Osoyoos or Chilliwack?

In Australia we have Wagga Wagga and Woolloommooloo, but the last few days we've been checking out places with first nations connections such as Osoyoos and Chilliwack.

Nk'Mip, Osooyoos

Osoyoos is nestled in the Okanagan Valley. It boasts it is Canada's only desert wine growing district. We didn't even know you find deserts in Canada, so go figure.

We dodged the rattlesnake signs near the Nk'Mip Cultural Centre and enjoyed a walk around the Lake where people have been fishing for centuries.

The drive from Osoyoos to Chilliwack along Highway 3 (apparently known locally as the Crowsnest Highway) takes a winding route through the mountains, following a river and offering fantastic views. The road drops away on both sides in places, so it was a struggle to keep my eyes open to take n the view. Hopefully David was watching the road!

We went past the Hope Slide, which is a huge landslide that occurred in 1965 after two earthquakes.

Further along at Chilliwack, people have been living in the area for around 5,000 years. Today it is one of the largest cities in British Columbia, although it is surrounded by a farming district and is near to Cultus Lake (one of around 2 million lakes in Canada), a beautiful area where you can get away from it all.

Cultus Lake, Chilliwack

Natural Highs

The US has some of the most beautiful natural scenery found anywhere in the world. For much of the past ten days we've been living higher than any point in Australia (Mt Kosciuszko is 7,310 feet or 2,228 metres, and Canberra is only 1,893 feet or 576 metes above sea level).

Mt Rushmore

We've been to the top of Pikes Peak, and Mt Evans, in Colorado, both above 14,000 feet. The views were great, but the air was thin and I found I had to concentrate to think and to walk (just as well I didn't have to chew gum too!)

On 21 August, an eclipse crossed the US, with many states
directly under the path of the total eclipse. There was a general frenzy, exemplified but the fact that Walmart sold out of eclipse glasses nearly a week in advance. We know because we tried unsuccessfully to buy glasses in places 300+ miles away on our travels to Colorado.

Lindy and Chris at Evergreen

Luckily our friends had enough for us, so we ventured to the Red Rocks Amphitheatre near Denver to take in the experience.

Somewhere in Wyoming

We've also been to Mt Rushmore, an amazing engineering and sculptural feat, and through some high mountain passes on the backroads in Wyoming.

Tennessee to Colorado

Our trusty Rav4 has made it across the Great Plains. Yes, we saw the Mississippi River, some bison (on a farm - sigh), some rollercoaster moraines, as well as miles and miles of sorghum and corn (almost as high as an elephant's eye).

Nothing will prepare you for the theme park that is Branson. Amongst other things it boasts a King Kong clinging to a high-rise in the main street.  You can attend any kind of variety or tribute show you can think of. And then some. If you love Las Vegas, you may well love Branson.

Dodge

No sign of Dorothy or Toto (or many people or businesses at all) in the town of Baxter Springs, following a tornado a few years ago. Sad sign of the tough economic times.

You might want to dodge Dodge, especially if you are a Texas longhorn. Some of the world's largest feedlots are dotted around this regional town. Think tannery and dial the smell down 25%. I'm officially off hamburgers for the foreseeable future!

Royal Gorge

Canon City is home to the Royal Gorge. Take the 2 hour train ride along the Arkansas River and enjoy the splendid views.




A little further down the road at Colorado Springs we took the funicular to the top of Pikes Peak (14,115 feet above seal level). Amazing views and a day to round out the bonus points for train enthusiasts.

The Garden of the Gods in the centre of Colorado Springs is a fabulous (free) natural attraction. Beautiful. Make sure to put this on your bucket list. Historic downtown is also worth a visit.

All Shook Up

Channel your Loretta, Dolly or Shania and get ready to party in Nashville. A tour down Broadway will give you that up close and personal experience with another 50,000 C&W music fans all out for a good ol' time. Y'all might never know who y'all might bump into.

In a party mood

Maple fans know that cowboy boots go with everything. If you already have yours on, you can strut your stuff, but you might still need a few essentials, such as a hat, oh, and feathers to go with it.

Y'all will need a hat

Down at the Country Music Hall of Fame, you can build up a thirst checking out the sequins, guitars and cadillacs.

Y'all can never have too many guitars and sequins

Over at the Ryman Theatre you can soak up more musical history and relive the highlights of this historic building.

