2011 CHURCHILL OR BUST DAY 9 POLAR BEARS???

It looks like it isn't "Bust" after all we did make it to Churchill, so now for the bonus....POLAR BEARS!! The high season for Bears at Churchill is last two weeks of October and the first two weeks of November. Basicly the Bears are getting ravenously hungry by that time and are just passing on the shore line waiting for the water to ice over so they can get down to business and go get some seals. So here we are in the third week in July, not ideal but we are the eternal optimists.

OK SO WE SAW PTARMIGAN



AND THEN WE SAW POLAR BEAR.....LOTS OF THEM






SWANS ? YES

BETH IS THINKING OIL CHANGE

I'M THINKING BEAR (BEER) EH!

THANK YOU HUDSON'S BAY, CHURCHILL AND THE POLAR BEARS

2011 CHURCHILL OR BUST DAY 8 OFF THE TRAIN AT CHURCHILL

Yey believe it or not soon we will be at Churchill, here is the sunrise from the train the morning of our arrival on the world's slowest, and latest train.

The Last Place on Earth I'd Expect to Find a Beer From A Brewery About Ten Kilimeters From Where I Grew Up.

Beth And Rudy At Hudson's Bay

2011 CHURCHILL OR BUST DAY 7 ON THE TRAIN!

When we got to The Pas we found Bev at G & L Self Storage and dropped off our motorcycle where it would be safe until our return. We checked in the Wancanda Motel (don't ask) and to got a few hours shut eye the then headed for the train station at 2:30 in the morning. Hot, muggy, and buggy is all I can say. We were the only ones to get on the train which was coming from Winnepeg. The train had cooling so life was good even though we did not depart until 3:30 which was an hour late. Never could figure out why, I guess they wanted to make sure that the train that arrived 15 minutes early would depart an hour late....they were successful. Over the whole trip the train averaged 12.9 MPH, I'm not kidding. This was definetly the slowest train I've ever been on. Oh well we're on vacation, good times!

SUNRISE FROM THE TRAIN APPROCHING THOMPSON




Breakfast In the Dining Car - Good Meal, Good Value

Enjoying the 3 hour layover at Thompson to Make the Train Even Later

Beth Helping People Board The Train

Into Darkness and the Second Night on the Train

2011 CHURCHILL OR BUST DAY 6 ARRIVE THE PAS, MANITOBA

The country side today started to look a lot like the Yukon or Southeast Alaska, lots of bogs and brush with dead trees sticking out above. If we saw ten cars on the highway it was a lot. Once we got to The Pas the place was quite busy. We heard that they just had a weekend of Indigeonus People this past weekend, which filled up the already sparse hotels. We had to wait until late afternoon to choineck into our hotel the "Wescana Inn" trust me it's not a destination resort but it's ok for overnight.

We left the bike with Bev at G&L storage where it will be in good hands while were are gone on the train adventure to see the balugas and the polar bears.

Check out the picture of the rail station below, that is where we are going at 1:30 AM to get on the train to Churchill.

A HERON NEST

OK SO IT'S NOT THE GARD DE L'EST BUT WE HOPE IT WILL GET US THERE

2011 CHURCHILL OR BUST DAY 5 SWAN RIVER

After a fairly short 200 mile or so ride we ended up at Swan River. We had a great dinner at a place called "Y-Not". It was time to do the laundry, luckily the motel had a laundry, and even more lucky for me Beth did the laundry. Tomorrow we go to "The Pas". At The Pas we'll store the bike at a U-Haul storage place with lady name Val. Then we'll get on a train to Churchill at 2:30 in the morning. The train ride takes 1.5 days but hey there will be sleep involved. More on that when we get there. BTW they really big Polar Bear season is October and Novemeber so we'll have hunt them down on the Tundra while they are hunting seals. Got my bear spray!.....funny.

INTERSTING BYZANTINE ARCHITECTURE


SILOS GALORE





MORE CHURCHES

YOUR BASIC MANITOBA TOWN

LOTS OF SWAMPS AND BEAVER PONDS

BEAUTIFUL COLORS

HAY ROLLS AS FAR AS THE EYE CAN SEE

2011 CHURCHILL OR BUST DAY 4 AT REGINA

Today we stayed in Regina the capital of Saskatchewan. We had dinner a restaurant named "Crave" which was a very fun place in an old historic building. Our waitress asked us why were going to spend a day in Regina. She was going to school in Vancouver BC at Simon Fraser. Basicly she thought Regina was a great place not to be. It gets very cold here in the winter like 50 degrees below and very hot in the summer 90 to 100 degrees. Anyway I didn't want to tell our waitress the real reason we were stopping here on Sunday. Truth be know we found a fun restaurant/bar to watch the Women's World Cup final soccer game between the USA and Japan. We found the perfedt place the Copper Kettle, owned by an elderly Greek gentleman . We had a wonderful lunch and settled in to watch the game. Wow great game, too bad the USA lost. We had fun talking about Greece while watching the game and left feeling like we had a great time in spite of the loss.

It was hotter than blazes but we decided to go check out Regina anyway. We visited the provincial museum and the Royal Canadian Mounty Heritage Centre, which also functions as their training facility. All the mounties get their training here. In contrast to the provincial musem, which wasn't much to write home about, this place was fantastic. They had wonderful historic displays with atifacts and equpiment. I bagged my first tourist prize, a RCMP T-Shirt, yey. Maybe if I get pulled over while wearing it I get points, and maybe only a warning......NOT!

