Similar to what I did for my last road trip, I put together a time lapse video of the drive out west and back. Using my Go Pro Hero 2, I mounted it to the windshield and took a picture every 60 seconds. I think it turned out pretty good, I hope you enjoy!

I would have posted some pics for the day, if we has stopped for the night. But I ended up driving through the night to get home. You probably know that feeling, you're a long way from home, and suddenly the distance doesn't see that far away. So you decide to just push through and make it the last few....well in our case 100's of Km's down the road.

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! 

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And we're back into Ontario.

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. 

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Roland splurged a bit more then I did, he bought some mags, ammo, as well as some optics.

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.

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The open prairies do make for some spectacular photos.

Here are some videos of the day spent at Calgary Shooting Center, shooting prohibited rifles.

First up is me shooting a British L1A1

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!

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It was an amazing day, the FAL is sweet rifle. Being able able to shoot it with a standard capacity magazine was fantastic!

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.

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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 

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!!!!! 

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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, 

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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.

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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. 

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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.

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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.

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We're back in Canada, the plan to spend the night in Seattle fell through. We couldn't find a hotel room, and instead of struggling to run around the city to find one. We just headed north to the border. It was a bit of a pain in the ass getting back into Canada, but more on that later. 

We started the day in Portland, and after last nights delicious Reggie Deluxe, I (we) wanted another one. So Roland and I headed back to Pine State Biscuits and to our disappointment, the line up was huge! Right around the block, people were lining up, but then again, I can't blame them, the gravy alone is delicious enough to drink. So instead of a biscuit for breakfast, we opted for donuts. 

We stumbled into a little shop, that we read about...Pip's Original Donuts, they're little bit sized morsels of heaven. They offered three flavours to choose from, Cinnamon and Sugar, Honey and Sea Salt, Nutella and Sea Salt. Being the connoisseurs that we are, we ordered one dozen of each flavour....each. Yes that's right, we each ordered 36 bite sized donuts and hot damn, were they ever delicious! I found the Cinnamon and Sugar to be the most balanced of the three, the others being just a little too sweet / salty.  

I ordered an Americano to help get me through the day, and Roland wisely ordered a scoop of Caramelized Banana ice cream....I f'd up... I should have gotten a scoop as well. After leaving Pips, we drove to Voodoo Donuts, yes...I wanted more donuts. But after getting downtown Portland to the store and seeing the line up, we gave up and headed out of the city.

Our next stop was Mount St Helen's.

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The drive from Idaho Falls towards Portland Oregon was amazing, I've done a similar drive in the past along the Columbia river (last year with my Brothers on the way into Seattle), but this year I went further south. The scenery didn't disappoint! The Columbia river snakes through a valley on the way to the Pacific Ocean, with each twist and turn, you see a bit more of the river. 

We made it safely into Portland and was able to find a hotel for the night, so far the system of Roland gets the first one, then I get the second one, seems to be working fine, other then the small room in Rapid City, most of the hotels have been pretty good. 

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After an eventful site seeing Day Four, today we're drove through Rural Wyoming on our way to Yellowstone National Park. Wyoming is an amazing state, vast open spaces, great plains, hills, mountains, untamed beauty. One of the great things about Rural America (and Rural Canada) we spotted a couple of guys on the side of the road sighting in their rifle. Watching guys do a little bench shooting is well Freedom!

We made it to Yellowstone and driving through the park was awesome! I could spend a few lines writing out what was seen, but I'll leave it up to the pictures. We came to Yellowstone to see Old Faithful, all my life I wanted to come down here and watch the eruption, here's a video of the awesome force of nature.

My only regret about Yellowstone, was running out of gas, physically...not fuel wise. I wish I could have walked around the park more, explore all of it's sights. Here's some more video of the park

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Today started off by walking over to First Guns to check it out, wow....it's frustrating to see all of the awesome toys on the shelf. If only our laws weren't so bad. I would love to buy an AK. I was chatting with one of the owners there for a while, he was asking about our laws up in Canada, and how it works for us Canadians if we decide to purchase a gun.

During our conversation a Lady walked in, and within 30 minutes was able to walk out of the store with a handgun, carried concealed. The fastest transfer I've had in Ontario was a week, bloody laws getting in the way of purchasing new toys.

After spending a bit of time and money at First Guns (buying items that are legal to take out of the USofA, like paper targets and such), we hoped back into the truck and made the hour or so drive down to Mount Rushmore. What an experience it was driving up to the Mount, seeing the first glimpse of Washington and Jefferson carved into the mountain side.