The Road to Canmore

The miles ticked by and the scenery didn't really change much just flattish rolling fields all brown and frost burnt, we stopped for food in a small town that was just made up of fuel stations and burger joints.

As it got dark i had to then keep an eye out for deer as we had seen plenty since we left Saskatoon, and the last thing i wanted is a white tailed deer as a bonnet mascot.

At one point on the trip i had sat there with the Dodge in cruise control and no hands on the steering wheel for maybe 30 miles , this road was as strait as if someone had just drawn it with a ruler, maybe they had.

As we got nearer Calgary the road system started to have some bends and turns, we bypassed Calgary to the north via Airdrie and on to some very small roads with cattle grids,it was pitch black now as we were heading for 1 am but in the dark i could see mountains rising up above us then we dropped on to high way 1 for the last few miles pulling up outside the hotel at 1.45 am

Louise had said to me that she had never seen real mountains, i mean not really high ones and that when she opened the curtains in the morning she would like to see mountains

This is watt she saw from our window

The three sisters

The hotel from the front

Leaving Saskatoon mission accomplished

We fueled up before we left Saskatoon as we had been told that after Kindersley there only a few petrol stations open and as our next hotel was 753km away it was going to be a long night, we were heading for Canmore in the Rockies for a couple of days of trees and mountains

going green meant another thing near Kindersley when we came across these John Deer combines i have never seen so many in one place and watt you see here is only a small number, also near here was a lot with hundreds of Chevy pick ups row after row all new ,i suppose it was the economic downturn that had slowed sales

When we in the UK set our sat navs its very rare that we get a strait road let alone when it tells you that the next turn is 300 miles


this is a very common sight in Saskatchewan in fact there are more of these than trees on the prairies

Tuesday 14th April 2009 interview day

We have been waiting for this day to come for such along time, and our entire future could depend on this interview.

The meeting would be at their main terminal in Saskatoon at 2pm ,we had already checked the location out so all we had to do is turn up and walk in.

As Saskatoon is the largest city in Saskatchewan it also has a number of transportation company's that have there head office or at least a large terminal, here are some of which you may have heard of,

The Yanke group

The Siemens group have there head office in Saskatoon

which include

Edge transportation

HWT

Quill transport

Kindersley transport

and also

Westcan bulk transport

Titan transport

The day started as usual with breakfast and coffee, and as Louise didn't drink much coffee before we came to Canada she sure has got in to the Canadian way and whilst another top up we got talking to our waitress Heather who told us all about the town she lived in [ Warman ] Which is located just outside the city to the north east of Saskatoon she also said she would get us a list of Brits living in Warman ,which she did before we left ,including phone numbers.

The rest of the morning was spent looking round Saskatoon anything that would take my mind off the interview there are some great shopping malls .

But the best shop we went in was wholesale sports ,they had everything you could want for the outdoor life camping, shooting, fishing, and i mean everything.

We jumped back in the Dodge and headed up the road for our meeting, pulling into the car park we sat there thinking about what was about to happen, probably the most important interview we would ever have ,we had come all this way to convince them that they wanted to hire me as a long haul truck driver !

lets do it

At 2pm we went in and found the office, as they were undergoing a major refit of all the offices the person we wanted was out in the yard in a porta cabin, once in we were made very welcome and just had to wait for the terminal manager to finish what he was doing then we went up to his office overlooking the yard and workshops.

Two and a half hours later we came out, wow that was some interview , we were told that we had to go home to the UK and collate all the required documents for the Saskatchewan immigrant nominee program [SINP] as they like to make sure all the documents can be found as its a lot easier to get some while you are still in the UK and as long as we can then we would be OK.

I then had the opportunity to take a truck out on a road test with the safety manager just to make sure i could drive, so after doing a quick pre trip type check over i jumped in and we set off out the yard and on to the highway for a few miles and back as i had driven a Eaton twin splitter before i soon got the hang of this fuller 18 speed without losing too mean teeth from the gearbox as most Canadian and American trucks still have a crash box.

