Another “short” drive – only 4.5 hours. I checked out the sign post forest on the way out of town. It was far more impressive than pictures online showed. I stopped in another town for breakfast. No animal sightings today. It was a pretty drive, but not spectacular. The leaves started changing to brilliant yellow and orange.
On my way into Whitehorse, I saw a race. There were people running along the highway with race bibs on. People and motor homes lined the highway, cheering them on. It was not as unique as chatting with a bear, but it was interesting.
After I checked into my hotel, I did laundry. The dryer worked and dried things in one go. That’s a new experience in travel for me. Laundry made my day!
I had dinner at a packed restaurant downtown. There were hardly any cars in town, but all restaurants seemed packed.
I had an 8:00pm reservation for Eclipse hot springs, which was about a half hour outside town. Again, hardly and cars, but packed with people. They have at least 4 warm pools, maybe more. And there is a cold pool nearby each warm pool. They have steam rooms and saunas also. It was a bit of a process: take shoes off, check in and get your locker key, get a blue bin, take a shower using your blue bin as a shower door lock and way to hold your stuff, put everything in locker, choose a hot pool and sit and relax, then get in a cool pool, repeat pools. The first warm pool I chose was covered in people. As I sat, they all seemed to know each other. Was this the party place of Whitehorse? It was adults only – fan of that! With some time, I realized it was many large groups of people. They were the racers I’d seen earlier. It was a relay race or team race. I tried the cold pool. I remember trying it in Norway and thinking it was ok. Now, it was not ok. It stung my feet and legs. I gave up after 30 seconds and went back eavesdropping on the race. Every other pool I tried was also filled with runners. I only counted 4 other people who didn’t seem to be racers. It was a beautiful place. It would have been awesome if it had only been 5 of us.
I looked it up online later. I think it was the Klondike Road Relay Race, which is a 175-kilometer race from Skagway Alaska to Whitehorse Yukon. Running over mountain passes is not on my bucket list, but I can appreciate the skill, coordination, and training that goes into this.
Yesterday’s drive was great. I only had a 4 hour drive, so I had looked up various places along the way to stop for beautiful views. I was sure other stops would present themselves as well.
Because I wasn’t sure how often I would stop, I decided not to listen to the audio book. It would be distracting to keep turning it on and off. For the beginning of the ride, I was driving next to the Toad River. It was that beautiful light arctic blue. So, as I often do, I sang about it. I can say it was one of my best songs.
I do this all the time, especially at home. I just make up songs about things going on around me. At home, it’s mostly about our pets. But there is also the Hot Tub Time song which hasn’t been heard all summer. I predict it’s making a come back soon. And the cheerful song I sing about how much I love grocery shopping. I do not love grocery shopping, so the song helps me motivate. I actually wonder how Richard is surviving without my daily songs. I’m sure my pets are suffering.
All along the trip today were wildlife warning signs – Bison, Caribou, Sheep, Moose….. Caribou? I forgot Canada has caribou. I want to see caribou. The first sign was for sheep. I saw no sheep. I sang about it. The next was for caribou. No caribou. I sang about that, too. Bison – no bison – song.
A truck flashed it’s lights at me 4 times. Warning! Something is coming. There was no sign to tell me what it might be. It was a mamma and baby moose on the road. I just stopped in the middle of the highway until the baby decided to cross the road. Then I drove slowly by mamma so I wouldn’t spook her. She was not concerned. No other cars came by or behind me while I was there. A private audience with the moose.
I drove by rivers and lakes and lakes that looked like rivers and rivers that looked like lakes. I sang about them all. After I passed the 5th or 6th bison sign, I thought, yea, no, there will be no bison. By now, I decided the bison song would be best sung by a barber shop quartet. Then…..bison……everywhere! There was a huge herd flanking the highway. Again, I sang. Again, I stopped in the middle of the highway. I rolled down the windows and had a chat with the bison. I was probably there for 20 minutes and never saw another car.
