Wow that has been a long pause between blog updates, hasn't it?
I have been a busy man but blogging has not been one of my activities. I moved in November, 2007 to Edmonton Alberta for a software job that only lasted three months. In the meantime this did give another chance to explore some icy and snowy roads as I got everything packed away, sold and or moved to Edmonton. I ended up driving the 2500 km round trip to Surrey BC twice since I moved here. 
I bought a little Trillium camping trailer this past spring and am looking forward to the trip. I recently added brakes to the trailer and did the trailer controller installation myself. (Would you believe that the thieves around here wanted $400 installation fee for a job that took non-mechanical me just 2 hours?) I have making spreadsheets and studying Google maps. I am afraid that travel is no longer something that should be done casually without planning. The average price of gasoline in Canada this summer is near $1.40 litre and about $1.08 litre in the USA. Plus the trailer adds nearly a 50% penalty to the amount of fuel used. So I do not think that this is something that I will be doing every summer!
The trip down at Christmas time was especially hairy. North of Kamloops I must have seen a dozen vehicles off the road in just an hour or two. (In the first photo on the right those black portions of the road are covered in very slippery ice).
It is hard to believe that
I hitch-hiked that lonely road so many times. Thank god for winter snow tires!
I hitch-hiked that lonely road so many times. Thank god for winter snow tires! On the way to the coast at Easter -- when I did the final cleanup after selling my mobile home there -- I screeched to a halt near Jasper town site to take pictures of the elk feeding beside the highway. 
Visitors always sees elk in Jasper Park in the winter though they are much rarer in the summer when the tourists are around. But this is the first time that I have seen close to 50 all in one location.
Visitors always sees elk in Jasper Park in the winter though they are much rarer in the summer when the tourists are around. But this is the first time that I have seen close to 50 all in one location.
On the return from that trip I got this nice mountain view west of Banff near the BC border. Yet another boring mountain photo but they are so easy to take in the Rockies when the weather is good.
I have taken a few local trips near Edmonton and posted a lot of the photos on my NotSorry.com web site. I am particularly proud of my Ukrainian church photos from this area. [2020 Note: No photos on that saved version. Flickr versions are here]. So now I am making my summer travel plans. Perhaps someplace local in July and then a long range trip in late August.
I am leaning towards going all the way to Ontario, NY state and perhaps even the New Jersey shore and Philadelphia.
I bought a little Trillium camping trailer this past spring and am looking forward to the trip. I recently added brakes to the trailer and did the trailer controller installation myself. (Would you believe that the thieves around here wanted $400 installation fee for a job that took non-mechanical me just 2 hours?) I have making spreadsheets and studying Google maps. I am afraid that travel is no longer something that should be done casually without planning. The average price of gasoline in Canada this summer is near $1.40 litre and about $1.08 litre in the USA. Plus the trailer adds nearly a 50% penalty to the amount of fuel used. So I do not think that this is something that I will be doing every summer!
