TPL On the Road presents ： What They Don't Tell You About Driving Across Canada
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Summary
Mike and Brady have made it to Brandon, Manitoba after a long day of driving across Canada. They stopped in Sault Ste. Marie and Thunder Bay on the way, and are now on their way to Victoria, B.C.
Transcript
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All right, Brady, we've made it to Brandon, Manitoba. It has been roughly nine and a half
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hours of driving from Thunder Bay, but what a great drive out of Ontario. And then, boy,
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you really know when you hit Manitoba. Thanks for joining us. I'm Mike. This is Brady. We are
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making our way across Canada from Toronto to Victoria, B.C. Yeah. And we're stopping at all
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kinds of places along the way doing shows just like this today we're at uh section six section
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six i can say it i'm a professional broadcaster section six and we're in their lovely tap room
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and brewery help me say it section six thank you very much brady it's been a long day of driving
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that actually we should kind of recap some of that because let's do it uh last night we uh we made
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our way to thunder bay from sous saint marie which one of us i mean the most incredible drive in
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ontario yeah i have ever been on if you have never done that trip oh my gosh get in the car now and
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just go go yeah the weather's beautiful yeah go like go this weekend if you're watching this i
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mean uh we saw waterfalls we saw uh i mean wildlife can i okay now we've seen so many things it's
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hardly even like to list them all what are the three top things that you've seen on this drive
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since we left toronto the three top things that i have seen um from toronto to brandon manitoba
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Okay. Well, I mean, the approach to Sault Ste. Marie was absolutely stunning.
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I mean, like the vistas that you see from different points,
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you know, the approach on to Lake Superior, which is incredible.
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Secondly, meeting a bunch of great friends like we did here in Brandon tonight
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But from Sault Ste. Brie to Thunder Bay was some of the most spectacular scenery.
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So we actually climbed a rapids just outside of Algoma.
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An absolutely beautiful spot if you get a chance between those two destinations.
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So we spent about an hour there on a very long driving day.
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i couldn't even drag you out of there no it was incredible i would have camped there if it was
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possible uh and then on to thunder bay which uh we arrived just as uh the light sort of uh started
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to disappear from the sky i watched the sunset on the water while we were driving in that you can't
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get a better picture than that by the way i had an amazing sub last night that was incredible in
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thunder bay uh it's called subdivisions yeah subdivisions you try to get a bunch of merch
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from them yeah they wouldn't they wouldn't uh they wouldn't give it to me so i shoplifted
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sorry about that guys just kidding uh by the way i should also say thank you very much
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to the fine folks at less lethal because they were part of our experience today
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lesslethal.ca the ultimate alternative to deadly force uh in a time where things are kind of weird
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uh and also they're a heck of a lot of fun if you want to do target practice like we did
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today and in fact uh we also had a little bit of fun with that we'll share that with you on the
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socials having said that uh what were what for you what was it between toronto and thunder bay
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before we get to brandon and our journey today yeah it's lake superior lake superior and that
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entire chunk of land around lake superior it takes you hours to get around lake superior it's the
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best the clearest blue water i definitely know why they call it lake superior you know yesterday we
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saw rapids yeah we saw beach we saw deep woods we saw bald rock cliff yeah we seen them drilling
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into rocks yesterday and cutting the sides of mountains out you know what we saw yesterday
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that was wild to me what's that washed out parts of the trans canada highway we talked about
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potholes in sault st marie that we got on the road and entire chunks of the trans canada were gone
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and you had to like make your way up against the side of the rock face uh to get around it and
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watching the transport trucks do it after us is just terrifying incredible how they do it yeah
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pro drivers on 17. but the work going on i mean you could see things changing right before your
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very eyes with these construction crews you know and we've seen i think we've probably seen
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i don't know eight or nine maybe a dozen uh road constructions on the way i would say even more
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mike probably 20 really well managed yeah very well man kind of begs the question though why is
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there only two lanes on the trans canada highway like i think there's a lot of traffic on them at
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times of course at times very dead as well yeah and that's probably why it stayed two lanes for
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so long but everybody knows that ontario is getting busier and busier and even the uh outskirts of
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southern ontario heading up north are starting to get very congested we saw the mines uh as we
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passed through algoma that was really interesting very beautiful gold mines uh beautiful land i
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don't like some people are like oh look at like all the damage they're doing no it's it's got its
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own beauty industrial beauty right yeah there was a lot of impressive mining operations of course
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you can see the stacks in the sky uh and as we entered into uh thunder bay you could start to
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see the industry there um you know the various elements of industry um and of course the port
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area there was a large shipping uh container ship out in the in the bay when we arrived to ask you
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a question because i would like the audience to hear it but i just want to hear your answer
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because i haven't asked you yet what did you think about our hotel last night oh our that this is
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really cool so we we pulled into uh thunder bay and uh i said to brady i'll be honest with you
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brady i don't know about our hotel for tonight i booked it last minute thunder bay was full
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uh every hotel was taken yeah and so uh this is what we got and uh i do hope that it's okay and
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and brady was okay and then we arrived and it was really cool it's it's one of the most beautiful
