Having a great visit in Calgary with Stephen, Jaime, Pedro.
Paul had new front tires installed at Kal Tire yesterday where the manager is a buddy of Steve's playing on the same defense line in their hockey league. While waiting for the tire change Paul picked up the supplies for the Christmas meat pies to be made tomorrow and found meat here to be quite expensive!
Saturday night we all went out to dinner at Ric's Grill in downtown Calgary, Steve/Jaime treat (whew!!).
Today Paul and Faye had lunch at Valley View Lodge with Estelle. She is very very lucky to be there and seems to be quite content. Then we drove to Ed's place to see the new granddaughter Bianca, their new home and of course Ed, Ruth and Matthew! Bianca is a beautiful baby girl, a real treasure. She was born two days ago and weighed nine lbs, one oz. Matthew is quite taken by the new addition to the family with Ed being the benevolent father, proud and protective!
We are looking forward to the meat pie cook up tomorrow afternoon and get together here tomorrow evening (Sunday)
Later............

First day at Stephen and Jaime`s in Calgary. Paul woke up at 4:00 am Calgary time because he is still on PEI time.....so spent the next few hours reading author Wilber Smith`s ¨Birds of Prey¨ which he started two weeks ago.... awesome book and recommend it to all readers!
Faye has acclimatised to Calgary time.............. no problem sleeping until 9:30!!
We finalized the sale of the Fun Finder RV, made arrangements to pick it up when we return from Whitehorse sometime around the middle of January. The dealer will store it for us until then. The Fun Finder is everything we hoped for and are looking forward to traveling with it in tow this coming winter.
Faye and Paul had a great visit with Estelle this afternoon.... thanks to the GPS unit we could get to her place with no problem. Paul was able to show her some issues with the computer email setup. Estelle seems to be happy with her living accommodations at Valley View Lodge. She has Edward, Ruth, grandson Matthew and new grand daughter Bianca living here in Calgary also. We have arranged to have lunch with Estelle on Saturday and to go visit Ed`s house on Saturday.
We really appreciate Jamie McKinnon`s assistance regards the RV purchase!... what a guy!!!
Arrangements are now set to make Christmas meat pies on Sunday afternoon to be followed with a get together Sunday evening. Looking forward to it.
Later..................

Headed out from Weyburn, Sask. at 6:30 this morning. Daylight seemed to be a long time coming but we made good time passing through Swift Current, Medicine Hat and numerous towns along the way. Once again the weather was in our favor giving us moderate cloud cover and dry driving for most of the way except some wet flurries east of the Alberta border. We had lunch in Swift Current, then reached the Alberta border around 12 noon when the sun came out giving an Alberta greeting. We saw lots of cattle, horses and small herds of white tailed deer. Faye took a beautiful picture of the sun rising in the east from behind and even got a fantastic shot through the rear view passenger window. We were enthralled by a cargo train which was about 1 km in length heading in the same direction, with double decker containers being hauled by three locomotives, two at the front and one in the middle. Paul found a suitable place to pull over so Faye could take a picture of the train. It was was traveling about 100 km per hour.
The Canadian prairies stretched off in all directions and the road seemed to go on forever ahead and behind us. We saw a number of what looked like refineries, grain elevators and gas wells some of which had burn offs much the same as in North Dakota. We made it to Calgary around 3:30 and due to traffic conditions opted not to head straight to Novak RV to see the Fun Finder RV and instead drove to Steve & Jaime's place. Happy to finally arrive in Calgary, enjoying some Delwinnie with Steve and catching up on local news. Jaimie is quite busy with her Kub7 (www.kub7.com) business which is smoking with success. We called Estelle and Lisa to make plans for a get together with all the Calgary folks this weekend, then heading north towards Red Deer, Edmonton, Ft. Liard and finally Whitehorse hoping to arrive there around December 9th. pending weather and travel conditions.
Later.........

