I'm trying to get back on track here with updates, but since my 24 hours of internet has expired I'm having to type this in StarOffice and will have to upload it when I get a chance, so anyone reading this will be even further behind, sorry. The reason I haven't been doing updates is partly because I've been busy having a good time, and partly because internet connectivity has been limited. To bring this blog up to date, I'll detail the events from the last update which was I think me just having arrived and not being able to sleep on my first night in Canada. I would check that but hey guess what? – no internet!

The snow that had been falling when I penned my last entry fell from about 1am to 7am local time and was an inch or two deep when I set off in my Buick Allure – it's a grey one – after eating a nice cooked breakfast!

Oh I should say I never knew there were so many ways to have eggs – to me you get what the hotel serves, but here you have choices. I was told to go for over easy, which meant slightly runny yokes, as it was popular, so now I know what to go for next time. After setting off, I spent the morning as follows:

• doing battle with an odd petrol pump, more choices – prepay or not, fuel type (one hose 3 grades)




• finding out a green light doesn't mean go if you are turning left




• feeling very 2004 as chip and pin is not yet here in Canada




• fighting my satnav whilst trying to locate the toy train store – seems only east west roads in Calgary have been sent to Garmin's map people, luckily I had my A-Z from my 2005 trip.

In the end I got all my shopping done, and enjoyed the train store, which was having a sale so I got some nice bargains and made a few of my train buddies very jealous!
The drive to Edmonton was pretty easy, one long straight road, 3 hours driving with just one stop for lunch – sadly McDonald's, which as usual made me feel ill. One thing I noted about driving on the highway in Canada is the speed on the trucks. These are the full on trucks you see in the movies, and they are travelling at 110kph just like anyone else, so whereas in the UK you overtake and blast past the trucks, here they may well just be doing that to you. I did feel like I was in the movie Duel when one black, menacing looking truck was rapidly catching me!
Luckily my friends in Edmonton work pretty flexible hours so we could hook up quite easily over the next few days, references to “we” should be read as some combination of Aryn, her husband Reza and myself in the following day by day diary:

1. Thursday – I spent the morning very profitably railfanning, catching a number of moves out of the yard in between Edmonton and the oil refineries of Fort Saskatchewan. For the train fans reading this I got some good photos of an unusual slug unit, hence why is was worthwhile. I also got the obligatory visit from the local constabulary, who were pretty friendly, and had no problem with me being there and taking photos. In the evening we headed off to watch an ice hockey game. But since the local team, the Oilers were being thrashed by San Jose we commuted this into drinking too much and eating “wings” in all the flavours – the super hot ones were pretty awful.




2. Friday – We started off with breakfast in town (I plumped for waffles after having fruit and granola the previous day at the hotel), and then headed off to the Aerospace museum, which was pretty good, I'd recommend a visit, especially if they have the area open with the 747 tour (this was closed when we were there).




3. Saturday – Dim Sum! We hooked up with some friends of Aryn and Reza and headed to China town for food. Some of the things we had were excellent, but one or two were strange and nasty – rice made into a stogy lump of goo being one of them. Afterwards we drove around Edmonton for a bit before deciding to go to the museum. We never actually went around the museum, and instead took a trip around government house which is just in front of the museum building. It was quite an interesting tour, and the building had character, but it brought home to me how young this country is. Antiques are from the 1920s and 30s here, and people's (great)grandparents were the first white settlers in these areas. After the tour we walked along the river for a bit taking advantage of Edmonton's excellent parks and trails.




4. Sunday – I took time of to visit more of the parks, Rundle and Strathcona. Not too much to see here, except a couple of interesting bridges and views over towards Fort Saskatchewan, but a very pleasant walk. In the afternoon I got back together with Aryn and Reza and we wandered round the trendy Whyte St, where I bought a new hat. That morning's walking in the sun had highlighted the need for something with a wide brim, so I got this:
   

My hotel in Edmonton was the Glenora B&B, which on the whole was pretty good, clean, good service, and if you overlooked the excess of floral pattern on everything and the fact my heater was stuck at Volcano setting it wasn't that bad. Oh and I had to fix the double glazing to get it to shut...except that with the heater I generally had it open.

The trip to Jasper was pretty uneventful, and as might be expected the scenery in the national park is amazing. since processing images on this laptop isn't easy I'll upload the photos when I get home, but in the meantime you'll have to beleive me! Going to sign off now as I'm now in Kamloops, and extremely tired - todays drive was 4-5 hours with stops. I may return later tonight with an update of the last week.