- Details
- By Matt
- Hits: 2004
As you may (or maybe you don't) know, one of my favorite things in this world, is driving...not in GTA traffic, but driving in general. I love road trips, booting around in the back country and just open roads.
I bought my truck back in March of 2006 and in the 17 years of driving it, I've accumulated over 500,000 km on my GMC Canyon. The picture was taken in March of 2022 and I broke 500K Km in just outside of Snowball Ontario.
- Details
- By Matt
- Hits: 1800
As you've probably notice, it's been a long gap between updates.
This is normal for me, I would work on this blog for a bit, abandon it, then come back a couple of years later.
- Details
- By Matt
- Hits: 3459
While my channel hasn't been active as of late, it's been taking a back seat to things happening in my life. With the results of tonight's Federal election, I will say I am disappointed by the election results. I was hoping it would be at least a CPC minority, since the election results are not exactly in the favour of gun owners, I may start deleting all my gun related videos, pictures, and social media accounts.
Since I don't trust Trudeau won't bring back in a gun registry or out right ban certain firearms, especially with Adam Vaughan, Mark Holland and Bill Blair being elected (notable anti-firearms ownership) I don't want to make it easy for any gun grabbing politicians to know what I own. My youtube channel and other social media accounts are a shopping list of what I own, and since I was willing to post videos and pictures using my real name, I don't want to make it any easier for gun grabbers to take what I spent a large sum of my hard earned money on.
***update***
I've decided that I won't delete my content, but will do my best to post even more!
- Details
- By Matt
- Hits: 3773
This morning my little pick up truck hit a huge milestone, she crossed the 333333 Km mark. I hit this achievement coming into work early to help cover for part of a night shift as we're short staffed. I don't mind the bit of extra OT money since I'm planning on a Vancouver trip with Cullen in a couple of weeks, plus I did just get home from my Road Trip not too long ago and need to build back up the saving again. How long did it take me to hit this Goal? I purchased my truck in March of 2006 after my Chevy Cavalier's ignition coil went. Since then, my pick up and I have driven cross country 3 time, been to Ottawa, Montreal, and well just about every imaginable in Ontario. I'm avg about 3000 km a month or about 36,000 Km a year. My goal is to roll the odometer over, at this rate, it should only take about 15 more years :)
- Details
- By Matt
- Hits: 3662
My buddies (Roland, Jason) and I were up north for our annual hunting trip, for Roland and I this is our 3rd year and the 2nd year that our buddy Jason has joined us. We spent most of our time out on the woods sitting at our blinds hoping we would see some activity from the bush, sadly, nothing was stirring this year. We ended up coming home empty handed, but still I enjoy hunting for more then just the hunt, in fact I'm just as happy not filling my tags as I am bagging our limit. For me our week long hunting trips are about spending time with my friends, getting up early every morning, spending just about the entire day outdoors, only coming back to the house for lunch, before heading back out the blind for the rest of the afternoon. Then when the sun sets, heading back to the house, getting warm by the fire, having a couple of beers, telling the same old stories and doing it all over again the next day.
- Details
- By Matt
- Hits: 3488
- Details
- By Matt
- Hits: 4085
The drive from Dryden, Ontario back to the GTA was about 23 hours including stops to use the washroom, grab a bite to eat, get out and stretch our legs, gas up, etc. My god, I still can't get over how long of a drive it is!
We left Dryden, I think around 9 ~ 10 am, gassed up and grabbed a coffee. our first stop was at the plaque for the timezone change. We're finally back in Eastern Time!
{flickr photo=14723166493}
- Details
- By Matt
- Hits: 3633
It's been a lot of driving and we're finally back in our home province, but not in the Eastern time zone yet. I think people still have a hard time fathoming just how big Ontario...make that Canada is. You can drive for 12 ~ 16 hours a day and only cross a portion of the country. It feels good knowing in a day or two, we'll be back home in the GTA, I'm starting to miss the comfort of my bed and it will be nice to see my family.
Sadly, we didn't back track to Regina today, I felt bad for not stopping in and seeing Bill, but I had a goal of making it into Ontario tonight and if we had, for sure we would have been camping out in Manitoba for the evening. I'm sure he'll understand and I promise next year to stop by and pay him a visit. If he doesn't mind, maybe I'll stay for a week or so.
On our drive back east, we made an important stop today, we finally got to visit Wolverine Supplies. They're located near Virden, Manitoba, a less then an hours drive into the province (coming east from Saskatchewan). I didn't end up buying much, a couple of magazines and a crate of Czech surplus 7.62x39, I'm starting to run dangerously low on funds, at this rate, I'll have to start doing OT when I get back to work.
{flickr photo=14516463880}
Roland splurged a bit more then I did, he bought some mags, ammo, as well as some optics.
- Details
- By Matt
- Hits: 3439
Like all good things.....our Road Trip is getting closer to coming to an end.
Today Roland and I left my families place in Lacombe to start the long drive back to Ontario. Before heading back east we stopped in at my families new place, which is just starting to be built. My uncle mentioned they're way behind schedule, but the layout of the house (from peering outside) and the view from the backyard of a small lack, it's going to look nice when it's done.
I was hoping to stop by my Cousin's place in Moose Jaw on the way back out. But the route we took, had us drive from Lacombe to Saskatoon to Regina. By the time we got into Regina it was way to late to back track to Moose Jaw. We'll see how I feel in the morning.
I wouldn't mind seeing Bill, we saw him last year for a bit and stopping in for an hour would be nice before we head back to Ontario. Not much to report during the drive, the roads were clear good weather, but at night it does get dark.
