11/00 u. Everything is packed. We start driving.

We wish each other a good trip.

Start Dielof and Fred

After 10 minutes Dirk moves to the side of the road. He came to the conclusion we had forgotten the cover of the spare tire, witch has the website address on it.

Fred goes back. We go on with the model-T. What a happening. The snoring of the engine. The wind. Pedal left, pedal right, handle steering wheel left., handle steering wheel right. And I, Dielof, probably forgot some more actions.

Fred is back sooner then we thought and passes by while we are tanking fuel for the model-T

Off we go to Banff in the Rocky Mountains. A beautiful journey with impressive sights.

Route to Banff

Now we are just outside Banff at the Tunnel Mountain camping between high pine-trees or spruce-firs. Any way too many mosquitoes.

After parking the Model T and the tent up to Banff. It’s already 21.30 hours. Then we sit at the table .Beer, wine and pine apple juice, after that Louisiana catfish with fresh cut fries. And than into the sleeping bag. The day has come to an end.

We start this Sunday with the traditional moment of putting the sticker with the names of Dielof and Fred on the hood of the Land Rover.

sitckermoment 1

stickermoment 2

The rest of the day is a lazy Sunday ending with a dinner in Longview (driving about 50 km from our camp) a sort of cowboy saloon with a veranda with fence around it. Just in case they would start to throw empty bottles or worse. We met Rod an entrepreneur who had been on motor trip with friends for four days. On their Harleys. The mates went on , Rods back tire was complete finished.

Another Harley-rider comes at the table listens a bit and throws $20,- at the table to support SOS children’s villages.

After that Dirk and Fred enjoyed a delicious steak sandwich medium-done and me vegetarian-wrap.

Wonderful the gentlemen said, so said I.

We slept through a windy night in the tent.

 Written by Fred and Dielof

Today Trudy, Inge, Dirk-jan, Petra and Joris are going back to the Netherlands. Of course you start with packing all your stuff and memories in your suitcase.

packing

Trudy explains the kitchen boxes to Dirk. He has to do everything by himself when Trudy is at home for four weeks.

transfer kitchen

All suitcases are packed and weighted. Some of them weigh exactly the maximum of 23 kilograms.

going to airport

At the drop off point at the airport we say goodbye to Dirk.

bye bye Dirk

bye bye Dirk 2

Everybody is safe in the plane. Trudy is a few seats further in the plane.

airplane

We arrived safely in Holland. It was a great experience which we will never forget. Thanks Dirk and Trudy!

This was the last report of Inge, Dirk-jan, Petra and Joris.

Today we take a trip to the ‘Indian Graves’.

This is an area at the foot of the Rockies. A beautiful wooded area.

Here we can see what the flood of a few weeks ago has caused. Parts of the road are just washed away. Very impressive.

Waterdamage

After a nice walk we go the the Bar U Ranch where lassoing is explained to us. It looks very easy but this definitely isn’t the case! Dirk-jan is trying to catch Joris.

Lasso

We drive further towards High River to get some groceries and eat a donut at ‘Tim Hortons’. We pass a fench that is decorated with hundreds of caps.

Caps

Today Dirk does major maintainance on the Model T, to prevent the wheel from breaking as last year in Africa.

maintenance

Back ‘home’, Dirk-jan drives a short part in the red Dodge. Dirk-jan and Joan worked a lot on this car when Joan was still in Holland. It still looks great!

red Dodge

Joris and Valeska ride the horses, when they are back we take a group picture at the red barn.

group photo

Tomorrow we will go back to Holland again. So it’s time to get our stuff together!

Today is the day of the barbecue at the Model T club in Calgary.

In the morning Inge, Dirk-jan, Petra and Joris are going to explore Calgary. They buy a new charger for the laptop there. Dirk and Trudy depart from Cayley at 12.15. They arrive at 15.05 where the members of the club are of course very interested in the Model T. They even have the Dutch flag in top.

welkom

Model-T

On the table there is a jar where the guests can put money in for SOS Children’s Villages.

jar

The barbecue is lit. It’s not just a barbecue, it’s a

BBQ

After dinner we are asked to stand around the Land Rover for a picture. Suddenly everybody is taking their camera. We feel world famous.

Model-T team

Dirk puts his Model T on the grass next to all the other Model T’s. The oldest one is from 1909 and looks very good. Not very good to drive in the desert because it has open tappets.

All cars

One of the cars is transformed to a fire truck. There is even a sirene on it, you can hear it from far.

pimped Model-T

When pictures are taken of all the cars it is time to take a group picture.

group

Dirk gives a presentation about the world tour. He immediately gets an applause when he tells they are collection money for SOS Children’s villages.

presentation

The Model T club donates $100,-. We are very happy with this of course.

cheque

The guests were impressed by the presentation. Together they put $500,- in the jar. Such wonderful people.

