Houston : Whitney and the City.

____Day 1: The usual Friday afternoon visit to the peat-moss mine at Elma; then south, over the border, to Stone's Truckstop at Watertown, South Dakota. On the last leg of the journey, a silver Pontiac Trans-Am comes cruising alongside. Interior light blazing; with the driver stroking the inner-thigh of her red-satin clad right leg. I look away in disgust; glancing at the speedometer where the trip-counter is showing 666.6 km. The little devil !
____Day 2: Breakfast is accompanied with television pictures of Whitney Houston's funeral from her hometown of Newark, New Jersey. The City of Houston, Texas, is my destination for a Monday morning delivery in the western suburb of Richmond. But I don't get far without this year's run of tyre problems continuing with a puncture. It's only a four minute drive from the fuel-stop at Sioux Falls' Flying'J to the service centre at the nearby Pilot; but it's four hours later when I can have it fixed. Continuing to Cherryvale in Kansas and a mid-night finish.

Smart Service Centre but very slow.

____Day 3: A full day's driving, through Tulsa, through Dallas, down to the customer's premises. Dry roads, warm weather, light traffic but an uncomfortable ride.  The same load in the same direction with the same truck as every week; so it must be the trailer. A Wabash instead of the normal Great Dane and a different suspension set-up. A single shock-absorber on each axle might save weight and save money but gives a very choppy ride and a pain in the back for the driver.

Single-shocker set -up on Wabash trailer.

____Day 4: President's Day national holiday, but the plant nursery work-force are in at 8 o'clock and I'm up at the West Houston Flying'J for breakfast before nine. However, a lot of companies are  not working and reloads are hard to find. Then just before noon, I get instructions for a load of plastic granules; going to Winnipeg from Orange, the last town on Interstate 10 before the Louisiana/Texas state border. Loaded before four, then north on US Highways 96, 59 and 71. Winding roads up into Arkansas and a night at Mena.

The popular Peterbilt 379 custom look with deep windshield visor.

____Day 5: The warm weather of the southern States continues until the evening; 1000 kilometres to the north. A night at Vermillion's Caribou Coffee Fuel Stop at Mile-marker 26 on Interstate 29. Truck #31 on Interstate 29; but it could have been Truck #31 on Interstate 31 if the coin-toss had gone the other way. Even -numbered Interstates run West to East; numbers rising from South to North. Odd-numbered Interstates run from South to North with the road numbers counting-up as one heads eastwards. During the construction of 29, it was still undecided if it was going to be 29 or 31.

Most Iowa farms have old trucks working as grain-haulers.

____Day 6: The homeward run is broken up by the  collection of some tractor parts from Grand Forks, North Dakota. Which nearly slips my mind; just like I forgot to put Grand Forks on the map. At only 75 miles south of the border, it delays my arrival back at the yard; when I have to wait two hours for the customs papers to be filed. Back in Manitoba, eight inches of snow have fallen; the biggest covering of the Winter.
____Overall Distance: 5560 km.

Big-sleeper Coronado has radio ham aerial on left-side mirror-arm.

US Highway 75, seamless join onto Interstate 45, southbound through Dallas.

Spot the Snowy Owl?

Springs : Walnut and Siloam.

____Day 1: While I was on my log-hours reset; # 31 went to Regina to rescue a trailer from under a broken-down unit and came back smelling like a dirty ashtray. Sad that some truck-driving smokers have no consideration for non-smoking truck-drivers. A run out to the peat-moss mine at Elma to start the trip. Then through the border at Pembina; finishing the day at the Dakota Magic Casino on the North/South Dakota's border. I come out with $25 more than when I went in; winnings that can finance the purchase of some No Smoking stickers.

Overnight indoor parking for Flying Eagles during the Winter.

____Day 2: Texas is the destination [again] and with 400 miles already done; two days hard slog will now be three days of easy driving. Highway 81, all the way from Watertown until Interstate 135, leading on to Interstate 35 at Wichita, Kansas, and a night at the Belle Plaine service area. Resisting the temptation of the newly opened Kansas Star, an enormous casino complex right by the interstate.

Ethanol producing plant in Nebraska at sunset.