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buildings and it's probably the most beautiful building in thunder bay i wasn't driving around
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thunder bay looking for the most beautiful building but i'm pretty sure i stayed in it last
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night stuck out yeah yeah it's it's the old courthouse of thunder bay turned into a i would
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i felt like a diplomat staying there it's not like ultra rich luxury but it's just it's pretty close
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yeah it's very fancy very uh affordable very affordable yeah it was not balling right no i
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wouldn't say we are no we're not what we're not balling we're certainly not balling what the kids
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say nowadays are saying that are they so uh you know on that note it was a really really big
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surprise for us to to show up and uh and then we had a good dinner in town and we even checked out
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the casino yeah actually i completely forgot about that yeah we were in the casino for about
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14 seconds uh but it was really interesting to see uh what had been built there in the way of
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a casino in town uh so anyway from there brady down today's journey and we'll talk a little bit
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about uh where we're headed after this on the way to brandon uh what was your impression you had been
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on this journey before but in here the the transition of what we left in ontario and what
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we arrived to as we entered manitoba so the transition from going around lake superior
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leaving thunder bay seeing all the rocky mountain terrain your cell phone doesn't work
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at one point yesterday i did a calculation of how many hours my cell phone wasn't working
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and it was a blessing but unfortunately we've got a lot of work to do while we're still on the road
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and i had both probably a six five to six hour gap uh combined without any reception so you get
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reception for about 30 seconds to a minute and it's gone again so going from that mountainous
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terrain and that beautiful scenery no cell phone footage or no cell phone data going all the way
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into manitoba where it's like a dotted line in the map you can definitely like see exactly where
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the transition happens the highway changes to like a pinkish color it goes from gray to pink
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and then um you see nothing but flat yeah that's true did the beginning of manitoba right right at
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and straight a straight road i feel like i just drove a straight road from ontario to brandon
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manitoba yeah and i felt like the exorcist because i was looking for the manitoba sign
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welcome to manitoba and i couldn't find it anywhere all i seen was welcome to white shells
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brady you've made two really good damn points pardon my french what one of them is we need to
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look into what's going on with uh cell coverage yeah and data coverage along the highway it
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it doesn't seem all that dangerous and now navigation of course is uh really tied to what
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happens i think that we really need to take a look at what's going on there i think it would
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also make a difference to uh safety and a number of factors especially uh during the winter uh the
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second thing is if you you pointed out that um that transition that we made as we came into
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the infamous dotted line as i call it had no sign up we should i think manitoba you need to put a
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nice sign between i mean do you not want us to know that we're in manitoba or what you know when
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you're officially in manitoba and i know you know this when is when the highway splits in half and
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you think you're driving on the other side of the road you're not well okay uh third good point from
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brady what are you doing we've had a lot of hours of driving and now suddenly brady says to me i
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think you're on the wrong side of the road and i went no i think it split the the highway's over
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there now i looked down at my phone because i finally got reception for like the first time
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ever and i'm like oh my goodness this is amazing mike i think you're on the other side of the road
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now i'm in panic thinking yeah you know what i was thinking about how uh green acres remember that
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show uh took place yeah youtube copyright yeah well don't please don't if you don't mind well
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too late for this episode uh but that was uh in my mind uh that was uh i really do think that
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it was a terrifying moment it was definitely a green acres moment it was and it lasted about 30
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seconds because we kept looking at each other like yeah i don't know now you've convinced me
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that i'm on the wrong side of the road so we just sized over way to look down the side road okay
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look down that side road as we drive by real quick because we're doing 100 right yeah you know the
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turnabout for the police and emergency and i look over and oh yeah there's the other side of the
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highway we're good okay so then we continued to speed on at 25 over the speed limit yeah that's
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not true as well so on the drive from thunder bay to brandon once we got into manitoba you seen one
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of the coolest things ever running through a field what was it that was incredible uh what i thought
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at first was a bird at a distance but it made its way to the highway so quickly but i quickly
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realized no that's a canine yeah it's not at first i think we both thought i look at the coyote
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well we're from we're from ontario when you see that going on now mind your coyotes don't move
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at that speed i've never seen a coyote move at that speed i know they're sleek and they move
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quick but nothing like this this thing was touring this scene in my mind happens in slow motion to
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the music from chariots of fire as it makes its approach to us you realize look at the size of
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the head on that thing look at the tail and the tail's what got me the overall size of the animal
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and quickly we realized oh that was actually a wolf so yeah and we just make like we basically
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see it eye level and by the time that we pass it and i look back it's already crossing the highway
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that's the speed it was moving at it made it across all the lanes of the highway in like four
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gallops yeah across uh it was quite incredible yeah it's a very magical creature uh the birds
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that we have seen along the way and of course uh the other thing is we seen cream just we saw we
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saw a crane well just just sitting there at the side of the road absolutely stunning i seen rare
