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

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.