MeAnd’Er ing out of Alberta

 

We’re making our way East as our friends in Hay River are making their way West to escape the forest fire.  Our hearts and prayers are with them.

Day 6: 

We gave ourselves more time in Lethbridge because there is so much to see in this part of Alberta.  Let me start off with Analog Bookstore in Downtown - my favourite bookstore so far.  It’s owned by Penny and Scott and they have done an outstanding job making it interactive - a Postcard table with Analog postcards to hand write and mail to your friends and family, the local post office got involved and found them some really cool stamps.  I mailed a card to Amy at Totally Book-ish in Mission.  They also have an old typewriter set up for you to leave a note on what we love about independent bookstores.  And - the bookstore cat looked just like our family cat Roxanne, and there’s a whole serendipity story around that that I’ll tell you when we get home.  

https://www.analogbooks.net/

The streets here are so wide - 4 lanes plus angle parking on both sides!  Wow, if we did that in Mission wouldn’t have any shops!

There’s a really big park in the centre of town that was set aside for the city by the Galt Company Alberta Railway and Irrigation Company, commemorating the Galt family who were an intricate part instrumental in developing Lethbridge through the coal resources found nearby.  And not unlike many city parks, is home to a number of people who are experiencing homelessness.  It’s huge, beautiful, and has a large Rotary presence.  Unfortunately, the Southern Alberta Art Gallery was closed.  We had a wonderful lunch at a little place called the Streatside Diner and the server gave us a business card to add to our collection of independent bookstore bookmarks!  How sweet is that.

We spent the afternoon at the Nikki Yuko (from Nihon meaning Japan and ka from Kanada or Canada, and Yuko, which translates as friendship) Japanese Gardens and it tells an amazing story of people who migrated to Canada from Japan for economic and employment opportunities.  It is a beautiful, peaceful sanctuary nestled on 4 acres.  If you want to read more about it, here is the link, and the Bio section is particularly good.  https://nikkayuko.com/

And, as serendipity seems to be in full force on this journey, we happened to be there the day the Minho Dancers performed traditional dances. 

We’re struggling with finding places to eat that aren’t “restaurant” food, but we’ll get it figured out.  I’m craving a Buddha Bowl!

Day 7: 

Today we tested our limit in what we could do in a day, and a test it was!

3 destinations in 1 day -

*  McBride Wind Farm

* Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump

* Waterton Lakes Park

with a stop in Fort MacLeod to charge the car and poke around a bit.  Cute little town in kind of a time warp, but it does have a charging station so I have to give it that.  An outpost of the North West Mounted Police, but most importantly - the birth place of Joni Mitchell 💞. Now if that doesn’t give a town claim to fame I don’t know what does!  

So let’s start with Wind Farms - there are turbines all over the place but what we were looking for was an interpretive centre or someplace that could tell us what is going on, how they work?  where the energy is going?  etc.  We’ll, let me tell you - Siri couldn’t make up her mind if we should go to McGrath Wind Farm in Carston  County or McBride Wind Farm in Fort MacLeod, so she took us through miles of unpaved backroads through farms and cattle pastures.  At one point we were very near to crossing the border into Montana, and heading so far east along the border that it felt we would end up in Saskatchewan. 

I felt a bit like Don Quixote chasing windmills, and Siri was Sancho.

Here’s what we found: The McBride wind farm has 114 turbines and generates enough energy to power more than 32,500 homes for one year.  The production of energy generated by wind power at the McBride facility reduces annual emissions by 235,000 tones of CO2.  Switching to electricity generated by wind power instead of electricity generated by wind power instead of electricity generated by wind power instead of electricity derived from burning fossil fuels for you annual electricity needs would be equal to not driving your car 30,000km.

That’s Roger standing at the base of the tower!

Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump

Really, that is what it is called.  It is 22km from Fort MacLeod and the Interpretive Centre is built into the side of the mountain, so respectful and unassuming. 

Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump was inscribed on the World Heritage Sites list in 1982, joining places of “outstanding universal value” such as the Pyramids, the Great Wall, Taj Mahal, the Grand Canyon, Stonehenge and nearly 1,000 more. 

The story is amazing of the practice of the Blackfoot Indians in the Great Plains staging animal behaviours to have the buffalo (bison) gather into drive lanes and finally stampede over the cliffs.  The hunters disguised themselves as wolves to appear as a threat, which made the buffalo tighten the herd to protect the young, then others disguised as lost calves to bring the herd to follow in one specific direction lining them up into the drive lane lined with branches.  Then others disguised as buffalo running to encourage the stampede, which brought the buffalo over the jump, and certain death!

Every part of the animal was used and prepared for provisions for travel and over the winter.  The conditions had to be just right so several sites were used across the Plains.

