September 24, 2008 by Rae

Wild Rose Country

I’m posting from Edmonton, Alberta.

Edmonton

Driving northwest out of Saskatoon on the Yellowhead (16), the landscape begins to ripple and the vast golden expanses of wheat give way to green pastures interrupted by dense poplar copses. By the time you truly enter Alberta, after you’ve passed Lloydminster, you’d think you were back in northern Ontario. But the trees betray your true location, as Alberta along this route has more poplar than it does spruce.

My first night in Alberta was spent in a zoo of a shopping complex in Lloydminster. I was very technically set up in front of a Wal-mart, but, truly, home was squeezed in between a Kelsey’s restaurant and a bank. It was very noisy, crowded, and busy, but provided a good lesson in how far I’ve come in the past few weeks. My first times in such locations, I couldn’t relax and absolutely had to leave the coach. This night, I just got a few groceries to make dinner at home, and then I plopped down with a book for several hours.

I made it to Edmonton around 12:30 on Monday. It had been a miserable morning; rainy, damp, cold, muddy, and windy. Keeping Miranda in her lane had required all my energy. I wanted to go somewhere warm for the afternoon, somewhere I wouldn’t have to think too much, somewhere I could have some exercise.

So, within a half hour of arriving in Edmonton, I was on my way to the West Edmonton Mall.

Now, I have no love for these insane orgies of consumerism. When I went through Minnesota in 2005 I purposely skipped the Mall of America even though I went right by it. But the West Edmonton Mall promised an indoor water park with a wave pool which sounded like just the thing I wanted….

I found the water park and was dismayed by the admission cost of 32$, plus 7$ for a locker rental. I just wanted to swim! I took a chance and asked the lady at admissions if there was perhaps a special fee just for the pool. Not during the week… because access to the whole facility is 17$ since not all the activities are open!

And that’s why I am really beginning to love this life, folks. I woke up Monday in a miserable parking lot, went to bed in a quiet setting surrounded by firs, and in the middle of all that, I spent three glorious hours swimming, body surfing waves, and taking too many exhilarating rides to count down waterslides. Monday was a Good Day.

Yesterday was okay. Everything I really wanted to see in Edmonton is either closed for renovations, closed for the season, or has a drastically reduced program. I did the Royal Alberta Museum in the morning and had mixed feelings about it. The 10$ admission fee felt bloated when I compared the museum to the RSM (2$) and I found the exhibits disjointed and badly organized. But I was able to fall in love with an absolutely adorable little guy (Australian stick bug) and learn about the shipwreck of the Empress of Ireland, which happened on the St. Lawrence River, and which I’d never heard about even though it was comparable in tragedy to the sinking of the Titanic.

I finished up my day early by going to Rutherford House, home of Alberta’s first premiere.

Rutherford House, Edmonton

Admission was 4$ and got me a private guide who was fantastic. I enjoyed touring this Edwardian home, comparing it to Victorian homes I’d toured before. The Edwardian style is a lot more simple, but the paint colours are shockingly bright.

Today, I’m not sure if I’m doing anything touristy. I had wanted to go to Fort Edmonton Park, but it’s shut down for the season and the only thing going on during the week are wagon rides. Later today I’ll go check out if those are worth doing since the park is just minutes from here. I also need to visit an Elections Canada office to get a special ballot to vote by mail as we have an election coming up on October 14!

I’m very tired and the cold I woke up with last Thursday has hardly abated. So, I’m reconsidering my plans for the rest of the week. I was supposed to go to Calgary tomorrow and stay through to Sunday. I think I’m going to blow off the city and come back in the spring.

So, my new tentative itinerary is to make it as far as the Wal-mart in Red Deer tomorrow, the Wal-mart in Calgary on Friday, and then stop in Canmore for a full seven nights as I found a park there that offers a free seventh night for six paid up (making the average cost per night almost reasonable). From there, I could take a day trip into Calgary (1 hour) and day trips into Banff, similar to what I did in Regina. And then from Canmore, I’ll drive, up and down and through the mountains until I reach the Okanagan valley. It’s getting colder up here (there’s frost on the grass outside!) and the Okanagan Valley is starting to sound like the promised land. 🙂

I must also confess that I’m getting too settled into this semi-retired-type routine of mine and that it won’t hurt for me to start making some income again to remind me that there is still a big old world out there. 🙂

September 9, 2008 by Rae

Oh, the Places You’ll Go!

When last our heroine updated her blog, she was parked at the Canadian Tire in Val D’Or. She has done more than 900km since then… and not all of them have been above ground.

