Day 24: Moose Jaw, AB, to Moorhead, MN

585 miles
8:10 AM - 7:30 PM local time (6:30 by the time we got up)

Thank you, Lord, list:
Our own beds to look forward to tomorrow
Good beds we have slept in in the meantime
Another beautiful day while the place we left behind gets plastered
No border complications

On this our next-to-the-last day we took Rt. 39 that angled from Moose Jaw to North Portal, ND.  The scenery has been pretty much this shot taken outside Moose Jaw all day:

We spent our last Canadian currency for gas before we crossed the border. Steve says it was probably the longest immigration interview he has ever had, and believe me, he has had a LOT of immigration interviews. We figure the cause was probably the thickness of his passport and the potential for terrorists to use Canada as an entry point to the US.

It has been very windy all day. Hard driving for Steve. Very noisy with the windows open for circulation. We found a park in Bowbells, ND, to eat our picnic lunch. Nice houses, but most businesses were closed. Nothing for miles in any direction.

Mom spotted a beautiful bighorn sheep poised on the crest of a hill, silhouetted against the sky, but there were no bear locks on the trash bins in the rest stops, which made me homesick for the north. I teased Mom that when she put the visor down, I couldn't see any mountains. Of course, I couldn't see any mountains with the visor up either.

We've stayed in too many hotel rooms. This evening when I went back to the car for our fridge items, I carried them to room 318. But my key didn't work. Of course. Last night we were on the third floor. Tonight is room 218. But my key card didn't work there either. I finally phoned Steve to ask what room we were in. Good thing we were back in the States where I don't have to pay international fees. We are in room 418. Tomorrow there will only be three bedrooms to choose from, and I think I will be able to find my own.

I already miss the camaraderie of this trip. Up north we were always asking people where they were from. Everyone assumed we were either headed for Alaska or coming from there. The adventure was a shared experience even with strangers. I have wished we had gotten an e-mail for the Larry Smiths headed for Kenya who noticed our Minnesota license plates outside a lunch stop south of Fairbanks. It has been a wonderful trip, a dream come true, not just for Mom who was the inspiration, but for me as well.

Afghan update: Lots of knitting. Not much outside to distract me. :-)

Day 23: Banff, AB, to Moose Jaw, Sasketchuan

527 miles
8:15- 5:15

Thank you, Lord, list:
A mother-in-law who is so easy to please and so easy to get along with
A husband who drives without complaining and organizes logistics
A husband who goes out of his way for ME to have a good time
Sunshine instead of the rain that had been predicted
Hot fudge malts

We said good-by to the mountains between Banff and Calgary, not without regrets and the desire to return. Even Mom was thinking about what it would take to make moving out here feasible for her. It isn't, but a girl can dream., can't she?

We were back in the ordinary world of fields and highway billboards. Calgary could use a by-pass. Steve didn't think so. He enjoyed seeing what the city looked like, but I could have done without the Subways and Tim Hortons and tattoo parlors.

Most of the day looked pretty much like this:

 Or this:

Lots of oil pumps. I noticed three cows playing king of the mountain on a pile of dirt. Or maybe they were there for the view. Mom "wondered" why I wasn't asking to go for a hike. I said it would be a long hot walk just to get out of sight of the car!

In Brooks, Alberta, we broke into a Horseshoes Club for our picnic. (Okay, so we untied the rope around the gate.) Not scenic enough to merit a photo, but there were picnic tables in the shade. Who knew that many people played horseshoes? There were 18 pitches! It was in the corner of the rodeo grounds. I guess horseshoes and horses DO go together.

We stopped for bathrooms at the Alberta welcome center just west of Saskatchewan. Alberta has major dino digs. I took this for grandson Alex:

The fan in the car has not worked most of the trip. Air circulation comes from opening windows a little bit. When you can't stand the noise of the wind (or what to say something for others to hear), you close them until you get too hot. Today was the first day it was hot enough to matter. But that made a good excuse to stop at Dairy Queen.

Tomorrow we return to the US via North Dakota. Almost home.

Afghan update: You can probably guess that I got lots of knitting done today. Maybe I'll finish before we get home. :-) No more cute settings. Just an ordinary Days Inn. Why do hotels put that stupid little colored cloth across the foot of the bed? Do they really think you will be tricked into believing they have turned down the bedspread for you?

