Truckers and Tipis (or vice versa)

Joel and I are now in Winnipeg, Manitoba. We're rather impressed with our hitch-hiking ability. We left Andrew, Alberta on Monday's noon and arrived in Winnipeg on Tuesday night.Here is a reprise of what has happened.

We went to Andrew with my cousin Jamie from Edmonton. We had a lovely spending Thanksgiving with my aunty Jan and Uncle Barry. They had all their kids and then some over for Thanksgiving, it was a packed house. Joel and I actually slept out side in the camper.
Two important notes of interest Joel and I learned about small prairie towns. Most have a giant sculpture of sorts as their major attraction. Their second major attraction is some sort of arena or dirt pit. Andrew is not lacking in either of these areas; They sport a giant malyard duck as well as the dirt pit and not to forget a minigolf course. The malyard duck is a good contrast to the next town over, Mundare's, giant sausage.

On Monday Jamie and his girlfriend, Raelyn, dropped us of in Vegreville. Joel and I managed to hitch a ride in about 15 minutes from a kind older fellow. He was originally from Ireland but had been teaching in Sasketchewan for the last 25 odd years. Our next ride came from a man of many trades who lived in Saskatoon. He dropped us off on the outskirts of the city, much out of his way.
We were unable to hitch a ride that night, but we did get to sleep in a teepee beside the highway. At first I was joking with Joel about sleeping in it, then we realized that neither of us wanted to pay 80 dollars to stay in the motel across the highway. So we bunkered down in the teepee. We covered the top with a flap and managed to record part of a song. (So far the song recording/writing is going well for each province)
After a long night of little sleep and a little rain and country music, Joel and I got up for breakfast at the greasy spoon diner next to us.
Whence we set upon the road again we only waited about half an hour until a trucker actually stopped for us. We never stick our thumbs out to truckers because it's usually too hard for them to stop their rigs. But this guy hammered on his brakes and we could hear the engine brakes working overtime. First words "What the **** are you doing in the rain?"
This fellow was the average trucker, tatoos of naked women on his arms with a foul mouth and humour to boot. However he was a very nice guy in his own way, if a little rough around the edges. He was from Lethbridge and had been doing an all-nighter truck haul of train rail. He dropped us off in a small group of houses called Grenfell. From there we got a ride after an hour and a half of waiting in the frigid wind from big man who looked like the stereotype Jewish "Uncle Joe". He was a big man with thick black curly hair and a massive greying beard to contrast it. He took us to Moosamin.
Joel and I were back on the road and it was getting dark. No one wants to pick up hitchers in the dark, it already makes us scarier than we already are. On a side note, Joel and I have decided to let him stand in front. He's much less intimidating than myself because he lacks a beard and the height. So I make sure he's clean shaven and he makes sure that I stand in the back.
After fifteen minutes Joel turns to me and says "I know why we're not getting any rides!" And he promptly walked up to face traffic in front of me. In about half an hour we had a ride from another trucker.
This guy is the nicest man we've had a ride with yet. He had seen us when we where hitching in Saskatoon but he was headed north. When he saw us in Moosamin he actually turned around the road, came back and picked us up. His name was Alan and he was a trucker from Tennessee. It was his second time in Canada and he's still getting used to our metric system. First words "I figured y'all looked purdy cold". Alan took us to Winnepeg as it was his stop on the way home. He dropped us off at the Flying J trucker stop.

He's been the first person our entire trip to ask us our names.

(our camera's broken, going to find a new one)

Documentation Updation

Here rest my fingers again. I admit that I have had a lack of humourous log postings for quite some time. Now I hope to make them a little more consistence through the months to come. I hope to chronicle the adventure that I, with my friend Joel, are embarking upon.
To bring friends up to date: My friend Joel Brandt and myself are hitch-hiking/bussing/training across Canada. We both have a band called O For Orange together and we plan to record music as we go. This means Joel is packing his keyboard-with-a-strap and I my guitar (and jingle bells). We are going to attempt a minimum of one song per province (not including territories). These will be uploaded from time to time upon our site (www.myspace.com/ofororange).
We also plan on working on some farms along the way in return for our stay. (This is called, no joking, wwoofing. Check out wwoofing.ca if you're interested) Hopefully this will give us a good chance to see what Canada is really made of. Not that there's anything wrong with British Columbia. It's just a little temperate and I would like to see some real snow and feel some real, dry cold.
First stop- Jasper. The only town I've been to that has a full-fledged store dedicated to Jelly Belly jelly beans. We leave day after tomorrow.

We're also not exactly sure of what order we're visiting towns. We circled all the towns on our map where we know people and played connect the dots. If anyone knows of any place we might be able to stay. Please let us know. We're willing to work for stay.

Bio Homework Cryptogram (Why I get a C)

Brain Function Questions

Complete the following assignment and put in the
dropbox by the due date

1. 3 marks
a. Which system of the body is the brain part of?

