Recollections

Music - Lebanese Blonde by Thievery Corporation.

This marks my third vacation-themed music video -- the other two of course were from Europe. I did not have access to Adobe Premiere this time (my editing program of choice) due to the fact that Adobe has stopped offering trial downloads since the last time I wiped my hard drive. Once again I used music from the Garden State Soundtrack and I think it works pretty well.

The editing software I settled on was Windows Movie Maker (free) which doesn't allow for much control over the editing process, but I think it turned out pretty well anyway -- especially considering I had roughly 10% as many pictures to work with as I did when putting together my Europe videos. Enjoy!

On the road again

Day three was by far the best day of the trip so far. With Manitoba behind us, we were looking forward to Sioux Narrows Provincial Park for some camping. We started the morning with breakfast at a nice sit-down Pizza Hut in Kenora, ON. It had a great view of a harbor and the waiter was a hilarious and very friendly older gentleman. We ordered water to drink he replied, “Very good. The only time you have to worry about the water here is when you see me running down there with a bucket (pointing at the pier below).”

After a bit more driving, we arrived at the park and were greeted warmly by a man cutting down dead trees at the gate. “Colorado? Boy you’re really lost.” He informed us that the park manager recently had a hip replacement and invited us to take a look around the park before meeting with her. We made a couple laps around the campgrounds and found a great spot for our tent before heading into her house/manager’s office to say hello. She was laying there in a bed with a huge pile of books and welcomed us along with the man from the entrance. She was very spirited and funny, a hearty old Canadian woman.

There was some confusion, however, because when I asked how much it would cost to stay there she replied, “Twenty-five and twenty-five.” After returning to camp and thinking about it, I didn’t know if that was $25 each, $25/day for each of 2 days, $25.25 or what. So we made another awkward hike back for clarification and it turned out to be $25.25, which seemed kind of random to me…

The park itself was very odd because they insisted on bringing everything to us. We didn’t pay at the gate, rather we set up tent and a few hours later someone came by in a truck to collect the pay for the day. We stopped by the manager’s office again later to ask for wood and she shooed us away, saying someone would bring it to us. For dinner, we took a trip to the town of Sioux Falls a few kilometers away and bought some bratwursts. However, not thinking, we neglected to buy either a lighter or lighter fluid.

Starting the camp fire proved difficult. Not only was it windy, but it had rained and all the wood we had collected was wet. In vain, I squinted hard at the fire but the death rays of my yester-youth failed to produce any semblance of sparks. Jenn impressed me with her ingenuity and lit a citronella candle we had along and poured the hot wax over some of the wood. This acted as a very weak fuel but was enough to get the fire started after about an hour. Soon our sausages were plump and our bellies full.

Earlier in the day, we had tried our hands at fishing -- with no luck -- but after some roasted marshmallows, we decided to have another go. Again, we never caught anything but it was a lot of fun nonetheless. We were some of the only people at the campsite and were pretty much always the only ones down at the water’s edge. There weren’t any real bugs to speak of and the weather was cool.

The night itself was freezing, but we bundled up in the tent and made it through ok. We spent this morning playing around at the beach and stopped by a nearby playground as well. We spent some time messing around on the swings before proceeding to the teeter-totters.

Laughingly we rose up higher and higher. I had a thought that I could trap Jenn in the air so I pushed down as hard as I could at the peak of my arc. I was able to hold her in the air for a few seconds but her momentum slammed her back down hard and launched me haphazardly into the air. I would probably have flown forward over the bar but, fortunately, I caught my groin on the handle and tumbled softly over the side amidst kaleidoscopic visions.

After that, we packed up camp. We had to wait an hour for one of the park guys to get back from lunch so we could pay and check out but then we were on the road again. Today is our 1 year anniversary together so we decided to go on to town for a hotel so we could clean up and go out to dinner.

Winnipwned

The next morning we scampered out of the hotel a few minutes after checkout and proceeded towards Canada. After a short time, we had reached the border and prepared ourselves for border patrol. The line of cars coming from Canada to the U.S. stretched almost a far as the eye could see. Not to be discouraged, we pressed on and joined the maple leaf pilgrimage of the three cars ahead.

I would have assumed I had learned something from Europe, but once again, when border patrol asked what we would be doing I replied with, “Camping.” Nobody wants vagabonds in their country and he immediately wanted to know where we would be staying. I had no idea and the look of mild amusement on Jenn’s face didn’t provide me with any answers either. After another harsh round of questioning, he finally relented and Jenn and I were permitted to enter the country along with our economic stimulus checks hot from the press.