____Day 3: The satellite picture option on Google Maps has got to be one of a truck-drivers most useful tools when looking for a delivery or collection address. The delivery address for the plant nursery at Walnut Springs just gives me the number of the "Farm to Market" [FM] road, but with my laptop I can see the poly-tunnels, the packhouse and a trailer parking area. It's getting dark when I turn down a winding, muddy dirt track but I know that in two miles I will find the plant nursery. Either that or a secret dope growing enterprise hidden away from everything except surveillence satellites.

Google map showing just what to aim for.

____Day 4: A quick tip and the bill of lading is signed, so I'm not bothered what they grow. First pick-up is four pallets of toys, from Roanoke, the same as the last trip. Then a two hour wait at the nearby Pilot Truckstop, while the office searches for more freight in the Dallas/Fort Worth area. Finally instructions send me to Arkansas for a pick-up in the morning. If there is a truckstop within 20 miles of a collection, I will stay there overnight, but if I don't come across anything; then I park at a shipper's premises. Such as at Siloam Springs.

Cornfield Cadillac aka International Transtar.

____Day 5: Brake-drums loaded and away to Nebraska for the third and final pick-up. Then just north of Kansas City, there is an almighty BANG. A rear axle trailer tyre blows and the tread whip-lashes through the mud-flap; pulling the mud-flap hanger onto the one remaining tyre. It's a narrow shoulder on a busy Interstate but I have to get the angle-iron hanger away from the tyre before anything else. Thank heavens for sliding trailer axles. By strapping the mud-flap hanger to the bumper bar, at the rear of the trailer, I pull the hanger back by reversing the truck; whilst the axles move forward on the trailer. After moving to a safer spot at the next off-ramp; father and son team, Rick and Stephen, come out with a replacement tyre. A two and a half hour delay, but still time to load 9 pallets of organic pet food at a remote mill near Murdock. Healthy nutriution for rabbits, guinea pigs, chinchillas and rats.

Not the smartest service vehicle in the States : but they were quick.

____Day 6: A Wednesday morning with 550 miles of Interstate 29 to do; north from Sioux Harbor, Iowa. My toe-nails need cutting, but before I can get a sock off; it starts to rain. Freezing rain, the one thing that strikes fear into the heart of every articulated vehicle driver. The twitching of the drive-tyres corresponds to the twitching in the seat of my pants. I back-off the throttle and run a high gear at very low revs, trying to maximise the traction. I'm trying to remember if the next exit has a truckstop; when a wreck on the southbound carriageway causes a bump on the northbound and everything slithers to a halt. Eventually a gritter comes along and everyone is content to follow along behind it. The rain turns to snow; with flurries all the way home.
____Overall Distance: 4686 km.

Freezing rain will always cause carnage.

British Truckers Abroad

____My first memories of British truckers abroad are from the early eighties when a gathering of drivers at the Italian Customs was a weekly occurrence. I soon came to know the regular places where a table of Brits could be found on most nights. The Bake House at Bourg-en-Bresse and the Monkey House on the way up to the Mont Blanc Tunnel; Carisio, on the Autostrada between Milan and Turin.


____Places where a driver could relax amongst friends; knowing that someone was watching his back and would get him back to his cab if he overdid the alcohol. Good food and cheap drink were an important element at all the traditional stops; that and the managements’ acceptance of the often rowdy behaviour.

____To the British truck-drivers on the run to the Middle-East; these watering-holes had a much more significant meaning. They were places where useful information could be obtained from drivers coming in the opposite direction. Road conditions, the weather, the waiting time at the various border crossings, could all be digested during an evening meal in the Eastern Bloc and beyond. Places like the Motorest at Plzen and the Hotel Rokycany in Czechoslovakia. Not many British drivers went past the Windmill at Kecskemet, Hungary or the National Hotel on the outskirts of Belgrade. Most drivers stopped if they saw a GB plated truck, any where.

____ Parking on the beach at Kavala was also popular; but the number one overnight halt was the Londra Camp on the western outskirts of Istanbul. Ample safe parking, a chance to grease the truck and get anything fixed; a chance to relax and let off steam before setting out across the Bosporus and the hard work that lay ahead. The TIR parking at the Harem Hotel was another favourite, along with the Teleks Motel at Ankara.

____ British Ex-pats across the world always meet somewhere in every sizeable city. Truck-drivers in Istanbul would frequent the Pudding Shop, located in the heart of the city, but were often out numbered by British, Australian and New Zealand backpackers. When I lived in Augsburg, Germany, it was an Irish Pub called Murphy’s Law and that is typical of many places today. The Lonely Planet and Rough Guide books often give an Ex-pat place where English is the spoken language.

