Royal Canadian Mounted Police Regina

When we were looking around Regina on the Sunday we found a add in Montana's[a Canadian restaurant that's like eating in a wooden shed with a pickup truck in the rafters and great food] about the RCMP headquarters that are in Regina ,and they have a heritage center there so we decided to visit on the Monday before heading for Saskatoon
The center is the main training college for the RCMP all students are trained here regardless of where they come from in Canada and the heritage center tell you just how the RCMP were formed and why, one being to keep the Americans from trading whisky and guns to the local Indians.
this is not there everyday uniform now just there ceremonial uniform.

This is the standard police car which they use today.

this is a old police car and is on show outside the center ,i bet the boys and girls wish they had them today [smoky and the bandit]

Regina

So after coffee and something sticky from Tims, we headed east to our third night in Canada ,again we had pre booked our room in Regina so we just took our time we would be in Regine with plenty of time too look around the city before it got dark.
as you drive into the city a sign says that every tree here was planted by hand ,boy they have been busy After finding our Best Western we headed out into the city for a look round, we decided to look around ordinary Canadians streets and there are so many different styles of houses in this city
this one below is just one that took our fancy

while we were looking we noticed this garage and couldn't help having a laugh at the bad gray paintwork on the eves!

Seedy pay by the hour hotel

We carried on into the late afternoon and thoughts soon turned to food and a bed for the night, Louise looked on the map and saw that Swift Current was the next largest town so that's where we headed,we hadn't booked anywhere so we needed to find a hotel/motel.

We pulled off the highway at the first exit and headed into town ,it was all small industrial area with not many hotel type places, we cruised up and down the street to find a decent looking motel but there just wasn't any finally pulling up outside one, there was no desk and it looked like you could rent a room by the hour, not the sort of place i would want to take Louise in ,not that i have been in any like this i might just add, so we said lets just look up that street and when we got to a large set of lights there were loads to choose from we settled for a best western paid and got our room, next thing food , again plenty to choose from and we even watched ice hockey on a big screen.

The Canadians really make you feel welcome once they find out your from overseas.

After a good nights sleep we were back on the 1 again heading east but this time we had booked our bed for the night in Regina, so we could take out time and enjoy whatever came our way.

There is one thing you cant miss the provincial borders they are massive and the Albertan one is bigger that this one.
We had been on the road for about two hours and Louise said she would like to visit the rest room [i have been told to keep it clean] after three hours she said she would really really like to visit a rest room, now thing is i only go once a day and we hadn't come across a rest room and when your traveling across the prairies there arnt many trees or bushes, well there are none so i said she would have to go behind the car up a side range road, so i turned off and headed about a mile off the main road set the car up across the road and let her get on with it, thing is we hadn't been there too long when i told her a pick up was coming up the same road toward us [the only pick up on the only road for miles] well after a few choice words she looked up and saw it and then another few choice words i moved the car and the truck passed.

The weather wasn't so good today and it was raining when all of a sudden a moose was running along the side of the high way trying to cross the road and boy are they ugly so i stopped and took this picture.

After seeing a moose there was only one place to visit, Moose Jaw so we turned off and had a look round.

if any of you get to go there visit the tunnels of moose jaw and the Chinese laundry they are well worth the money its all about AL Capone and they dress up in costumes of the time

after having a coffee at Tim Horton's we had to have a look at Mac the Moose which can be seen from the 1 big ole boy ain't he

Space ,space and more space

We left Lethbridge heading east on high way 3 out onto the plains, you could see for miles as it was a lovely day blue Sky's and only a few white fluffy clouds and every time we crested a hill and saw the road stretch out before us, it was just awesome, no traffic well none to us anyway so i stopped to take this video just to show people that you don't have to have houses in every place you look just like the UK just wide open plains.

The next big town we hit was Medicine Hat, that's were we joined high way 1 which stretches right across Canada.

