To Alberta I go

It's Sunday.  Tomorrow, I leave for Fort Mac.  Well actually, tomorrow I leave for Jasper.  You see, I've volunteered to drive one of the company trucks up there.  There were two trucks that needed to be moved up there, so I'm taking one and our H&S guy is taking the other.  I figure it'll be a great way to see the landscape change, rather than being shocked when I get off the plane.  Besides, I get to stop wherever I want for the night, (it's a 20 hour drive, so I'm definitely breaking up the trip over 2 days) so of course I'll stop in beautiful Jasper and enjoy the scenery! 

I have to say, I'm pretty excited! I got a really great email from a fellow named Tom, an employee from the Lower Mainland who is already up there in camp.  He is new to the company too, having just started a few weeks before I did.  He gave me some info about what camp is like, and some of the things I might want to bring.  It was a rather lengthy email, but here are the main points:

1. You get a small, private room while you're there equipped with a bed, desk, dresser, shelf and TV.  

2. The ladies get a separate area, and our own washroom.  I think there are three women in total, including myself. All the living areas are really clean.

3. The food is really good.  This has been confirmed by a few folks!

4. There are moose and bears in the surrounding forest, but they are sensible enough to stay away

5. "There are also mosquitos," Tom says, "the size of helicopiters (either that or I'm being bitten by helicopters)".  He suggests I bring bug spray and some sort of after-bite remedy, unless of course they really are helicopters, in which case bug spray likely won't work.

The other details aren't really worth mentioning, except to say that Tom stressed how great it was up there.  He said he was nervous about the camp too, but it turned out to be awesome.  That's comforting.

Well, I guess I'll talk a bit about what the rest of the week at the office was like.  I think we left off on Tuesday? Well, I finished all my safety training.  That took a while, but it was reasonably painless.  I have also been familiarizing myself with the software I'll be using.  It's called HeavyJob, and it basically allows you to track man-hours, equipment, materials, subcontractors and expenses.  It can then help you make projections as to what you final budget will look like, figure out where you need to make changes, and let you play with different scenarios.  My job will be to simply track all the costs and input them into the software so the Project Manager can do all the fancy stuff with the numbers.  Now, tracking all the costs may not be as easy as it sounds.  It involves chasing people around, asking them about their hours, who they had lunch with and where the receipt is, how much gravel they installed today, and all those sorts of things. Apparently there's already another gal up there doing the job while I'm on my way, and she's a real hard-ass and gets the job done! 

On a completely unrelated note, I'm especially excited to see the stars again.  I've living in the city for so long that I've almost forgotten to look up.  I remember one time, just outside of Duncan, BC I was with my Dad at a folk-fest.  We went out, away from the camp, into the darkest spot we could find, and looked up.  Wow.  That was my first time seeing the Milky Way, and boy was it every spectacular.  I can't wait to see that again. I suppose I'll also be in Aurora Borealis territory, since I'll be so far north.  I've never seen that before, but I hear it's rather... magical.  

Well, I suppose that's about all for now.  I'll try to blog again when I reach Jasper tomorrow night.  I hope I won't arrive too late.  I expect it to be about a 10-hour drive + breaks.  If I leave around 9am, I should be there before nightfall.  I'll try for some photos too! 

Cheers!