____ For the British truckers of Steinbach, Manitoba, Canada; Frantz Bar, on the outskirts of town, is the meeting place most Friday and Saturday nights. Christmas Eve, 2011, saw more than a dozen drivers enjoying a drink and a chat with a chance to play a game of pool where everyone knew the right rules. A meeting that was set-up with just a short message on Facebook.

____ The two biggest changes to truck-driving that have happened since I started, must be the cell phone and the internet. The days of being out of contact with the office have now gone. The grapevine of verbal information being passed from driver to driver is now done by a Bluetooth Headset. But is it a good thing? Sure, most of the truck-driving Ex-pats in South-east Manitoba are my Facebook friends, but the Internet has also been the cause of a lot of problems between my friends.

____ The Internet also gave us Ex-pat truck-driver forums which was always one sack of vipers that I thought I would never put my hand in. But I have done; with the hope of getting more blog readers and with the well-intentioned desire to answer some questions on life and work in Canada. A big mistake.

____Ex-pat truck-driver forums have got to be the most nasty on the planet. If the pen is mightier than the sword; then the lap-top key-board is mightier than an AK47 in the hands of a trucker. They make me want to go back to the good old days. But hang a minute; I remember the good old days, when you got a bunch of drivers and a lot of drink in a room together. Always, if there was any trouble, it would be the British drivers fighting amongst themselves. Same as it ever was.

____ The Internet is good, it would be really good without the hackers and the viruses; it would be really, really good without the hackers, the viruses and the ex-pat truck-driver forums. With any luck, they will die a slow lingering death; brought on by increased member disillusionment.

Load-Brokers : Love'em or hate'em.

____Day 1: Weather forecasts for the mid-west, plains area of the USA are usually very accurate. So when a Winter-storm warning is given for Nebraska and Western Iowa, I know there is going to be plenty of white stuff. The job needs a full 11 hours driving for two days if the peat-moss is going to be delivered to Rosser, Texas on Monday morning. The best option is to stick to the Interstate Highways, they get snow-plough priority and if they do get blocked; there are a lot more truckstops to rest in. Nine inches of snow falls but I keep going to reach the Sapp Brothers Truckstop at the Iowa / Missouri state border.

The snow had stopped falling by the time I came along.

____Day 2: Clear skies and bare / dry roads as I skirt the western side of Kansas City; taking the US Highway 169 south to Tulsa before Highway 75. A $6.50 section of the Indian Nation Turnpike brings me out at McAlester, Oklahoma, then Highway 69 and some more 75. Through the heart of Dallas, out the other side on Interstate 45, arriving at Rosser to find I am the third Manitoba peat-moss truck in the village.

Old Fire-tender was one of many interesting vehicles in the yard at Rosser.

____Day 3: It's a distribution centre for peat-moss, run by a small haulage company, who soon have all three of us empty and on our separate ways. My first re-load pick-up is in Grande Prairie, with a telephone number   to call for directions. On the third attempt, I speak to an over-friendly load-broker who says the place is difficult to find because it is on 110th street and not Carrier Parkway as I was told. Also the company name has changed from APD to LQT. Incredibly, I am hearing this from the person who gave out the original information. Later, he phones the office and complains that I was rude; after I objected to being groomed as the next truck-driving boy-friend of some old Texan poofter. I thought about calling him to say that my snipe bar would go so far up his arse that he wouldn't shit-right for a month; but that's probably just what he wanted to hear. With the re-conditioned engines loaded; my next pick was14 pallets of toys from Roanoke, a job I had done before. Then North to Big Cabin for the night, on my way to Lawrence, Ks.

The lake at Big Cabin, with a fine view of some un-used fridge trailers.

____Day 4: I don't always maximize the whole of the possible 11 hours driving-time, sometimes I will finish short at a place I know; for the food, a shower and a quiet night's sleep. Parking by the lake at the Big Cabin Travel Plaza is a favorite. Away at 08.30, to Lawrence for one heavy crate that's going to Edmonton. Then to Fort Calhoun in Nebraska; another pick-up that I have done before. Which is just as well; because, for the second time in 4 pick-ups, I am given the wrong company name and address!

This wind tower did have height-measuring pilot car in front.

