Whl Summer Tour 2005

[eecliff]

Just thought I’d leave a post here and share a bit of the most excellent adventure I’ve ever taken.

My wife and I just got home last week from a 20 day, 13 city WHL Tour. We hooked up our trailer on August 16th and traveled to every WHL arena except Vancouver & the US division teams. We began our tour from Kelowna and went to Cranbrook – Lethbridge – Medicine Hat - Swift Current – Moose Jaw - Regina – Brandon - Prince Albert – Saskatoon – Calgary – Red Deer – Prince George – Kamloops and arrived back home on September 4th.

Every arena except one treated us like royalty, it was a blast but just wished we had more time to spend around some of the towns. We’ve had everything from being offered a ride on a zamboni in Brandon to standing on the ice in Prince Albert with my Kelly Guard jersey on for pictures. We also met the Shaw TV camera man at the Prince Albert arena and chatted with him for what seemed like countless hours about hockey. Many of the teams gave us free souvenirs plus we purchased a great number of our own.

Half way through our trip we took a 4 day break and visited some friends in Kenora ON. where we did some fishing and relaxed. We also found time to take in a couple side trips, one was into Portage La Prairie to visit Troy Bodie's home arena and the other was into Winnipeg and we visited the MTS Center where Jesse Schultz is playing. While in Winnipeg we couldn’t help but to visit Billy Mosienko Bowling Lanes, what a mural on the outside wall ! (If anyone has been there you know what I mean).

We took pictures inside and outside of every arena plus quite a few with our Rockets Jerseys on, we also managed to sneak in the back door of the MTS Center and get pictures with our Jesse Schultz Manitoba Moose jerseys on..

While back at our campsite each night I had nothing better to do but have a couple of cold ones, check out that days souvenirs and plan the next days arena tour so I decided to rate each arena.

I finally have all the arenas rated and rated Red Deer as the best arena of the 13. If anyone has any questions or is interested in looking at my ratings or checking out any pictures just send me an email or reply to this post.

Thanks for reading about our WHL SUMMER TOUR 2005 :groovy:

eecliff

[kelownakarl]

Sounds like a great time! I am quite jealous!!!!

[rinkrat]

Sounds fun,however next time you may want to tour during the season!

[Triton]

Just thought I’d leave a post here and share a bit of the most excellent adventure I’ve ever taken.

My wife and I just got home last week from a 20 day, 13 city WHL Tour. We hooked up our trailer on August 16th and traveled to every WHL arena except Vancouver & the US division teams. We began our tour from Kelowna and went to Cranbrook – Lethbridge – Medicine Hat - Swift Current – Moose Jaw - Regina – Brandon - Prince Albert – Saskatoon – Calgary – Red Deer – Prince George – Kamloops and arrived back home on September 4th.

Every arena except one treated us like royalty, it was a blast but just wished we had more time to spend around some of the towns. We’ve had everything from being offered a ride on a zamboni in Brandon to standing on the ice in Prince Albert with my Kelly Guard jersey on for pictures. We also met the Shaw TV camera man at the Prince Albert arena and chatted with him for what seemed like countless hours about hockey. Many of the teams gave us free souvenirs plus we purchased a great number of our own.

Half way through our trip we took a 4 day break and visited some friends in Kenora ON. where we did some fishing and relaxed. We also found time to take in a couple side trips, one was into Portage La Prairie to visit Troy Bodie's home arena and the other was into Winnipeg and we visited the MTS Center where Jesse Schultz is playing. While in Winnipeg we couldn’t help but to visit Billy Mosienko Bowling Lanes, what a mural on the outside wall ! (If anyone has been there you know what I mean).

We took pictures inside and outside of every arena plus quite a few with our Rockets Jerseys on, we also managed to sneak in the back door of the MTS Center and get pictures with our Jesse Schultz Manitoba Moose jerseys on..

While back at our campsite each night I had nothing better to do but have a couple of cold ones, check out that days souvenirs and plan the next days arena tour so I decided to rate each arena.

I finally have all the arenas rated and rated Red Deer as the best arena of the 13. If anyone has any questions or is interested in looking at my ratings or checking out any pictures just send me an email or reply to this post.

Thanks for reading about our WHL SUMMER TOUR 2005 :groovy:

eecliff

Could you post all your pics so we could see.That would be great.How much did it cost in total?

[Chipper]

Were there games or practices going on when you toured the arena's. I think you can only get the true feeling of a great rink when a game is on. You can see a lot of beutiful buildings though.

[Billy Blade]

I just hope that Saskatoon wasn't the one place you weren't treated like royalty.. :D Sounds like you had a great time, good to hear!

[Triton]

So where was your favourite place and least?

[Courtney08-]

wow im jealous.. what did you decide to be your favorite rink

[eecliff]

Sounds fun,however next time you may want to tour during the season!
At first that's what we wanted to do but decided that camping in the prairies in the middle of winter would be a bit chilly plus the fact that we had to be home in time for the Rockets season and get all the kids back in school.
We just thought it would be a great holiday and what a better way to spend the off season.

ee.....

[eecliff]

Were there games or practices going on when you toured the arena's. I think you can only get the true feeling of a great rink when a game is on. You can see a lot of beutiful buildings though.

Yes we did get to see practices in Prince Albert, Red Deer & Prince George.
We also managed to get some practice pucks and broken sticks from these arenas :thumb:

Some of the bigger arenas such as Saskatoon, Calgary, and Regina did not have their ice in yet. In Regina we did get to see a horse show and missed the circus in Saskatoon by a day !! :laugh:

Every building was great and has its own feeling about it, a feeling one can't get just on a short visit.

ee.....

[Triton]

Do you have pictures you can post on here for us to see what your vacation was like,and what the other arena's looked like for those who haven't seen them.

[eecliff]

I just hope that Saskatoon wasn't the one place you weren't treated like royalty.. :D Sounds like you had a great time, good to hear!
Saskatoon treated us great !
Very nice arena and friendly people. Nice large parking lot to pull the trailer into and get the lawn chairs out and have a cold beer ....it was the hottest day of our trip....about 33 out that day, I remember the cold beer real well :D

Thanks Saskatoon

ee.....

[eecliff]

Do you have pictures you can post on here for us to see what your vacation was like,and what the other arena's looked like for those who haven't seen them.

Hi
Yes I have lots of pictures and with any luck I'll have some posted tonight.

To answer you’re other questions;
#1) So where was your favorite place and least?
My favorite arena was Red Deer and my favorite place was Brandon.
My wife’s favorite arena was Moose Jaw her favorite place was Prince Albert.

#2) How much did the trip cost total?
Gas - $1752.87 (we traveled a total of 6,455 KM)
Food & Supplies - $898.62
Souvenirs & Entertainment - $683.43
Camping - $415.54
Standing on the ice in Prince Albert - Priceless !
Grand Total - $3750.46

Thanks
ee....

[eecliff]

wow im jealous.. what did you decide to be your favorite rink

We rated Red Deer as the best rink out of the 13 WHL rinks that we went to.
We liked it so much that we are now booking a trip to Red Deer for the December 31st game between the Rebels & Rockets.
I will email you a copy of our arena rating page to check out.

Thanks
ee.....