Kent

M and I just got back from my "vacation", aka endless days of helping her stay awake while she drives us to and from Winnipeg (I don't drive). So, I felt it necessary to share the boredom with all of you, with a few lessons learned during the trip:

• Don't drive through Calgary during construction season. It actually makes the place worse.
• The legend of the "one hill" in Saskatchewan is true (with the exception of the Southwest corner, which is kind of cool). As an example of Saskatchewan's arch-flatness: for radio (no CD player in primitive car) we tended to listen to the endless (albeit high quality) chatter of CBC One. In BC we went through at least a dozen frequencies to listen, and had blank areas where it wasn't available. Alberta was equally filled with a variety of frequencies. Saskatchewan seems to have a *single* broadcast tower that covers the entire province.
• Winnipeg has changed, a little: three murders, a couple of knifings and assorted traffic fatalities while we were there. However, I still love the place, and would likely move into the Exchange district or Osborne Village in a heartbeat if someone I need didn't hate the place.
  
• I heard The Weakerthans' tribute to Winnipeg (that's the video, here are the lyrics if you'd prefer). Appropriate and amusing.
• Weddings suck. Wedding receptions suck even more.
  
• The Minot area of North Dakota continues to amaze me. Something inside me loves the Badlands (assuming the area that looks like Badlands around Minot actually is, it might just be an extension of the Cyprus Hills or just independently cool). Of course, it felt so much safer now that the two nukes had actually been removed (they will neither confirm nor deny there are any others).
• Small town Montana is scary at night: it's dark, no one walks anywhere (ATVs roam the streets like some bad post-apocalyptic movie) and a lone speaker caws tinny music by a closed mall.
• Montana (especially Northwestern) has to be one of the most glorious places on Earth. You are lucky if you work there (as it seems many don't)
  
• All I know about the state of Dave Smith Idaho is that it's thin at the top.
• Eastern central Washington is frightening. Endless fields of wheat, barley and alfalfa as far as the eye can see, with dust devils roaming freely throughout. We saw one lone deer looking for something he remembered.
• Getting home is the best of all when traveling. Fortunately, the place wasn't completely torn up/vomited on by our three cats.

The "story" of the trip, for those who want to know where we stayed each night:


Now, to relearn all this technical stuff and get back to work. Oh, and to find "it".