When you've had enough you can fall into one (okay several) of the dozens of bars to listen to live music, kick back with those boots and remember to 'swing with who swung you'.

Southern Comfort

We've been enjoying southern hospitality over the past week in Greenville and Clemson, home of the champion Clemson Tigers football team. This experience mirrors the welcome I enjoyed as an exchange student in a town where everyone owns something orange.

Ian and David

In Greenville, it was great to catch up with our friend Ian and his wife Lindsey.

We soaked up the foodie experience, enjoyed the BMWs, and walked around the revitalised centre of town.

We tested out the lattes at Due South, a place hidden in the old printing district and discovered the coffee highlight of our trip so far. Congrats Due South!

Testing out the i8

Next time we have some spare cash we'll wish we were in Greenville where BMWs are churned out at an astounding 1450 per day. Perhaps they do mail order??

Clemson Tiger and Chris

In Clemson we stayed with my schoolfriend Chris, caught up with a 'herd of Tims' as well as Patrick, Steve and various family members. Remarkable after so many decades...they haven't changed a bit!

Apart from checking out the changes around town and around campus, we picked blueberries, walked to a waterfall and enjoyed a visit to the new DW Daniel High.

Carolyn and Chris

On that note, I'd like to also thank Carolyn Culhane and her family for hospitality last week, rounding out the Clemson retro experience.

Fiddle-dee-dee

"Open your mouth and let the moonshine in" with a healthy dose of fiddles, banjos, dulcimers, guitars, oh, and the spoons if you have a set! The Appalachian music scene is alive and well at Floyd, Galax and all points in between.

Street music with overalls, fiddles and 'flatfoot' dancing 

On Fridays outside the Floyd Country Store people gather informally in the street to play music and dance 'flatfoot' (think tap shoes and dungarees).

Inside, for a nominal fee, you can mix with the locals for a two-step, square dance, or more toe-tapping hillbilly fun.

Because 'Grandma's rules' apply (no alcohol, no swearing, no bad behaviour), all ages can have a good time - from the 8 year olds tapping away, to the 88 year old band member who stood up to play dulcimer and banjo for nearly 2 hours without a break.

8 to 88 years having fun at Floyd Country Store

The nearby Blue Ridge Music Centre contains a potted history of the influences on local music including instruments and musical styles from Africa, Germany, Ireland. Here are some things we found out today:

*the banjo is derived from a 3 or 4 string African instrument made from a gourd

*'hillbilly' music stems from a 1924 band called the Hill Billies

* Bill Monroe's Bluegrass Boys, dressed in overalls, led to what we call bluegrass music.

Bring your fiddle to Galax

If you want to hear the best fiddle payers around, be at Galax Virginia (population 7042) and join around 500 RV-driving, Appalachian music-loving country folk for the 82nd Fiddlers Convention.

If you have your fiddle, take it along. You could win $20,000USD.

Get-to-Burg

As we drove along one of the ten roads heading into Gettysburg we had no idea this civil war town would hold a charm that belies the tragic events that took place here 150 years ago. Here are some must do's in this town:

*visit the Heritage Centre to re-live what it must have been like to hunker in the cellar for three days of fighting (and ponder some more recent examples of besieged communities)
* walk around the first Soldier's National Cemetery (and think about how many more cemeteries there are today)

Civil War Battlefield Site

*drive to one of the many battlefield sites (and contemplate what it must have been like to go up and down the hill five or six times on the hottest day of the year in 1863)
*take photos of statues with men on horses (and remember the symbolism of the horse's legs - 2 in the air died in battle, 1 in the air died later from wounds, all 4 on the ground lived to see another day and died later)

History in the Street

*Think about the Gettysburg Address (and why so few words in the pre-Twitter age were so powerful)

Downtown Gettysburg

* check out the pretty streets (and marvel at the antiquities on sale)

* dine at Dobbin House, built in 1776 (and chew on that fact for a while).

Tres Chic

Imagine you are in the 7th arrondissement. You could, easily, but that might offend both the French...and the Quebecois! In Montreal there are beautiful parks (merci Le Notre), low-rise apartments in the Parisienne style, boulangeries, and cafes with tables and chairs in the sun - even when it's 9pm.