A small bridge 1 mile and 47ft long

The blackfoot and cree indians fought here in this vally a few years back when the americans were selling whisky and guns from Fort whoop up which is also down in the vally

Calgary and beyond

well this was our first view of Calgary from our hotel window, What a dirty, dusty drab place and it didn't get any better when we went out to get a drink either, piles of fag ends and general rubbish on the streets of downtown ,surely this isn't Calgary it looked so nice and clean in the books .



The only bar we could find was an Irish bar so we went in and had a beer,we sat at the bar and watched the bar tender waste so much Guinness trying to get a good pint it was so funny to watch i even told him if he were at home he would end up fired for wasting so much Guinness, anyway we got chatting and he told us that all the dust and sand came from the roads, its What they put on the roads to give cars some grip when the snow is about, all the rubbish and fag end come from the snow piles , when they melt it leaves all the crap behind just like it does at home so after the winter the street cleaning gangs come round and clean up, they even put it out on the radio so you can move your car .

so if you look at that picture again but this time imagine the grass green and the water fountains with nice clean water in and the sidewalks clean it don't look to bad, and that's just What we had to do.


Friday the 10th we did the tourist bit and walked around the town looking at the shops and things, finally getting up the tower which gave us a great view of Calgary and the surrounding city right out to the Rockies, but time was getting on and we needed to put some km on the Dodge and head south out of the city.

the first thing you notice when on the highway is the lack of traffic there just ain't any, easy driving everything just flows at 100/110kph . we were heading to Lethbridge where H & R Transport is, i wanted at least to have a look in thier yard even if the interview was off and maybe meet the brummie for a drink, and on the way down we past more than one fine example of there trucks.

when your driving south and look to your right and see the snow caped mountains of the Rockies its just something else and to the left rolling plains of green grass not really all the grass was brown we never saw a blade of green grass you just had to imagine it was green, some of the names we saw were great too High River, Fort Macleod, and Head smashed in buffalo jump beats Coventry and Leicester, we were heading for Lethbridge and a meet up with the brummie ,even though i did not have an interview with H & R, he said come and stop with us and we will have a BBQ and a beer or two oh and some wine for the girls and a bottle of scotch and a good time was had by all ,thanks and we owe you one now .

Saturday morning Louise and i took their dog out around the town and felt right at home in Canada and we had only been there 48 hours.
After another BBQ breakfast we said our goodbye's, jumped in the Dodge and headed back into Lethbridge for a look round before heading east, we had no idea where we would end up as no hotel was booked we were just going with the flow.

First night in Canada

This was our first hotel in downtown Calgary the sandman, our room was the top floor [25] on the right hand corner

Lets get stuck in

so we had our flights booked and a car hired that we could not change , and an interview that was not going to happen ,so lets get back on the net and find another company that will see us while we are in Canada and only three weeks to do it in before we flew out.
I sent another maybe fifteen e mails to company's that as far as i could see were looking for drivers and that were taking drivers from outside Canada and some that just looked good and that i fancied driving there kit, i also had to take into account the distance from Calgary as we did not want to be in a Gumball rally across the country.

One day whilst i was waiting to get on the loading bay at wood green Morrison's i was flicking through an old Truck and driver mag when i came across two adverts for Canadian jobs one was an immigration agent that pointed you in the right direction and the other was a agent that found you work , so i rang the first one and they said they would send me some information ,which they did, the other was a cheer full chap that took my details, phone number etc and said he would be in touch soon, no sooner had i backed on the bay to tip and my phone was ringing from Canada so lets see Wat this is all about i said to myself .
Hi Mark its Allen from NB i have found you a job when can you start we could do with you next week i have [ cant remember his name ] standing here in my office have a word with him.
well he asked a few questions but really i cant remember Wat was said it was all so quick, next thing Allen's back i will e mail you some forms you will need to fill in for the company your going to working for [Day and Ross] just fill them in and send back i will go up to there office and get you cleared to work for them by the end of the week OK talk to you soon by . and that was that he did, i did and they did in two weeks.

