Leaving Kelowna on Friday morning was so hard. My heart hurt. Not only leaving behind our friends but leaving the mountains as well. This would be the last day for both. Not many words were spoken between us until we got to Vernon....it was just too difficult. Despite all the plans we came up with to delay our departure, the issue was not leaving that day, it was just leaving.
We rode along and it wasn't long before we were in the mountains. The Rocky Mountains are beautiful! We were constantly saying "WOW" or "OMG" or "look at this" as if this was the first time we had passed through. It was a bit of a first, given that the only time I have passed through here was by car and for Larry, many years since he had ridden through. We watched the trains as they moved back and forth along the edge of the mountains and through tunnels, marveled at the glacier-peaked tops "woo-hoos" at the sweeping turns...or "OMG Thelma and Louise" at the new Kicking Horse Pass bridge (you can see it in all it's glory as you approach). We stopped for pictures in Revelstoke, Rogers Pass, Golden and of course in Lake Louise for a snap of the glacier and glacier lake. As we got to the other side of the mountains, watching as they faded in our mirrors, I have to admit I cried for a bit...I didn't think my heart could hurt more than it already had. It has certainly been the biggest high-lite of our trip.
We rode on to Calgary as we were staying with our friends, Rick and Linda....or as I often call them Lick and Rinda (not intentional and does not require any alcohol....don't know why). They had a wonderful supper ready for us and we stayed up until the wee hours recounting stories from BC (before Cindy) and since we have known them. This made for a late start in the morning, however we got to spend a little more time with them over breakfast before we started making our way East.
The by-pass around Calgary is great...it only took us less than 30 minutes to get from one side of the City to the other and hit the Trans-Canada headed for Saskatchewan......this was our last chance to turn around...it was a thought that we carried the previous 24 hours...
We proceeded along the highway, crossing over into Saskatchewan....province number 9....check!
Saskatchewan was full of surprises. Despite all of the comments from well-meaning folks about it is just more of the same, it is flat, it goes on forever...I was able to find some really cool things about Saskatchewan that I did not expect. Trees, lakes (with lots of ducks), big skies and yes you could in places see forever.
We also got to see a lot of trains coming and going. These trains go on for kilometers....they are LONG! The thing is you can see them coming in the distance. We actually tried to measure one of the trains...we estimated that it was approximately 3 kms long...now whether or not it was or wasn't will be hard to confirm, but I did post a picture of a train in the previous blog post....you can see the front of the train but you can't see the end....the train was well past us before I could see the end of it so you be the judge!
We also got a chance to see the Badlands in Cypress Hills and got a history lesson at the Visitor Information Center (hint...it has to do with the Northwest Mounted Police, now the RCMP). We saw alkaline fields in Chaplain which look like piles of snow or salt fields. We saw lots of old grain elevators, which are to the prairies like our covered bridges are to us in New Brunswick. It was at one of the grain elevators off the beaten track that we ran into two people walking along the road.....they just moved from Hampton two months ago to work at the Potash Mines in Moosomin when the Sussex mines closed... they just stopped to say hi and where are you from....we had a great chat.
We stayed in Swift Current the first night and crossed into Manitoba yesterday....province number 10....check!
Last night's stop was in Brandon, MB so we will be in Northern Ontario tonight as we continue our travel East.....one thing is for sure, there is never enough time to do all the things you would like to do.
........well...time to get on the road.....again!
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