Linden, Alberta is a town about an hour’s drive northeast of Calgary with a few more than 800 residents. Two of those residents are pictured with us in the photo above.
Linden, AB: Center Street Blues Jam
Category: Friends & Family
Meet ups with friends & family
Saskatoon, SK
Our approach to trip preparation includes doing a bit of reading and talking to people about where we’re heading. Based on what we learn, we go to our trusty electronic map and add e-pushpins indicating friends and family, potential places of interest, and music festivals. When we left home, Saskatchewan was looking a bit thin with not quite 4 pushpins across the entire province – Prince Albert National Park, Doug’s guitar buddy TerryB, the Saskatchewan Jazz Festival in Saskatoon, and the name of an old drumming colleague (but no current contact info).
As we approached Saskatchewan, the sparsity of pushpins turned around in a fashion reminiscent of the classic (original series) Star Trek episode ‘The Trouble with Tribbles…’
Flin Flon MB/SK
Flin Flon is totally, outrageously cool. Flin Flon, Manitoba/ Saskatchewan (pop 7,000 and yes, so cool it spans 2 provinces) is a mining town with an obsession for music. We loved it! And we fit right in.
First, some background…
Winnipeg, MB
Just about everyone we talked to about Winnipeg suggested we stop to visit the Canadian Human Rights Museum. That’s more than enough reason for us to make a stop. In order to get to the Prairie Wind Music Festival last week, though, we needed to drive on through Winnipeg (with a quick stop to pick up a part for our truck) and return to Winnipeg after visiting Riding Mountain National Park. Fortunately our return trip took us through Minnedosa.
Riding Mountain National Park
Riding Mountain National Park opened in 1932 and is the oldest national park in Manitoba. It rises 457 meters (1,499 feet) above the pretty flat prairie in all directions. At its center is Clear Lake and the town of Wasagaming. Its most recognizable feature is a line of cliffs along the eastern border formed by the Manitoba escarpment.
We planned to visit. Our new friends from the music festival confirmed it was a must see in Manitoba. We set a course.
Prairie Wind Music Festival
Our approach to non-planning our trips always includes having a list of music festivals and dates handy so we can be on the lookout for where our trajectory might intersect a festival. Most recent example: if we bypassed Winnipeg on our first pass (planning to double back to visit later), we could attend the Prairie Wind Music Festival in Cypress River. To continue a theme from the previous post, Neil Young wrote about this town – the town where his dad grew up – in his song ‘Prairie Wind.’
Riviere-Beaudette, PQ
Les deux côtés de ma famille ont immigré aux États-Unis du Canada. Parmi les 12 frères et soeurs de ma mère, tous sont restés aux États-Unis sauf un – ma tante Edith. Elle est retournée au Canada, dans une toute petite partie du Québec bordée par l’Ontario et l’État de New York, juste au sud-ouest de Montréal. En grandissant à New Hampshire, nous avons dû visiter souvent et j’ai appris à connaître tous mes cousins canadiens. Alors, bien sûr, un voyage au Canada doit inclure une visite.
English translation follows
Delmar
St Louis has the Arch, Gateway to the West. That’s nothing compared to Al’s place, Gateway to Our Adventures. Al, who we’ve known for more than 30 years, holds the record for number of visits on our travels at 4. Whether we’re heading to or returning from the west or south, Al is nearby. Visits with Al are always comfortable. They always include conversation late into the night, Al’s super home cooking and some fun outdoor adventure.
We’ll be back…
York
Our friend John is the second person we met when we started skiing at Sugarbush in 1999. We’ve been friends ever since, sharing passions for skiing, biking and fine (ok, very good) dining, and Doug and I have occasionally served as marginally competent crew on John’s sailboat. Over the years, we’ve also become friends with John’s brother Phil and Phil’s wife Barb, who visit Vermont regularly. Since we found ourselves near where they live, we arranged to visit.
Great Basin NP
The last time I wrote about Dana and Muffin, we’d just visited with them in Eugene and I talked about how they’d helped to inspire our conversion from ordinary folks into camper-owning road warriors. Here’s kind of an update to that.