Photo (2012): Five year old Grayson and his Grandpa get set to go hiking in the hills behind his mom’s home in Kamloops, BC. It was during the trek the two hatched their summer plans.  Join us for the Journey Begins.

Dear Reader,

The following chronicles were written during the magical summer of 2012 when five-year old Grayson Edward Walker, along with his Grandpa, Harold David McNeill, his Uncle, Jay Wesley McNeill and a family friend, Bjorn Oscar Simonsen, completed an exploratory expedition through British Columbia, Alberta and Saskatchewan. While the trip through British Columbia was relatively peaceful, once they hit the Alberta border, they entered a new and perilous world.

Fighting massive lightening and thunder storms, flooded highways, tens of thousands of monster trucks and flocks of giant, blood sucking mosquitoes hatched in the primordial settling ponds of Fort MacMurray, the intrepid explorers bravely marched across Alberta and into the largely unknown wilderness that is now known as  Saskatchewan, an immense flatland whose name originated from a river the Cree originally called “Kisiskatchewani Sipi“.  In that harsh land the group encountered buffalo as big as barns, tractors that were even bigger and giant, round bales of hay that once set rolling in a land that has become known as Tornado Alley North, farms, cities and towns were placed in immanent danger of being wiped off the map.

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Lynn and I have been to many parades in the Greater Victoria area over the years. but never to Sidney. This year we made the trip with Linda and Bjorn, as Bjorn was in the parade along with other seafaring sorts confidently sailing the Son’s of Norway club ship  down Beacon Avenue.

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Roaming Riot Flash Mob

Yesterday morning, May 6, 2012, shortly after Lynn and I popped by Calgary for a quick breakfast while enroute to Vancouver and Victoria, a flash mob, The Roaming Riot, invaded our Airport Pub Restaurant.

When spontaneous events like this appear on your doorstep, we have found the best thing to do is get in the spirit and join the festivities. As it turned out his group of men were enroute to Cabo San Lucas to celebrate the pending wedding of Jeff (photo centre, white hat, hanging on the shoulder of the guy with the t-shirt “Proud to be Something” or words to that effect). 

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Family Portrait (2011)

Family & Friends (left to right)

Top row: Harold and Lynn McNeill, Sean McNeill:
Second Row: Kari and Ed Walker with son Grayson, Jay McNeill:
Bottom Row: Brother-in-law, Michel Payeur and sister, Dianne McNeill-Payeur; Chris and Christine LeClair with baby Audrey:
Far Right: Sister Louise and Brother-in-law Frank Yochim

A few neighbours from the field joined the party: Mr. Scarecrow, Jack the Vampire Bat and, on of our favourites, Creepy Spider.

Unfortunately the gourds, pumpkins, grand-pumpkins and great-grand pumpkins of Frank, Louise, Dianne and Michele could not make the week-end celebrations as many remained in the field due to work commitments.

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A Nordic History Lesson

Two fine Nordic specimes, one with traces to another culture, stand with young women
they captured in earlier raiding parties in Eastern Canada. Even a casual comparison
to the painting of Erik the Red (below), demonstrates an
amazing resemblance to these modern day men.

A Day of Celebration

As October 9th again rolled around we took the city by storm in our Norwegian horned helmets and ninth century Nordic sweaters. With a plentiful supply of mild tasting Aquavit (45% alcohol by volume), delicate lutefisk appetizers and singing the ever popular Norwegian folk song “There Ain’t No Norwegians in Dickeyville”, we spent the evening celebrating the life and times of Leif Erikson, son of the famous Nordic Explorer, Erik the Red.

While last year we had braved heavy winds and rough weather in our trek around the downtown pubs, this year the wool sweaters and helmets took their toll and we had to carry a few who succumbed to heat exhaustion, well, at least that’s what we assumed, as no one ever heard of anyone getting sick from to much aquavit while eating lutefisk appetizers!  

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Traditions

Jamie and Kia Charko

 April 16, 2011

The matt upon which Jamie and Kia were married has been in the Simonsen family for over 300 years. During this time dozens of family members have been married. Here their daughter, Liala, shares in the celebration.

Cornucopia Cake: The Cornucopia (korn-yoo-KO-pee-uh) symbol stretches across many cultures and peoples from Ancient Greece to modern day. That it is part of many wedding celebrations is only natural.

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Photo (by Sampie’s Brother in Law, Darren Riley): Later at the campsite he explained: “About two hundred meters toward the shore I noticed a a swirl in the water, then spray that was at least five meters in length. Suddenly, a large dark object briefly surfaced. I had the camera in hand so snapped one quick photo as I hollered at Sampi.”  By the time Sampi turned the water had calmed and the shadow was long gone.

Link to Next Post: Dangerous Waters Run Deep
Link to Last Post:  Fish Attack.
Link Back to Adventures Index

Chapter 5: Sampie Gets Hooked – The van Rensburg Story Begins

Darren hollered: “Sampie, get moving, it’s coming straight toward us!” Sampie: “I can’t Darren, the downriggers are still out, give me a second…”  Sampi was still hunched over replacing the line on his rod. Nicole was still busy admiring her catch, so both she and her dad were blissfully unaware of the approaching danger. These words were spoken less than 24 hours after admonitions to the Sampie and Darren to take great care while venturing forth on their first fishing trip on Cold Lake.

The van Rensburg story began in August 2009 while Lynn and I were camping at Cold Lake while visiting my sister Louise Yochim and her family. We chanced to meet a delightful young man from South Africa, Sampie van Rensburg, who set up camp in the site next to ours. Sampie, a gregarious man in his late thirties, was accompanied by his youngest daughter, Nicole, and his brother-in-law, Darren Riley. It was their first time visiting Cold Lake having heard many stories about the giant fish the filled these waters. 

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Photo (From the files of a High School friend and former workmate, Guy Venne).  The RCAF often moored their DHC-3 Otters at the main dock in Cold Lake and the above aircraft appears to be the same one that is the subject of this post.  Guy had taken several photos of the crash scene in French Bay, but all those photos were seized by the Air Force as part of their investigation.

 The three photos displayed in this story were also taken taken by Guy, one before the crash (above) and two after the craft had been towed to the main dock at Cold Lake. Damage to floats suggested a collision, but the Air Force had other ideas. The whole story was to become cloaked in secrecy (photos in footer).

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