Yesterday, I took a day to rest. I stayed in Calgary, got a facial and a manicure. In the afternoon I walked to Prince’s Island Park, a great park on an island in the middle of the Bow River. I only enjoyed the park for about an hour. Everywhere I went I was followed by bees. I wonder if they liked the lotion used in the facial as they kept buzzing around my neck. They followed me as I walked along the River Walk to the park, at the park and as I walked back along the River Walk. One even stung me on the hand. He was not a Jolliebee and I wasn’t too jolly after either. The sting wasn’t too much of a problem, more annoying than anything.
It was warm and humid and I saw some people eating ice cream in the park. I asked them where they got it and they said they brought it from home. Huh? Who brings ice cream to the park from home? That did not help me locate ice cream. I did find a place in Chinatown that served Thai rolled ice cream. I never saw rolled ice cream when I lived in Thailand. It was delicious as I could get one of my favorite flavors – Taro!
The walk back from the park was very different than my walk the other evening. Most of the restaurants on the walking street were closed and empty. A night before everything had been so lively. There were still people walking around, but it felt a bit deserted in comparison.
Day 2 of driving to Alaska was almost the same as Day 1. Very little trees, mostly wide open spaces. There were mountains from time to time, way off in the distance – so far off that they were just shadows, suggestions. There were more small towns and farms than the first day which helped break up the vast grasslands. There were more cars on the road which actually was not a plus. I hate passing on 2 lane highways, but had to often.
Both days I saw an alarming number of dead dear on the side of the highway. I know deer or elk crossing the road at dusk or night is a concern where I live. Still, I’m not use to seeing this many. There must be so much wildlife roaming these plains. Today, many porcupines were added to the death toll. I’ve never seen a live porcupine and after today I’ve seen way too many not alive.
Of the live animals, there were many many cows. Still quite a few baby cows – I like seeing those the best. I also saw a sheep farm. It went by too fast for me to get a picture of. But I rolled down the window and Baaa’d at them. I saw antelope – one actually on the pavement. So glad he didn’t try to cross in front of me. I saw a bald eagle on top of an electrical pole. I saw many other suicide birds. I didn’t hit any, but they tempted fate hopping across the road or flying low in front of me. There were also prairie dogs. I saw at least 10 of them sitting upright with their little arms up in front of their chest just watching me drive by. They didn’t move – almost looked like statues.
I got to the Canadian border in the afternoon. I wasn’t sure what to expect. I’ve driven through once before and only remember that it wasn’t much. I should have stopped at the rest stop I saw just before the border. I hoped it wouldn’t take long and that there would be another rest stop on the other side. I only had to wait for one car in front of me. The immigration officer was nice, asked the usual questions plus the “are you bringing _____ in” questions, looked at my passport and sent me on my way. I stopped for the obligatory photo of the “Welcome to Alberta” sign. I wish I had taken a picture of the Wyoming and Montana signs also when I passed them, just for completeness. Oh well, not going back for those.
Shortly after the Alberta sign, I saw a dinosaur. Well, if there is a dinosaur, I’m sure there is a restroom in the building next to it. That was one animal I was not expecting to see on the journey. There was a restroom and just in time! There was also a small museum and a tourist information center. I walked through the museum quickly and saw a bunch of taxidermy animals. The list of dead animals is now way longer than the list of live ones for the day. I have no idea what my animal count is now up to for the day.
I finally get to Calgary. I use to own a truck for many years. I am quickly reminded how much fun it is to drive and park a truck in a city. I will be in Calgary for 3 nights. Since I managed to wedge the truck in a parking space in the garage, I think I will leave it there until I leave Calgary.
After checking in to the hotel, I wandered around Calgary for a bit. I was surprised how warm it is. Isn’t is supposed to get colder the farther north you go? I found the river walk, a nice bike/walking path along the river. There were people just floating down the river in pool rafts, paddle boards and kayaks. There were people everywhere enjoying bikes, scooters or just walking. I went by Olympic Park where there was a Pilipino festival going on. I saw multi colored ground hogs here. I also saw Jolliebee. I’ve never heard of Jolliebee before and had no idea Jolliebee was such a celebrity, but when he was announced, the crowd went wild. He danced to some hip hop music and the crowd lost it. I didn’t get any pictures of Jolliebee because my jaw was on the ground as I stared in amazement.