I pulled back in the yard and parked up ,walking back to the porta cabin with a grin a mile wide once in finding the girls looking at houses to rent in nearby Warman and Martensville, a thumbs up from the safety guy we said our good buys and left.

Well looks like we could be heading for Canada fairly soon we said as we sat in the Dodge but lets go and have a look round Warman before we head off to our next hotel.

Saskatoon

After we had found our hotel and booked in etc we headed off to downtown Saskatoon, we had seen a video of the city on a web site but it looked nothing like that now, the cold Saskatchewan winter had taken its toll.

so we parked the Dodge and head off on foot, the walkways meanders along the banks of the south Saskatchewan river which is quite wide at this point, the whole setting was of a parkland type with wide footpaths that joggers and cyclist's use even now in the very early spring and you could imagine cross country skiers using them in the mid winter when snow lay on the ground.
The bridge you can see in the picture above is one of Severn that cross this river in Saskatoon allowing the 250,000 people that live here to move freely from one side to the other.

The river had been totally frozen over during winter but parts of it had now broken up and was floating downstream revealing large sandbanks with fast flowing water, a far cry from when pelicans swim and fish in the river.

The city of Saskatoon has a four season year with temperatures ranging from +30 in the summer months to -30 in the winter it also has the most recorded hours of sunshine than any other major city in Canada.

Over 6000 years of first nations history has been recorded in this area and this is celebrated at the Wansukewin heritage park nearby, Saskatoon also has the Ukrainian museum of Canada the Diefenbaker Canada centre, and the western development museum.

We spotted this critter as we walked along on the side of the river it is about 14inches long without the tail.

What a lovely sunset to end the day, as we walked back to the Dodge along 20th street east down by the bandstand
Tomorrow we go to see about a new life here in Canada and in this great city of Saskatoon.

Saskatchewan land of the living skys

Monday morning came [13th April 2009]and my thoughts were on the interview i had arranged for 2 pm Tuesday afternoon in Saskatoon, the whole reason we were here in Canada, to secure a position as a long haul truck driver. We made our way out of Regina and onto high way 11 and headed north, the scenery had not changed much just rolling prairies dotted with frozen lakes and small villages, and these usually had a grain elevator, as grain [wheat]was the main crop in this region. As we only had 259km to do today we would be in good time to look around Saskatoon when we arrived, if we did at all, because unlike British roads you sometimes come across real strange loads being pulled with tractor units , we saw a couple of seed drills being towed along the high way straddling two lanes and also cultivators too i suppose going to farmers ready for seeding later in April or may when the ground had lost the frost.

The lake above was just one of many we saw from the Louise Riel Trail which is high way 11 and as we neared Saskatoon we pulled into a services to fill up and get something to eat and take a picture or two and of course i didn't notice the Big Freight systems Kenworth in the background until after, another big transportation company that takes drivers from overseas based near Winnipeg MB

We jumped back in the car for the short drive to Saskatoon, there were more trees now and also more houses with acreage

here are some facts about Saskatchewan that you may not know

The Saskatchewan population is around 1.1 million

The capital city is Regina with a population of around 200,000 but the largest city is Saskatoon with 250,000

The word Saskatchewan originate from the Indian word Kisiskatchewan which means the river that flows swiftly

Half the province is covered by farmland one third by trees and one-eighth by fresh water

Saskatchewan produces 54% of wheat grown in Canada

and as well as oil and gas it is the worlds chief source of uranium and potash and has one of the worlds largest Kimberlite fields

Saskatoon is the sunniest city in Canada with clear blue skies nearly all year, hence the name on the sign



Well we had arrived with plenty of time to kill as we headed round circle drive
onto Idylwyld drive, the traffic was quite busy for Canada so we just went with the flow our hotel was just off there