Road Trip - Part One

Some of you may be aware that the Cowboy is a man of many talents. Not only is he good with animals (friends teasingly call him the Cow Whisperer), but he can run almost any piece of equipment. In fact, when he's not ranching, that's how he makes his living (because nowadays, no-one can make a living as a rancher, but that's a rant for another day...)

In this northern area, most industry that takes place in the bush has to shut down for spring break-up. They can't travel the roads when the frost is coming out of the ground. So the Cowboy has been home, working on the ranch and resting. Spring break-up coincides with calving season, which works out well for the Bag Lady! (yes, she planned it this way! Ha ha) Well, apparently, spring is over. The Cowboy got a call that he is needed back at work starting today (weather permitting), running a log-loader. But before he could even lament the fact, his boss called again and asked him if he could haul some equipment this weekend. Hence the road trip!

He had to haul a piece of equipment to the town of Slave Lake, then pick up another piece of equipment there and bring it back. So he invited the Bag Lady to go along as his "swamper". Many years ago when the Cowboy had his own truck, he and the Bag Lady did some highway hauling, and she quite enjoys the odd trip. She was also aware that this would probably be her only chance for a holiday! So she grabbed her trusty video camera and off they went. Unfortunately, she didn't have time to charge the battery in said "trusty" camera, so it died relatively soon after they got on the road.

A measure of how determined she was to share this road trip with you is the fact that when they
stopped at a little place along the highway for a bite to eat, she paid an enormously inflated price for a disposable camera!

The town of Slave Lake lies at the eastern tip of the lake, so when you are traveling from the west, you catch occasional tantalizing glimpses of the lake for almost 100 km (62 miles). It is the second-largest lake within Alberta's boundaries, stretching over 100 km in length, and 15 km across at it's widest point.

But first we have to get there....

This is the dashboard of the truck:

Crossing a bridge:

Over this river:

Here's an old hip-roof barn. Almost missed it - it's hard to take photos from a moving vehicle, especially one with a really large side-mirror blocking half your view!

Another bridge:

Another river!

The Bag Lady also managed a little video before the battery died in her camera. It isn't very good (as usual, she had the camera set wrong, so it's a little blurry), but she wants you to hear how noisy it is at times. This is going down the hill approaching the first bridge in the photos above.

She tried to show on the video (in the side mirror) what the equipment looked like that was on the truck. Here is a better photo of it:
And now she's off to town to get the pictures developed from the disposable camera! With any luck, some of them will turn out and she can show you the rest of the trip!