Around lunchtime, I got to Liard River Hot Springs. This was one of my planned stops as it got a thumbs up from my friend, Tim. I drove up to what looked like a military grade electric gate, and it opened. I paid $5 and heard the “rules”. The area is fenced and gated with an electric fence. I assume this is to protect us from bears. Still, hot springs and electric fences seem at odds with each other. I guess a run in with a bear and hot springs do too. I’m not complaining, though, because you had to walk about 5 minutes down a forest boardwalk to get from the parking to the hot springs. The boardwalk turned out to be my favorite part of the hot springs. The hot springs were lovely, warm, relaxing, and exactly what I expected. The boardwalk surprised me. It was quiet and looked like something you might see in a tropical place. It was lush with water all around. I saw a ton of dragon flies. You could hear the trickle and drip of water as you walked. I could hear little animals in the trees and the soft sound of leaves and pine needles dropping slowly through the trees.
Later, I stopped at a waterfall and a place in the river called whirlpool canyon. Both were better than what I expected. I took the obligatory photo and moved on.
As I started pulling out of the mountains and entered more of a hilly area, I saw a bear silhouette. It looked like a metal sculpture you often see in Colorado. It wasn’t a sculpture. It was a real baby bear. This time I pulled off the highway onto the shoulder. I saw no mother. Maybe this was a yearling newly on his own? I rolled down the windows again and we had a chat. It was a one way chat. I told him how magnificent he was and kept eating flowers. I was so close I could hear his munching. He was enthusiastic about eating. I hope he now knows how magnificent he is. He probably already knew.
I got to Watson Lake and checked into “A Nicer Motel”. That was the name of my hotel. From the look of the outside, I cried a little. It looked worse than the Travelodge. The inside was cute, clean and very very nice. Relief. Funny thing was the sign on the hotel next door. It read “A Nice Hotel”. I wonder if there was some neighbor rivalry going on here.
So far, this was my favorite day on the trip. I am absolutely in love with myself. I am funny and entertaining. I sang, laughed, saw beautiful places, and talked to wild animals. And I think I created an entire album of new hits:
For a limited time only, for only $9.99, you too could own The Songs of British Columbia. With old-time favorites such as “The Bear Chant”, “Dude on a Bike”, and “Cheers Mother Nature”. Sure to become future hits are “Buffalo”, “Sheep no Sheep”, and “What the Fuck, Pebble”. And what album would be complete without “Blue Blue Toad River” and “Caribou, Where are You?”?
I was awake at 6:30 this morning. For anyone that knows me, that is “roll over and go back to sleep” time. I am not a morning person. But, I had the thought that if I wanted to see animals, this might be a good time to get out of bed. I peered out the window and instantly saw 4 moose on the other side of the lake. They were standing in chest deep water just munching on water plants.
One of the smaller moose started running (swimming fast?) creating a small white v of water around it as it picked up speed. The moose behind him suddenly perked it’s head up and watched this with great interest. I assumed this was the mother, thinking “Oh dear god, why is he running, where is he going now?” He just kept going so soon the mother was running after him to close the gap between them. They created ripples on the lake. It wasn’t so much a wave or a change in the lake’s surface. I was more like a subtle color change just below the lake’s surface. The color change radiated out from them and swept across the lake toward me in the low morning light.
After they got closer to the other two moose, they slowed down. But, wait, now I only see 3 moose. Where did the fourth one go? The trees come right down to the edge of the lake. There doesn’t appear to be a shore. The trees appear to be growing in the water and then continue up the hillside densely packed in. It doesn’t look like anyone could walk in between the trees especially something as large as a moose. But, he was gone. I watched as one of the other moose walked closer to the trees. In front of my eyes, his front legs and head went invisible. Then the rest of him flickered out as well. I strained to see if what I thought was a tree was indeed a moose leg. No, just trees.
I was so enthralled watching the moose disappear that I never saw the third moose go invisible, but he was now gone. Only one moose remained. Right on cue, he flickered and disappeared as well.
What a show! I went back in my room for coffee. After pouring a cup of coffee, I looked out the window and saw something else thrashing about in the water. Ooooohhhh, maybe this was a bear swimming in the water? I rushed outside again. It was hard to tell what it was. I used my phone zoom to help me see, but that wasn’t helpful either. The zoom just made it closer, but blurrier. I know bear eat fish out of rivers. Do they catch fish in lakes? It looked like a bear with a fish in it’s mouth. Does it count as having seen a bear if you can’t actually identify it as a bear? Then I think, if that looked like a fish when I can’t tell if it’s being held by a bear, then that would be the largest lake fish known to man. My mind is playing tricks on me. After watching it some more, I think it was a moose swimming in deeper water. As it swam closer to the invisibility trees, it of course, disappeared.
