in Ontario, so emidiately changing of clothes was necessary. Tried to find a nice trail to hike, but there was not too much choice, so we sat down at a lake to see if the beavers would show up in front of their house. Not to much luck today.


Sunset at Kakabeka Falls

Friday morning up at 5 and heading NW towards Saskatchewans capital Regina. We were surprised how late schoolbuses filled with kids were still on the road and at the Royal Canadian Mounted Police Museum and trainings centre we found out that we crossed another time border! Haha, so we were up and running at 4 am! Regina is a nice city with lots of green and space and some nice buildings.

We were in Alberta for less than an hour when the temperature of the cooling was 130 degrees! We had to sit down and wait, drive carefully back to Medicine Hat and visit friends to change to oil. It was after midnight before we left and drove on to Write-On-Stone-Provincial Park, very close to the U.S. border.

Sunrise somewhere between Moose Mountain Prov. Park and Regina

On Saturday we were up even before the sun, to be able to see the sun rise. It was very beautiful, even with my half sleeping head and half closed eyes (starting to get a kind of tired). After that we drove NW again, till Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump, a historic site thats on the UNESCO heritage list. In earlier days the Indians used to scare the buffalo and they would run like crazy, without being able to stop when they arrived at the cliffs. We were able to get a first, misty glimp of the Rocky Mountains... Mmmmm

We didnt always take the highway...


Shortly after Head-Smashed-In, we started travelling North on the cowboy trail. After a while we had to turn around because a road was closed, but its not too bad if you have to drive a road twice with this much to see. At one moment there were totally blue birds flying around the car! We skipped Calgary and headed West, into the rainy Rocky Mountains. After a short drive through visit to Banff we walked a trail at Lake Louise. It is difficult to believe that the water was really that clear and most of all, so blue! The lake was still frozen for the biggest part and there was a lot of snow, brrrr!

Before all Canadian readers will think it, I better say it; wooden shoes, wooden head, wouldnt listen... Seems to work for all Dutch people ;)

That night we drove till the Saskatchewan River Crossing, where we slept in de car that was parked in some parking place. Sunday was our resting day, so we decided to hike a trail to Glacier Lake, which you can see in the picture above. It was just an awesome day, we walked from 9 am till 8 pm and whenever I was thirsty I drank the water from the lake or, when we were walking in between the evergreen trees, stream. Ice and ice cold!! We walked at least 40 km and it was just amazing how quiet it was and how beautiful...


Monday morning we drove to Edmonton where we brought a visit to the West Edmonton Mall, the biggest mall in the world. Thats where I bought my guitar; a deep red acoustic Fender, a beauty!!! After some trouble with finding human beings in Rochester, for directions to the farm, I arrived May 22nd around 7 pm at the Unique Stock Farm of Dave and Tracey Morey. The next morning I was up at 5 for milking etc. And thats what I am still doing ;) I am looking forward to the Calgary Stampede and the arrival of my parents and sister on the 8th of July, 20.30 in Edmonton!
My little palace

Greetings to you all!

Lotte