Hey, it wasn't my idea. Well okay, I did kinda want to meet him too.
My wife and I were discussing where we could go for a vacation together.
We considered doing a cross country train trip but sleeping in our chairs and eating sandwiches for three days after paying out $8,000.00 for the trip didn't appeal to us. Real food and a sleeper berth would have cost us an additional $4,000.00, but the clincher was when I learned that they don't allow smoking anywhere on the train and they only stop a couple of times on the whole trip.
I'm working on quitting but two days without a puff is a bit too much at this stage of the program.
Next we looked into spending a week on Vancouver island, Whale watching, sight seeing and fishing. Other commitments made that plan problematic so we considered some other possibilities.
I thought a trip to Yellowknife might be nice. I've never been there and my wife has never been north of High Level. I was kidding when I said, "who knows, maybe we'll see Buffalo Joe." but my wife took that real seriously. She called Buffalo Airways to ask if it would be okay if we stopped by.
Turns out they do hanger tours so plans were made and a few days later we headed north.
I didn't take a lot of photos but I did take some. I thought some folks here might like to see them.
BTW we did meet Buffalo Joe. He shook our hands and chatted with us like we were neighbors.
We also saw Chuck the mechanic and Mickey as well but didn't get to talk to either of them.
And we got to climb around in one of Buffalo Airways DC3s. I was much more interested in the C46 but alas there were none at the hanger that day.
So here is a bit of what we experienced.
Airplane boneyard at Hay River
Bombardier B12 Snow bus at Hay River
Deh Cho Bridge across the Mackenzie River at Fort Providence
Crippled Eagle in Fort Providence
We spent Canada Day in Fort Providence, visiting some missionaries we know and having a Canada Day barbecue with the community.
The locals were great hosts the food was great and the entertainment even better.
Everything was done, cooked and sang by the locals and a bit by the missionaries.
They made us feel right at home. It was a wonderful way to spend Canada day. I only wish we could have stayed longer and got to know some of the locals better.
Nesting Sand Hill Cranes along HWY 3 between Hay River and Fort Providence NWT
We saw a number of wild Bison north of Providence, all bulls.
This is one. He was laying down when we first saw him.
Pretty impressive animals up close like that. Most stayed off the pavement as we went by, but just. So only one lane between them and us, and I'm looking up from the seat of my pickup, to look them in the eye.
Dang good thing none were in an ugly mood.
We had a GREAT time. I had half expected to see more wildlife but it wasnt to be. We did briefly share a campground with a Black Bear, at 2:00 am.
Someone had dumped a couple of dozen Suckers along the shore of the lake on the outskirts of the campground.
All was quiet when we parked for the night but at 2:00 am a kind local woke us up to tell us a Bear was in the campground.
Given the situation I thought it prudent to move along, so we set our sights on Yellowknife a couple of hours further up the road.
It was the only wild critter we encountered on the trip that I didn't get a photo of.
Now to plan for next years trip.
Buffalo Joe or bust!
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