I went in and out of the room several times to warm up. Each time I would look at the lake, the moose would be in a different location. Sometimes there was just one, other times two. Sometime it would look like a log, other times a moose. The two white swans were still on the lake, but very calm this morning – nothing to honk about this morning. Quite a few other water birds were floating about.
Yes, the pictures are blurry. I have just my phone with me. The moose were way over there. That is often the case with moose. They are usually way over there. This is both good and not. It is good because way over there is safer for me. But, that means you get blurry pictures.
This was the 4th day on my Alaska road trip. Today I did a bus tour of some lakes in Banff and Yoho National Parks. I decided to join a tour because I didn’t feel like driving by myself and dealing with parking. One of the lakes we went to can only be visited by commercial tours so I wouldn’t have been able to drive there anyway. Also, being 3 weeks post ankle surgery, I wasn’t doing any hiking or more active sightseeing than what the tour would offer.
It was a 9.5 hour tour. I’m so glad I didn’t drive. All I had to do was ride and look out the window at the beauty. My tour had 25 people. Each stop we went to had a ton of people so what is 25? Our tour guide was also the bus driver. He was funny and full of great information on history of the area and geology of the area.
This was my first time in the Canadian Rockies and the views were amazing. I’d definately love to come back another time and stay at some of the lodges or campgrounds. We went to Lake Louise, Moraine Lake, Emerald Lake and a place on the Kicking Horse river called Natural Bridge. The lakes were various shades of bright blue from the minerals in the water. The river was a milky white. I had seen the blue alpine rivers in the past, but never milky white. It was mesmerizing.
The people on the tour were interesting. I met a lady as we were waiting for the bus. She was from Mexico and was there with her family. As we talked, she often apologized for her English. Of course, her English was great and we had no problem understanding each other. If I had to have the conversation in Spanish, it would have been a joke and she would have no idea what I was saying. And I would have no idea what I was saying either. I wish I knew more than one language. Within one minute of starting the tour, the guy sitting up front monopolized the conversation with the guide. He was a loud talker too so we could hear everything he was saying. The guide did a good job of steering the conversation to the history and geology he wanted to tell the group about even though the loud talker from Ottawa knew a little about everything and had no problem letting everyone know. I still wonder why Americans get such a bad rap for being loud and talking too much. Most travel I’ve done, it’s not the Americans that are loud and overly friendly. This guy was the epitome of the loud American, only he was Canadian. I sat next to a man that was there with his family. They were all there from the Philippines and had come to Calgary for the funeral of his sister and nephew who had died in an accident recently. On one hand, it was so sad. On the other hand, going to the lake (Lake Louise) that his sister had visited last seemed like a good way to grieve with your family. I also met a young woman from Korea that was in school for English and was traveling because she wanted to practice her English more before going back to school. Her English was perfect. I know no Korean at all. There were a couple of people from the US, a guy from Germany and some people from another Asian country.
I love traveling. I love to see different places, different scenery and to catch a small glimpse into what other people’s lives might be like. Sometimes in the differences, you can see a little about how we are the same.
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 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.
Mid-January, I went to Wisconsin to visit my Mom. The thing on the plane that just was so obvious to me is how loud everyone is. Why do people have to talk so loud? I’m on a plane where the engine noise is already loud, but I can still hear individual conversations. The person you are talking to is right next to you, why do you have to include me in your conversation? They weren’t even interesting conversations. It was a whole plane of “look how cool I am”. Exhausting. The rest of the world is right, Americans are loud and talk too much.
It was good to see Mom. Her new place is nice and the people that work there are nice. She was playing Bingo when I got there. They have three meals a day and activities. She has a small kitchen in her apartment so she could still cook if she wanted to. I’m very glad she was able to move out of her condo into assisted living.
I helped Mom with some shopping. I took her to Target with me. I wondered if it would be too much. It was. It is a big store and even though we only walked part of it, it was too much. But she wanted to go to three different stores so I think that would have been worse. We went out to lunch a couple times and also went to church. It was great to spend time with her and see her new place.