Late evening sun and a restaurant

Our apartment, in one of the iconic buildings (yes, you can find them on postcards), was in Rue Laval, handy to parks, restaurants and the metro.

We took advantage of this and zoomed around with our metro pass to the historic downtown area. We checked out the majestic town hall, Notre Dame Cathedral (why not?), various walking streets and the spot where the French apparently first established Montreal.

But don't presume Montreal is all retro faux-Parisienne chic. It does modern well too. The locals are proud of two major international events.

1) The 1976 Olympic Games (think Nadia Comaneci)

2) The 1967 World Expo.

We know they are proud of the first because you can visit the Olympic site and take a ride up to the top of the stadium on a funicular. The rest of the precinct is now museums and a cinema complex.







The 1967 World Expo has worked its way into the city's psyche. The island used for the Expo was created over several years with a truck of soil being deposited every minute for 2.5 years (that's not a typo...every minute for 2.5 years). Maybe you're getting the drift about the underlying tenacity exhibited by Canadians in general.

Rue Sherbrooke

So, they build an island. Then they recruit young women to represent each country at the Expo. Some of the country pavilions are still there (we checked them out from a boat cruise on the river).

Many of the young women recruited for the Expo are immortalised on film and through their costumes which are currently on display at McCord Museum in the Mode Expo 1967.

Almost the Champs-Elysées

Expo fun fact: when the Australians saw the British outfits (which had mini skirts) the Aussies had their's adjusted so they were shorter. It also appears they ditched the gloves and hats.


Armed with this insight into Aussies abroad, we ventured into Rue Sherbrooke with its galleries, upmarket hotels, street art, high-end fashions and Champs-Elysées air, looking for a photo opportunity.

Found a couple!

Not So Incy Wincy

Arachnophobes should look away now, because this spider is anything but incy wincy. Dwarfed by this sculpture outside the art gallery in Ottawa, we speculated about the rain needed to wash this beauty out of its water spout and onto the forecourt.

On show when we visited was art stretching from moccasins and walrus teeth carvings, to striking pieces like this one painted by what we presume to be a Canadian St Kilda supporter. We especially appreciated the despair and disbelief in the faces of the crowd.

The three game losing streak, represented by the central panel, adds depth to the anguish.

Lumberjack alert

In happier news, we were delighted to identify the recurring trope of early musicianship, the lumberjack, shown here in the pre-flannel stage of development.

Paying attention

As incy wincy foreshadowed, the artwork has started a long term strategy to escape the gallery and make a bid for power throughout the city.

We were only able to identify a few of the photo opportunities in the time available. 

Picto-what?

Indigenous art at Yankee Hat

It's a long way from Yankee Hat in Namadgi National Park near Canberra to the Shores of Gi chi Gamiing (Great Lake) in Ontario, but they share a common feature. Both have fabulous Indigenous art.

Yankee Hat is a great day walk to a rock shelter and overhang. At Agawa Rock, Gi chi Gamiing, there is also a rock shelter, but rather than being in a grassland setting, this is perched on the edge of the lake. The waves lap the ledge.

Canoe and Serpents at Gi chi Gamiing

On the Shores of Lake Superior

The Ojibwe art, described as pictograms, can be reached via a walk through a gorge filled with ferns and lichen. According to the information at the site, the Ojibwa people had been in the region for almost 9,000 years.

David near Agawa Rock

Near Agawa Rock

Lolly Gobble Bliss Bombs

Lolly Gobble Bliss Bombs, those 1970s gastronomic delights, have nothing on the food fads we've uncovered in Canada.

Even the Scots, whose kilts are a-quiver at the thought of deep fried mars bars, will have to do better if they want to restore their reputations for artery-hardening, sugar-induced psychosis.

Don't worry if chicken and gravy is not your thing...this is only the warm up! Knock it back with some fries (like cowboy boots, they go with almost everything).

You can have a sweet treat to 'round out' your meal. This is where the choices really 'expand'.

Here's how it works. Think of something sweet. Any thing at all. Deep fry it. Roll it in sugar. Or add chocolate. Chocolate is bound to be good.

Surely this is enough to excite those who could gobble a whole pack of the Bliss Bombs in a single sitting.





You can try the deep fried cheesecake, or for the young at heart, the deep fried oreos. What's not to like about a deep-fried chocolate biscuit?


