the praries.........ooh how I enjoyed you

Our drive out of Dryden was rainy and grey and a perfect way to spend the day.......in a car heading out of Ontario. Ontario being the longest leg of our travels, seeing the end of it was exciting. Wondering about what the new terrain of our expedition will be like, we were happy to see the speed limit higher to 110 as we flee Ontario.





Hitting the Manitoba boarder came fast and confusing with being in the thick of construction we flew by the signs and visitor centres...as I am wanting the essential photo op of boarder signs. However this time it was not an option but am skillfully working on my picture taking and driving at the same time abilities....which seem to be coming along wonderfully as you will see in future blogs :)

Grey skies are lingering over us but in the horizon I can see lighter, brighter skies. Like my favorite fictional literature character Miss. Marianne Dashwood " Look! There is some blue sky! Let's chase it" And we did. As we took a turn off of tran 1, leading us to subway, not knowing that a simple decision as to eat in the prairies could lead us to a 20 min drive away from our target destination. None the less our tummies and tanks are full and we are ready for more.

Who says the Prairies are boring..........being a first timer in these parts, I found the prairies full of bountiful shades of green, fruitful labour of our farmers have been kind to us. I am sure at some point these large vast lands has feed me and my family at some point of our lives and I am taking this moment to appreciate this! Ok that is over now......the shade is great here is radiant but not the quenching green I am thirsting for.

ARRRR MATIE ! Prairie pirates!

With skies like these the future feels bright, we fall comfortably into finding shapes out of clouds. Dino's with big feet, tigers lieing on rocks and camels with 10 humps. The brilliant blue sky and the clouds that have quite clearly been painted with purpose in their place....how can anyone say this land is boring

We drove a good long portion of our day. This perticular day we started out in Dryden, Ontario passed through Manitoba and ended in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan. The longest day of driving for the entire adventure.

At this time I should reflect on the how the rest of the family is holding up. Papa is tailgating in the uhaul behind me our wee man is hitching a ride between the two vehicles the little lady is with the mama. The pets are adapting to the travels in stellar mode. Only the one incident of Houdini the dog getting out of the uhaul in N. Ontario, in which the alpha male caught him by the tail just in time....phew. All in all we are all flourishing in this new life on the road.

Andrea

a tid bit about Dryden.........a gem of mankind

We rolled in to dryden at dinner time with lodgings on the mind. Hoping that we can find a much better choice in under a hour to be able to have the evening to ourselves, playing cards, games and enjoying the night!

Our "NEW" modified no plan, plan materialized from the thought process of the alpha male in this house hold, and I must say is quite inventive......."where ever you see hydro guys stopped for the night, that is where we will go"

What a fantastic idea, and true to the word.....we a found clean, comfortable, animal friendly and smoke-free digs. Also under $100 tax included.

The wonderful thing about a small town is that they all have the family restaurant that provides travellers with the homemade selections of comfort food......and dryden didn't disappoint.

With the local boomers having the daily special of Salisbury steak and choice of veg, we met a kind old fella with a wonderful french dialect. As my ear zeroed in on his mobile conversation only recognize he was calling his mate mimi.....lol

Sephora and I passed him several times and each time we passed he spoke in his beast Donald duck voice....stopping Sephora in her shoes. I was at that point flooded with memories of my childhood of making the same request to my uncle Paul to talk to me as Donald only to giggle in hysterics. The generation gap seems so large that day between me and my kids, it was a lovely memory to have. I am sure Sephoras memories will be slightly different as that voice to her is the sign of pre-historic times or dinosaurs and woolly mammoths. We both enjoyed the encounter with this gentleman just in our own ways.

off to Saskatchewan....via Manitoba.........

places we've been.....

Day 3
Terrace Bay-Dryden, still in Ontario.........

We pulled out of Terrace Bay in record time in the morning, ready for the open road, hot java and my morning fling with CBC radio 1. Driving along side Superior wondering why I haven't taken this drive sooner. In turn this leads me and my psyche to check in with my conscious and make the realization that this is a one way destination. There is no returning to, returning from, just a one way passage.......