Not much happened on Saturday. I wound up boondocking outside the visitor’s centre at the eastern edge of the city where I was told overnighting was ‘tolerated’, but I’d have to move to pay site or the Walmart for the next night. The only pay site in town was 15$ and that didn’t include hookups or, at least, a view, so guess where I spent my second night in Val D’Or? 🙂

At any rate, the sole purpose of my visit to Val D’Or was to see the gold mine at a complex they call the Cité de l’or. Other than outdoor sports, there isn’t much to see or do in Val D’or. I therefore wouldn’t recommend making a detour there just to see the mine, but if you just happen to be going by, then, please, don’t miss it and pay the 40 bucks for the full tour!

A vein of gold does not look like what you’d expect as it is black and white. The white is quartz and the black is tourmaline. This is extracted and then processed to get the gold flakes inside. It takes about 5,000 tonnes of ore from this mine to get a single oz of gold.

There was nothing but wilderness around the mine site, so a village had to be built to house all the workers and their families. Imagine a whole neighbourhood of log cabins.

The old mining village is just adorable and is a historic site, so current owners face strict regulations as to how much they can change the houses.

These houses offered excellent accommodation for the miners with running water, heating, telephones, and electricity. Miners were considered rich. They made about 35$ a week while a living wage was about 5$ per week! This is how they could afford such luxuries and pay the rent of 50$ per year for these houses.

Before my tour of the mine, I walked through the village and was accosted by a withered wraith of a man who used to work at the mine! He spent about twenty minutes sharing his life story. I thought it would be a tale of woe, but not at all. He loved his time at the mine, saying that the work was hard, but that conditions were good and safe, and that unlike coal mining it wasn’t that bad for the health as there was no dust. His job was to take core samples that would be analysed to determine which way the mine should be further excavated. When he retired from mining, he used his knowledge to found his own diamond drilling company with more than 150 employees. Meeting him proved to me that there are no accidents in life. I was sure my mine tour was at 1PM, but it was at 1:30. I therefore had time to kill, time enough to make an encounter that completely change how I felt down there, 300ft below the surface….

I really don’t like enclosed spaces, so the hour and a bit we were underground was just enough for me. When we got back into the shuttle for the drive back up, I couldn’t get out of there fast enough. I can’t imagine spending a whole day in such a place, including a lunch break spent in a room that was literally carved out of the rock face.

elevator cage

indicates at which level is the elevator

elevator cage speed regulator

dispensary

door into the room where the cage is

drilling cage; miner’s liked these because they were safe and cut down on their labour

electrical panel controlling the elevator cage

horrible joke

ladder to the drilling platform

lunchroom!

me as a miner!

mining drill that can be driven forward, backward, or sideways

outside of the mine

99 Perrault (the house where the interior pictures were taken)

miner’s cabin

luxurious bathroom in the miner’s house

dresser in the miner’s house

calendar for 1943

chamberpot in the miner’s house

cheques

newspaper about the FLQ crisis

food stamps

hats belonging to the wife of a miner

ice box in the miner’s house

this gift shop area was the kids’ bedroom in the miner’s house

kitchen in the miner’s house

miner’s outfit

phone in a miner’s house

radios, adding machine, magazine

wartime ration coupons

rock chute

the shuttle we took down into the mine

ceiling sprayed with concrete for the visitors’ safety

gold vein, the black is tourmaline and the white is quartz

After the tour, I went to pick up Miranda at the Sears where I’d received permission to park her for the day, then we moved to Walmart. The store was closed, so I just set up for the night and treated myself to dinner since I couldn’t get anything working at home. 🙂

Miranda at the Walmart in Val D’Or

Sunday, I pushed off ludicrously early (around 7) and felt my mood change as quickly as did the kilometres beneath me.

I passed this very cool sign mid-morning:

entering the Arctic watershed

The weather was (and is) gross, not motivating me to try to find a boondocking spot on Crown land as I’d thought I might, so I decided to make a push for the Walmart in Kapuskasing:

Seeking a Walmart in the wilderness

(I was just amused that I was driving through the wilderness looking for a Walmart).

I passed some very interesting towns, such as Swastika and Moonbeam, where I had to take a picture:

yes, we’re still on Earth (and staying there)

When I got to Kapuskasing (and was done with the whole dumping thing), I went to the Walmart figuring that it would be closed for the evening. Nope, it’s open 7 to 8 seven days a week!!! So, I went in to ask for permission to stay overnight. The manager replied “Of course!” in a very friendly manner. I knew I would have a good night there: I had permission to stay and the OPP had a station literally across the street. Can’t get any safer than that! I wound up sleeping the sleep of the proverbial dead and woke up this morning at 5:30 feeling very odd because I haven’t slept that many hours straight through since I was a teenager!

