It’s been a little over a month since we returned to Canada, specifically Winkler MB. Our son and daughter in law, Alex and Sandra have been graciously letting us stay in the basement of the house they purchased from us. Turn around is fair play…

It’s a little full and the first order of business was to find a place to live. Looking to rent at this time. Not an easy task in Winkler. Especially, pet friendly spaces. However, we did find something on Redhawk Trail that will be available Aug 1. The good news is we don’t have a lot to move ;-). As for transport, we were lucky to find a nice Honda Ridgeline. Higher in kms but in nice shape and in our budget. Actually, really enjoying driving this rig. We’ve usually opted for smaller vehicles like the Civic. So nice to have head room for me!

Employment is on the list for me. Arlene will likely enjoy her retirement a little longer. I have been in discussions re a sales position, but not locked up yet.

As mentioned, it’s tight in the house and we’re doing our best to stay out of the way. It’s hard when it was your home for so many years. You knew where everything was. Not so anymore. And that’s to be expected. It’s been interesting how occupied we’ve been in our unemployment. Just catching up with things we couldn’t do while working.

The band let me back in! I passed the audition! So I’m really excited about that. Felt so good to be back with these guys. We’ve actually had to turn down a couple of gigs because they didn’t think I was coming back and had already made holiday plans for the summer. So if you’re looking for a guitar driven classic rock band, give us a holler. We should be available from August on.

We’re currently on a bit of a road trip out west. As I write this, we’re in Edmonton on our #getoffthecouchtour. We travelled and stayed in Regina and Saskatoon to get here. Each of those places had some interesting spots to explore.

Scarth St in Regina has a collection of interesting places to eat with a park across the street. A little further up from Victoria Ave, it turns into a pedestrian street with more shops and restaurants with sidewalk seating.

The next morning we headed out looking for a coffee shop and came across a farmers market of sorts. Lots of displays, food trucks and street entertainers. It was a very nice vibe in a downtown setting for a Saturday morning. We kept wondering what does Winnipeg have to do to capture this?

I should mention that while in Regina, we saw a lot of people wearing Rider gear. As in Saskatchewan Roughriders. We thought either there was a home game that day or it was now law in Saskatchewan. Turns out it was the former not the latter. I’m glad I chose garage parking in Regina because our Ridgeline sports Bomber plates. You just never know…

We knew our next stop was a shorter drive so it allowed for us to poke around a bit more before hitting the road again. Next stop…Saskatoon!

The weather was pretty nice and traffic not crazy so far. One of the reasons to do this in June was to beat the July/August parade of campers on the road. Really wouldn’t have been a problem as most of the roads so far have been nice four lane highways. Which prompted another question, why can’t we get these in Manitoba as opposed to the endless Hwy 75 project?

But I digress…

We reached Saskatoon and the Garmin again got us to our lodging without too many wrong turns. We stayed at a Travelodge by Wyndham. Regina was Wingate by Wyndham. Both nice clean hotels with friendly staff. Both booked through Hotwire.ca so the rates were reasonable. Both places we met and talked to people with Manitoba roots. Just goes to show you us Manitobans are spreading our friendliness everywhere.

Nice sized room with parking right outside our room, well, we were on the third floor but we could see the truck from there. Again, staff was very friendly and placed us far away from the indoor water park at this hotel. Access to an elevator was just inside the door where we parked.

Not as close to downtown, but only about a 10 minute drive to a section with a nice selection of places to eat. At the suggestion of one of the people at the front desk, we picked O’Sheas Irish Pub. Good selection of beverages, large portions and your choice of sitting down in the Irish styled Pub or on the rooftop patio. Summer’s are short so the patio it was. Weather was hot and sunny, but the had little nozzles built into the framework supplying a fine mist that helped keep things cool. We were easily the older people there, but that’s never stopped us before. It was kind of funny when the first server to meet us downstairs directed us to the stairway for the patio and mentioned, “Sorry, there’s no elevator…” It was on the tip of my tongue to ask, “Yeah but is there oxygen available…?” but I held back. We hopped on up the stairs and where we enjoyed a couple of bevies and in keeping with visiting an Irish Pub on the prairies, ordered the fish and chips!

After lounging about on the patio until at least 6 pm, we headed back to our room and it was lights out by 9ish. Maybe we are seniors after all…

Next morning we were off to Edmonton. Weather was changing. Cold front coming in…and rain. Lots of rain.

Not a big deal, it’s not like we were doing any sightseeing on this stretch. Short lunch break at a Timmies in Lloydminster and then pushed through to Edmonton.

Found our way to our first ever Airbnb. Our hostess, Natasha, was a delight to meet. Full of energy. This is more of a commercial airbnb so the standards have to be held to that of a hotel. It’s really a one bedroom apartment close to downtown (sensing a theme?) with underground parking. Full kitchen and nicely decorated in a rich old wood style. We get the place to ourselves and can cook our own meals. Natasha was very helpful in pointing out a few restaurants close by and a wonderful Italian market with a full on bakery, butcher and wide variety of cheese. We were able to pick up some supplies to last us the next few days. Eating out every meal takes a toll on the travel budget, so this was a welcome event for us. We’d have to say our first Airbnb has been a positive one!

 

The weather has really turned cold and rainy here. So it’s mostly a stay inside kind of day. We might venture out to the “Mall”, but that’s not a given at this point. We were told it’s been really hot and dry to this point so they were thankful for the rain.

We were planning a route that would take us through Jasper and down Hwy 93 through the Rockies, but we just saw a weather warning for up to 10 cm of snow! Think we’ll skirt around that one.

Looking forward to a stop in Golden BC then to Kelowna. It’s been decades since either of us has been this far west. Looking forward to the majesty of the Rockies. We’ll try not to inundate you with mountain after mountain after mountain pictures as prairie people tend to do.

Well, now you’re all caught up. Until the next time…

Cheers!