Catching Up

Just so that I don't get hopelessly behind, I'd like to review where I've gone and stayed for the last few days since you've heard from me.

I took a picture of the mighty Fraser River just as I was leaving with my IPad and I had it here but when I tried sending it to myself to get it on this computer it doesn't seem to have happened. And, besides that, the  picture is now nowhere to be found. I did it that way because of my problem with the filled starter disk on the Mac Air. I bought a Western Digital Passport external drive but the pics won't go over to it no matter what I try. Do I need  to do some special initializing to get it to work with the MAC. It has aMac Folder in in but it says it cannot open it or find it or SOMETHING! I need help because the computer can't even empty the camera disk. It stopped half way. Help.  I'll find someone in Calgary or Edmonton in the next day or two but for now, it looks like no more pics.

So, for the catch-up, I drove from Hope and the mighty Fraser River to Salmon Arm where my driver side front door lock broke down. A wonderful young woman in a home building supply store helped me get it so it would close but not open from the driver's side outside. So for now I crawl over from the passenger side to get into the driver's seat. Don't you just love those gremlins sometimes. Another task for one of the next two towns or cities to help me solve. Enough for now but I'll give you a follow-up when I get these problems dealt with.

Yesterday I drove from Salmon Arm to Lake Louise and managed to get the very last campsite in the park. That's about the third or fourth time that's happened to me. Saw the lake late in the day and it was very atmospheric as lights began to come on from the rather posh hotels that look out over the lake. Having Bobby as my companion more or less precludes getting any closer to those lodges. But it was lovely looking up at the glacier in the early evening light.

Today we took off for Banff, and Art, you were right, I didn't get to Jaspar. I was only on the road leading to it. It would take too much time to go back and try to see it now, much as I'd love to. I'd really like to come back here before too long and stay longer at some places. Just to come to this part of Canada for a longer time would be a great trip.

Today we drove to an RV park just outside Calgary. I am under a tree in a line of spaces and just beyond is a huge playing field where many of the campers played baseball after dinner. All ages, even a crawling baby were out there. Quite a scene.

I'd like to return to really see more of Banff but today was impossible. It is a three day holiday, (certainly to be avoided next time) and the traffic was so bad it took me twenty minutes to go three blocks at one point. The city looks like it's all new and owned  or built by the same man. A bit like what happened to Squaw Valley or maybe worse. Carmelized for sure. Maybe Tahoe Stateline comes close.

But the mountains between Salmon Arm and Banff: AMAZING! A geologist's dream. So much shaping, folding, uplifting it's beyond description. I have now been where the trees don't grow. But the shapes they form covering and not covering those mountains forms some fascinating designs. Between Golden and Lake Louise I sighed, cried, and then gasped with disbelief. Today I called Kathy from a vista point just outside of Banff. I couldn't bear not sharing what I was seeing. Between Golden and Lake Louise the outline of serrated conical peaks that became almost vertical was there to be seen in a thousand different ways. The horizon against the sky was so varied and spectacular that I talked to myself the whole way. Then, amazingly the forms began to change  and near Banff, the tops of the cones became a series of sculptured mesas almost like shapes from Mitla. The variations seem to know no end.

I'll undoubtedly come back to these shapes and their allure but in a kind of shorthand version I'm caught up. Because tomorrow I'm moving on. And tonight I must sleep. Love to you all,   Jackie