Today was another big push as there is just about nothing between Kapuskasing and Thunder Bay. I was very glad to find this park. It’s nothing special and not a place where you can set up your hibachi or awning, but it’s perfectly adequate for a one night stopover. Tomorrow, I’m going no further than the Walmart in Thunder Bay! I have this site until noon and I plan to take advantage of that to get caught up on my housekeeping.

If there is one thing I will remember the most about my first days on the road it is that the world is not nearly as hostile a place as some people would try to make me believe. There has been at least one person per day who helped me in a way that might have seemed small to them, but which made me feel like I am not alone on this vast and open road.

Tomorrow is Thunder Bay. Wednesday will be my last night on the Shield. Thursday I’ll hit the Prairies. And then I’ll slow down properly as I’ll be hitting new things.

There is no shortage of good days. It is good lives that are hard to come by. Good lives, I’m discovering, have no shortage of bad days, but they are measured by the sum of the whole.

I’m impossibly happy, in good spirits, comfortable in my rig, grateful that my cats have taken to this life as well as their mom, and have discovered that it’s easy to be a morning person if your day is going to be filled with adventure.

April 7, 2008 by Rae

Day Four

It’s really beyond the scope of this travelogue to get into Savannah’s history. There is just so much of it and so many major players. I didn’t come for any of that; I just wanted to view the squares, see what Spanish moss is all about, tour the Mercer-Williams house, and take a ghost tour. Rather unusual for me, actually. I only scheduled one full day in the city, and that turned out to be plenty. My day in Savannah was lovely and fun, but I felt off, restless, and uneasy. I didn’t fully comprehend why until the next day.

Since I hadn’t come to Savannah to view a million sights, I knew I would have a more leisurely day than I normally do when traveling. I started off with breakfast at a Denny’s (something I always say I’ll never do again), then I ‘caught a CAT’ (Chatham Area Tranist), a bus, which costs 1$. The bus took me right from my hotel to the steps of the visitor’s centre on Martin Luther King Boulevard. Very convenient!

I’m a huge Forrest Gump fan (movie, not the book!), so please allow me the indulgence of this photo:

My very own Savannah bus stop bench! I even passed Henry Street, which is the street Forrest wanted to get to in the movie.

At the visitor’s centre, I picked up some info on ghost tours, then toured the history of Savannah museum. It had an interesting hodgepodge of exhibits… including one of the benches used in the filming of the Forrest Gump movie, and Forrest’s suitcase (or a copy thereof).

Next, I took a trolley tour of the city. We stopped in front of Chippewa Square, where I would return to snap these pics:

This is where all the Forrest Gump bus bench scenes were filmed. 🙂 Okay, okay, enough Forrest Gump!

I really enjoyed the trolley tour. I picked Oglethorpe Tours because, well, they were the cheapest at 10$ (plus a 5$ tip to our fantastic guide). I liked that they offered a 90 minute tour of the city, and then a jump on and off service that was really more of a shuttle system. You could wait at designated stations with your yellow sticker prominently displayed and a mini-van would pull up and take you to a location of your choice. Downtown is very small, so I only prevailed myself of this service later in the day, when I was getting to be a bit footsore. Very good service and excellent tour!

After the tour, I had lunch…

(EDITED TO ADD: Oh my. I had shrimp at Clary’s Cafe, never realising that this was the cafe prominently feature in both The Book and The Movie! I’m rewatching The Movie right now and can’t believe I didn’t get a sense of déjà vu when I entered the restaurant!)

then went to visit the Mercer-Williams House, featured in the book and movie ‘Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil’:

I found the entrance cost of 13$ expensive since we only saw the gardens and some of the first floor, but it was still worth it to stand in the spot where Danny Hansford was killed/murdered and to view the gorgeous sunken garden. The hall that runs the whole length of the first floor is roughly 12 feet by 60 feet… the exact dimensions of my old house. The Mercer-Williams house is huge! This house has a troubled history, but it sure is gorgeous. I was surprised to learn that Jim Williams sister lives there full-time. When I went by the next night after dark on the ghost tour, it was weird to see lights on all over the house, including in the rooms where the tour is held.

Next, I went to the Ships of the Sea museum. Entrance was 8$, but the old codger at the cash decided that this young lass deserved a break and sold me a student ticket for 6$. Awww, how sweet! There really wasn’t that much to the museum, but I really liked it. It featured models of ships that are relevant to the history of Savannah (plus a fantastic one of Titanic which isn’t relevant, but was really impressive). The museum would appeal to anyone who likes maritime history, models, and ships. I qualify for all three. The museum is housed in an old home which has a stunning garden with high hedged walls.

