Nearly time to say goodbye ...

I've still got a few weeks left here in Spain and I hope to see you all a few more times, but there is some little piece of my home that I want to share with you before I go.

It's a song called "Alberta Bound" and it's about someone from the province of Alberta (like me!) returning home. It is written and preformed by a man named Paul Brandt who come from my city. Before he was a famous Country and Western singer he was actually a nurse for sick children and often worked in small villages in Africa. Is is friends with many of the nurses and doctors that my Mom works with. Paul Brandt wrote this song for the 100 year anniversary of the creation of Alberta in 2005 and he sang it at a giant party we had - even Queen Elizabeth II of England was there!

For me it is a very special song, and while I am feeling very very sad to be leaving you all, and leaving Spain too, I do miss my home. All I can say is that I hope some day you will all come and visit me in Canada!

So here you are! You are all invited!

Paul Brandt's "Alberta Bound" (lyrics are included below)



Lyrics:

Sign said 40 miles to Canada
My truck tore across Montana
Ian Tyson sang a lonesome lullaby
And so I cranked up the radio
Cause there's just a little more to go
For I'd cross the border at that Sweet Grass sign

(chorus)
I'm Alberta Bound
This piece of heaven that I've found
Rocky Mountains and black fertile ground
Everything I need beneath that big blue sky
Doesn't matter where I go
This place will always be my home
Yeah I've been Alberta Bound for all my life
And I'll be Alberta Bound until I die

It's a pride that's been passed down to me
Deep as coal mines, wide as farmer's fields
Yeah, I've got independence in my veins
Maybe it's my down-home redneck roots
Or these dusty old Alberta boots
But like a Chinook wind keeps coming back again ...

(chorus)