____Day 5: The Caribou Coffee Cup Fuel Stop at Vermillion is always a good place to wake up; the skinny Latte is as good as any from Starbucks. Then it's the north-bound Interstate 29, homeward-bound, and a chance to see how much wax can be extracted from two ears, by one bent paper-clip, in 500 miles.
____Overall Distance: 4586 km.

Map of the options : Niverville to Dallas.

Not a ball and chain in sight.

Tub Thumping.

____Day 1: One thousand miles with a load of flax and a thousand ways of doing the job. Different drivers, different ways; same driver, different ways. Changing priorities and at the top of today's list: a new drivers license. The annual trip to the Autopac shop; where the Canadian Government has a nice little earner when everyone comes to pay for another year's permission to drive. So, a midday departure south on Interstate 29 to Vermillion, South Dakota.
____Day 2: North Dakota: 217, South Dakota: 252, Iowa: 161, Missouri: 123. Every one of the 753 mile Interstate 29 will be covered on this trip. From Pembina on the Canadian/US border to the heart of Kansas City where I turn onto Highway 71. Taking the very good four-lane 71 down to Joplin for a night at the Flying'J.

Old style accomodation on US Route 66 in Oklahoma.

____Day 3: A good quick tip at the animal feed plant at Neosho; then a quick phone call to the reload address tells me not to hurry to Tulsa, as the stuff won't be ready till after lunch. An ideal chance to save the $16.50 toll on the Will Rogers Turnpike [Interstate 44] and take the old Route 66 through the towns of Afton, Vinita, Foyil and Claremore. Places that still show the dilapidation of the many prosperous enterprises that folded when the Interstate came pushing through. A traffic-free hundred mile drive in a sunny temperature of 19 degrees C. The load is "Donkey Engines" from the Arrow Engines factory, a place that reminds me of a visit I made to Patricroft; the home of Gardner. The same engineering emphasis; durability, precession and quality. Arrow engines are made to run 24 hours a day and for 60 years! No hi-tech, light-weight, high-powered throw-away rubbish from Arrow. Then after two and a half days of poodling about; it's time to put in a serious six hour stint at the wheel and get to Omaha. Within a days drive of ma home. Ha,ha.

New style accomodation : The Hard Rock Hotel at Tulsa, Ok.

____Day 4: Northbound Interstate 29, all day, cruise control on, arm-rests down and the mind wanders. Trying to think thoughts that remind me of the good times; trying to think thoughts that remind me of the best times. I've been knocked down, but I've got up again. Ain't nothing gonna keep me down. Freezing fog from Fargo through the rest of the trip; back in the yard by nine in the evening.
____Overall Distance: 3456 km.

A common sight on US roads : Will there always be enough wind?

Rapid Wisconsin Rapids, Wisconsin.

____Day 1: One thousand kilometres on a Thursday to put the truck on the doorstep of a Wisconsin papermill. Interstates 29 and 94 to Osseo; followed by an hour drive on a two-lane in the dark. Waste paper going for re-cycling.
____Day 2: The name,Wisconsin, comes from the Algonquain language; meaning "Land of edible candle-wax." Besides tasteless cheese, paper products are a major state industry with paper-making mills straddling all the area's rivers at fast-flowing points such as Wisconsin Rapids. Un-surprisingly; my reload is reels of paper going to Winnipeg from the nearby town of Mosinee.

Early morning sun-light at the papermill.

____Day 3: Although the drop was reachable in one day; I only got back to Grand Forks by the end of the second shift. Tipping, loading and getting Dirty Eagle #31 washed at Fargo left me with too much to do. But it was good to get a clean truck back to the yard on dry and bare roads. Just working the Saturday morning; just like it always used to be.
____Overall Distance: 2092 km.

Old cabover ending it's days as a billboard.

Flying Eagle #31 at Niverville, Manitoba.

Anthony Henday : the Man and the Drive.

____Day 1: A continuation of the trip with the rubber tubing and the skid steer; delayed due to a snow-storm in Indiana. The groupage truck from Georgia with two consignments for the Edmonton area arrives late on Sunday morning. So it's a mid-day to mid-night run through to Redcliff with snow-flurries and a head-wind.
____Day 2: After an eight-hour break, the job gets back on track with the quick off-loading of the skid steer at Rimbey. It's 90 miles to Edmonton but with just single pallets for the next two drops; I am at the last delivery warehouse just before they close. A hard days work that finishes at the Acheson Husky Truckstop and an early night.