Enjoying the vast array of landscape of my Native Land we have decided to take it easy today, enjoy what we see, take a little time to stop and explore. Our main event for today is Panorama Amethyst Quarry just east of t-bay. Caleb being stoked to "get diggin" and spend sometime out of doors. We made the turn off Trans-Canada 1. The beaten path was beaten for sure......It could be considered the LONG beaten path up a couple very steep hills that was not only travelled by the Van but the Uhaul as well. The road signs, homemade by I assume the company owner directing our way right to them, left me with the feeling of Burt Reynolds in Deliverance and that at any point someone would jump out with a banjo demanding I squeal like a pig. But to my delight when we arrived there was people to be seen and RVs parked......phew

For 6 bucks to enter you get a 5 min guided tour of the Quarry, buckets and diggers. What ever you find you can keep at the cost of 3$ per pound, which is a good handful of gems.



There is different types of Amethyst all hosted by Granite Stone. It starts off a quartz in the cracks of the Granite....as time goes by and different minerals change the quartz into amethyst....mostly by the addition of Iron in different amounts. The most rare is actually black in color. Enjoy the pictures!






The Quarry

You start digging with the Iron rod they provide and then spray water on the dig spot to wash away the mud and dirt and peel up rocks. Some are granite and some are quartz and some are amethyst.

Yes! True this piece is being sold for $600. Customers will come to pick stone for mantels, yard deco they have such an array of stone for sale. All owned and operated by one family.


Once you have picked your pieces, you get to wash and weigh your gems and purchase if you so wish. Caleb, Jeff and Sephora, picked a piece each for themselves. Me...well mine came polishes and set in silver and ready to wear around my wrist.....lol

A fantastic time, well worth the drive ONTO the beaten path! And the bright side is that I get to practise gearing down for when we get into the mountains :)

The best part is the three nice gems they picked cost only a dollar to take home!

Andrea

on the road.......finely

Our closing day came and went without a hitch thanks to our wonderful hand picked team of Realtors and lawyers and coutos to the clerks as well.....lol As we all know who does the most hands on work. We left 141 with a full load in our uhaul that had been bungied very tight in the back, not only for safety but the door wouldn't close. So ladies and gents if your spouse says "well, I think we may need the bigger truck".....just get it! With all said we have officially hit the road.

Day1

arriving in Sudbury the same night as closing so eager to get the heck out of dodge, with our handy early present from the folks a GPS. Surly having this little piece of technology this is the best part of the no plan, plan that we have decided was our plan. Until we arrive to our destination hotel in Sudbury, Greater Sudbury to be exact to get here you need to pass many many hotels, motels and the Hilton! But as our fearless leader I kept persevering through and industrial area which lead me to where I imagine the homeless spend there time with there pals to a Quality Inn. The look on my hubby's face was far from pleased....only to ask "Why didn't you stop, back there" Well this wonderful GPS as you most know talks to you and it kept telling me where to go....so I went. My advise to all would be maybe the no plan, plan needs to be modified.

Day2

Keeping with the morning schedule of coffee at the hotel stopping in Sault St Marie for breakfast went as smoothly as can be. With Caleb, Jeff and the pooch driving the uhaul and me driving the cat and the screaming banshee in the van, lunch couldn't have come sooner. As I toss back treats to Sephie with skilled accuracy to keep the high pitch scream to a minimum I saw the 17 west sign with the trans Canada beneath and it was all OK. Especially when the cat meeeaowed and Sephora looks under her legs and beside her car seat.

Heading NW on the shoreline of Lake Superior hitting the outskirts of who knows where this beautiful rugged landscape popped up. As I climbed the hills and drove through the forests of Northern Ontario I was in awe of this beautiful peaceful place. We stopped at a look out and enjoyed the breathtaking view of cliffs and waves hitting the rocky shoreline. Then divied up the gift basket from the Nutty Chocolatier for our next portion of the drive.

