Yellowhead East

Yesterday Margarit and I went out for an afternoon drive.  Of course the big camera was a passenger in the back seat.  The three little girls stayed home, with a list of chores.  We got a late start... around lunch time, and were only out for the afternoon.

We took a drive east of the city on the Yellowhead highway.  We wandered about for a while checking out a few old buildings, some backroads and some small towns.  Some elderly guy in a beat up old mini-van snagged us in one of the towns and bent our ears for a while.  He was obviously lonely and was happy to have some one to talk to for a while.  We got a complete run down of the entire town and a commentary about a bunch of the locals.  I managed to take a few shots with the big camera and it was really nice to get out for a while.  We've been cooped up indoors for the past few weeks with stretch of rather miserable weather.  On this day it was quite mild and got up to about +8C.  Unfortunately the skies were mostly overcast and at times the light wasn't great.  But, it was great to spend an afternoon out with my young bride, exploring, making photographs and getting some fresh air.  

In the evening, after checking in on the girls for a while, we headed back out together and went to the Oilers hockey game at Rogers Place.  I'm a huge fan and have followed the Oilers for years.  Its nice to see that they finally have some success and its looking like they should make the NHL playoffs this year.  But it disappoints me that the Oilers owner is making so much money on the backs of the taxpayers, and the fans.  Our tickets in the upper bowl have a face value of about a hundred bucks each.  It costs 13 bucks for the two of us to ride the train to and from the game... or we could pay more and park close by... though my truck probably doesn't fit into most of the downtown parking spots.  Food and drink at the game is horrendously expensive... 11 bucks for a hotdog, about the same for a beer... even water is 5 dollars.  Its getting so that I don't buy anything at the games now, and just stop off at our neighborhood pub after the game.