The End?

Well that’s the end of that chapter.
Got home on July 27 around 9pm. The plan was to go home and surprise p wongs because she thought i was getting home a day later. But ovs with my luck, i was just about to turn onto my street on my way from sault ste. marie and i ended up being right behind her car on the road…. sweet. It was a dead give away too because honestly, no trucks have such an obnoxiously large cap on the back. And i don’t think the “natural resources Canada” decal on the side helped either. whatevs.

Anyway, the other day i talked about an unspeakable activity that i did in winnipeg. Turned out to be that i got a haircut and shaved my homeless man beard. But that was a bit of a surprise as well so i didn’t want to give that away. I look about 12 years old. Much better than looking 35 like a did with the long hair and beard. gross.

Anyways, I’m home now, and i guess this adventure is at an end. But what an awesome experience and an amazing summer. What a glorious country we live in, i must say. And I think my favorite place may have been waterton lakes in Southern Alberta. There was so much amazing country that i saw, but waterton lakes was just the perfect combination of outdoor activities surrounding a small mountain village that seems to be generally unknown to most tourists. Plus it defs had some of the best views of the entire summer as well. I highly recommend it for sure if i haven’t said it already. If you are ever heading west, plan for a stop in waterton lakes park.

I’ve been home for a few days now and i’m already set to go back to kingston. Both mom and dad are home so i can feel the tension growing. plus i don’t think that me sitting on the couch all day is helping the situation. I’ve spent too long living on my own schedule i think because the fam seems to be cramping my style. haha. but it’s pretty obvious that i am cramping theirs as well soooooo i’m thinking i should leave them to their everyday lives and head to Ktown or something.

Well that’s it folks. Hope you had more fun reading than i did writing because honestly, most of the time it was pretty annoying. haha.

Kbye

July 26 - Almost There

I am in Sault Ste. Marie this evening. I made the drive in better time than yesterday, probs because i just ate leftover pizza in the truck for lunch rather than stopping. nom? nomnomnom?

I realized while driving today that i am getting very close to home. I had this epiphany while 2 suv’s from quebec passed me illegally while doing about 140 around a curve without turn signals. classic Quebecois maneuver. but with a homey feel.

Oh I also stopped to get gas at a native trade post place about 90km west of the soo. While i was there i bought another one of those hippie sweater type things. aka “a drug rug”. I thought it would be one of those purchases that you immediately regret afterwards…. but so far i am content with my decision.

Other exciting activities today:

- finished Harry Potter and the half blood prince audiobook today. cross that sucker off the bucket list.

- stretched the legs in wawa, on


-picked up some BIF (banded Iron Formation) samples from the side of the road…

So all in all, an exhilarating day. The drive is actually sweet though. I think this was my 4th time doing it now, but the views coming out of thunder bay and along the trans-canada are pretty sweet. Lake superior and a bunch of cliffs and islands and such. that’s about as good as i can describe it.


Tomorrow is going to be the longest of the drive days so i’m going to hit the sack early tonight so that i can hit the road early also…
Good night!

Kbye

July 25 - Welcome to Ontario

Oh how lovely it feels to be back in land that actually has elevation changes. Today was the first day of my route back to ottawa. Drove from winnipeg to Thunder Bay and decided to stop here for the night. I left winnipeg at about 10:30am i think and i got here at about 7:30pm. mind, i lost an hour due to time change too. It was 704km door to door and i actually made it on one tank of gas which amazed me. i’ve only been getting about 600km to a tank for most of the summer. but also out west you drive between 115-120 whereas in ontario is about 95-100. so apparently that makes a big difference.

Yep, today was not very exciting. just drove whilst listening to harry potter audiobooks. i have about 4 hours left in book 6, so i should crush that tomorrow no problem.

I stopped in dryden, ON for lunch and i think that was the only stop i made. so the rest of the day was just me and the pavement. The internet is the suckiest bunch of suck that ever sucked right now so that is making both work and blogging a bit of a hassle. I’ll prob have to post this later if i ever get interwebs >= dial-up speed. eff.