{flickr photo=14516614527}
The open prairies do make for some spectacular photos.
- Details
- By Matt
- Hits: 2907
Here are some videos of the day spent at Calgary Shooting Center, shooting prohibited rifles.
First up is me shooting a British L1A1
- Details
- By Matt
- Hits: 2846
We were back down in Calgary today to check out Calgary Shooting Center.
My cousin Jessie, Uncle Jay, Roland and I, decided to try out a couple of the prohib rifles that Calgary Shooting Center allows you to rent.
We rented a British L1A1 FAL, HK MP5, and my uncle tested out a Side by Side rifle in 470 Nitro Express. What a day!
{flickr photo=14700637404}
It was an amazing day, the FAL is sweet rifle. Being able able to shoot it with a standard capacity magazine was fantastic!
- Details
- By Matt
- Hits: 2449
Day 13 for our road trip was pretty much a right off, nearly two weeks of driving it was nice to be stationary for a day
We chilled at my families place in Lacombe all day, and went on small junkets around the town, mostly check out some Alberta liquor stores and enjoyed a bunch of beers.
{flickr photo=14699815471}
For Day 14, Roland, my cousin Jesse and I, went up to Edmonton to do a little shopping...well mostly looking at gun stores and grabbing a bite to eat. We checked out P&D Enterprise, Milarm, Wild West gun shop (in West Edmonton Mall), it's always fun checking out gun shops
- Details
- By Matt
- Hits: 2457
We're on our way out of Calgary today, I promised my uncle Jay that I would come up to visit him in Lacombe (a few hours north of Calgary).
The plan is Roland and I would use my Uncle's place as a base of operations for day trips back to Calgary, Edmonton and any of the other cities around the area.
Being able to hang out with my cousin Jessie and crash at my Uncle's place is nice, a few night's there really saves on the trip budget. At the rate I'm spending money I may need to sell a kidney (joking...kind of). Before we left Calgary to head up to Lacombe, Roland and I decided to check out a breakfast spot that was recommended by Kiera.
The Pfanntastic Pannenkoek Haus, it's hard to describe what they are. It's kind of a mix between a crepe, pancake and pizza..depending on the toppings you decide to add. I can tell you this, it's 100% delicious!!!!!
{flickr photo=14516546258}
{flickr photo=14516769337}
- Details
- By Matt
- Hits: 2548
We're back on the road again today, driving down through Jasper National park into Banff National park.
If you want to feel small amount the giants, then this is the drive for you, winding highway, with bountiful forests and rivers where ever you look.
All while being dwarfed by the mighty towering rocky mountains.
We managed to get a bit of sight seeing into today, along the highway we stopped off and took in the Athabasca falls,
{flickr photo=14722743043}
- Details
- By Matt
- Hits: 2556
Roland and I are back on the road again, today we left Kelowna, BC and we made it as far as Jasper, AB.
This is my second time visiting Jasper National park, and I keep forgetting just how beautiful this part of Canada is.
It's endless rugged beauty, rivers, streams, forest and mountains. One can both literally and figuratively loose themselves in the park.
As usual after a long day of driving Roland and I were able to find a hotel, more like a hole in the wall. The room here was tiny barely enough space for two people and navigating into the washroom was a bit of an adventure. But any place with a somewhat comfortable bed is still a good place to crash for the night.
We did a bit of exploring, check out a couple of local restaurants for dinner, followed by another dinner....yes that's right, we're fat bastards. Why have one meal with two back to back will do, haha.
{flickr photo=14700811064}
One the restaurants we visited featured a spectacular game meat menu, I had the braised bison ribs (picture from above) in a saskatoon berry reduction. Roland had an elk steak, with the same saskatoon berry reduction. It was a fantastic meal. Then we headed over to a bar for some beers and yup another meal.
- Details
- By Matt
- Hits: 2519
{flickr photo=14515248968}
Thus far Vancouver is the only city that we've spent more then one night in, there's been other cities that we would have liked to explore a bit more, but every day you spend somewhere, is one less day less you have to enjoy somewhere else.
Before we left the city, we went back to DS Tactical (I know, I know, spending monies like its going out of style), but since we are in the city, I want to be sure there wasn't anything awesome we were going to miss out on.
We also checked out a few more of the gun stores in the city, places that had closed the day before. I finally got to see Lever Arms, nice store, good selection of Nagants and SVT-40's...I'm still looking to bring something back from this vacation..what to buy...what to buy!
Our last stop before heading to the mountains was back at the Central City Brew Pub, I wanted another glass of their beer from tap, I had the Session IPA, it's a very light beer and very enjoyable. Again, the food was superb and the service fantastic! I picked up a little red racer swag, some pint glasses and a shirts, as well as two growlers of beer. A Growler if you're never seen one before is basically 4 pints of a delicious liquid heaven.
{flickr photo=14515060699}
- Details
- By Matt
- Hits: 2313
{flickr photo=14515076509}
We're in Vancouver today exploring the scene, we went out to DS Tactical and spent a bit of money there on making myself look tacticool, some magazine pouches, and accessories for my load out. I don't think I've posted any pictures yet of my Plate Carrier, I will when I get the chance.
After Visiting DS Tactical (the stores is amazing by the way), we went to Warriors and Wonders, we looked at the knives they had, I ended up buying myself a Benchmade Osborne Barrage, it's a spring assisted knife (which are legal in Canada) and a few rescue hooks, the nice thing about a rescue hook is it cuts cleanly through fabric and rope. I'm going to be keeping it in my truck with my everyday carry bag, I want to be sure if I ever have to cut a seat belt I can.
{flickr photo=14698517571}