h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

And, a dark side of real life:

"Within one hour 27 people had been killed, more than 300 others injured, at least 300 homes destroyed and over $300 million in property damaged"

http://www.cbc.ca/edmonton/features/black-friday/

That's a quarter century that has passed in an eyeblink.

>>..you are all asking where your cricket bats are? <<

Nah, I saw mine up in the belfry when I was adjusting
my TV antenna to ensure the best poss reception. They
did seem quite keen to get flying though and get this
show on the road. I've heard the Opening Ceremonies
will somehow involve real grass, sheep and cricket.

~jwf~

There's a symphony of crickets and grasshoppers all August, every August here. I rather enjoy it. Plus, it's free.

The fest is good, I had jerk chicken with rice and beans with a very good hot sauce on the side. I couldn't find my favourite hot sauce vendor, he has been replaced by a booth that sells nothing but bbq rubs. It's a pity since his sauce from last year is nearly gone and will be sorely missed.
Lots of young coconuts this year, three booths. I drank two but the meat was hard to peel off. I did hear that coconut farming is not self sustainable as forests are burned to clear the land. Pity for something that is so delicious (one of the bands had a song 'Johnny Walker and coconut water'- I don't think I'll be trying that any time soon).

Finally got away on the summer road trip!

Edmonton to Slave Lake (where the big fire was last year), and then on past Sucker Lake (hometown of legendary Cree activist Harold Cardinal and his famous nephews Lorne [actor] and Lewis [activist/politician]) to end the day on the banks of the mighty Peace River in the town of the same name.

I'm ashamed that in all my years of road trip`s, I've never come north before -- and this is hardly even North.

I've seen those places on the map, but have no idea what they're like. Might I coax you into doing a journal about your trip?

Edmonton is already North!
Indecently north!

I once had a stop-over at the airport in Saskatoon
in mid December (all part of the travel plans made
necessary by non-smoking laws that prevent persons
like myself from flying for more than a thousand
miles at a time) and marvelled at how low in the
southern sky a very limp, smallish sun was rolling
past what was supposedly the noon hour. But that
far north in mighta been midnight, who knows.

~jwf~

Actually, Edmonton is about the same latitude as Glasgow

Peace River is pretty close to the latitude of my ancestral land, The Black Isle, just north of Inverness.

And Halifax is, of course, roughly on a line with Marseille.




When I think about it, before yesterday, apart from over-the-pole flights to Europe, I'd been farther north in the UK than I'd been in Canada.

Hi, Paul.

Now I'm in Grande Prairie, which is only a couple of hours from Peace River, but it took us about ten hours of driving to get here due to a huge detour through north-eastern British Columbia (partly on the Alaska Highway).

Tomorrow we'll do the almost five hundred kilometres home to make a nice round 2000 over three days.

I don't know about a journal entry.

There. I did a draft of a journal entry.

Yeah Halifax is very close to 45 degrees latitude.
Therefore any variation, northward or south from
this happy medium, has a startling effect upon my
natural Canadian spirit of Goldilocks compromise;
it leaves me feeling all off bbalance, a sense of
vertigo whelms up as I imagine the abyss of polar
extremities.

~jwf~

"There. I did a draft of a journal entry" [Anhaga]


Very impressive!

I did a lot more after that. Over the course of four driving days, I did almost 3000 kilometres. The westernmost point was the Peace Canyon Dam in B.C. and the easternmost was Cold Lake on the Alberta Saskatchewan border. Northernmost point somewhere around Charlie Lake, B.C. and Southernmost back home.

I bet there were some beautiful sights along the way.

Certainly! All along the way.