Day 22: Banff

287 miles
8:45 AM - 5 PM

Thank you, Lord, list:
another bear
beautiful places to enjoy without having to pay the hotel bill
warm grilled vegetable salad with balsamic reduction and goat cheese
hot tub that looks out on mountain views
good health for all three of us
comfortable beds almost every night
Great weather almost every day of this trip

We didn't exactly hang out in Banff today. We returned to Lake Louise, the most photographed spot in Canada, and I threw out the dark, dreary pictures of yesterday in exchange for this:

Lots of foreign languages and accents in this iconic place and all over this part of Canada. I met a couple from Durban yesterday on the Glacier Walk because they recognized my Ekhuruleni Libraries ball cap. (Ekhuruleni is the post-apartheid name for our part of Johannesburg.) We have been surprised at the number of waiters, tour guides and hotel workers with Aussie accents. Easy visas one told Steve and a beautiful place to work.

We checked out Moraine Lake, another turquoise jewel and then drove west on Route 1. It was marked scenic on our map and lived up to its designation as our lunch spot at the Visitor's Center for Yoho National Park at Field, BC, shows. I asked what Yoho means. Evidently it is Cree for "Wow!" Appropriately named.

The guy at the Visitors Center recommended the Natural Bridge where a waterfall has eaten out the rock beneath so that it goes under the stone bridge. A short walk for Mom.

He also recommended Emerald Lake. It had that gorgeous turquoise water surrounded by mountains and not nearly as many people as Lake Louise. The wildflowers were mostly past their peak, but the scent remained strong. I fantasized celebrating my birthday at this lodge next year until Steve went on-line and discovered it cost $350 per night withOUT breakfast.

At the town of Golden we turned south on Rt. 95. Rt. 95 was NOT marked scenic on the map. Mom concluded the lack of scenic designation just means they don't provide turnouts for gaping at the view. Or taking pictures. This "non-scenic" area includes the headwaters of the Columbia River, route to the Pacific for early explorers. This view was behind a rest stop. I had to climb through the woods and along a railroad track to get it. It should not be considered scenic because there were no little dots along the road on the map.

At Radium Hot Springs (scary name if you ask me!) we turned back northeast on officially scenic Rt. 3. We could see the hot springs pool from the road.  It looked like a YMCA. Liard River was way better! We were now in Kootenay National Park. As the guide book said, it has a pretty dramatic entry. The road  is built OVER a waterfall where it passes through a narrow gorge.

The upper part of this route was devastated by fire in 2003. For forty days it burned! The dead trees cover 170 acres. So sad to see.

We saw a bear in the morning on Rt 1, the only wildlife we spotted all day. This whole area is national park. Jasper and Banff and several over towns are located inside the parks. I thought these flyovers for wildlife were a great idea.

Tomorrow we start home in earnest. We have gotten only a taste of the Canadian Rockies, but it is a taste like dark chocolate or Alpha Morning Sun five-year-aged cheddar from Burnett Dairy--something to be savored. I am thrilled that Steve is talking "when we come back," not "if we come back." 

Afghan update: I actually did four rows on that "not-scenic" part of our day. The valley was broad enough that the view wasn't changing every hundred yards. But I didn't take a picture. This Red Carpet Inn is remarkably blah for such a spectacular setting. Don't ask me about the housekeeping.

Day 21: Jasper to Banff, Alberta

200 miles exactly
8:30 Am - 5:30 PM

Thank you, Lord, list:
Patient husband who stops for all my photos
Mom's desire not to miss anything!
Elk on the road where we can't miss them
Colorful wildflowers, even the ones I normally think of as weeds
Thick fields of ice,hundreds of years old
Stunted trees hundreds of years old--who knew God invented bonsai?
Yet another scenic picnic site
Turquoise glacial water
Awesomely high water falls

It wasn't hard to turn a three-hour drive into a nine-hour tour. We did NOT stop at every pullout. We skipped at least two. Maybe even three. We figured if the park folk thought people would want to stop, there must be a reason, and there always was.

There wasn't even a pull out for these elk crossing the road. Or for the grazing black bear we saw later.

Having visited Athabasca Falls yesterday we skipped it today. It would have been well worth another visit, but there was so much on our to-do list! This is Sunwaptu Falls. Not as spectacular, but still beautiful.

