Holiday Inn Hotel Ste Fort Mcmur Fort McMurray

We made it home safely. The -21 C temperature coming off the plane last night was a little bit of a shock to the system. We were delayed by the snow in Toronto but luckily the held our flight from Edmonton to Fort Mac for us. We look forward to seeing everyone again and sharing a few pictures with you. André & Gina

Alright, so after spending most of the night watching the Broncos get blown out, I am pretty much done packing. Follow along with our trip as Gina and I head out to the long lost continent of Madagascar. I'll try to keep the blog up to date as best as I can based on internet availability. The cab comes at 4:30am...time for bed. André

Still at work in Fort McMurray, just counting down the days. The days are already getting noticeably shorter. The days of 24 daylight are over. The mornings are getting crisper. Fall is definitely on it's way. I think Chase has lost his mind up at Diavik. We're ready for a vacation!!

As we pack our bags, check our lists and get things in order it is only a week before we leave. This entry is to serve only as a test that this blog and the address book is working. We hope to be able to do some entries once we leave on our journey. Downloading pictures may be a bit hopeful but we will try!! The countdown is on L

Ft. Mcmurray is about 4 hours north of edmonton. The only reason anyone is there is because there is about 5x the oil of saudi up there. There are really good steak houses and seafood, yes seafood this far from the ocean. Plan an evening if you need donuts, the line at tim horton's has been about a 30-60 min wait for 6 years at least now.

... Chris, it's the Pyramids and such in Egypt. For me, I think it'll have to be all of the wildlife we'll see along the way! And South America awaits! Every random South American country is on the "To Do" list - even the REALLY random ones like French Guiana! Travel through here will be by rail, bus, llama, horse, hitching...basically anything we can find! I think that the most exciting part of this leg will be for Chris well...lots, the ruins, the mountains, Rio...he ...

... scheduled, and I shouldn't do too poorly with my knowledge of English, French, German, and attempts at the Cyrillic alphabet. Additionally, Eastern Europe is full of countries I would like to visit, but would most likely never make a 1-2 week trip to. I fully expect Macedonia to be fascinating, but I'm unlikely to purchase a trans-Atlantic ticket just to see that one country. Much better to roll the entire region into a 4-month odyssey ...

... isolation of camp life tends to subdue some of my social instincts. As a result, I don't make so many phone calls these days. All the news of death lately, I thought I should make an entry today, if for no other reason than to let my family know I am still well. <br>Our team at work has merged with another cable pulling crew. Three of them and eight of us make up our new team. We are still 'Team Ramrod'. I have begun to enjoy it more again in the last day. I remain hopeful.

... hands up pretty good. I was thinking I should hitch back to town, But I decided to press on instead. Much cold thumb waving later and I got another ride. This time as far as Suncor, but my camp was at Syncrude. Now further into nowhere, cold and bleeding, I gotta tell ya, I was wishing I had a better plan. I tried staying near the lights at the turnoff, but since I was enjoying such a good series of great decisions, I decided to walk into the darkness ...

... older and does not trust his vision to night driving. Not on that highway anyway. For reasons I cannot explain, I Love driving the highway solo, but I cannot turn my back on a Brother, so we travel together. For Now...I think Dave my start taking the bus. He was a little concerned about the safety of my little car when the weather is like that. Or maybe he was nervous about the drive. Nah. So...Wandering River. We stopped at the gas station for a ...