3000 KM to Kitchener

Crossing Canada with Ron

Image copyright 2005 Tim Warris

Ron (my brother) and I standing on the top of a mountain in Southern Alberta, I’m the one on the right freezing.

Actually, its 3480km (2162 miles), a long drive no matter how you measure it.

Why I am driving 3480 km to Kitchener is a bit of a story, which I will get into later. For now, I thought I would post a few images of the trip so far, and later tonight I will post more images and the story behind the drive. Right now, we have to hit the road….

Well, we hit the road, briefly, but had to pull off in Winnipeg as the weather was making us a bit nervous, so it looks like I have some time to do up a blog post.

At the moment, we are about 1/3 the way back from Calgary to Kitchener, we have been on the road for 2 days and have passed through Saskatchewan and some spectacular parts of the country.

Who would have thought when we started Fast Tracks that two years later Ron would be moving back to Ontario after a 15 year vacation in Alberta. Anyone who knows Ron would understand how monumental that is, for some reason once someone moves west in Canada, they don’t seem to want to come back. Not sure why, this is what it looks like out there….

Image copyright 2005 Tim Warris

A typical summer day in Calgary Alberta.

Fast Tracks has grown to the point that we have to move into a larger facility. Currently the production is all done out of my house, which is now literally bursting at the seams. With my time limited, Ron offered to move back to Ontario (where we all grew up) for a year or so and help establish a new location and steamline procedures so we can keep up with growing demand. I have done all I can, its now to the point I need to get some help from someone with more experience in running this type of operation. Fortunately for me this is familiar territory for Ron.

Needing to drive back from Alberta, I offered to fly out there and join him for the trip. A long journey like this one goes quicker with two, plus I have always wanted to drive across Canada, I just didn’t want to drive back, so this was my opportunity for a one way trip.

I spent a couple of days in Alberta with Ron and my other brother and his wife, Scott and Penny, who moved out here 20 years ago. A visit here is always enjoyable, the scenery is spectacular! Scott is in the process of building a house in Crows Nest Pass, so we made a trip there and spent a day.

Image copyright 2005 Scott Warris

Scott and Penny’s humble abode hidden in the mountains of southern Alberta.

Image copyright 2005 Tim Warris

The three of us hiked up the ridge behind Scott’s place. This is the location where a back hoe almost completely disappeared in the mud!

Image copyright 2005 Tim Warris

Hiking up to the top of the ridge behind Scott’s place, almost killed me. In the distance behind me is the location of the Frank Slide. Here, 100 years ago, an entire side of the mountain broke free and buried the mining town of Frank. The debree field extends for over 2km (1.25 miles)

Image copyright 2005 Tim Warris

Ron and I looking back over Crow’s Nest pass. Scott’s house is about 500′ straight down.

Image copyright 2005 Tim Warris

Spectacular views! And extreme winds to match…

Image copyright 2005 Tim Warris

Here I am on a different mountain. On our way back to Calgary Scott drove us to the top of a mountain where an abanded open pit coal mine was once located. A long way up, and again extremely windy! The Rocky mountains in British Columbia can be seen covered in snow in the background.

Image copyright 2005 Tim Warris

This tree has seen its share of wind.

Image copyright 2005 Tim Warris

Its not all trees and rocks. We visited a Fast Tracks customer in Calgary, and were impressed with their track building progress, these guys don’t mess around!

After browsing around Calgary for a few days, we hit the road and headed east for home. For more on this journey, click here

Posted by: | 10-06-2005 | 08:10 AM
Posted in: Uncategorized