Hey tommorow we are off to Swan Lake in Manitoba!

Lets go.

THE COPPER KETTLE RESAURANT

WESCAN PARK IN REGINA, THE LARGEST URBAN PARK IN THE WORLD Only problem there is not a darn thing in the park, it's mainly fields and a couple of museums, along with the University of Saskatchewan....still an interesting hot place.

2011 CHURCHILL OR BUST DAY 3 REGINA

We left Medecine Hat, on our way to Regina, this morning to a hot day on the bike crossing the Canadian great plains. Lots of farm lands where water is available, but also lots of dessert and salt lakes. We traveled 288 miles today and I guess the most exiciting thing that really happend was a visit with old "Bullwinkel" (pictures below). Yep the little guy is located right off the highway in none other than the town of "Moose Jaw", hey this Canada. Sort of like Snake Pit and Sea Lion Caves in the United States. All good mindless fun, we are having a good time. Speed limits up here are slooooowww! I don't know how these folks manage going a whole 110 KM/HR when they have to move 300 miles in a straight line. But plenty of mounties around so we limit it to an occasional outburst to shake the highway dull drums out. Really it doesn't matter how fast you go here, even at 140 MPH you can't tell your moving, there is simply no reference point, so we do the hokey pokey.

SALT LAKE



ENDLESS PLAINS, ABOUT TO BLOW BY A HARDLY!





AMAZING COLORS AND DEEP BLUE SKYS

2011 CHURCHILL OR BUST DAY 2 MEDICINE HAT

ROAD TO THE SUN

ALBERTA





ALBERTA

Well we arrived at Medecine Hat as planned tonight, so we are ready to move onto Regina tomorrow. When we left Kallispell we took the Road to the Sun through Glacier National Park. Hey surprise our national parks pass is still good through the end of July so we just flashed our pass and took off like VIP's. There are a few pictures of the trip through the park and Alberta. All beautiful places.
THOUGHT YOU MIGHT WANT TO GET THE FEEL

OF

RIDING INTO ALBERTA

2011 CHURCHILL OR BUST DAY 1 KALISPELL, MONTANA

Here are a few picutures of our first day on the road. All from the bike by Beth, with yellow helmet in the way lots of times.

Well we are off, good times! Today we did a fairly long day from Puyallup to Kallispell, Montana, 534 Miles. Vantage was interesting with all the wind generators, seems to me there must be some environmental issues with all those suckers sitting out in the prarie. We stopped for gas and junk food and a leg stretch at Vantage, Spokane and along the Clark's Fork. Once we started heading north after Coeur d'Alene, Idaho we started hitting some wonderful scenery while riding north along the Clarks Fork River. Not much rain but some serious bug guts on the windshield and the visor.....yuk!!!

Gotta love the internet. When I checked the status of the "Road to the Sun" in Glacier I discovered it was finally open. It actually opened on Wednesday. So we lucked out! Tomorrow we do the Road to the Sun through Glacier and end up in Medicine Hat, Canada.

2011 CHURCHILL, MANITOBA ON HUDSON BAY OR BUST

Ok we are off to Churchill Manitoba. The first stage is by motorcycle to "The Pas" from there its onto a train to Churchill on Hudson's Bay. We are hoping to run into Baluga Whales, Polar Bears and lots of birds and other critters on the Tundra an the Tiaga.

We'll try not getting to involved with Elk and Moose on the highway.

OBAMA PARTY IN TACOMA...THANK YOU GOD!!!!

Dear friends around the world:

We had a great time with the younger generation tonight. Travis and Gabe invited us their house for an election night party which, as it turns out, was a great experience. I say it was a great experience, not because Barack won, but because only 5 of the 20 or so folks in attendance were over the age of 30.

For all you old folks out there let me tell you, in no uncertain terms, we are in good hands. I have great faith in our youth, we raised them well , yes pat yourself on your collective backs. Barack has a vision which we needed as a country, and our young people are ready to carry it out with a plan for the future. They are ready to provide the ongoing supprt to make that vision a reality.

Our country has work to do, plans to make, amends to make, and leadership to take, and we are there! We are on the threshold of a new and uplifting enterprise, of greatness, one which will require: sacrifice, energy, compromise, and above all empathy for the defeated. Let us not forget what it was like to lose an election and watch our country go in the wrong direction. Let us reach out to our neighbors with whom which we may not agree, and seek compromise. Let us not let "hubris" tarnish our souls.

My dear friends this day will be written in the history books.

There are many sub plots to an election such as this and I'll only address one. Consider that our country now has it's first african american president. Thank all of you and thank god that this is now a reality. I am a white middle aged (55) american white male person. I rejoyce that we live in a county where this is finally a reality, halleluya brothers and sisters. Let my tears and those of Jesse Jackson stand in testament of this momentos occasion.

From what I have seen tonight, and many other occasions, with the energy of our children, and ours, we are ready for the challenges, ready for the hard work of required of this nation. The world will follow on a path which will be uplifting to the human spirit ,and which will take us through this century of global hope and peace.

For my kids out there: Get ready to work your asses off with me!! Given the negative economic outlook, we have to work our way out of, I'll be working with you until I box out, but that's ok, as long as we are heading in the right direction.

The Mule

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