Headed out from Fergus Falls, Minnesota early this morning to try and make time to be early in Calgary on Wednsday. We drove through unbelieveable praire vistas... rolling hills and flat wheat fields "as far as the eye can see". We drove into North Dakota early in the morning climbing higher into the Dakota hills heading west. Along the way we saw cattle herds, horses, outcrops, sloughes filled with water. One can imagine the time it took for the early settlers to traverse this landscape with wagon trains or on foot. Our route took us into middle North Dakota before turning north for Canada, very remote country with very little traffic. The stark reality of seeing the odd old abandoned house suggested hardship, hard honest work to eke a living from this apparent rich landscape. After turning north on route 93 we saw a couple wind farms with windmills looking much like the ones at East Point. We also saw familiar place names along the way.... Annandale, Seven Mile Road, Monticello, Souris Valley Community Centre, and Souris Wildlife Refuge Park!! What's with all that? Makes one wonder.
We met two vehicles for the last fifty miles before getting to the border. After turning north towards Canada we saw a lot of gas wells pumping away with the occasional well burning off sulpher(?). It seemed like an awful waste of energy.
Along the way and closer to the Canadian border we saw a lot of deer and plenty of pheasants....a virtual hunters paradise!!
Because of the remoteness we assumed that there would be no duty free liquor available at the border...wrong! Since we had a half bottle of unfinished Crown Royal and Faye had purchased some Irish Creame in New Hampshire we only purchased a 40 oz duty free because we (Paul) were nervous with all the gear packed away in the truck.
The border outpost with one officer was no problem because Faye's cherubic honest face and frank answers to his questions won him over and he waved us on wishing safe travel.
Once into Canada we drove for an hour reaching Weyburn, Sask. shortly before 7 pm. checking into a motel and making our Skype phone calls.
We travelled approximately 800 km today. Gas prices steadidly increased as we progressed towards Canada but we only paid $1.66/us gallon early this morning with a high of $2.09 this afternoon.
We have 820 km to Calgary tomorrow so must get up early.
Later.......

Headed out from Milwaukee about 7:30 this morning with 2 inches of fresh wet snow, the first for us this year! We drove out of the snow belt an hour later and proceeded west through the rest of Wisconsin bypassing the twin cities of Minneapplis/St.Paul then driving through Minnesota to our destination tonight at Fergus Falls near the border of North Dakota. We rolled through mostly farmland, flat prairies and rolling hills. It is unbelievable the number of huge shopping malls in every town we passed through. Walmart is prominent everywhere.
We noticed about 8 deer roadkill between Madison and St. Paul's. Very unfortunate for the deer and hopefully not with the people involved.
We are now about 1600 km from Calgary and expect to reach there late Wednsday afternoon.
We check our emails every day and use Skype for our phone calls so don't be surprised if your phone rings. Later.............

Headed out from Clearfield, PA yesterday morning about 7:30 am. Weather conditions perfect for travelling on a cold dry Sunday. We drove through Pennyslvannia on interstate route 90 heading into Ohio through miles and miles of farmland, mostly cornfields with the odd orchard dotting the landscape. Two fillups for gas with the lowest price so far at $1.75/gallon. We were hoping on driving the 1000 km today and managed to do so finally checking in an Econo Lodge on the outskirts of Milwaukee after passing through Ohio, Indianna and Illinois bypassing Cleveland.
Driving through the Chicago skyway late Sunday afternoon was an experience! Awesome city but tense driving through the city.
Paul was hoping to catch some of the Grey Cup but talking to Stephen on Skype (computer generated phone calls through high speed) was advised that the game had just ended with Calgary taking the honors!
We managed to drive without snow worries, however the weather outlook here in Milwaukee looks like we will experience a taste today.

