On Saturday I drove up to Cold Lake, AB to meet a couple buddies. Marc is the middle son of my buddy Marcel, and I have known Marc since he was two. He is now thirty and works as a civilian employee at the Air Base (4 Wing) at Cold Lake. He lives on base with a military house-mate, and I parked my rig beside his house. Just down the street is another old hunting buddy, Ian, whom I know from his days as a Royal at Meaford, ON. Ian left the infantry for greener pastures, became an air maintenance guy, and does not regret the fact that now when he travels he stays in a swanky hotel, not a trench.
The plan had been to do some fishing up there, and indeed I bought a licence on Saturday. I now have current fishing licences for Ontario, Yukon, BC and Alberta, and current hunting licences for Ontario, Yukon, BC and Saskatchewan. My bit to add to the provincial treasuries of the places I am visiting..... But the wind has been howling out of the East for two days, and there are at least two things to be said for that. First, ``when the wind`s from the east, the fishing`s the least.`` Second, if one is in a fourteen foot tin boat, six foot waves are not a welcome sight. Oh for sure if a person was starving and had to catch fish to survive, one might be foolhardy enough to do that, but I am definitely not starving. And today when I drove south from Cold Lake, the crosswind was as bad as anything I ever encountered. It was basically impossible to travel at the posted speed limit of 100 kph, or I would have been upside down in the ditch I am sure. But again I am getting ahead of myself.
On Saturday afternoon, Ian took Marc and myself on a good tour of the surrounding area where he hunts and fishes. He was astounded that he saw practically zero game animals during the trip, but I informed him that this is the luck I am bringing along on this trip. I am having exceptionally good luck on the roads, and so I do not get depressed about a lack of huntable critters. A safe trip is a lot better than a trip with a lot of game kills! That evening Marc and I had a grand visit, and also entertained a couple local folks who dropped by for a drink.
Sunday morning continued the rain and high east winds of the preceding night, so we scrubbed the planned fishing trip. After brunch, I looked up an old buddy of mine, who was a jet jockey for thirty years or so. Dan flew fighters and other fast air pretty much continuously from 1979 to 2004. SIX THOUSAND hours, mostly in CF-18s, and now he is a civilian employee teaching jet jock wannabes how to fly via simulator, but still at Cold Lake. He and I were recruits together at the Royal Roads School for Boys, back in 1973, and we reminisced about those days, mutual buddies, the joys of getting old and infirm, etc etc. It was only the second time I had met his wife Kathy, and thoroughly enjoyable to get some one-on-one conversation with her too. Before I left, Kathy dug up some fresh red potatoes from her garden, and I had one tonight. DELICIOUS!!!! (AFTER the scrumptious gourmet meal of Mister Noodles chicken curry flavour of course) Maybe for a bedtime snack I will have some Wonder Bread (Only $4.29 a loaf at Fraser Lake), some lunch meat and some processed cheese, my fat and sodium reserves are getting depleted.
Dan and I:
Last night Marc and I were invited to the home of Ian and his wife Tamara, both of whom originally hail from Newfoundland, and both of whom are fond of rum. I am not a rum drinker, but when in Rome.................... I was also introduced to a concoction called a jello shooter, which is jello made with vodka instead of water. I am here to report that the person who invented that should be drowned in a vat of bile and stomach acid. It was a wobbly walk home to Marc`s house, but thankfully only a couple hundred yards. This morning was fairly rough, but Ian had arranged for us to do a tour of the CF-18 hangars where he works, and by golly we got up close and personal with a couple of these fighter jets, VERY impressive.
Late this afternoon, it was time to hit the road, and I drove with that ferocious crosswind as far as Lloydminster, which was plenty far enough. Speaking of Plenty, that is my destination for tomorrow, and then Wednesday to Saskatoon to meet my buddy Ray (also a fellow recruit at RRMC back in 1973) for a muzzle-loader hunt for whitetail deer. I do have some optimism that we might actually shoot one, which would be a novel experience for me on this so-called HUNTING and fishing trip..........
Marc and I
Ian and I
In the cockpit of a CF-18
After the vodka jellos
Doug
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