Day 2

After a night in Brooks, I hit the road at 6 am and 1,200 kilometers later I was in Ontario in Kenora, which appears to be snow mobile country. For some reason I was not in a picture mode, or the prairies do not lend themselves to photo ops.

There was a tremendous amount of black ice in Manitoba and I passed many cars and trucks in the ditch. Kind of all looks the same.

I stop at another Super 8 Motel. They are kind of all the same. Lights out, I am tired.

Vancouver to Ottawa - Day 1

Well, I will never trust Weather Canada again. I drove through about 3 blizzards. In all, I drove about 13 hours and 1,200 kilometers. I am just east of Calgary in a little town called Brooks. I will upload some picks of my drive as soon as dropbox uploads my photos.

It is really hard to take pictures while you are driving, especially in a blizzard. I did not want to stop as I have so far to travel before I sleep.

 My Travelling companion ... Puppy

 Box Canyon Blizzard

 Out of the Blizzard ... temporarily

 Icy roads everywhere

 Blue sky ... for a while

 Then more snow

 Finally after about 5 hours

 Roads remain icy though

 Out of the first mountains

 Kamloops area

 Somewhere ...

 Lake country

 Beautiful country

 Approaching Banf area

 Banf and Jaspar range - starts to get snowing and icy soon

1,200 kms later - Super 8 Motel in Brooks Alberta, and hour or two past Calgary

All packed!

It took me about 8 hours and 30 trips on the elevator to get everything packed in my apartment and stuffed into the SUV. But, it is done. I had to leave behind my printer, my large LCD monitor, my Ikea lounge chair, my Ikea computer table, and my Ikea 3 bulb lamp, plus my Keurig Coffee maker, and my Magic bullet, and Oster blender. Just had no room to put them!

I will leave at dawn tomorrow and take the longer Canadian route as I wish to retrace my steps of October 2011 to complete the journey (some of you will know what I mean). I have checked the weather for tomorrow and it still looks good.

I have not booked any hotels along the way as I will stop when I feel the need. I am quite looking forward to this little adventure and hope to post some pics as I travel.

Bon Voyage, TTYL,

Jim

Selling Motorcycle

I am selling my 2006 Yamaha FZ1 1000cc sports bike. I am not home in Ottawa enough to justify the $1,200 a year I pay for insurance. It has 8,500 kms on it and it is in mint condition. It also has a remote alarm.

So if you want something that is blazing fast and have some experience in riding fast motorcycles, it can be had for $6,000 or best offer.

Other than that, not much news on my front. My Mom was moved to the Elizabeth Bruyere Centre today and it is wonderful. It does not smell like a hospital and the air quality inside is much better. My initial impressions of the staff is that they are wonderful.

I should check the long term weather forecast for my drive across Canada. Looks pretty good for Monday when I start my trip.

TTYL,

Jim

Reverse Trek Starts Tomorrow

I fly out of Ottawa at about 6 pm tomorrow to Vancouver. I get in rather late so I won't get around to packing until Sunday. I will spend my last night in my Vancouver apartment on Sunday night and will commence my drive across Canada early Monday morning.

as usual, I will book nothing, rely solely on my GPS and head East on HWY 1. When I get tired, I stop, and when I get sleepy I stop for the day. I imagine it will take me 4 or 5 days to complete the drive. I hope the weather stays clear as it is early Spring and you can never count on the weather.

Coming West 2 Octobers ago I hit a bad blizzard around Lake Superior that took me about 90 mins to drive through.

I do not have any copilots as everyone wimped out on me :-( but I am looking forward to the drive nevertheless. At least there is only person to make happy ... ME.

I will post some pics along the way and keep you informed of my progress.

TTYL,

Jim

One Week in Ottawa

I have been in Ottawa for a week now and it appears Spring is arriving. The temperature hit double digits yesterday.

Carleton won its 9th CIS championship in 1 years to break University of Victoria's record that stood for about 30 years. The tournament was a welcome diversion to my 4 hour visits to the hospital. Once again, thanks to Paul Cotton for supporting me at this time. It was also good to see Cindy Mar and hear that Jackson is doing well.

My Mom has appeared to stabilize with her left side paralyzed and very limited mobility on her right side. We are looking for a long term care facility for her at this time. She need a lot of care!

I fly out to Vancouver on Saturday and I am starting to look at the long term weather forecast for my drive back to Ottawa. I am hoping the west is done with winter blizzards.

This week will be a combination of cleaning my stuff out of my Mom's home, visits to the hospital and some work with Brent Wilson and our company. I also need to put my motorcycle up for sale.

TTYL,

Jim

Hump Day in Ottawa

I have been in Ottawa for 4 days now and I think my jet lag is done. The family is taking shifts at the hospital I seem to be gravitating towards the evening shift, 4-8 pm. Not much change in my Mother to report on, however, she appears to have stabilized somewhat. Her left side is still paralyzed and she sleeps a lot and manages to eat a pureed dinner when fed to her.

I have managed to avoid renting a car but that means I walk (45 mins) home after my shift. I can usually get a ride there from someone in the family.

I am looking forward to the CIS men's finals this weekend. I am going Friday night and Saturday, courtesy of Paul Cotton who offered me a ticket and some company. Much appreciated!

I have booked my flight to Vancouver on March 16th and will drive back across Canada for the next 4 days. That will complete the odyssey that started in the Fall of 2011 when I made the East-West portion of the trip. Someday, I will have to share the 18 month odyssey. It was quite a ride.

Once back in Ottawa, I will put my motorcycle up for sale. That will be a sad day, but I am not here enough to make use of it or justify the $1200 insurance a year.

I fly back to Bangkok on the 29th of March and will stay for 2-3 months. I am still undecided if I want to become a non resident or split my time between Bangkok and Ottawa. Brown and Fox think I should make Ottawa my home base. That is a decision I can put off for now.

I have been going through all my documents and memorabilia that I put in temporary storage at my Moms. The house will be put up for sale soon and I don't want to dump my stuff on anyone. I have well over $1,000 worth of basketball books. Anyone want to take up coaching basketball?

Guess I better get ready to go to the hospital,

TTYL,

Jim