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Day of Nine of our road trip started early.
Today we're heading south down to Seattle, this will be our first time in the Pacific North West of the United States.

We traveled from Lacombe down to Calgary, and continued along Highway 3, to the Crownest Pass.

We crossed into British Columbia, followed the highway through Fernie, Cranbrook. We eventually crossed into the United States via a border crossing in Idaho, our crossing was quite pleasant, a few quick questions and we were back on the highway towards Seattle.

We drove along the Columbia river into Washington state, I was stunned by the natural beauty of the landscape. I still can't get past the idea this part of the US is almost a desert.

We made it into Seattle safe and sound, but really late at night, we're staying a shady part of town. I just hope it's a safe place to sleep, and we can find a better hotel in the morning.

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Another lazy day in Lacombe,

We met up with our Cousin Jon-Ross, we went down to Blackfalds to visit his store. 
Jon-Ross is going to be getting married a week or so, Jonathan is one of the the groomsmen, so part of our Road Trip involves Jonathan being back in Lacombe for the wedding.

We also, had to make a trip down to Red Deer to get Jonathan fitted for his rental suit

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Today we were on route to Edmonton for an afternoon of exploring.

We visited West Edmonton Mall, while it was interesting to see one of the largest malls in North America, it was a bit disappointing. The mall had 3 of the same stores, but hey, at least I got to say I went there.

Plus there's a gun range that we can visit, if I go back in the future, I may spend a bit more time there and maybe spend a bit of money.

After visiting the mall, we traveled around Edmonton, we stopped off a the Rexall Center so we can get picture with the Great One. 

We (mostly me) visited a few of the gun stores around the city, as well as Cabela's

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Today was a lazy day in Lacombe, after driving nearly 4000 km's from Mississauga, it's nice to take a day off from driving.

We stayed in Lacombe, and did a bit of exploring, but this was exploring was mostly walking around.

Lacombe does have a great pizza place, Pizza King. I think Pizza and beer has been a staple of our road trip diet.

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It's day five of our Road Trip and we're finally in Calgary.

We parked in the city (lost my truck, but more on that in a few minutes), I went to the company office to visit the Calgary 800 Data Center.
After visiting the office we grabbed a bite at one of my favorite Shawarma place, Shawarma King. Getting back to loosing my truck, I forgot where I had parked it. I'm not used to the city of Calgary, so I got turned around, it took us a while to find where I had parked it.

I was finally able to visit the Calgary 930 Data Center location, and get a quick tour of the building.

This was our last stop before heading out to Lacombe and my families place. After nearly 4000Km on the road, we're at our relatives place and it's good to have a somewhere to rest our bones. 

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During our road trip we were able to meet up with our cousin Bill in Moose Jaw for a night.
It was great seeing him and catching up, it's been a year since we last saw him in 2011 when driving through while helping our uncle move to Lacombe Alberta.

We fell short on our goal of making it to Lacombe before the end of the day, we settled down in Strathmore Alberta for the evening.

Gonna enjoy a few beers and tv with my brothers

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Day Three of our Road Trip, we left Steinbach, Manitoba and set course for Saskatchewan. 

Prior to leaving the province of Manitoba, we visited the Royal Canadian Mint, and this year (unlike last year) we were able to take the tour of the mint and see how our coinage is minted. 

After leaving the mint, we set course for my cousin Bill's place in Moose Jaw. 

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We've started the second leg of our journey, today we are leaving Long Lac, Ontario and on our way to the Manitoba border. 

We managed to get Stienbach Manitoba where we will bunker down for the night, before heading out on the next leg of our trip. 

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Day One of Road Trip 2012.

Today we drove from from Mississauga, Ont to Long Lac, Ont.

A roughly 1150 Km drive, with stops made in Hunstville, Cochrane, Kapuskasing, Ontario.

My Brothers and I will be partaking in our first ever North America road trip.

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We made it into Calgary late this morning, and we found a hotel for the night.
I came down to Calgary, for the day because I will finally get a chance to visit our Calgary office. After working at Q9 for 5 years, it's finally nice to see other team members, people I have been speaking to on the phone for years.

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We met up with JR in Blackfalds, he gave us a tour of his new store that he's opening up. He and his friends are looking to open a store that specializes in health food.

I hope his store does well, but I don't know, it's in a less then ideal location. If it was in a more major urban area then maybe it would do better.

After meet up with JR, we went down to Red Deer picked up the rental car, then went back to Jays new place and helped him unpack. Thankfully JR was there to help or we would have never finished, there was a ton of stuff to move. After completing the move, we went with Jay to drop the U-Haul rental off and said our Goodbyes, we don't have much time left before we head down to Calgary. Before left, we did make a quick stop at JR's it'll be a while before we get to see him again, so it was good hanging out with him. Kind of like the old days. 

One more sleep then we fly back to Mississauga.

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It's day seven of our road trip, we picked up the vehicles from Bill's in-laws farm, loaded up our luggage and then got back onto the road.
From Moose Jaw to the Alberta border wasn't that far, and it's a surprising nice drive, I had visions that the prairies were flat and boring, far from it, there's a few places to check out a long the way.

We hit the border, and snapped a few pics, Jay was asking how far we should make it for the day. With the lack of available time before we have to fly back, I told Jay that we need to push forward and get us to Lacombe. We still have to help Jay unpack and move everything into the house, if don't make Lacombe tonight we wouldn't have had much time to complete the move.

Jay and I agreed and we pushed through, we went up through the bandlands and an area called Drumheller.
The place was amazing, seeing the different rock outcroppings. A unique geographical area within the prairies.

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Happy Birthday Paul, it's his 34th Birthday, and we're spending it in Moose Jaw.
Bill took us around to the few sites and sounds to see in the city, we checked out the local Armory and then we went back to Regina to check out Wholesale sports and Princess Auto.

It's a good thing I'm flying back, there's always a few things I would like to pick up at Princess Auto

We ended the night with a Birthday Day Dinner for Paul

Pics for the day

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We made it as far as Moose Jaw today, apparently we're going to be spending a few nights here.
My cousin Bill will be putting my brothers and I up for a couple of nights, which is nice

To our surprise him and Amanda will be putting on a BBQ for us, it's nice to be stationary for a bit, but at the same time for my Brothers upcoming birthday, I was hoping to be enjoying it in Calgary. Also, I'm worried about how much time we have left before we have to fly home, I was only able to get a couple of days off work. 

For now, we're going to take it easy and enjoy the receding flood waters around Moose Jaw

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Our day started with a big hearty meal, need to top up the tank for the drive ahead. After taking in a few of the monuments of Kenora, we got back on to the road and headed to the Provincial border, even from Kenora it still took a while to get to the Manitoba border.

Finally after 3 days of drive, and nearly 2000 km of driving we reach the border.

This the first time I've been out of Ontario on it's western border!