We thank the members of the Model T club for taking care of this great day. Especially the hosts Chris and Rose.

Chris and Rose

We leave about 8 p.m. towards Bak’s campground and arrive about 10.30 p.m.

Today we have a relaxing day.

The Bak family has 2 young kittens. Some of the time they are sleeping but mostly they are very busy chasing each other.

Joris and Petra like the kittens so much they want to get 2 kittens too when they are back home.

cats

We have a very nice place here, with a lot of space!

overview

Dirk took off the exhaust from the Ford, Dirk-jan welds the hole of the ‘airhorn’, then the problem of the open ‘cutout’ is also fixed.

welding exhaust

We enjoy dinner with the Bak family, very nice and a lot of fun!

Dinner at Bak

After dinner Joan takes us to the farm where he works. There are several barns with HUGE machines in it.

Joris and Dirk-jan are trying all the machines.

Combine

There is a large machine to sow the land, you can walk around on the platform of the machine. From here you have a nice overview of the barn.

Overview

Outside is a large combine, however it will be exchanged for even a larger one.

Combine02

To transport all harvesting, water, etc. there are 2 big American trucks. Just enough to keep up during harvesting.

Trucks

Of course we also have to sit in the trucks, very cool!

Truck01

Truck02

We have a lot of problems charging the ‘Greek’ laptop. Joris found out that the charger doesn’t match the laptop.

Tomorrow we go to Calgary to look for a new charger.

Breakfast day!

Joan invited us to an unlimited pancake breakfast. Oddfellows, the organisation where Joan is part of, is 100 years. Yesterday there was a big party and today there is a big breakfast. Joan already left home at 7.30 a.m. to prepare the breakfast. Of course there was a big line, for that matter the people are like Dutch: it’s FREE…

row

Delicious!

breakfast

After breakfast we go to the Calgary Stampede. It is a giant and very popular event, where the rodeo is the central point. The cowboys are doing the same as we saw on the rodeo yesterday, however the difference is dat $100.000 can be won here. Today are the finals.

screen

stampede

rodeo

After the finals we are hungry. No problem, because there is plenty of food.

Na de finales hebben we honger. Geen probleem! Er is eten genoeg… Dozens of stalls selling any kind of food. At one of the stalls they can fry anything.

food

After dinner we go back home. This area was also affected by the flood. A lot of effort is made to clean everything to make this event continue. The marks are visible however. The picture shows the edge of the rive that is washed away.

river

Today was real holiday, super!

This night it was very cold again, however we were prepared this time with enough blandkets and had a very nice sleep.

There is a nice cloud above the mountains of the Glacier National Park.

TableMountain

During our drive we need to wear warm clothes, especially when you are in the back of the Model T.

inthebackoftheFord01

inthebackoftheFord02

inthebackoftheFord03

Today we will pass the border of Canada.

We search a nice route to a small border crossing, it is a beautiful route.

SearchForNiceRoute

It is a very easy  border crossing. There is only one customs officer and after a few questions and a check of our passports we leave USA and enter Canada!

We take a picture at the welcome sign of the National Park, unfortunately for the picture the flags are not waving very much today.

Welcome

We drive further into Canada. During the drive the cut out of the exhaustpipe stays open, which makes quite some noise.

(The purpose of the cutout is to let the exhaust gases out before the muffler during a climb. The gives a little more power and less heat for the engine).

checking Cutout

We can’t repair this rightaway, a valve is loose, to repair that the whole exhaust pipe should be removed. So we decide to continue our way to Joan Bak.

Dirk-jan sits behind the steering wheel of the Model T again, and suddenly the valve closes again. A self healing model T!

We  call Joan to ask about the last part of our route. We can recognize his house very well by the big red barn!

BigRedbarn

At 5.30 p.m. we arrive at Joan’s house. Very nice to see him again.

MeetingAgain

Joan was about to leave towards a rodeo in Nanton. His daughters Valeska and Carucha participate in that.

We go along, it’s very cool to see.

Rodeo

One of the games is to quickly catch a calf with your lasso, very spectacular.

Rodeo02

And of course there are also people riding the bull.

Rodeo03

Carucha and Valeska participate in 2 parts of the rodeo. They ride like a bullet on their horse, beautiful!

Carucha

Valeska

After sheltering for a very heavy shower (Joan told: if you don’t like the weather in Canada, wait for 5 minutes) we  go back ‘home’.

We build our tent in the garden and park the Land Rover in the barn and put the rooftent up.

Today we drove 266 kilometers. The last kilometers with the Model T for this crew.

Tomorrow we will go to the Calgary Stampade, a very big Rodeo festival, we are curious!