Later the buffalo were pretty much wiped out by hunting crews killing as many as 100/day to provide hides for coats for the Canadian and American armies and the NWMP, taking only the hides and leaving the carcasses to rot.  Farming also contributed to the demise of the buffalo as land was cleared of native plants to make room for crops, much like we clear forests in other parts.

The Bison are now a protected species with herds down from 10’s of thousands to a few hundred.

Waterton Lake National Park

Last stop this blog, I promise!

This place was a must see according to many - especially a young man in a gallery in Canmore who, with full body language described the flat prairie into the rolling hills into the mountains.  And he was right - the Rockies are Right There!

The Waterton Park Front is a conservation project with local ranchers and the Nature Conservacy of Canada and the W. Garfield Weston Foundation to save approximately 30,000 acres and is maintained by local ranchers for more than a century and is the largest private land conservation initiative in Canadian history.  Pretty impressive.  

The mountains in the background are the Rockies in Montana’s Glacier National Park.

The village is resort town-ish but nice - not sure if the “See you next year” signs in shop windows mean “See you next Summer” or “See you next Winter”, the message wasn’t very clear.  But Pat’s gas station was doing a booming business in the bike rental department!  

We stopped for dinner at the Lakeside Chop House where I found my illusive Buddha Bowl - which Roger had because I opted for the crab cakes!

Other points along the way: 

 * Pincher Creek - Ian Tyson lived there

 * Spring Point Colony - another Hutterite colony

 * I have a cold!

A very long day chasing down windmills, buffalo and Rockies, we didn’t get back to our room in Lethbridge until 8PM.

MeAnd’Er ing our way across Alberta

Day 8:  - Time for an update: Last time we left you we were in Canmore on Tuesday evening, Day 3 … 

Day 4: Today we hit 1000km on our trip!

Canmore is breathtaking, right at the foot of the Rockies surrounded by massive mountains.  The mountains are Right There!!  After my Rotary meeting (Zoom from Mission), and a quick breakfast and a visit to an another wonderful independent bookstore - Cafe Books.  

Then we back tracked to Lake Louise and Banff because it was pouring rain when we came through yesterday, a bit better today. Not a lot of tourists this time of year - there was still ice on Lake Louise! 

For all my school friends, this sign is outside Banff Elementary, thought you might like it!

We had a coffee in the Banff Springs Hotel after spending most of the day walking around town. Hey, the Lounge in the hotel even has a ‘rude guy’ - you know the type:  Takes a window seat, best view in the house, orders a coffee, takes out his laptop and sits there for hours!  Doesn’t even look out the window! 

Great lunch at Banff Sushi, where a model CP Rail engine pulled a train full of sushi around the track and we picked off the dishes we wanted. - very cool.

We took Hwy 1A back from Banff to Canmore and came upon an Internment Camp landmark at Castle Mountain.  It was established in 1915 to intern Austrians and Germans during WW1 when 60 prisoners were marshalled off a Canadian Pacific train and escorted to a barbed wire compound at the end of what is now Lake Louise road, and stayed interned until 1920.  There were a total of 24 internment camp operations in Canada’s National Parks holding 8.579 men prisoners of war.  Very sad

Day 5: May 11th

We left Canmore today and headed to Lethbridge.  But not without stopping in Cochrane.  We saw our very 1st Alberta cowboy.  The drive was through beautiful ranch country, flat and wide.  I said to Roger we better get used to it because that’s about all we’re going to see for a month!

Downtown is fantastic 

 - a consignment store  that refers to Closet Cleansing and has shoes lining the steps going upstairs

 - a fully loaded kitchen store

 - an 80 year old cobbler who’s been doing it since he was 10, and has the family owned Western Wear store next door

 - independent bookstore called “Found” with loads of spots to sit and read and a treehouse for the kids.  I bought Everly a really great book called “Press Here” that is really fun to read

And over lunch: 

“Why?” I ask the waitress, is there a starfish on your banners?  “I don’t know, that’s a really good question” she replied, “I’ll ask the Mayor next time he’s in for lunch”!

    Gotta love small towns!

Next stop - Vulcan!

Starship Enterprise - Why Vulcan? you may ask - 

Because the town wanted to tap into the growing tourist market interested in space tourism, science and Star Trek.  

Roger thinks Spock was a Vulcan - 🤔 

He was!  Born in the year 2230 in the city of Ski’Kahr, Vulcan to parents Sarek and Amanda Grayson.

Who knew?  - Seems like Roger did!

Until next time - 

So long for now!

Winding down and Getting used to the ride

 Hi everyone, 

Welcome to the Roger and Janet’s MeAnd’Er Across Canada journey, (pron. Meander Across Canada) 

As you know, we are driving our all electric Hyundai Kona across Canada and using 3 to 4 months to do it - all the way to Newfoundland and back!