I was tired and a wee bit footsore by this point, so I took the shuttle to River Street, a cobblestone one-way thoroughfare right by the Savannah River’s edge. It is accessible by very steep staircases or equally steep ramps.

There, I took a picture of a typical Savannah sidewalk:

Those white bits are oyster shells.

I enjoyed exploring River Street and even climbed one of its staircases just to say I did. This picture does not convey the steepness of the stairs, nor the height of the risers. My knees were very mad at me by the time I got to the top. This is just a small part of the staircase:

It was very hot out and I was craving iced coffee, so when I saw a tiny stand offering this precious drink, I was happy to stop for a long while and watch the paddleboats go up and down the river. I took video footage of that, but no pictures.

I did snap this picture of a gorgeous bridge that leads to Hilton Head Island in South Carolina:

Before heading off in search of dinner, I snapped a picture of Savannah’s waving girl:

The story goes that she would wave ships in an out every day for about 40 years.

Dinner wound up being too difficult to find so I gave up. My mistake was to seek it in the historic district in the vicinity of where I was supposed to start a ghost tour. I should have eaten at River Street. Oh well, live and learn. The ghost tour wound up being canceled due to inclement weather. I was tired, so I wasn’t too disappointed, figuring I could reschedule for the next night. I bused back to the hotel and ordered pizza!

June 23, 2007 by Rae

Day 3

(I gave my camera a workout today, but Blogger is being a pain, so I’m only sharing a few at this time.)

I took full advantage of my MUNI pass today.

MUNI is, bar none, the best public transportation system I have ever encountered in terms of tourist use. For all I know, it sucks for commuters…. At any rate, it’s really easy to schedule a trip since every bus stop has a map of the transit system and every single stop is announced on the buses. Instead of sitting on the edge of my seat praying I wouldn’t miss my stops, I could sit back and relax.

My first order of business today was to visit my quintessential San Francisco landmark, that is the one thing that tells me that, yes, I’m definitely here. Then, I was going off to the De Young fine art museum. As it turns out, this was really simple and involved two buses, the first one catchable just two blocks from Neil’s. The landmark in question was on the same bus route as De Young, so I just had to hop off a bus, hike to the landmark, take a million pictures of it, then hike back to the bus stop to catch the next one.

Here is my quintessential San Francisco landmark. I’m sure that these gorgeous painted ladies require no introduction!
(squeals with glee at finally seeing them live!)

De Young is located in Golden Gate Park and features recent works of art plus some more contemporary exhibits like haute couture. There is a fantastic 360 degree view of SF from the observation tower.

I wandered a bit around GGP after and found the Japanese Tea Gardens. They were breathtakingly beautiful and the highlight was the Bell Bridge:

So much fun to climb up and down I did it twice!

I wandered around a bit more, discovered the Shakespeare gardens, then decided to head over to the Legion of Honor, accessible with my De Young ticket. I hadn’t planned on how to get there since I assumed that someone at De Young would be able to indicate the way. Nope. I went back to the bus stop where I’d been dropped off and easily mapped out a two transfer route that took me to the Legion of Honor’s front door.

The Legion of Honor was my favourite museum thus far (not counting aquariums). It’s another fine arts museum, but with much older art, including ancient Egyptian sculpture, Estruscan pottery, medieval illuminations, 16th to 18th century furniture (including one of Marie-Antoinette’s sofas), impressionist paintings, and a whole gallery devoted to Rodin. I went through twice! I think my favourite piece was a truly hysterical frieze of Adam and Eve being scolded by god in the garden of Eden. The details were fantastic–the pair holding onto their fig leaves for dear life and god pointing his finger in a way that makes me think he was probably shaking it at them. Here’s one of Rodin’s ‘The Thinker’:
I bussed home after and decided that I really needed to spend a couple of hours off my feet. So, I grabbed Neil’s bike and went for a ride along the bay. This was interesting since he has a man’s style bike with the bar across it and the bike is set about an inch too high for me. So, getting on and off in my skirt was quiiiiite the challenge! The ride really did the trick and it was just so nice to use different muscles. I took a lot of pictures of palm trees today, but this is my favourite one and was taken on my bike ride:I also took a lot of pictures of the bay:

I came back to Fisherman’s Wharf after several miles, locked the bike, and went off in search of the most gluttonous seafood meal I could find involving calamari and shrimp. So, I was quite pleased to stumble on huge calmari body parts (???) stuffed with tiny bay shrimps in a creamy sauce. I think I got about two-thirds of the way through my plate before I had to capitulate. 🙂

Thus ends what will most likely be my last full day in San Francisco. Neil and I are visiting Alcatraz tomorrow, then picking up my rental car so we can go search for nuclear wessels and light houses across the bay. Depending on how late we get back, I’ll most likely be leaving for Vegas tomorrow night. I’d like to get a couple of hours (and miles) under my belt so that I won’t be completely wiped upon arriving there Sunday night.