The kids were lulled to sleep by the sweet sounds of Jack Johnson which gave us the long stint of driving we had been looking for all day. We finely decided to stop in Marathon with two happy kids and two parents who were satisfied with the driving and still had enough energy for some evening fun. UNTIL.......the hotel search, we decided to stop at the first one another travel lodge two nights a charm but could only provide a smoking room or a king size room. It was recommended that we hit another hotel down the road who accepted pets...yay! Not so lucky that time either. As I am unloading the bags Caleb asks me "where is the guy with the cart?" uuummm well this is not one of those kinds of hotels buddy......we enter the room and can't possibly stay here due to the horrendous smell. I wouldn't consider us the fussy type........just no really bad smells or smokey rooms

An hour later we have settled down at the Red Dog Inn In Terrace Bay, a lovely town right on Lake Superior with wifi as our cells have not had service since the Soux.

The road travelled thus far has been fantastic! The pets are unexpectantly great travelling companions and Caleb is on cloud nine driving in the uhaul and Sephie....well for the most part she has a smile but who knows what she thinks.

Andrea

PS: a few people told us to get walkie talkies.....which may be our next purchase as we hit Thunder-Bay which is our close to 1/2 way point to Golden.

an ode to......

"My Ode"

As my days have been spent packing up our lives and fitting it all neatly into boxes, preparing for our pilgrimage across Canada, most of my thoughts have not been in Ontario. Packing up our precious cargo leads me to daydreaming of days to come, roads to travel and of course all the pictures along the way.

My reflection of this new adventure eventually leads to the thoughts of packing as many play-dates, bbq's and sights to see in Huntsville before we leave. At first my thoughts Vere to an "ode to" type memento to this wonderful town. Racking my head around writing such a poetic sequence was far fetched, but quite amusing that I had even thought of the idea. Through my love of taking pictures, a selection of photos will illuminate the joy and sentiment that Huntsville and Muskoka has and will hold for us.

As I look through my assortment of photos videos, wishing I could post all. I did notice that Huntsville has been the celebrations of many firsts for the Andrews family. We have enjoyed first birthdays, first days of school, first hair cuts, first ski boots. We have enjoyed this chapter of our life, the friends we have now, the fond memories will forever be in our hearts.

Andrea

is the grass greener?

Having done the moving around from various cities, to tiny towns in lots of county's in Ontario for 17 yrs finding various renditions of the perfect shade of green to snatch up, dig up and to settle down on, this has led me, my hubby and two kids to call Huntsville home. For the first few years THIS WAS IT! We had found that particular shade that was the MOST appealing to our eye and our roots had spread through the ground nicely with our cozy group of friends, ideal country school and the house, the yard.....Until I get this feeling of being "TOO" settled. A feeling that for 17 yrs I've never had as I change when then the mood strikes but.....BAM there it is!

This shade of green that I loved so much has turned a little dull, that oh so lovely sparkle has been diluted by the hustle and bustle of settling into our community. As the question arise "Life.....Is this it?"
By putting the little bug in my hubby's ear, that whole life is short gig, your time is limited and the big question that I find a lot of people don't ask themselves "Are you happy in life?" (probably because they fear of the answer)

The only answer we could come up with is " Yep, but we could be happier" lol

It's no secret we love the outdoors as much in the winter as in the summer and Canada is our Home and Native Land which for me has not been explored outside of this province. We chose to head for the mountains, hot springs, vineyards of the west coast...... BC baby! And also that years Warren Miller movie was quite inspiring for all including our 4yr old at the time who says quite loud "I wanna ski down big mountains" So in keeping of the spirit of adventure we went home opened the map and told our baby ski bum "close your eyes and point"

Our instincts, with loads of research has led us to The Kootenay Rockies....anywhere will do as long as there is mountain to ski on, hot spring to slide into and a glass of vino in my hand. However the road to this new shiny patch of green, still needs to be travelled. It is a well beaten path that many have and will travel in this lifetime AND we are going to be one of them. As this is the second time that this idea has been visited....the first being 12 yrs ago by a guy I started to recently date who wanted me to head out west with him in his white van, which I declined as white vans are creepy. From that time on the thought of greener grass has always been in the back in my head.

So will we find that shade of green that is suppose to be on the other side?

As this adventure is now being revisited....the guy....well he has stayed the same....the van.....has slightly changed. Oh I have no doubts at all that we will find that perfect shade. It will be vibrant, shiny thick foliage....that in time COULD thin and dull just like the rest of colors, but it will be a blast!

Andrea