In October the one year work permit which I had from Watt and Stewart expired and rather than take a new 2 year permit which was offered we decided to decline it and return to the UK.
When we went home in April for a break we learned that our son and his wife were expecting a baby in December which would be our first grandchild, and Cath feels that she may not want to return to Canada afterwards.
This was a very hard decision to make, and we may still want to return at a later date, but, the work permits, or rather the LMO which is required to obtain a work permit are not easy to obtain for small companies, and if I had taken it, then not carried on working I feel it would have been very unfair as the company have treated us so well during our time in Canada.
Coincidentally, as I gave my boss the bad news he was able to change the name on the LMO to allow someone else to start working for him, whom we had met that same day, and who are also
bloggers, Tom and Elisa. We wish them all the very best with a great company.
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| Douros' Bar Claresholm. |
In the picture above are, Stuart from Oz, top lad and soon to be leaving Canada, Canadians Bob White and Jim Casey, fellow Yorkshireman Nick (Toe Tappa) Pritchard and the Irish lads, Mick Mc Garry, Mickey Treanor and Andy Sherry, along with me, Cath and Veronica.
Before we left, a little drink was taken in Claresholm which gave us chance to say goodbye to some of the great people we have been around this year, it's just a shame that some people were down the road at that time so couldn't join us, but that's the thing with long haul trucking, it's very difficult to arrange social events.
Mick and Martina took us up to the airport, with their kids and it was a very sad time for us as we have got close to the family during our stay, since arriving on the same flight as Mick in 2011 and we will miss the whole family.
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| Ethan Mc Garry's first Ice Hockey match. |
We also managed by pure luck to meet up with
Dave Caldwell in the Flying J at Calgary, and then a few weeks later Garren Perkins spotted us heading north on our last run back to Canada and we managed to stop for half an hour for a chat. Who knows, we may be back to Watt and Stewart in the future, never say never.
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| Dave Caldwell and me in Calgary |
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| Garren Perkins and me in Montana. |
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| Garren Perkins and me in Montana with his truck. |
There were also quite a few people we both wanted to meet up with in Lethbridge, but never quite got around to it, so maybe next time.
Our total mileage from October to October, with a holiday off in May was 128,000, not a bad total, and we have now driven in just about every state in the union, except Hawaii, Alaska and the few little ones to the North East of New York.
I'll leave you with a few recent pictures, starting with our last load from Conrad coming off the trailer in Claresholm.
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| Getting the straps off, ready to unload. |
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| Cath showing how big the tyres are. There's a 27" overhang on either side of the deck as well. |
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| Dusty doing his thing. |
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| Bob White getting his load sorted on his Super B. |
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| Cath looking through the tyres in the Yard. |
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Our last load south went here in Wyoming.
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| Last load south for us, bags for the mining industry. |
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| Last load south for us, bags for the mining industry. |
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| The town in Wyoming where we shut down for the night after unloading at the mine. |
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| Taken in Lavina MT on the way back north on our last trip. We were running empty to Conrad MT to pick up tyres. |
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| Chaining slippery empty steel reels in Texas. |
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| Pit BBQ at Coopers off the I10 in Texas, mouth wateringly delicious, I could eat their brisket every day! |
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| Pit BBQ at Coopers off the I10 in Texas |
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| Pit BBQ at Coopers off the I10 in Texas |
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| Somewhere along a diversion route USA |
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One of our last mornings at The Lazy J in Claresholm, thanks to John, Lorraine and family for looking after us for a year.
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