Saturday, Nov 22nd, staying over in Clearfield, PA. after leaving Ludlow, MA about 8:30 this morning travelling 780 kms. We have about 3200 kms to Calgary. The weather has been sunny and moderately cold so we missed all the stormy weather experienced in Atlantic Canada.
Leaving Ludlow we travelled through the Bershire Hills area, then turned south towards New York City circling the Catskills range and then west through the Ponoco hills. That is where we met a few flurries while Faye was driving and Paul taking a much deserved power nap. Traffic was heavy around New York but lightened up as we went westward. Tractor trailers were in evidence but very courteous and fast going downhill and slow going up so we played tag for awhile with a number of them.
Paul, being frugal in his mellow years, has kept the cruise control at 100 km which seems to be working as we are getting about 700 km to the tankfull. The last two fillups were in the $32-35 range from a quarter full with gas in this area costing $2.08/gallon. which is about 0.53/litre.
We are going to try for early rise to get all the daytime driving we can plus a few hours into darkness to try and get 1000 km.
Hoping to get Grey Cup on the radio tomorrow as we travel.... would be better with TV but not going to happen for us this year unless we get snowed in somewhere!! That's it for now.

Friday, November 21st, checked into Comfort Inn in Ludlow, MA, which is about 200 km west of Boston, at 10 pm local time after spending two days in Boston having stayed two nights with Nicolle, Zubin, Julia and Kaiyan. Faye had a wonderful time shopping on Thursday with Nicolle chauffeuring about the numerous malls in Arlington area suburbs with Paul sitting in the passenger side scared breathless with Nicolle's very confident driving maneuvers in and about the freeways!!
Paul volunteered to cook supper on Thursday evening so the chef's choice was salmon. Paul did notice that the price of lobsters in the super stores were $7.99 for chicks (canners?) and $11.99 for selects (markets?). Not a bad markup from $2.00-2.50 being paid to the fishermen in Maine! He also noted the price of frozen wild blueberries at $5.99 /lb.
We were invited to visit Pat and Ed Campbell so made our way over there today and had take out Chinese for supper. Pat's Mom is in total care in a beautiful addition to their home (bedridden and blind) with nursing aides and Pat herself doing most of the care at home while working 3 days a week as a nurse in a medical clinic with doctors and a number of nurse practioners. Ed is doing great assisting Pat with her Mom when requested. We turned down their request to stay overnight as we wanted to get started heading west.
It took us awhile to get on route 90 west even with the GPS turned on. However we made it as far as Ludlow and are looking forward to the Bershire Hills heading towards Butte, Montana and then north to Calgary.

PaulFayeAdventure

Saturday, November 15th a wonderful evening with Joanne, Charlie, Ben, and Coco. Then off to Windsor on Sunday visiting Faye's Mom and sisters. Faye's Mom Ruby is in fine form and quite alert with her wit and humor in place.
Stayed overnight with Ella and Maurice and off up the road on Monday on our way to Boston. We stayed overnight at friend's George and Donna in their beautiful log home on the MacNeill homestead in Onslow Mt. outside Truro. Their son Rob, Janet and new 4 month daughter Georgia dropped in after we had Donna's very tasty pork roast dinner! Of course George and Paul becamce a bit tipsy over some "Famous Grouse" fortified with some of George's special brand.
Next day we stopped in Fredericton to visit with Joe, Julie and daughter Michelle who stopped in on her way home from work. Julie had a wonderful home made stew and we caught up with news.
Then off to Bangor where we booked a room (Tuesday night) at Travel Lodge using our CAA discount.
On the road again on Wednsday, the GPS in the vehicle worked wonders giving us the confidence to side trip to Old Orchard Beach where we had lunch. Afterwards we pulled into the New Hampshire Liquor Store to pick up something anticipating supper with Nicolle, Zubin, Julia and Kaiyan.
Along the way, Paul finished negotiating the price we wanted for the Fun Finder RV Trailer. The dealer in Calgary agreed to almost match the Michigan dealer's price. No Canadian border issues!!
A wonderful chicken dinner on Wednsday evening with Nicolle, Zubin, Julia and Kyle... my those children are beautiful and gifted with childish intelligence! Of course, Zubin and Paul had a wee dram of that wonderful "Famous Grouse" Paul had picked up in NH.

day 1

heading out on sat.