I've been in the field most of this week, just returning to the hampering wilderness of the city last night.

15 hours of driving in 2 1/2 days requires a certain amount of determination. Driving in Northren Alberta, and perhaps in all of Alberta presents a unique challenge... The roads are dead straight.

There may be a turn every now and then just to see if you are still awake, but the roads whether highways, or rural town main streets are straight as an arrow.

The flat land simply amazed me as we passed through like a bullet toward our "rotten-egg" smelling gas plant. Cattle grazed and huge forests grew all around us as the mountains paced us on a parellel course some 80 kilometers to our west.

Though the trip was gruelling and the work, a dizzying mix of design and fix-it work was equally gruelling, I truly regret the trip was over.

Perhaps the most stunning part of the entire trip were the people. Very few of them were Born and Bred in the tiny community that served as our base of operations, the vast majority were a mix and match from all over North America. But despite the variety, the friendliness and openess of the people really reminded me of my home.

Perhaps that's why they all move out here.