After leaving the festival, I heard live music somewhere else so I followed it. It was a busker right near my hotel. I found myself on a walking street (no vehicles). I walked several blocks looking at all the restaurants and bars with street side seating. They were all packed with people. The city was alive with energy and people out and about. I always love the energy of a city. The energy of all the people, the excitement, the love, the joy and even the sadness grows and becomes more than the sum of the parts, becomes something different, something all it’s own.
After a bit I decided I had walked more than enough. It’s been only a little over 3 weeks since I had ankle surgery so maybe I should have walked a little less, but it was difficult not to keep going around the next corner to see the thing over there. I found a steak restaurant (duh) for dinner and then went back to my room to ice my ankle.
I kind of knew the first day of driving to Alaska would be a long barren drive. It was. Knowing it ahead of time doesn’t make it not mind numbing. The first couple hours weren’t too barren as I was heading north through Colorado, through Grand County and Jackson County. It is a very uninhabited part of Colorado, so there was not much traffic to deal with.
Slowly, the mountain terrain turned more to hilly grassy terrain with little to no trees. Only 3 hours in, and it felt like a whole day of no trees. No trees, no towns, nothing. More nothing. Hey! Look at that – nothing! Thank god for the invention of audio books.
Windmills, more windmills, and windmills as far as the eye can see. The windmills at least add some interest to the treeless hills. I’ve driven by wind farms before. Every time I do, I am amazed again by the shear size of them. They are so tall and each blade so long and sleek, spinning very slowly as if there isn’t a care in the world.
Four hours in and not a tree or town in sight. Rolling endless hills of brown grass. I started wondering if I would see a gas station or restaurant before Montana. Four hours into the day – only 4.5 more hours of barren brown. Finally, I saw a restaurant next to a gas station. It was just in time for lunch. It’s a diner that serves breakfast all day – score. I ordered a breakfast sandwich that comes with a side of peaches. I love peaches, and it’s peach season, so I was excited. My breakfast was delivered and I almost cried. It was canned peaches. I forgot that canned peaches exist and didn’t think for a second that would be what I got. People eat these….on purpose? I haven’t had canned fruit since I was a kid. Maybe I remembered them wrong. Maybe they were good. NO. They taste nothing like a peach to me. The sandwich was good and redeemed the meal.
Back to driving. Back to listening to Dune Messiah. Finally, I got to the Welcome to Montana sign. I should have taken a picture. Somehow, I thought the terrain would change. It didn’t. Still no trees all the way to Billings. Nine hours after starting, I arrived at my hotel. Overall it was a good day, a good book, a good truck, a good sandwich, good driving time, no wind, and no rain!
The truck I’m driving is all decked out in camouflage seat covers. After an exciting dinner at Applebee’s, I decided to girl up the truck a little. I found a furry steering wheel cover with bear ears. The bear and I will head out tomorrow morning – Calgary bound.
I haven’t written in a long time! But, this might be interesting to write about.
My friend moved to Alaska. A couple of weeks before she had to leave, the company that they were going to ship their truck through canceled on them. She posted on Facebook, “Does anyone want to drive our truck to Alaska”? Um…. yea…. I do. Several of my friends had the same thought, but I guess I had the thought sooner. As luck would have it, I happened to retire from my engineering career yesterday so I have some time on my hands. I leave tomorrow on a sure to be delightful road trip, just me, the mountains and the road. I have some fun excursions planned for the trip. This seems like a wonderful way to celebrate the end of a career and the beginning of a new life unknown. Goodbye to the old me and hello to whatever is to come, whatever is already here that I haven’t discovered yet.
This winter we got about 120 inches (10 feet) of snow at our house. It snowed a lot in December followed by the cold months of January and February so the snow never had a chance to melt. It just compacted and settled in for the winter. It covered everything in the yard with a white glittery blanket – pure simple beauty.
Then, typical in April, it starts to melt. In a period of a few days, the edges of the yard begin to appear, while the center of the yard remains a pile of bulletproof white stuff. Then it gets covered in fresh snow, then it melts, fresh snow again, more melt. Soon all the snow is ringed in mud. Mud everywhere – so much mud that you can’t even see your car from all the mud on it. During the day, huge icicles form off the roof and all the pavement becomes wet from the melt. At night the icicles freeze into place and the pavement becomes a skating rink. Then the icicles melt again, then freeze again creating lumpy icicles.
