Summer 2011 road trip to MB

I finally got my sunflowers photograph this year on our summer holiday driving trip from Vancouver to Winnipeg. This field is on the way to Stonewall, MB.











Being somewhat of a geek for all things mechanical, I had to include a shot of this wind turbine blade being transported on the highway.

However, I can't take credit for the photo; I got it from the internet. Both times I saw a blade being transported, one in Montana and the other in North Dakota, I was driving, and the trucks were headed in the opposite direction. It's not really recommended to take a photo while driving, but I tried anyway. All I got was a shot of my windshield pillar. So thanks to whoever took this shot. It's rather awe-inspiring to see something this big traveling down the highway. That's an extra-long trailer, and the blade still hangs way off the end. I estimated the blade to be about 3 times as long as the average semi-trailer rig you'd see in BC.


Have you ever had to pull over on the highway for a house to pass? Things really are scaled up a notch on the prairies. I mean, you just can't make this stuff up.

I really like the sponteneity of road trips. We were headed East on Route 2 through Montana, and upon reviewing the map before getting in the car one morning we discovered that there were several options for us in veering North towards Manitoba. One of those options would take us through a small town called Rugby, North Dakota, which happens to be the exact geographical center of North America. Having been to Cape Spear, Newfoundland, a couple of years ago, the most Easterly point of this continent, going to Rugby was a no-brainer.

How does one determine the exact center of a continent anyway?

All we have left now is to visit Anchor Point, Alaska. It's listed on Wikipedia as the "Westernmost point on the continuous road system on the North American Continent".

But on a more Canadian focus we'd probably first check out Mount St. Elias, Yukon. It's listed as the most Westerly point in Canada.

We may already have our summer road trip planned for next summer.

New BC Place sun roof

The weather on Sunday was perfect for some playful shots of the new retractable roof being assembled on BC Place. An Open House was held on Sunday, July 31 to show off the recent progress of this high-tech wonder-roof.

2011 Ride to Conquer Cancer Vancouver (Surrey) to Seattle

Here are a few photos of this past weekend's 2011 Ride to Conquer Cancer. I'll tell you more about our wet weekend in a few days, after I catch up on a few things. Pretty busy around here lately.













A very wet 2011 edition of the Ride to Conquer Cancer began in Cloverdale this year, not Guildford Mall as in past years, because of current expansion construction at the mall.

2011 Ride to Conquer Cancer

This past weekend we raised $11.1 million in the 2011 Vancouver to Seattle edition of The Ride to Conquer Cancer, not $1.1million, as I read this morning in the 24 Hours newspaper. I hope they post a correction tomorrow.

Canuck-mania 2011

Relentless Media Blitz

Wow. Talk about a relentless pummeling of news (and sports) coverage recently!

Let's begin with last Thursday’s hockey game which saw the Canucks start their 2nd round series against the Nashville Predators. Canucks won, BTW.

Friday we witnessed the Royal Wedding (which I have to admit I enjoyed more than I expected to), followed immediately by coverage (never-ending it seemed) of the death of Osama bin Ladin (or, if you prefer, Osama bin Photoshopped; I saw this as graffiti scrawled on a City traffic sign yesterday afternoon).

Saturday: Hockey play-offs game 2 of Canucks vs Predators. Overtime into 5 periods produced a Predators victory. And not a moment too soon either, I might add.

Sunday: believe it or not, if memory serves me correctly, we didn’t watch any TV. I'll update you later if I think of anything.

Monday was the Canadian federal election. Stephen Harper finally has his majority government. That’s OK with me, although I didn’t vote for him. At least we won’t waste another 300 million bucks on another election until 2015. Four elections in the last 7 years is a bit silly, in my humble opinion. And I wasn’t unhappy to see the implosion of the Bloc. Plus the Greens now have a seat in the Commons. I think Elizabeth May will be a positive influence in Ottawa. You sure can’t fault her for lack of tenacity!

And finally last night, Tuesday evening, was game 3 in the hockey series in which Vancouver took a 3-2 lead.

That’s 14 hours of television viewing in the last 6 days.

However there’s nothing of interest emerging on the TV horizon tonight. Time to get off the couch and…

Wait a minute. Isn’t American Idol on tonight?

CJ update

On Monday March 14, I received a phone call from the SPCA inspector. He got in touch with CJ’s owner/ family. They had given CJ a bath and a bit of a trim before he got there, and they’ve since taken CJ to the vet for a check-up and to get his teeth cleaned. The SPCA agent also suggested CJ get a professional clip by a dog groomer, and he explained the importance of regularly scheduled grooming of a dog with CJ's hair type.

The family was receptive to the SPCA’s review, and it would appear CJ is more comfortable now.