I had the idea that we should spend a day in Winnipeg, Manitoba before heading on to our beloved Ontario. It seemed like a good idea in the trip-planning phase, but there was one crucial flaw in the design of my plan: Winnipeg sucks. To be fair, I’m sure it has its good points but we had a hard time trying to find any. The drive to the city from the border was like driving through a dust bowl, it was incredibly expensive (we’re talking $100+ a night for Best Western-style hotels vs. $45 in Fargo), and the city itself was frustrating to navigate by car. In some cases, stoplights do not have turn arrows. Rather the round green light itself will just start blinking, indicating you can turn.

Ultimately, our frustration, combined with Jenn’s unwillingness to use the makeshift bathroom I offered to make out of a leaf pile, forced us to leave the city earlier than expected and we made our way towards Ontario. However, we did manage to make a good time of it before we left and we spent some time in a nice sculpture garden and the Winnipeg Zoo.

On our way out, we decided to stop by a casino as they offer free currency exchange. Jenn and I each set aside $20 to gamble. Much to my chagrin, she ended up with around $21.50 and I finished somewhere around $18.00 . There wasn’t anything to do hardly but slots so after a while we left, feeling refreshed and happy. Nothing much happened that day until our hunt for a motel later that night.

After going from one hotel to the next asking for prices (with our phones off to avoid international roaming fees) we finally settled on one with a somewhat more reasonable price (still around $80). They gave us the key to the room but it turned out the door was unlocked. There was no deadbolt or chain or anything, just the little turning-lock mechanism on the knob. Did I mention the hotel was also a bar? As such, I piled a chair and all of our luggage in front of the door for a little extra safety and (thankfully) we survived the night.

Vacation at last

Well, after many months of waiting, our vacation has finally arrived. We're only a few days in but already we have some pretty memorable memories in the making.

We headed out last Thursday around 9:30am which was only an hour and a half later than we had planned (pretty good for us!). We had planned out the first day to be our longest day of driving, though all in all it wasn't too bad. We drove continuously for the most part, until around dinner time. The pickings were rather slim in South Dakota but we did manage to find a charming little restaurant called Pizza Ranch.

We sampled much of their food by means of an all-you-can-eat buffet and it was rather good and quite varied. There was, however, one pizza that threw me for a loop. It had little green flecks of mysterious danger which I had originally assumed were jalapeños. Later, after having placed the flavor somewhere between fish-market and hot dog, it finally occurred to me that it was pickle. My initial reaction of horrified optimism escalated quickly to horrified nausea and I pushed back the lump in my throat in time with the food on my plate. Interesting to note, Jenn has been known to call me her "pickle pie" on occasion. In light of my recent experience I am deeply offended.
Things went rather smoothly afterwards as we continued on towards our destination for the night: Fargo. However, my Garmin navigation device did manage to provide us with a little excitement. After having been second-guessed all day by Jenn's antiquated road atlas (2006 called...), it finally got fed up and retreated to its happy place somewhere on the other side of the screen. No manner of power button pushing (I tried at least 240 times) nor gentle cooing could bring it back to life and we were forced to navigate briefly by colorfully-detailed dead tree matter before I realized that my cell phone also has GPS; as such, we were able to navigate that last 120 miles of straight-line highway without incident.

A quick look at the user-guide online at the hotel suggested pressing the 'reset' button which did the trick.

Vacation route

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Birthday

Last Tuesday was my birthday. Overall it was a nice, relaxing weekend. In order to celebrate, Jenn and I took a three (read: four) day weekend off from work.

Sunday night we had dinner with my mom at her house along with Jenn's dad and brother. It was a little bit awkward but mum made some apple pie, so all was well. The next day Jenn and I took a little trip back to 1876 and I snapped a couple nice black and white photos during a hike in the foothills. The only camera that I had on me was my cell phone. It doesn't recreate color well, so generally I take black and white pictures when appropriate.

Afterwards, I took a much needed nap in the parking lot of a waxing salon -- amidst inquiring glances -- whilst Jenn finished prepping for another intense round of wedding dress shopping. Soon it was time to head to my dad's for birthday dinner number two. We had a nice spaghetti dinner and a crumble (yes dad, crumble) for dessert.

On my actual birthday, Tuesday, we mostly just lounged around the house and had some much needed relaxation. I spent the morning brewing a batch of beer in my new Mr. Beer Home Brewing Kit and Jenn made me a delicious Angel Food cake.

Ironically, that very same day Sprint held a quarterly drawing for prizes. Under our current system, you earn points based on your attendance. The point totals are then broken up into different tiers and you qualify for different prizes based on how many points you have. The very top prizes are pretty amazing. I believe they were paid trips to Las Vegas this quarter. At any rate, I won a $300 Tivo HD digital video recorder (like a digital VCR), which was waiting for me upon my return. Jenn and I don't actually have cable so I am unsure what to make of this gift, as it is a little cumbersome for a paperweight. I am deciding between selling it on Ebay or possibly leaving it at one of my parent's houses while I am on vacation to record some shows, hehe.

Notable birthday loot is as follows:

Special thanks to my brother, Nathan, for the pickle.