Tomorrow i drive to sault ste. marie, ON, which is actually only 4km longer than my drive today. strange eh? so i’ll prob sleep in a bit, do that whole government thing, get an oil change and then be on my way. The driving shouldn’t be too bad tomorrow because personally the stretch between Tbay and the soo has some of the nicest views in the province i would think.

see you there?

Kbye

p.s. I’d also like to throw a shout out to Danika, Nana, and Jenny, all of whom are birthdaying today.

July 24 - A Guest Blog by Kelsey

Sunday morning we woke up to the sounds of birds chirping and waves crashing…well actually we woke up to my dog Cooper trying to lick every inch of my face. I didn’t quite see what was going on between Cooper and Johnny but im pretty sure Johnny is now a dog lover. For those of you who don’t know, Cooper is a solid 99 pounds and part horse. So, I think we know who would wear the pants in that relationship. (I wonder if Johnny is regretting letting me write this yet?)

Anyways we got up and made a breakfast of champions complete with eggs, bacon, and toast. We played knock out whist (a cut-throat card game) for dishes. Johnny was so busy learning how to shuffle and bridge a deck of cards he forgot he was trying to win, so needless to say Johnny’s hands ended up a little pruny.

Next we did Cha-Lean (a killer ab work out) to make up for those dranks from the night before. As you can imagine there are plenty of chirps on this topic, but I’m hoping Johnny will come back to visit at some point so I’m holding back ;) After finishing our workout we stripped down to our birthday bathing suits and got ready to head out onto the water.

We went to the marina to launch the sea-doo and made our way back to my cabin. Johnny kept telling me how much he had wanted to go swimming, so I made sure I got him wet at least a couple times by tossing him off the sea-doo. I don’t know if that was really what he meant, but it was entertaining. When we got back to the cabin, we attached the tube to the sea-doo and Johnny was first up. I must say I was pretty impressed at how long he hung on, but eventually he got tossed.  In his words, he said something along the lines of “it was a complete toss-up between extreme fun and incredible pain.” It was pure fun for me tho. Nothing quite compares to the facial expressions made while skidding across water on a tube filled with air. It kinda reminded me of that time when Johnny body surfed across the pavement on his bare chest. For anyone who doesn’t know that story, please ask Johnny or myself as I have that image engrained in my brain forever (neeeuuuu-ahhhhh) Tubing was a blast and there were no major injuries, but it does look like someone should call child and family services on Johnny. His delicate skin couldn’t quite handle the waves and so his legs are equal parts pasty and bruised. We docked the sea-doo after and made best friends with some fellow cottagers docking their boat. Its pretty safe say were invited fishing with them next weekend. (I say this with complete sarcasm cause I’m pretty sure they would have preferred to use us as bait)

After a little relaxation we met mom and dad at the golf course for dinner. They had been in a golf tournament all day which included a dinner afterwards which they tricked someone into letting us join. Johnny forgot his mom’s words of advice and opted for the slightly emasculating gin and ginger before dinner. The food was pretty good and included salad, followed by steak, potatoes, and vegetables, and then a dessert resembling a cake. We escaped shortly after dinner to avoid being forced into buying the last door prize. Any sudden movements and the MC thought you were reading to shell out a couple hundred bucks for the amazing golf t-shirt and hat prize.

Once we escaped we packed up our stuff and got ready to head back to the city. Johnny said a tearful goodbye to one of his four-legged companions, and we started our drive back to Winnipeg. Nothing too exciting to report from the drive home.

Katelyn came over when we got home to hang out one last time and say yet another goodbye.  The remainder of our night was filled with Friends, pool, and a milk run.

And that pretty much wraps up our eventful Sunday.  Hope everyone enjoyed reading.

July 23 - Cabin Fever

okay so if waking up at 6:30 wasn’t FML enough yesterday, it defs was today. like i’m pretty sure i was sleeping for 5 of the 6 hours of total driving. made it go by fast again at least. Anyways, i got to my site pretty much just on time, and then i packed up all my stuff and drove back to town. I got back to Kelsey’s at about 1pm-ish and then we left pretty much right away for her cabin/cottage or whatever you call it. We picked up Leanne, a friend of kelsey’s, along the way because she was coming too. sweet.

