Sunday, October 20, 2013

787 km - Regina to Medicine Hat and on to Red Deer

Does this road ever end? I am fried!

 I love driving and can drive for hours but my sanity is being challenged. This has been an 3300 km odyssey. I had driven to the West coast in 1989 but on that trip I went through the States, crossing into Alberta at the Montana border. I remember crossing and hearing the news that Canada and Brian Mulroney had just implemented the GST and that the US was preparing for war against Iraq for the invasion of Kuwait. I was driving my 1987 Jeep Comanche, the only vehicle I have ever purchased brand new.

I had just come back from a 3 month tour of Europe and Niagara Falls in the winter at that time was not a busy place and There was no casino. So I jumped in the Jeep and off I went. It was early just after Christmas and I was not going to stick around and endure another dreary Niagara Falls winter. So I pointed my truck West.

Some of the details are coming back to me as I write. I do remember being in a valley in Montana and stopping for a bite to eat. It was quiet, I mean silent. Off in the distance there were deer wandering around. I skied most of the winter. Park City Utah, Montana, Banff, Jasper, Mt. Allan and Nakiska, Sunshine, Lake Louise. I watched Scott Norwood miss "wide right" and CNN television the invasion of Kuwait. There is a good movie about how CNN was the only network that could get a live signal back to the US. Live from Baghdad with Micheal Keaton and Helen Bonham Carter which is worth the effort to watch

I met some people in Banff and we went to Vancouver then said screw it and drove south to California. We thought that was not enough so we flew to Puerto Vallarrta and spent 2 weeks there. I remember someone getting robbed and losing their passport (not me for a change).

I left everyone in California and drove home. Stopping in New Mexico, Texas, Arizona, St Louis and crossing at Detroit. I slept in my truck and lived on Taco Bell. I will try and find some old pictures and scan them.

The epilogue of 1989 and 1990 was 4 months in Australia, 1 week in Hawaii, 3 months in Europe and 4 months in Western Canada and the USA with a brief stop in Mexico.

However I finally made it to Red Deer! Now I sleep

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