Rusty's Best Canadian Motor Inn 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.

... and of course whatever else comes our way! I think, for Chris, one or the most exciting and indispensible jaunts on this leg of the journey is to go to Ayers Rock in Central Australia. For anyone who doesn't know what I'm talking about, check it out on Google Earth - that's on frickin' HUGE rock! Then into Asia! As of now, there are only 3 Asian countries we do not plan to visit - Afghanistan, Iraq, and Iran - but, of course, that could change to more or less by ...

... for us to stand around doing basically nothing. All we have to do tomorrow (in 10 hours) is pour 4 8 foot columns of concrete. That takes about 45minutes per column, just so you know. Sierra and I spent an hour today picking coke, tar and pyrocrete out of the sewer grates in the floor of Coker Alley where we work. REALLY boring. Other than that, not really an eventful time ...

The Flare stack is going Crazy!<br><br>Seriously. We have had multiple evacuations. Some fireballs have made it to ground level and started fires, which were thankfully extinguished quickly. What's a little sulfer rain between co-workers?<br><br>One crew actually refused to go out this morning after being left to work during an evac yesterday. Good call. Within the first hour today, we were pulled out. Members of my crew put out a fire, but had to go back to camp to ...

... guys to start buying me drinks. I made quick arrangements with Carmen and gave him my car keys and settled back to enjoy. Whammy! We drove off after this looking for our next bar. A couple of false starts later and we ended up at the Podollan Inn lounge. Oh yeah. Ordered myself a couple white russians. Seemed appropriate; I was getting into a pretty good alcoholic Zen state. This ordering for myself business was soon stopped and the guys started ...

... knows, they may redeem themselves yet. Maybe I will too. I finally after weeks decided I have inhaled enough carcinogens. Today I started wearing the half mask hepa filter. (HEPA stands for High Efficiency Particle Arrester, pretty fancy name for paper) IT is Uncomfortable, heavy and hurts my nose and grinds grit into my face. It makes breathing slower which means I must stop to catch myself more frequently. IT was great! At the end of the day, I did not feel as crazy exhausted ...