The cabin is in the Lake of the Woods area. It’s in south eastern manitoba, but the area and series of lakes expand pretty much all the way to the kenora area i think. It takes a little over 2 hours to get there from Winnipeg so really i had a sweet ass day of just chilling in a variety of vehicles.

It was chilly here today, so that was kind of a downer, but we didn’t get here until like 4 anyway. plus it’s supposed to be nice tomorrow which is good. So ya it was actually cold enough to get a fire going to heat of the cabin, which was actually pretty sweet. Then we had dins and started to play various card games and other games. It was a day of learning really because i don’t think i knew how to play a single game. what a n00b. and not knowing how to shuffle cards was less than ideal as well. but i’m starting to get it… sort of.

Anyway, we ended the night by playing the game “things”. long story short, we had to come up with “things you shouldn’t do at a funeral”. for some reason i thought that “diddle the corpse” was both an appropriate answer and a good ice-breaker. wrong on both counts. i’ll keep that in mind for next time.

Anyway, this place is really sweet. the cabin is wicked, and it has a separate guest cabin as well. and they have a sea-doo. should be good times tomorrow.
Also, their cabin is in a sort of small “cabin community” if you will, at Buffalo Point, MB in case you were wondering. they are right on the water and golf course, pretty rad location i must say.

That’s about it follks. I think Kelsey is doing a guest blog tomorrow, so get ready for that. Chances are she will greatly chirp the protagonist of this series of short stories, but i’m okay with that.
kbye

July 22 - sleep driving

This morning I am fairly confident that i drove 3/4 of the way to fairford while sleeping. The 3 hour drive seemed far too quick so sleep is the only explanation really. Anyway, i woke up at like 6:20 or some BS so that i could make it to fairford in time to set up my equipment. sweet life.

So i set ‘er up and then started driving back to winnipeg. Didn’t have any trouble staying awake this time because the crisp air i experienced while setting up the GPS was enough to keep me awake for a few days. It has been like over 30 degrees the last 2 days so i wore shorts and a T today. terrible choice. 13 and overcast this morning. and windy as tits. the worst. My original plan was to stop at some beaches on the way back to town, but ovs i was like Eff that. weather was just toooo crappy to deal with. So instead i went back into town and it turned out that a bunch of my “work associates” had just gotten into town as well. That worked out well because i hadn’t seen them for a long time and i think the general feeling was that we all wanted to hang out.

so i met up with those peeps at their hotel, and then we went for lunch. We went to an Australian place. it was pretty cool. I got some alligator and shark. nomnomnom. i wanted some other fierce animal so that i could complete the trifecta, but endangered black rhino wasn’t on the menu unfortunately.

After that we walked around town a bit, went to MEC and then went back to their hotel and just hung out for a bit. Eventually i left to go back to Kelsey’s because she was back from work by this point.

Eventually Kelsey’s friend Rachel came over, and then the 3 of us went downtown and met up with my work amigos for some food n’ drank. Then we went home because i have another early ass morning again tomorrow. rough.

anyway, the plan is to go to Kelsey’s cabin tomorrow when i get back from fairford. should be a real raging time. see you there.
kbye

July 21 - lions n’ guitars

today i participated in an activity that shall remain nameless until a later date. ask me about it one time in the future.

After that, i did some work on my comp in the morning, and then Katelyn picked me up and we did some tourist type things. first we went for lunch on.. corydon(?) ave. It was kinda similar to the area that we was in yesterday for lunch. Seemed to be byward market-ish and was pretty nice. After that we drove to Assiniboine(sp?) park. pretty crazy place. i was expecting it to be like, i don’t know, a typical small park where you just sit and relax and such. But once we got there, it was really more of a central park type deal you know? Like it was MASSIVE and had a bunch of different areas and gardens to walk around and relax in etc. pretty nice i must say. Some of the gardens were like crazy intense. they had bushes that were trimmed into odd shapes such as hearts and unicorns. neato.
So we walked around there and explored for a couple hours until Kelsey finished work and came and met us. When she got there, we went to the zoo, which was also in the park. pretty intense right? So we went to the zoo, and it was way better than i was expecting. they had monkies, leopards, lions, massive effing eagles etc. pretty cool. They had some bald eagles, which were huge, but they also had like steller’s sea-eagles or whatever they are called, which were easily the biggest freaking birds i have ever seen ever. wikipedia that.

after the zoo, we went back to kelsey’s house where she made some chicken stir fry for us. I must say, one of my best skills is letting people do things for me.

