Well, to be truthful, the thread is not about Louis Bleriot, first man to cross the English Channel in a airplane, but about his brother, Andrè. In 1913, Andrè was commissioned to operate a ferry across the Red Deer River between Wheatland County, and Starland County, in the province of Alberta. That ferry, now known as the Bleriot Ferry is one of six ferries still in operation in Alberta. The River is only about 100 feet across, and the ferry is about 50 feet long. So no sooner do you depart one side, you are across the River! The ferry served a purpose 100 years ago, when the only bridge across the River was in Red Deer, about 75 miles away! How it is that the province hadn’t built a bridge by now is a puzzle. We rode across the river, this week. I’ll include an obligatory shot of the watch I was wearing.

 

Not so much a ferry, more like half a bridge

 

On that same trip, we visited a village that is in the Guinness book of World Records. Wayne, Alberta. The distance from highway 10 to Wayne is 6 kms. In that 6 kms, you traverse 11 bridges! So, in the return trip of 12 kms, we crossed 22 bridges!

 

Send in Clint Eastwood and Meryl Streep!

 

Does sound like the title of a chick flic.

 

Not a chick flic! Proof!

 

Reminds me of the model bridges we made from drinking straws in 1st year Engineering.