At first glance, this seems like a dirty, sad part of the year. But there is a lot of beauty in the melt. Sitting outside you hear everything dripping, soft patter of moving water. There are more birds arriving every day chirping and fluttering as they look for food and start making nests. The sun is bright, the sky is blue. The air feels warm in comparison to the past few months. I enjoy knocking off all the icicles I can reach trying to avoid injury from impalement. I love to hear them crash, shatter and skitter on the ground. If they happen to hit snow instead of ground, they make a dull thud sound instead as they embed themselves in the snow. Everything is shiny even the air. Everything is moving and making soft sounds. The patio furniture re-appeared from under the mountains of snow. The aspen are budding. The column of ice hanging from the gutter is starting to reveal the rain chain it formed around.
If you look past the mud, you will see the beauty in the details of the melt.
We got off the ship this morning after breakfast. We dropped our luggage at our hotel. Since we couldn’t check into the hotel this early in the morning, we decided to head down town and find a place to get some coffee. Plus, it wouldn’t hurt to catch up on emails and what was going on in the world outside of Antarctica.
It was quite remarkable that we could even walk after 9 days on a ship. I remember in the past feeling rocking motion when on land for the first time in days. But there was none of that. We found a coffee shop with a big booth and set up to stick our faces in our computers for hours. About two or three hours in the booth began to sway and rock. It was moving so much that is was actually difficult to type as I had to hold on to the table not to fall over. I found it interesting that while standing and walking, there was no swaying, but sitting was difficult. I wondered if half the tourists in this town were currently holding on to a table or a wall somewhere as a lot of people in Ushuaia are here to go on an Antarctica cruise, or just getting back from one and holding on to their coffee for dear life.
The swaying continued most of the day but finally calmed down a bit by the time I went to bed. I usually have to go to the bathroom once or five times in the middle of the night. I got up at 0-dark-30 and as soon as I was on my feet, the entire room pitched at about a 40 degree angle, the wall in front of me sloping away. I couldn’t stand where I was as I slid uncontrollably into the wall. I slammed into the wall with quite a bit of force before the room started to pitch in the opposite direction. I did manage to resist the second pitch, but had a bit of difficulty making it to the bathroom and then back to bed. I’m so glad I didn’t need to get up again until morning. By morning, the room had settled back into being flat and was no longer moving.
Today our morning landing is to Pendulum Cove of Deception Island. I didn’t know there was going to be a polar plunge. Everyone else on the ship seems to know this was going to happen. I was wondering how I didn’t read about it or did our travel agent leave out some information? I had brought a bathing suit since our trip went through Miami and Buenos Aries so I was prepared. I still felt unprepared. It would be a short landing in the morning since the point of the landing was to do the polar plunge. This is the type of activity that has never interested me. I have never heard “polar plunge” and thought “I want to do that” or “that sounds fun”. Bungee jumping is the other activity that comes to mind that I just don’t get why anyone would want to do it or how it could appear fun. They asked who was interested in doing it so they had an idea how many towels to bring and how many zodiacs to have on standby for bringing people back to the ship. It looked like almost everyone on the ship raised their hands. The rationalization begins. If I do this in Antarctica, I never have to do it again. Who can try to goad you into doing a polar plunge when you can say, “well, I did it in Antarctica and I don’t need to do it again”? Is it actually a polar plunge if you are not near one of the poles? Maybe it would be fun. It can’t actually be that cold – it’s warmer in summer in Antarctica than it is in Granby in winter. Deception Island is a volcano, if it’s low tide, the first few feet of water is warmer due to heat coming from the island. I have a bathing suit. I’m 50 and I’m all about experiencing what I can. Just standing on the ship before everyone went to their rooms to change clothing was tiring. Hearing everyone talk about it, the combination of fear, excitement and bravado was palpable. Some girls were trying feverishly to guilt each other into it. Some of the younger men were energetically showing off their testosterone levels. As the zodiac was getting close to the island you could see the steam coming off the water. The weather was overcast and breezy when we arrived at the beach. The beach and the peaks around us were all a deep black color. There are no plants and only a patch of snow. The clouds hang low just above us so the tops of the peaks are missing. It was quite ominous. Other than the breeze, it seemed quite warm to me. This will be easy if it stays this warm. The rocky beach was cold on the feet, but it didn’t hurt the way I’ve experienced at home when your feet hit bare ground in the winter. Still, I had no desire to hang out in the cold water for long. The water was almost warm when you first walked in and I wondered for a split second if we had been duped and it would be more like a hot spring visit than a polar plunge. Then the water got much colder, not as cold as I expected, but nowhere on the scale of warm. I’ve been in cold mountain lakes where your breath is gone because the temperature actually compresses your lungs. I didn’t experience that here. Once it got deep enough to dip all the way in and it was cold, I dipped in and then turned to walk very very quickly out. It wasn’t as cold as I expected, but there was no reason to hang out and splash around. I expected it to feel warm outside for a while after as that is usually the experience I’ve had with coming out of the water into cold air. It felt warm long enough to get clothes back on and then it didn’t feel cold at all. The ride back to the ship was easy, my toes and finger tips were a bit cold, but my body was not. I think about other places I could do the polar plunge. I could do it in Grand Lake, CO where they have to drill a hole in the ice to get to the water. The air temperature is probably around 0 degrees F and the water barely 33 degrees. That sounds way worse than our polar plunge in Antarctica. Still, if anyone tries to convince me to do a polar plunge, I can truthfully say I’ve done it in Antarctica and don’t need to do another.