Lots to see and people to visit - a bucket list dream come true 💕

Day 1 - 

We left Mission Sunday in a nice, laid back mode, trying our best to remind ourselves that there is no rush at all.  This is going to be a huge adjustment for us both but we are determined to ‘go with the flow’ and unwind.  

The work on the pipeline has torn apart a huge amount of the land leading up to the Okanagon, and we could certainly see where all our workers are - there are 100’s of people working on this.  Leading up as far as Merrit and through the Coldwater area the entire hillside is pulled apart and banked with big white absorption bales.  

We left that behind after Merritt, where we changed course and took the Connector for a beautiful drive through high elevations with snow still on the side of the roads, and on up the west side of Okanagan Lake to Vernon,  We had a wonderful visit with our friends Cal and Sharon.  They are definitely hosts extraordinaire and have found their own little piece of heaven in their new home.  And the waffles are a Must Have!

We’re glad Cal sent us on the Westside Road because you don’t even see Okanagon Lake when you take Hwy. 97, but the west side we saw it all the way to the tip! 

It was a little touch and go last week whether we would even stop and see them on our way because of the flooding and their water being shut down.  They’re still on a boil water order, but that didn’t stop us from having a great time.  

The devastation from the past forest fires is amazing, and I will never understand how the heat could be so intense yet not burn the trees to the ground???

Day 2 - 

We left Vernon and set out to Blind Bay to visit friends Pam and George - note to self - call a few days ahead and confirm!!  We’ll catch them on on our way home in August.  

We drove through some of the most beautiful parts of BC and even stopped at the Farmers’ Market in Vernon along the way and picked up some Triple-berry Granola bars. 

The trails in Sicamous are lovely and we found the houseboat company on the river that gives Sicamous the prestigious title of the “Houseboat Capital of Canada”.  Who knew? 

Then down through the highway we drove and came upon Craigellachie, where they drove the last spike of the Canadian Pacific Railway.  Why they did that in the middle of nowhere I could not understand,  but Roger read the signs and that’s where the East met the West,

The drive to Revelstoke was lovely and we spent a couple of hours walking around downtown.  There certainly is a different culture in this part of the province - everyone is outdoorsie with bike shops, ski stuff, everything you could want to be outside year round.  And an amazing display in a store window of a wedding dress made entirely out of corks and the groom’s suit made of used coffee filters!

A few of the places were closed though - ‘shoulder’ season so they’re doing reno’s and stuff.

Revelstoke has an art project in the alleys downtown that have some pretty amazing stuff - right there with the dumpsters!  The initiative was launched in 2019 and aims to transform the downtown alleyways into outdoor art galleries.  “Art Alleries” revitalize dark and disused places into thriving public spaces for locals and visitors to walk through and enjoy.  

The houses are really old and the town is filled with charm and character.  

But we’re moving on - tomorrow we’re going to Alberta!  YeHaw 

Note to self #2 - ask the hotel if they have an EV charging station BEFORE checking out in the morning!

Day 3 - 

After walking around Revelstoke yesterday we were tired, so we started this morning with a great breakfast at the Stoke Hotel and headed East.   Roger is starting to talk a bit less about charging stations and enjoying the scenery - it will be nice to get the ‘feel’ of the travel down to a comfort level where we don’t have to talk about it at all 🙏

Next stop was Golden - a ‘must stop’ destination on my list because I heard the owner of Bacchus Bookstore on North by Northwest when Margaret Gallagher was featuring independent bookstores in BC.  I promised Amy at Totally Book-ish that I would do my best to visit every independent bookstore along the way, and when I can I’ll try to link them to one another - Once again, thank you CBC!  As luck would have it, the owner wasn’t there, but I did manage to pick up a used copy of Stuart McLean’s Welcome Home, Travels in Smalltown Canada.  Definitely a valuable independent bookstore treasure on the route through Rogers Pass, and the trip will be even richer now that we have Stuart with us, AND - I have his Backstage at the Vinyl Cafe podcasts on my phone!  Glory be, all we need is Farley Mouat’s The Dog Who Wouldn’t Be. !

The walking bridge and the hill heading east out of Golden reminded us of our trip with Lori and Ray when we were in Radium Hot Springs and rafted down the Kicking Horse River.  I swear Lori thought we were going to die!

It rained all the way from Golden to Canmore, so tonight we are in Canmore for a couple of days and will double back to visit Lake Louise and Banff tomorrow.  We couldn’t see any of the mountains along the way, although we did see the taillights of a John Deere for about 5km coming out of Golden driving at 15km/hr!  

Wrap Up - 

We jumped ahead an hour today and I’m going to try to log into my Rotary meeting tomorrow morning, so “So Long for Now”.