Blog 5 — A Few Provinces

Feels good to be on the road again. Currently driving West through Canada towards British Columbia. We’ve done the drive heading into Northern Ontario a few times now. Camping or visiting family. It hasn’t got old yet. Northern Ontario feels very much like a smaller version of British Columbia — a lot of forested mountains, surrounded by bodies of water. It’s a beautiful drive. Once you reach Manitoba however, the next Province over, it’s completely different. By different I mean flat. For miles. Actually for the next two Provinces! Now I do love Manitoba and Saskatchewan, but anyone who’s done the drive can confirm, there just isn’t much to see lol. Needless to say we put in a good few hours of driving each day. 

When going through Manitoba however, we did stop for a few days so I could get some training in at the same gym I had previously stopped at a few months ago while returning home from the West side of Canada— Gracie Humaita, Winnipeg. I really enjoyed training here. I was concerned that because it was during the Thanksgiving holiday weekend, it may be closed or have little-to-no attendance. Well, not only were they open but on Thanksgiving Day, I walked in to a 2-hour open mat session with about 30 people already rolling. Can it get much better than that? I really don’t think so. They even had another busy open mat session in the evening. So it was great to stay here a couple days and get a lot of rounds in. The weather was beginning to get cold though so we continued West. 

In Saskatchewan I was able to spend a few days in Regina at Complete Mixed Martial Arts. Their head instructor, AJ Scales is super nice and brings the pressure lol. He’s a big guy and can move like a cat. Great time here it’s a great team. I also met a fellow Globetrotter, Alvil Tayco, who was super cool. What’s up brother. 

By this time, flurries are beginning to accumulate in the small pockets of fallen leaves on the ground. The top layers of puddles on the ground have now frozen over. The wind is beginning to hurt my face. This means we’re likely overdue to continue driving towards BC. We have a furnace, so we’re fine hanging out inside the RV, however the point of this lifestyle for us, is to not have to be this cold at all. So, it was back on the road. 

When we arrived at our next destination, Calgary Alberta, it was 17 C and sunny. I was comfortably walking around in pants and T shirt. We had apparently just arrived after it had warmed up from a recent snowstorm they had. There were still large piles of melting snow along the sides of the roads. We took advantage of the good weather, stayed a few days and did some hiking in the area. It was fun to meet up with some old friends Gloria, David and Leeroy and all train together. We met up and trained at their local gym Josh Russel Academy. This was not my first time here so I knew the training is great and Josh has a killer team.

From Calgary we continued West and arrived in Banff. I could, and will be spending a lot of time here in the future. A resort town located within Banff National Park. Tons of stuff to do and all of it is amazing. The main street, Banff Ave, is lined with boutiques, restaurants and hotels. All surround by mountains and 6500 square kilometers of parkland, that home to animals like elk and grizzly bears.

45 minutes from West of Banff was our next stop in Lake Louise. Another amazing place. It’s tough not to walk around awestruck somewhere like this. A vibrant turquoise lake with a beach surrounded by gigantic mountains on all sides. You can watch the water run directly from the glacier down the mountain and into the lake. The melting water carries glacial silt that’s created when rocks underneath the surface of the ice are grinding from the movement of the glacier. The silt is very light and stays suspended in the lake water. The sunlight that reflects off the suspended silt is what gives the lake the amazing color.