After i has sent the e mails off to a bunch of company's i did have some replys mostly just to say that they could not help me at this time ,i had included all the paperwork i had so they could see everything so i suspect its the old police check rearing its ugly head again, and of course some didn't even bother and that's really bad manners i think .
One company did however send some good news she was going to speak with her terminal manager to see if we could meet whilst i was over, and they were in Saskatoon about as far away from Calgary as i would have liked to go but hay its a good positive response we will do it .

Yes we would like to meet with you and your wife when its convenient for yourselves so Tuesday 14 April at 2pm was arranged ,boy that was close as its Wednesday 8th April now.

so Thursday came and we drove down to Gatwick and caught the flight to Calgary landing just after 2pm and after collecting our car a Dodge caliber drove out into downtown Calgary and our hotel .

This was one of our first views of Canada as we flew into Calgary on April 9th 2009, what happens in the next eight days could change our lives forever

This was my first truck a 1987 112 Scania 320 and that's me grinning from the passenger side ,i didn't look old enough to drive a car let alone a truck but i did and up and down to Italy i went and most of Europe too

So Whats Next

Well we talked about it and talked about it for some time, and finally we made the decision to do something and as i was in transport ,driving a truck for a living over in Canada would be the best way in for us, and to get paid to see north America was a bonus.

Back in the early days i drove for a company out of Kettering Northants [ PATRICK INTERNATIONAL ] and that's where i cut my teeth tramping up and down to Italy, Spain and most of the rest at some point .

so i started to trawl the Internet for more information more and more information whenever i could, there were lots of company's looking for drivers at that time all over Canada fridge ,flat deck as they call em and a few bulk.

While all this had been going on the company i was working for had started to make noises about packing up there transport side of the bossiness, which was not good news for any of us but the contract they had been servicing still needed a haulier and we were told that we would be transferred over to them still on the same conditions,[tupe] so things didn't look to bad the company we were moving to was a much larger one with more trucks and employees and based in Abbingdon near Oxford [ Cannon transport] .

So the day came and we all got our new uniform some got new second hand trucks, some had to wait like me for these to come in from another contract but all of them were OK once they had been valeted,we all started on the 6th October 2008.

Everything was good just like the old job then on the 15th of November when i was waiting for my reload at the Baltic wharf near Rochester i was told to come home and then everything will become clear ,oh no and the jungle drums were beating well on that ride home.

By the time i got back i knew i had no job nor did any other person within the cannon group they had gone bust and not only that we whernt getting paid either .
Well Monday came and i got on the phone and onto an agency i still had bills to pay, i worked for ADR and worked at Morrison's in Corby and Burton Latimer.

In the meantime we had made the decision to find a job in Canada, we had already put the house on the market back in June 2008 and that in its self should have told me something major was happening to the economy the worst recession we had ever seen.

meanwhile back on the net i had come across a brummie giving an interview to a Dutch reporter he was talking and telling this guy how good it was to drive across north America in his big red truck, so i found his mail address and e mailed him to find out more.

Back in October i had been rear ended by a merc in Leicester and had a claim going through and this money i would be able to get two tickets to Canada sod it lets go out and do a recce and a holiday too, the brummie had also told me to fill in the application form for the company he worked for H & R TRANSPORT in Lethbridge Alberta, as they were looking for drivers so i did, he helped me to rearrange my resume to the Canadian spec and sort all the other bits and pieces i would need, they asked me when we would be out in Canada so i booked the flights and told them and a interview was arranged for April 10th 2009 at 11am.

My Police check had been sent off and that's all i was waiting for to come back,when it did my heart sank it was not clear ,it had a conviction on from nearly ten years ago surely this wont cause a problem will it?
I mailed the brummie and told him and as he had now moved from being a driver to the driver relations guy at H & R i was dealing directly now with him, he told me to e mail Eugenie at there agents and send the police check too which i did and the reply i got back from them was so nice and sweet and SHORT basically no interview no job for anybody now with a conviction. and yes there are drivers with convictions working for H & R but they had been given jobs with the previous driver liaison manager. brummie too seemed to me to be gutted to and i genuinely still believe this to be true.

Well where do we go from here two flights booked a hotel for the night in Calgary and all i cant change