After dins we chilled, and i called up jason and got the okay from him to go to Kelsey’s cabin for the weekend. SWEET. well i have to work on saturday morning, but after that we will head to her cabin. I assume we will stay over night and then come back sunday evening. then i can start the long journey home on monday at some time i think. so i’ll be home in a week gang! This job has just gone WAAYYY too fast. can’t believe i’m almost done workski.

This evening, kelsey and i went back downtown to the fringe festival again. We met up there with Katelyn and her bf dwight. We couldn’t get tickets for the comedy show that we wanted, so we just randomly chose another one to go and see. Which chose like a musical one where it was just a dude and a guitar doing a reinactment of Lenny Breau’s final show. it was called the last gig of lenny breau. probably the best guitarist i have ever seen ever. soooo good. and an interesting type of show.

Then we came home. and now it is time for the sleepy time. Need to work tomorrow morning and wake up at like 6am(FML) so i better hit the sack.
I think i might hit up the beach tomorrow… sweet. depends on whether though i guess.
kbye

July 20 - slice of Ktown

truck still intact. nothing missing. great success.

So considering neither my truck nor it’s contents were stolen last night, i’d say it was a pretty good start to the day.
So this morning i did some work on my comp and so forth before i was meeting up with Kelsex. Couldn’t send my work into ottawa though because the interwebs connection was just the slowest piece of crap on earth.
Then i went for a walk through downtown winnipeg so just the blood flowing. I was pretty much in the corporate area, so there wasn’t much to see. i got some timmies, headed back to the truck and drove over to the Rutherford residence. Kelsex and I embraced briefly. clearly.
after swapping our hunting and fishing stories, We headed down to … osbourne? I think that it was it was called. Kind of reminded me of the Byward market in ottawa. lots of little independent shops and such, as well as a bunch of patio restaurants.We decided to stop here for lunch later in the afternoon.
While we were in this area, we walked around the surrounding streets, which included manitoba’s legislator building…? kind of a big deal here it seems. It’s kind of like the parliament buildings to them.

Then we drove to “The forks”. now this place was pretty much exactly like the byward market, except a lot of it was inside. but it was the same general idea. we got bubble tea. nomnomnom, Then we spent what was probably too much time shooting tapioca pearls through our straws at ducks as we sat by the river. Then we explored around the forks a little bit more, and i got some pictures with a statue of ghandi. cross that one of the bucket list eh…?
By this point i was pretty tired. not only did i get minimal sleep, but the 37 degree weather was less than ideal as well.
After the forks, we headed back to kelsey’s and made food. well she made it really. i just ate it.

Next we met up with Kelsey’s friend Katelyn, who i had met several times before, both in winnipeg and ktown. lovely gal. Katelyn drove us back downtown so that the 3 of us could see a Fringe Fest show. We bought tickets, and then walked a couple blocks to have some dranks before the show.
For those who don’t know, fringe fest is like a drama and performing festival that in not only here, but in like montreal and stuff also. not sure if ottawa has one. anyway, it was pretty cool. they had some live bands and buskers, and then you went into whatever show you want pretty much. We saw a comedy called the Hysteric. it was pretty good. pretty funny, and the characters were extremely animated people so it was entertaining fo sho.
Anyways, Kelsey has to work tomorrow, so i figured i’d have to keep myself busy all day. buuuutttt katelyn doesn’t have to work, so she said she would take me around. lol sweet. I guess she couldn’t resist the long hair and viking beard combo. i don’t blame here though, a lot of chicks dig the gandalf look. apparently homeless is the new abercrombie.

Anyways, i plan on doing some work in the morning, and then meeting up for my date with katelyn. sweet..
kbye