Alberta, Canada

4 Aug 2012

I left the aircraft and trailer at Shelby, Montana.

There would be problems with customs to take it across the border

and I couldn't legally fly it there anyhow....

Then drove to Viking, Alberta, where I was born and  raised.

Visiting friends and relatives.

Flew with childhood friend Edmund in his Cherokee 140

This is the farm where I was raised.

Good crops everywhere this year.
That's very productive farmland.

How's that for a tractor collection.
Just a winter hobby for this farmer.
From here they look like toys...

On final to Edmund's home strip among the hay bails..

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We also flew to Ft McMurray to view the tar sands oil mining project.

This is the terrain we had to fly over to get there.
Really would like to have a float plane here....

This is the action to mine the tar sands.


Enormous earth moving equipment at work.


This is one of the plants that 'steams' the oil out of the sand.


These plants go for miles and miles.


Seismic work outlining more oil and gas fields.



Workers accommodation.

A large and growing tank farm feeding the pipelines across Canada and to the US.
A new type of 'farming' in this traditional farming land.