Road Trip Results

 I'm back from my road trip for research with mixed results. Although I discovered lots of neat places and took oodles of pics, many of the historic sights I needed to photograph wouldn't be open until Victoria Day. I missed by a week!

For this post though, I want to show some of the weather related things I found on my travels.

Although I saw many farmers out in their fields, some tried to get a head start and only got bogged down in the muck. Here's a tractor that didn't get too far in the task:

And here's the dozer that tried to pull him out:

The wind was so bad one day, the flags were flying straight and high...

Two days after the super-windy day, I passed one large fire and saw another in the distance.

It could've been another dangerous situation, like up at Slave Lake, if the wind took control of this small grass fire...

Road conditions were horrible. Part of the reason was due to flooding. Here is an example of just one of the many roads being eaten away by the force of water.



Numerous road closures and detours popped up everywhere without warning so planned routes had to be changed at the last minute.

And once I had to drive through 5" of water to get across - just like at home over the Easter weekend.





Another reason roads were in deplorable conditions was because of frost upheaval due to the freezing and thawing ground:

Sometimes the bad parts were easy to see, especially when they were red flagged, but other times you didn't realize they were there until almost the last second.



But I'm safely back home now and ready to get back to work. While in Humboldt, I did a bit of research in the local library and found a book with excellent information on the Carlton Trail. And because of the new provincial library system (SILS), I was able to take the book home with me. When I'm done, I just drop if off at my local library and they send it back up. What a concept. I wish I had time to visit more of the libraries along the way. Perhaps next time. :)

How are the roads where you live? Did you get the frost upheaval like we did up here? Or do you live in a frost-free zone?

Visiting History

Virtually, I'm blogging at the Inkwell today about my research trip last week to the Touchwood Hills Hudson's Bay Company remains. Not even ruins. Just remains. But an extraordinary experience nonetheless.

Physically, I'm in North Battleford, Saskatchewan researching a restored western town of 30 buildings and businesses. It's a cloudy day and I hope it doesn't rain as all the buildings are outside. However, there's also a huge indoor portion in case it does.

But I'll be popping in to check comments here and at the Inkwell throughout the day.

Talking Coffee at the Inkwell

I'm talking about Cowboy Coffee over at Inkwell Inspirations today. Can you imagine how long it took to make a cup of coffee 150 yrs ago? We think we're in a modern, civilized age because we can grind our own beans for freshness. Back in wagon train and frontier times, they had no choice. Everyone carried their own grinder around with them because until 1865 you couldn't buy ground coffee. And if you could, it was probably rancid.

I have this video over at the Inkwell but like it so much I'll add it here. It's from the Arbuckle Coffee website and explains what happens to all those missing socks...



I wonder if that's where they got the idea for the Mr. Bean segment? LOL

If you'd like to read more, head on over the the the Inkwell and answer this question:

Do you like to drink belly-wash or six shooter coffee? Or would you rather have tea?


:)