Mom climbed on the shuttle bus and onto the ice rover vehicle to walk on Athabasca Glacier, part of the Columbia ice field.

A hundred and thirty years ago the ice was so thick that the smaller glacier to the left flowed into Athabasca. It is still melting at an average of 65 feet per year. But this past winter they had significantly less snow than normal so this year's melt will likely be greater. See it now!

BTW, the Athabasca River is one of the few in the world that flows north into the Arctic Ocean.

Mom didn't walk out to the Peyto Lake overlook with its turquoise glacial flour waters. The distance was just a bit too far and too steep. (No buses or ice rovers available.)

It was a fabulous day of breath-taking views. As Steve said, "The Ice Field Highway lived up to its reputation in every way." Even dandelions are beautiful here.

Tonight we are in Banff. We have tomorrow to explore the area before starting east the day after. We stopped at fabled Lake Louise this afternoon, but it was clouding up and the pictures aren't worth sharing. We plan to go back tomorrow for morning light.

Afghan update: Not a stitch.

Day 19: Dawson Creek, BC, to Jasper National Park

519 miles
9:45 AM-6:30 PM (5:30 get-up time)

Thank you, Lord, list:
Sunshiney day to drive back into the mountains
Passing lanes around slow trucks
People who repair these roads even if I get impatient while they are doing it
Smell of pine underfoot
Clouds and evergreens reflected in water
Sunlight on snowy peaks
Mom's cell phone is actually off
Promise of good weather to explore Jasper National Park

Late start to the day. Would you believe it's already time to change the oil again? Have I mentioned the distances up here?

Or you could say it was an early start to the day. At about 3:30 AM Steve and I woke to a pinging. (When Mom takes her hearing aids out, she can sleep through anything.) Before we went to sleep (in a comfortable Days Inn with fridge, microwave, TV and a bed for each of us to stretch out at little more than half the price of the night before with none of those things), Mom had clarified, "The alarm clock IS turned off, isn't it?" We have all been awakened at way too early an hour by hotel alarm clocks set by previous occupants. We verified that, as far as one can understand a strange alarm clock, it was turned off. So the pinging at 3:30 was very irritating.

Steve pulled out my mattress looking for the plug. No, that was the cord to the lamp. He pulled out Mom's mattress. (She never stirred.) Got it.

Ping. Louder than before.

It was Mom's cell phone, telling her the battery was low and she needed to plug in. She thought it was turned off, but obviously it wasn't because she had received an ATT text earlier in the day,reminding her that she was abroad and although she could use her cell phone, international charges would apply.

Where was her phone? Not in her purse. Here it was beside her bed. Now, how do you turn this thing off? The only thing worse than figuring out how to turn off a hotel alarm clock (and not have it ring again after a ten-minute snooze) is figuring out how to turn off someone else's cell phone.

Ping. Still louder. You really do have to plug in if you don't want your phone to go dead. Dead was what we wanted. I even suggested throwing it int he toilet.

Finally, Steve figured it out. Black screen. Silence. Back to bed. But I don't think he more than dozed the rest of the night.

When we did get up and get the oil change, we then set out across the prairie. Looks kinda like prairie, doesn't it? Instead of wilderness we have wide fields and distant farms.

It's Sunday so we let a gospel CD be our worship time. An old group called "Melody Four." The bass made Steve keep thinking of his dad. 

At Grand Prairie, Alberta (sounds kinda prairie, doesn't it?) we turned south on Hwy 40, Bighorn Highway. Didn't see any bighorn, but we left behind the strip malls, traffic and all services. We were definitely ready for bathrooms by the time we hit the Big Cache visitor center. We also left behind the fields. The way  became more and more rolling and definitely wilderness. After Big Cache, it was downright beautiful. We had to remind ourselves that we weren't yet on the scenic route. The Big Cache Visitors Center people advised us to stop at Kelly's Bathtub in . William Switzer Provincial Park.  Good advice. I took a walk around this small lake while Mom and Steve napped in the car.

Then we reached Canada 16. NOW we were on the scenic route.

We have two nights in this lovely Best Western Suite complete with ski locker and mountain view. Tomorrow should be LOTS of fun. Can't go to bed until I get the laundry done--the curse of travel.

Afghan update: Prairie is a good place to knit. Mountains are not.