I'm all for innovation, so here's a recipe suggestion that was not on the menu.

Don't just deep fry the cookie. Wrap the oreo in ice-cream, deep freeze it and then deep fry the whole thing. Just like deep fried ice cream, only better.

The best part is that you can add topping, marshmallows, sprinkles, whipped cream and nuts.

That would be something to get your teeth into!

Cowabunga!

Thunder Bay lives up to expectations because:

* it is the martial arts capital of Canada (we read the sign so it must be true)

Excitement in the 9th

* the Thunder Bay Border Cats thumped their cross-border baseball rivals the Mankato Moon Dogs 8-7 on Thursday night

* you can be hit in the head in any disc golf zone (hey - we've only heard of it recently too...go look it up!)

Don't forget to duck

* you can shoot the rapids in Boulevard Park (and if you are a salmon, you can navigate the thoughtful fish ladder back up river to spawn)

Rapids downtown

Walking around Lake Boulevard

Lake Boulevard one side of the weir...the other is Lake Superior

* the fireworks at Fort William Historical Park lit up the night with the biggest display outside the capital (Ottawa for those who are asking).

We enjoyed this pragmatic and industrious town. Next time you here, also check out the Lake Superior marshlands (home to flowers, birds and deer), the Museum full of local social history (including the shipbuilding, docks, commercial and mining sectors), and chat with the friendly locals at the Blue Door Bistro (been to Australia in the past) and at the Bight (now chock full of information about how to have a good time in Melbourne). 

Zombie Moose

'The best way of being kind to bears is not to be very close to them.' I considered this sage advice from Margaret Atwood as we left the prairie and Winnipeg behind and arrived in Kenora, situated on the Lake of the Woods. Of course, we all know about bears and woods, right? Even so, we encountered a sign that put this part of the world into perspective and made me wish I'd opted for the bear spray.

Not your average bear

Wildlife appears to be on most people's minds in this neck of the woods. We know this because:

* We drove past a deer casually eating the grass in front of a home on 2nd Avenue

* All the children's pyjamas in the shops were covered in fish, moose or bears

* You could buy a hunting license on the way into town

* Canada geese and their goslings were swimming on the lake

*Signs on the highway indicated zombie moose waiting to eat your car at night.

Nightmare on Elk Street?

Thinking about all the good times at the Boathouse in Canberra

The area around Kenora filled us with delight, not least because we were able to settle in at the Boathouse and enjoy the lake as the sun went down. We chatted with our 'hostess with the mostest', Alice, who was once on the Canadian swim team, whose father worked maintaining the TransCanada Pipeline, and who one day hopes to study medicine.  

Meanwhile she's dishing up food with the small talk, letting us know that not only does it snow in Kenora, but in winter the lake freezes over. Apparently people drive across to a nearby island. Hope they pack their anti-freeze and their insurance.


We decided to keep driving before any hint of winter appeared and lost count of the lakes and rivers we passed on the way to Thunder Bay. We're hoping it doesn't live up to its name because we're off to the ballgame tonight.

We'll let you know how the hotdogs and beer work out in the ninth!

Near Kenora

Gordon Lake? George Lake? Little Joe Lake?

Maple Street?

Who knew that Maple Creek was just waiting to be discovered by the intrepid Maple Dixie? Surely the highlight was the fabulous cutouts on the signs throughout this town a few kilometres off the TransCanadian Highway.

Maple Street in (where else?) Maple Creek

Maple Creek is one of the many rural communities dotted across the Canadian prairie between Medicine Hat and Moose Jaw. We visited quite a few of these communities that are surrounded by wheat, corn and canola. The huge fields have no fences and no trees - it's a green Nullarbor!

All that grain has to go somewhere

Even out here, the smoke from BC continued to make an impression with a hazy sky. Luckily we found a few places to stop, enjoy a change of scene, and even enjoy a few respectable coffees.

David in Maple Creek

Trainspotters will be excited to know that there are any number of long, looooong, trains carting produce across the country.

Trainspotter alert!

We also enjoyed some Canadian hospitality at a B&B in the oldest house in Moose Jaw and read up on the history of the area and tested out the pancakes and maple syrup.

Breakfast reading

After all this sitting and eating, Maple is off to do a little walking and contemplate a new exercise regime!