The thinking one

b. What type of cells carry out the brain’s functions?
The smart ones

c. How do these cells communicate with each other?
They hit each other and say "pass it along"

2. 3 marks
a. Which part of the brain is the most important in distinguishing the mental capabilities of the mammals from other animals?
The little bit in the middle, all about emotions.


b. Give 4 functions of the mammalian brain
Eating
Sleeping,
Music (may be specific to individual)
Thinking


3. Identify the part of the brain responsible for each of the following: 5 marks
a. Synthesis of oxytocin
oxytocin synthecater
b. Relay centre which allows coordinated movement
Sarah, Belle uhm...
c. Can cause an increase in blood pressure
Drugs, Deepfried Mars bar and siblings
d. Relay centre for the part of the brain which interprets sensory stimuli
Thal. A. Mus
e. Voluntary control of muscle activity
Fight or flight Response Control system.

People Who Should Be Shot.

Those who use the word "Conformist"

Those who can't differentiate between "they're", "their", and "there" when spelling.

Those who use the word "Anti-conformity"

Those who write lists of people who should be shot.

Can You Guess the Item?

This is a slightly different post. I had to write and describe an object without naming it. This one was pretty easy, but I had fun writing it. Feel free to guess.

Flip flop the opening and closing never stops

Click clack rata tit tat rounded buttons with a straight flat back

5-4-3-2-1-2 if the bars go all down you don’t know what to do

Clock with no hands, and mail with no stamps.

Grandfather had no tone only a string

Nowadays it has a tone but no ring

Disassembled voices tripped out over waves

It’s a far cry from when men lived in caves.

A London Fog, of Tea

I have been giving a fair share of my thoughts, and that's saying something, to tea as of late. I have been wanting to drink tea for a while now. This is in part because I have a crystalized ice tea problem. The other part is I like hot drinks.
However, I have run into a slight dilemma. I have a fair amount of choice and I'm an indecisive creature at best.
This might help someone understand my predicament.
We have:

8 boxes of Earl Grey (Harrods, Stash, Williams and Magor, Jacksons of Piccadilly, oh and Harrods #42, dear lord St. Dalfaur, oh found yet another Dilmah, holy freaking smokes Edinburgh Tea and Coffee Company)

4 boxes of Chai Tea; white, red and black( Stash, Western Family, Celestial Seasonings, and President's Choice)

3 boxes o Morning Tea (2 are Harrod's and Jacksons of Piccadilly)

2 boxes of Afternoon Tea ( Harrods, and Jacksons)

2 box and bag of Yorkshire Tea (Family Tea Merchants)

2 tins of Camomile Tea (unidentified and Tetley's)

3 boxes of Green Tea (some japanese and Reward)

2 boxes of Honey Citron (Celestial Seasonings)

1 box of Sleepytime (Celestial Seasonings)

1 bag of Mango Darjeeling Black Tea (Celestial Seasonings)

1 bag of Rutherford Rose (Acquired Taste)

1 box of Kiwi tea (Yogue)

1 box of Christmas Morning (Stash)

1 box of Assam Tea, hey that's me (Harrod's)

1 box of Lemon Zinger (Celestial Seasonings)

1 box of Wild Jumbleberry Herbal Tea (Compliments)

1 box of Empire Tea (our favourite, Harrod's)

For a grand total of 35 containers of tea!
Please forgive me for not looking at the back of the cupboard or in other cupboards. I also didn't have the heart to count individual tea bags.

I think I'm allowed to say, we are steeped in Tea.

Map Making

Heading south-southwest down the Cape Horn. The three-story high swells have adequately allowed the area to be known as the "roaring forties". Sail further and one will experience the "furious fifties" and worse, the "shrieking sixties". I've often wondered how many men have given the thought of going to hell just to warm up a consideration. With waters bellow zero, as well as decks becoming ice rinks, and rigging freezing to the point of being as hard as iron the weather shows it's cruelty. This would not frighten many sailors. It is the sea itself, in all her anger, grace, and volatile moods. Imagine waves the size of a small hillock, sixty to eighty feel high and with a crest. Maelstroms with depths as high as the masts on a tall ship. A well earned name for this expanse is the "God forsaken seas". Ships are in good fortune to pass it unscathed by The Cape Horn's beauty and danger.
I've just described what anyone wishing to map the west coast of the "new land" had to go through. The more I think about it, the more worth it would seem to be. Indeed, the descriptions put forth by early explorers have made the new world appear to be the paradise once lost.
However, this is not entirely what I wish to put forward. Plainly said, I wish there was more undiscovered land right now. I feel robbed of the chance to go and find something worth finding. To be the first person there and simply say "I am the first person here".
I have become slightly agitated at my inability to look at a map or chart and read "thus Ends all Known waters". Every islet , peninsula , protected harbour or cove is mapped. One can simply go to Google Earth and type in either the name or the coordinates for it and bang, there it is. I want to go somewhere, with great effort , and be able to say, this is what I know about here.
Some could call this arrogance. I'm not sure what I'd call it. I think I am a little tired of being able to know anything I want anytime. It is tempting to go on a sailing trip, not a great voyage or anything just for a weekend. On this trip I would not bring a map, just a few plotting tools, and try to be as innocently ignorant as possible. I think I would then feel like I am a true cartographer, searching for information for my country, before someone else can put mark on it.