Jan 2 - under artillery fire

We left Banff close to 10am, after having breakfast (my second) in the hotel restaurant. We do this sometimes -- eat one of those buffet breakfasts that then also constitutes lunch -- and this was one of those days. It had all the usual hot and cold breakfast items ... it was good. This is about the only time that I eat bacon, the last time being one of these buffets at the top of Whistler - their "Fresh Tracks" breakfast.

Somehow maps.google.com had shown me that the trip to Revelstoke would be 100km longer than the trip from Jasper to Banff. It wasn't. According to the NAV it was a couple of km's shorter. If I had internet service right now I'd check that out -- oh yes, I am typing this into "text edit" on my Mac because the internet is down. Our hosts had warned me last night that I might have connectivity to their wireless hub but the connection from that to the internet goes down frequently -- something about their wireless service into the city. We are in the boonies. This morning being Sunday, I might not be able to post this until tomorrow, who knows.

The Trans Canada was about in the same shape as the icefields parkway, on average. It was a fascinating drive. There is construction underway on much of it, since the plan is to 4-lane the road from Kamloops to the Alberta border. That's probably over 400km and mountain roads. It is a long-term plan, not a short-term plan.

The construction is not the fascinating part though. From the 50 kph section of windy road at Kicking Horse Pass to 4-lane sections that really look like a highway, it's quite a varied route. The scenery is truly awesome, although I do hate to use that word because it's so overused these days. I mean really awesome, not the normal awesome rejoinder in modern conversation.

Traffic was really heavy going east. Most of said traffic did not have front license plates ... more than likely Alberta plates going home after a vacation week -- not likely PA or FL, other than us ... as two examples of states that don't have front plates or Quebec, as a province. Snow machines a-plenty, most loaded on a contraption that I've never seen back east -- a platform on top of a pickup truck that allows two snow machines to be loaded. That makes the load high and wide.

We only saw one accident, in spite of the traffic and the road conditions. That accident was on the descent from Rogers Pass, almost at Revelstoke. We had a two breaks in our drive -- we got out and wandered around at Lake Louise and we stopped on the road for an hour break at Rogers Pass. Where did we stop ? Why in the middle of the road of course. We, along with hundreds of others, waited an hour while they did avalanche control.

So ... if the Canadian Armed Forces is responsible for avalanche control in this area -- which is probably a safer posting than Afganistan -- why do they wear camo outfits ? Is it to match the artillery pieces that they use to shoot at the mountainsides and bring small avalanches down before they can become big ones ? If they want to wear camo outfits and they really want to hide, they should be wearing a predominantly white outfit. I suspect it's because they're on a tight budget. They spend all their money on artillery shells, not clothing.

With all the cars stopped, two lanes, most people got out and wandered around. People walked their dogs, hung out, chatted with their neighbours ... this is standard fare traveling through the mountains on this road. There were about 50 cars ahead of us. Had we been 5 minutes earlier we'd have missed this. Lucky us !

The only trouble with this stop, actually was that I had to pee. Need I say more ? It wasn't that long into Revelstoke afterwards but long story short, we were at our accommodation before I got any relief. Down into Revelstoke at about 1400 foot elevation then up another 200 feet or so to our cottage. We are directly across the lake from the ski resort, but that's a 20 minute drive from here.

We arrived early, our cottage was still being cleaned from the last users who, by the way, came from Fairbanks AK. I guess that they live closer to here than we do, but it seems like further. I'd know that for sure if I had internet service and could check :).

We unloaded, I used the loo (our hosts are English) and then went back to town and up to the hill. We checked things out and then stopped at a grocery store on the way back. It's not a resort town, like Whistler, the resort aspects are still being developed. Revelstoke is close to where "the last spike" was driven in the building of the railroad linking east to west. Naturally there is a railway museum.

The MacPherson Lodge, where we're staying for the week, is a B&B in season and this time of year they rent the adjacent cottage. It's all finished in pine (BC Fir ?), massive logs making the supporting beams, main floor living room, bathroom, kitchen and upstairs loft as bedroom. The bedroom has a queen, double and single, so we have our choice ! Actually, since we are only two, only the queen has been made up.

The MacPhersons have two dogs. When we first arrived he (forget his name) was clearing the driveway with a front end loader. It had been snowing for 36 hours straight and was quite deep. Wendy, who we met later, had cleaned the cottage but not put it back together yet. They have three children, one of whom was skiing, and apparently they are all going out today, Sunday.

We ate in -- we're likely going to do that a lot this week because a) it's a long way back to town and b) there are not many restaurants. After dinner I went back to town to Saturday evening Mass; I'd checked on Mass times when we were in Banff -- 7pm was the answer and 7pm it was. Back here by 8:30, Sandy was watching TV and browsing the internet ... she must have done something (just kidding) because when I went to check something the service was down. It was too late to ring our hosts' doorbell and question same. They'd warned me that it might happen, had happened frequently, oh well.

My pc says that it's 9:08, but of course it's still on EST. We are in PST here, but at the eastern edge. When we were leaving the ski hill yesterday from our checkout trip, it was after 3pm and already getting dark. Of course the heavy overcast contributed to that ... but I suspect that our skiing days won't extend much beyond 3pm.

Abby has two new friends -- the MacPherson dogs. She has lots of snow in which to play. She can be let out off-leash. During the week, but not today because they're skiing, the MacPhersons will let her out during the day. Last night the other dogs were at the window as if to say "can Abby come out to play?". This is a perfect setup.

There's a little writeup on the history of the place and the MacPherson history in a folder with instructions on various things. He worked for a "Japanese Telecommunications Company" and she for something else and they were looking for an alternative lifestyle. They've been here for five years, gradually adding to the place and building up the business. They raise chickens somewhere on the property ... yes, they found their idyllic alternative lifestyle.

The cottage peak faces forwards, towards the front door. The roof extends forwards for another 6-8 feet covering a stone patio and ... and ... the barbecue. Yes, we were able to barbecue. We should have done the same with our kitchen roofline at the cottage -- extending it forwards would have similarly covered our barbecue but instead I have to go out into the rain and snow ... life is tough. We had barbecued pork chops and roast potatoes last night, along with broccoli. It's the first simple meal that I've had in a long time. It wasn't fish .... nor, according to the MacPhersons will we get fish in town ... but it was good.

That's it for now. I'll have lots more to report later but of course no-one may ever read it if I cannot post !

Onward !

ps - obviously if you're reading this then you know that internet service came back. It's 9:38 EST now and it's back. Is that a good thing ? who knows !