I have always been fascinated by ice. I remember the first time I was able to see a glacier. I came home with hundreds of pictures. I love how it’s sometimes clear or white or blue, and every shade of color in between. But of course, the blue is the best. How wonderful to float by giant icebergs of so many sizes and textures silently knowing there is even more beneath the surface that you cannot see. Although seeing thousands of penguins and hundreds of whales might seem like the highlight of going to Antarctica, I’d have to say the icebergs and the winter wonderland scenery was actually the highlight for me.
It was so amazing see glaciers or snow fields so thick that the snow on the island appears thicker than the land mass below it. To realize that some of that snow and ice has been there for 15 million years and that some of that land mass hasn’t seen the light of day in that long – it’s hard to fathom. The ice, snow, wind and waves produce an innumerable amount of shapes, sizes and patterns in the snow and ice. You never tire of looking at the next iceberg or snow field. Even though we didn’t see any glaciers calving, we could hear them moving. Any time you sat quiet you could hear the low random rumbles of snow and ice shifting and moving. You’d look off in the distance and expect to see the side of the mountain drop into the sea, but we didn’t get to see that. It was still amazing to hear the movement. You could see evidence of the movement in the avalanche debris on almost every steep slope and the icebergs small and large floating in every bay.
Seals are not very exciting. Most of the seals we saw in Antarctica looked like rocks. If I showed you all my pictures of seals, you’d wonder why I had so many pictures of rocks. Every once in a while, one would move and everyone would start snapping pictures. Very rarely one would flop from one place to another. That was exciting for about a second.
One day we went to an island that had a lot of elephant seals. They were juvenile and the males were practice fighting for a later year when they will fight, often to the death, to own the beach of female seals. Their practice fighting was more exciting than rocks, but kind of like watching teenage boys burping. The females were just rocks cuddling. They lifted their head or scratched their belly sometimes. We stayed a great distance from the males. But this excitement waned for me after about 10 minutes. The males are not the cute big-eyed seals either. There’s nothing cute about the male elephant seal. Nothing. So, eventually we found some penguins and sat down to watch them. Now this is excitement and entertainment.
We did see some Weddell seals and some fur seals here and there, but they were just different rocks on a different island. If you didn’t like this blog, tough, go back one blog and look at penguins again. That’ll fix you right up.
We saw a lot of whales in Antarctica. Most of the whales we saw were humpback whales. We saw one minke whale, but I wouldn’t have known what type it was if one of the guides hadn’t told us. It was just a smaller fin coming out of the water. I was hoping to see some orca whales, but that was not to be. The humpback whales were everywhere. Just when you got excited and saw one, then you’d notice that there were 5 to 10 more nearby. You could see them off in the distance almost anytime you looked out. One day we even took a zodiac ride to watch them at a closer distance. Even though there were so many, it was surprisingly difficult to get a picture of one, but out of the 40 or 50 photos I took of whales, I managed to get one that actually looks like a whale. I did a little better on the video. I’m not sure I ever need to pay for a whale watching tour. I’m not sure this can ever be topped.
Rraine Drops 