Peterbilt cabover : an ideal shunter inside a narrow tyre warehouse.

____Day 3: Anthony Henday was born on the Isle of Wight and worked for the Hudson Bay Company. In the 1750's he lead an expedition from York Factory, along the Nelson and North Saskatchewan Rivers, to the area that is now Edmonton. Highway 216, the in-complete Edmonton ring-road, is named Anthony Henday Drive. The latest section to open is the West to North-east segment; which I use for the first time, going from Acheson to Fort Saskatchewan for the collection of some herbicide. Then it's a full days drive to Broadview, Saskatchewan.

Typical Albertan Oil-field Oversize Load.

____Day 4: Still dark and minus 4 degrees C, I am combining the pre-trip vehicle check with an early morning pee when splashes hit my face. Not that I'm waving it about while trying to write my name in the snow: it's starting to rain. Freezing rain that covers the truck, the trailer and the road in a covering of ice, in minutes. Being on the customer's doorstep gets the load delivered on time; then the order comes to return empty to the yard. I'll back my driving skills against any thing that Mother Nature has to offer; the speed just has to match the conditions. My speed for the condition called "Freezing Rain"- a big fat Zero. But by 10 o'clock, the gritters have made a pass and some brave souls have ground in the salt and sand with their 18 wheels. Back in Manitoba, the roads are bare and dry when the wind whips up, blowing snow into blizzard conditions under a clear sky to finish the trip.
____Overall Distance: 3140 km.

The Route of Anthony Henday : still a mighty journey after 250 years.





Arkansas : The River and the State.

Russellville, Arkansas, is the red dot between Seminole and Lonoke.

____Day 1: Flying Eagle's practice of having pre-loaded trailers, ready to go South of the Border, lets a driver hit the ground running on every trip. But this Monday morning; I have to empty-out a trailer, full of plastic granules, in Winnipeg before I go to Elma and load peat-moss. Over 350 kilometres and half a day's work before I am in the US; heading down Interstate 29 to Stone's Truckstop at Watertown, South Dakota. A smart independent travel plaza with an upstairs bar and lounge; serving Michelob Ultra, a refreshing lite beer not found everywhere.
____Day 2: Overnight snow and a dash-board temperature read-out of minus 16. The complete length of Interstate 29 down to Kansas City before three hours of Highway 71; watching the temperature slowly rise to Zero by the time I get to Joplin, Missouri.

Plant Farm at Lonoke, Arkansas.

____Day 3: An early start, with 280 miles to go. Into Arkansas and through Bentonville, home of the state's biggest employer: Walmart. Through Little Rock, the state capital, and on to the plant nursery at Lonoke; next door to the Remington Sporting Ammunition factory. Unloaded and back-tracking for a reload of rubber tubing from Russellville, one hundred miles up-stream along the Arkansas River. Pick-up number 2 is from Wichita, Kansas; but the rest of the day's driving allowance only gets me to Seminole, Oklahoma.
____Day 4: The 1460 mile Arkansas River flows from the Rocky Mountains in Colorado to join the Mississippi at the eastern border of Arkansas state. The 6th longest river in the USA gets it's name from the State: "Land of the down-river people." A lot of States are named after rivers: Colorado, Delaware, Ohio, Missouri, etc. but Arkansas is the other way round. The river also flows through Wichita; where I load a skid-steer at a plant next-door to the Cessna aircraft factory. Both consignments are for Alberta, but I get orders to head back to base.

Military order of skid-steers ready for deployment to desert terrain.

____Day 5: Overnight snow in South Dakota greets me for the second time in a week. Breakfast at the Coffee Stop Travel Centre, Vermillion, is spent watching the early-morning news from local TV. Details of delayed school buses and pictures of snow-bound town centres tell a grim story. But my truck is on Manitoba license plates, Canadian trucks don't sit about in US truckstops just because of a bit of white stuff. They get out there and go past everything in sight. By Fargo the roads are bare and dry; back in the yard by 4 o'clock in the afternoon and I do believe the nights are slowly drawing out.
____Overall Distance: 4686 km.

Bull-racks : aka. Livestock Haulers : usually only found in pairs.