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pigeons in thunder bay like really rare pigeons like orange calico pigeons nice little like
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feathered feet you mentioned that this morning yeah yeah they're uh my father used to love pigeons
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and all like these rare like fancy kind of pigeons and they just live at that courthouse hotel on the
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roof why don't i see your dad giving you a pigeon for your birthday and you're like i wanted super
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nintendo no my dad didn't give you anything on my birthday no okay for good reason you probably
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didn't deserve it i'm pretty sure you earned that he hooked me up thanks old man uh but the other
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thing that amazed us i think is the automation and the industry that is agriculture here in uh
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manitoba and certainly as you make your way from past winnipeg into brandon it is really stunning
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what goes into it the size of these properties two little kids with their uh tonka trucks in
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the sandbox watching all this amazing machinery really what the heck is that thing what's that
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thing oh my goodness look at the sprinklers oh they're spraying the fields like just happy just
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two two dumb guys happy looking at farm equipment yeah that's pretty silly of us you know the other
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thing we did for a little bit of fun today speaking of farms is uh we connected with uh
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one of the fans of the show thank you so much uh and made our way into the wilderness on their
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property to play with the uh less lethal verna and that was a lot of fun so thank you very much
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to uh donnie for having us on uh but that so we made a couple of stops along the way to experience
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farm life and uh tomorrow we'll dive deeper into that oh yeah we're going into the land
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of the prairies we are headed to regina saskatchewan tomorrow indeed we are the lobby
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kitchen and bar hey uh looking very forward to uh hanging out with those folks they've been very
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kind to us and in setting this up much like uh section six here in uh brandon and uh of course
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we've made some good friends along the way that's the other thing that i want to point out so if
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we've hung out thank you so much for being part of this experience for us uh but yeah we head off
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to regina tomorrow into the real prairie life uh the deep deep prairie life which i think will be
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fun. One of the things we had a staff meeting about today is we make our way then to Medicine
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Hat. I'm really excited about that because that is sort of a legendary. When you're in radio in
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Canada, they'll tell you, oh, you're going to start in Medicine Hat. I didn't. They didn't
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hire me. Having said that, I ended up in a different market closer to home. But Medicine
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Hat, many of my friends went there and they would tell you about what this incredible life was like
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uh in this sort of small town yeah it's a rural community for sure that's that's rural and uh but
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still has a sizable population that does things together uh and and rallies together on things
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so i'll look forward to that but we did have a staff meeting today about our uh departure from
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edmonton later in the week uh down through the uh the mountains into cam loops yeah where this week
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they have uh have had another tragedy a church burning and of course that area has been focus
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of national news attention it should be any any religious building being burnt for whatever cause
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or reason why as to why it sounds like they don't even know right now what's going on uh but anytime
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a religious building or a government building gets set on fire this is a concern this is a major
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national problem and uh in fact so if you think we're just out here having fun and games well we
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are but there is some touch points uh in edmonton uh cam loops and in vancouver where we'll make
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sort of a presence uh just on your behalf uh with the lens to see you know what we can and uh learn
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more about those stories i am looking forward to that part of the trip and tomorrow of course
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not as long a drive i'm super excited about that now heading out of cam loops are you looking
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forward to the beautiful island that is victoria my friend that's where we're finishing this
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journey super excited victoria's been on my list almost my whole life it should be and i haven't
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been there i've been to vancouver never made it to victoria i don't know what i'm thinking it's
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like the freshest smelling air you've ever smelled well after traveling together brady i think we
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will both deserve a breath of fresh air i smelled like a piece of pepperoni in the car all day
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I don't know why teriyaki jerky has to be part of your diet.
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We also, I can't thank the people here in Brandon enough.
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You've been very, very warm and welcoming and very, very, very cordial as we've been recording this.
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Yeah, I'm not just going to leave drink tickets and T-shirts when we leave and a bunch of merch.
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No, no, we're leaving something else called TPL Local.
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If you've been following TPL Media and our subscriber base keeps growing,
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we have launched a local version of it to markets just like Brandon, like Sault Ste. Marie, like Thunder Bay,
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that don't have as much local media anymore, featuring people just like you in your hometown.
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We launched in Sault Ste. Marie a couple of days ago,
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and we will continue to grow across the country with local information.
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It's got local news, a constant stream of content from our national network of shows,
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and then podcasts and stories from your market.
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Check it out, tplmedia.ca slash local, and then look for your town,
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Well, Mike, thanks for having me as your guest again in Brandon, Manitoba.
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What do you want to leave the people with before we roll our way out here?
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You've got to hear how many different beers they've got here.
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These are the most recent beers they have here at Section 6.
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It's a beautiful location with great craft beers.
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And I hope that we'll see you when we go to Regina.
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And Medicine Hat, Edmonton and Kamloops and Victoria.
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If you don't know where to find us, we'll let you know directly.