I could be happy living in this city.

July 6, 1998 by Rae

New and Old Lanark

9:03 AM

I’m at Glasgow Central waiting on the 9:18 train to Lanark. I can’t believe how easily I got here ! Last month, searching for tickets and my departure stance would have been nerve wracking, but today it was as easy and normal as going to the bathroom! Hard to believe this is my last day in Scotland. I have to admit that if I see another continental breakfast in this lifetime, it’ll be too soon! I’m fed up with cold rolls, cheese, jam, tea, o.j., cereal, etc. I’d just about kill for my unhealthy Cheeze-Whiz on English muffin with a glass of chocolate milk!

However, it’s good that breakfast is healthy since practically everything is deep fried here. I’d just about kill for some steamed or lightly poached fish, steamed broccoli, and plain sticky white rice! At least last night I had a baked potato. I think I’ve had enough French fries for quite a few millennia (and it’s not like I’ve been eating them a lot, just once or twice a week. I must admit I like ‘The Pancake Place’’s herb fries, though). What I couldn’t believe was the time I ordered mac and cheese. It had a full inch of fat floating on top of the cheese and greasy French fries on the side! I went through a lot of napkins getting rid of the worst of the grease! I can’t believe last night, though, I actually (very politely) complained about my meal in a restaurant!

I met a girl last night who said something interesting. Going home is scarier than staying because you’ve changed while the people you know haven’t.

10:38

The train ride to Lanark was AWFUL! (mostly underground or ugly scenery and slow!!!) But worth it. Guess where I’m standing. I’ll give you a hint. The plaque says: ‘Here stood the house of William Wallace who in Lanark in 1297 first drew sword to free his native land.’!!! I’m also next to St. Nicholas’ church, site of the world’s oldest bell, outside of which is a statue of Wallace.

Next, I’m off to the ruins of St. Kentigern’s church where ‘Wallace married Marion’ (TIC lady). I like to think that he did marry her, since he was pious. Anyhoo, this is a beautiful little town ! I didn’t realise that so much of Wallace would remain!!! (And the TIC woman asked if I knew who he was!)

2:54

New Lanark is lovely!!! It’s undergone an extensive restoration scheme that should be finished by the end of the decade/century. Outside, the buildings are all stone, very simple, incredibly beautiful. Inside, they ‘house’ all the modern conveniences of life. I have to look up Robert Owen. I think I would have liked him. The conditions in his town were a zillion times better than in other towns during the same time period, 1820s.

The ‘Annie McLeod Experience’ was great—it was a ‘ride’ that narrated life during the 1820s complete with sound and light effects.

Now, I’m waiting for the 15:22 train. I’m pooped, what with going to bed too late and getting up way early. Tomorrow and the next few days will probably be killers. To be honest, I’m not looking forward to going in to work on Friday. I would have liked the weekend just to get my bearings back! I am looking forward to the pool, though, if they have it going!

I wonder what the weather’s like back home. Here, it’s usually too hot or too cold. It’s hard to get comfortable. I’m forever putting on and removing my sweater and/or coat! The rain hasn’t deterred me in the least and I’ve seen so little of it! I thought, a month ago (already!) that by today I’d be fed up with travelling. I just can’t believe how much I’m wishing that tomorrow I could get on a bus to Ayr, then to Aberdeen, then to… I’ve got ‘the bug’!

8:08 pm

Well… my trip’s essentially over… Tomorrow, it’s the U straight to Buchanan street, then a bus to the airport. A month ago, checking in at the airport was scary. Now, I think of it as a nuisance. It’s like I’m not scared of ‘stupid’ things anymore, well not scared, more like worried, I guess. That’s still not the right word. I guess I’ve just found ‘blick’. (In my Liberal Arts Integrated Essay Seminar class, we talked about discovering a new human emotion called ‘blick’. We had debates over whether or not blick could actually exist. I swear, I’ve found it!) Whatever the emotion, it’s almost gone now. When it comes back, I’ll just think back to this trip ! I could never have given myself a more wonderful present!

A Life By Design

"Sometimes in life, we reach to a right place by departing from a wrong port with a wrong ship!" ~ Mehmet Murat Ildan

Houses/Palaces

Wild Rose Country

Oh, the Places You’ll Go!

Day Four

Day 3

New and Old Lanark