Texas Triangle

____Day 1: No Customs and Border Protection Officer wants to be responsible for letting the next murdering terrorist into the USA and that justifies their intimidating, no-nonsense approach to the job. But also in their code of conduct; they are required to be helpful and give assistance when asked. I have a load of fabric that has to be bonded for transit through the US, from Canada to Mexico. I know that I need three copies of the manifest; signed and dated, but it hasn’t happened. It takes a series of polite questions from me to ascertain that I need to sign the papers first! Then they will sign and I good to go; dodging the inevitable bullet that would have come my way if I had arrived at Eagle Pass with useless customs clearance papers.


____Day 2: It was nearly mid-night when I reached Sioux Falls due to some trailer repairs causing a late start on the Friday. But this whole trip has been pre-planned and needs to get back on track with a full days driving; south to Oklahoma City’s Flying’J along the familiar Highway 81 and Interstates 135 and 35.

____Day 3: Sunday morning breakfast at McDonald’s and some guy is hitting on me for a hand-out. He is through my defences; which makes me think that he could be genuine. He has to get back to Wichita and needs money for gas [petrol]; he has slept in the car with his wife and child. The car is on Kansas plates and he is not the normal type to be begging; otherwise I would have seen him coming. I give him $20 and he gives me a place in his prayers. I can afford it and I owe it to all the people who have shown me kindness, over the years; but I do hate being conned. Back to work; all Interstate 35, until Exit 111 and the two-lane highway, westwards, to Eagle Pass on the banks of the Rio Grande.

Transhipping at the border.

What's Spanish for "Don't forget the legs."..?????

____Day 4: Backed onto an unloading bay overnight, it’s lunchtime before I am empty and heading for a reload at Alpine, Texas. Running alongside the border and past the Amistad Dam, where the Rio Grande becomes Lake Amistad. Through endless scrubland with occasional groves of pecan trees. Then, despite the near-desert landscape, it starts to snow; which is probably why it’s called Alpine. The pick-up is 60 miles south of the town, so with supplies for an evening meal and breakfast, I push on down to the Cowboy Mining Company.

At the Cowboy Mining Company, Texas.

____Day 5: It was here that Pete Young loaded Bentonite in May 2009, hours before being arrested as an illegal alien at a border checkpoint as he headed back to Canada. I have no such problems, but do have trouble with the weight of the load. After sliding the axles as far forward as possible; it takes a borrowed pallet-truck, from the TA workshop at Santa Rosa, and a lot of effort to move 3 one-ton bags to the back of the trailer. Not much weight allowance left for diesel and no chance of dodging the scales as I head for Calgary, Alberta. So far, so good at the day’s end; Thaxton Rest Area on Interstate 25.

Re-weigh ticket : not what I  wanted to see.

____Day 6: “Port of Entry” is another name for a glorified scale-house and is found at the border of all the states I cross on my way north. It will be a cold day in Hell when these places are closed and don’t call a Canadian truck into the office for a document inspection. I plan my fuel-stops after the scales in Colorado and Wyoming, but running through a blizzard, south of Denver, plasters the rig with ice, snow and more weight. I get a “Watch your weight” warning at the Cheyenne scale but no ticket. Wyoming’s Interstate 25 is a mixture of shiny hard-packed snow and sheets of ice; four and a half hours of ups and downs which leaves me with severe aching in my neck and shoulder muscles. Caused by the tension of letting 80,000 lbs of machinery roll down-hill at 75 mph on a thin white sheet of glass.

Wyoming Winter.

____Day 7: Out of Buffalo and into Montana at dawn where the roads are bare and dry. Fuel at Billings and the final push for the border at Sweetgrass; taking the two-lane short-cut across to Grand Falls. With an early Thursday morning appointment booked; I need another 1000Km day which gets me to the Petro-Canada truckstop at Okotoks.

____Day 8: Bentonite gives flexibility to plastics and a north Calgary plastics factory soon has me unloaded. Then it’s part three of my planned tour: south to Lethbridge for a load of flour; destined for Winnipeg. Another heavy load, but with Canada’s liberal axle weights, the extra 6000 lbs is legal. The country’s liberal driving-hours laws also work in my favour; in the US, I would need a re-set but in Canada I can push on to Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan and within reach of home.

The mill at Lethbridge.

____Day 9: Snow flurries greet my return to Manitoba, but the mildest Winter in decades has continued while I was away. Back to the yard at Niverville by mid-afternoon; completing the triangle.

____Overall Distance: 7878 km.

Rocky Mountain Sunset.

Longline Coronado.