At church, the preacher was starting a new program with the congregation. It had steps and things to do. It sounded like a program that would go on for a month or two and involved extra study or practice outside of Sunday church. I remember feeling a sense of hope come over the congregation as he talked about the upcoming program and how it was going help make everyone’s year great. I remember doing workshops, study groups, and programs like this at church when I was in high school. I remember the sense of hope at the beginning – This is going to change my life – This is the answer to everything – This is going to fix everything – This is going to get me on the right path. In some of the programs I grew and gained new knowledge. I can’t say any of them changed my life. Some sent me on a new path. I never found the answer to everything. I can’t say any of them were ever bad, but I noticed something as I sat there in this old familiar feeling (I really like this familiar feeling). The level of hope at the beginning is so strong and is a feeling far stronger than the outcome ever was. I realized that it wasn’t just hope, but a feeling of control. Oh great, this person has all the answers and if I just do all the steps in this program, follow all the learning, I too will have all the answers. Then I will finally have control of my life, my emotions, my finances, my spirituality, my love live, etc. In the past, as the programs went on, I learned, but I never became in control of anything. I never got the carrot I was chasing. As it turns out, I cannot control life. This is also a good example of living in the future. I felt so wonderful at the beginning of one of these programs because of the promise of a better future. Hope and planning and learning can be tricky. Hope feels so wonderful and is a huge motivator so we label it as a good thing, but then don’t acknowledge that we are rejecting the present moment and living in the future. We assume that if we don’t have hope then we must have the opposite, despair, a bad attitude, disbelief or pessimism. What if life doesn’t have to be an either / or situation. What if we can be present and plan when the time is right for planning, learn when the learning comes, and know that the future will be great just because it will and not because we are using hope to avoid being present now.
Two things I really missed about Colorado – Snow and being physically fit. So, I was quite excited to go snowboarding. I’m not sure mother nature is as excited about me going snowboarding.
My first attempt involved me driving up into the mountains in a white out blizzard. I got to the tunnel and it was closed. This is not abnormal. They often shut it to let hazardous materials trucks through when the road around it closed. Sometimes they close it when the roads are bad to clear the road or clear accidents. So, I waited patiently. I always have a book with me for situations like this. Two hours later, the tunnel was still closed. I turned around and went back down through the blizzard to go home. Later I found out the ski resort I was going to was closed at 1:00 because of avalanche danger on the roads. Welcome back to Colorado!
Then the next time I went snowboarding, I got up late because I was going by myself. I got to the resort and there was a line of cars for the parking lot. A parking guy came up and told me the lot was full and only cars with 3 or more people could wait for the lot. So, people without friends are no longer allowed to ski. I found a spot along the road quite a distance from the resort and managed to catch a ride in the back of a truck up to the resort. I was determined to get that board on the snow. Wow! There is no oxygen up there. I have also gained weight and every time I bend over to buckle my bindings, my stomach gets in the way. Then I’m bent over trying to get these things buckled which is actually more work than I remember. My belly is pushing on my lungs so I can’t get a full breath. Add that there is a severe oxygen deficiency and I was exhausted before even getting on the lift. I managed to do three runs before my legs started complaining. At that point I decided that I could say I went snowboarding, but I couldn’t say I was enjoying it. It took me a half hour to walk back to my car. As far as snowboarding went, it was a disappointing day. As far as getting a good workout in, it was a fabulous day.
Now, I’ve decided that snowboarding needs to happen during the week because the weekends are too crowded for single people. The next time I went I made the goal of doing at least 4 runs. I got there and it was -3 degrees and dropping. I met a friend which was nice. I did manage to do 4 runs, but was so cold by the end of the 4th run that I couldn’t stand it anymore. And of course, it’s still painful, work with no oxygen.
The next time, I got up there late, but managed to get 4.5 runs in so I count that an improvement. I would have done more, but the resort closed. This time I took advil before which helped a little with the screaming legs. I hope there’s a steep recovery somewhere in the near future.
Interesting question on the extra weight I’m carrying. Some of it has to do with being weak and out of shape. Some of it has to do with Valentines Day candy that mysteriously jumped into my shopping cart. But, all of last year I was out of shape and didn’t have the extra weight and I ate sugar as if it was one of the major food groups. I’m back in the US for less than a month and I put on so much weight that my skin hurts. I am wondering if all the conspiracy theory drama about the horrible toxins in our food is actually part of this. Is my body freaking out from the change in food?
Rraine Drops 