Memorial

About a month ago, as reported at the beginning of this blog, Andy's friend died. The memorial is June 30th.  This memoral was a small, private ceremony. His brother conducted the prayer of grief. Afterwards stories were shared along with the food and drink.

Andy had to come to Edmonton to pick up a check at the courthouse on Friday so he decided we should spend the weekend there since he didn't want to spend the extra time or money commuting back and forth on fuel.

It's a long weekend because July 1st is Canada Day. That is the equivalent of America's 4th of July. Andy figured that everyone would be out camping this weekend.  He also figured that we could find a motel room for less than $100. This is one of those occasions when Andy was wrong.  We did eventually find a place for two nights, using my AAA discount that didn't make Andy's face get all frowny too much.

Friday evening had a cool sunset which we tried to catch. Saturday we went to Lee Valley Tools which specialize in quality, hard to find tools. I've been looking for an inexpensive set of carving tools to make woodblocks for printing which I found there. I also found a flower press you use in the microwave. Might try them out on the flowers in the yard.

We were going to Edmonton Mall when Andy saw that a Canadian hardware store was going out of business. "Let's go look. They might have some things I can use for the house." Well, two hours later, flatbed and buggy in tow, we're unloading the bikes (we never got around to getting them out) to load 30 flats of laminate flooring, 10 gallons of paint, two sets of blinds for the windows, dead bolts and locks for the doors and the faucet shower assembly for the bath. Poor old van is riding low. We had yo put the bikes on the rack and bring them inside the motel for safe keeping.

Finally we headed to West Edmonton Mall. This mall is eight city blocks with at least 850 stores and everything is inside. Pretty amazing.

Kindness of Strangers

Our arrival at Andy's house made an impression on us since Barbie could not be parked in the driveway. We circled the block determining that Barbie had to be parked in the back yard.

No sooner were we in the process of backing her in between a blue spruce tree and another unknown type of tree, we were approached by a white haired, pony-tailed lady that barely came up to my shoulder. Betty, as she introduced herself to us, came to give Andy the key to the house the previous owner left in her keeping.

Andy explained the issue we were having in backing Barbie into the yard and in no time at all Betty was back with two sizes of buck/bow saws. "You can give them back tomorrow. Goodnight." We just looked at each other.

Next morning Andy met the other neighbor, Larry.  As it turned out, Larry is the village handyman. He immediately offered any help he could. We found a lawn mower in the shed, unknown if it worked. Larry told Andy if it didn't he had an extra mower we could use.  By that afternoon Andy had a new mower - the one Larry offered for us to use.  By that evening Larry and Andy were going through the house discussing what needed to be done with the various ways to get it done. Andy has been overwhelmed by the generosity and kindness of his neighbors.

In addition to the kindness of his neighbors, I found the attached flowers growing in his yard. I decided to cut them before Andy mowed them down.

Alberta Canada, specifically Penhold and Big "Happy" Valley

Leaving the ranch, we headed North of Calgary to Penhold, the little town where Andy's children live.

Of course I was very nervous meeting Coreen, Chris, their spouces and his grandchildren. We were greeted with warm hospitality.

Andy's children have young families. Their children range in age with the oldest an 8 year old boy, two 2 year old boys, an 11 month old girl and one due in four weeks, gender unknown.

We left the next afternoon for Big Valley. This community is about 380 people, no traffic lights but plenty of stop signs. Andy says those signs are routinely ignored and viewed as suggestions only.

We put Barbie to her last hard struggle - the hill climbing up to Big Valley has a 9 percent grade. At one point I did offer to get out and give Barbie help by pushing, we were going so slowly, but the old girl got us to the top. From the top of that hill it was 5 miles more (8k) to Big Valley.

Twlight greeted us as we slowly entered the quiet streets to Andy's 1903 house.  The house was easy to pick out due to the hip high grass gracing the yard.

Beyond Yellowstone

Leaving the national parks behind we made our way towards Canada stopping at Grand Falls, Montana. This small town holds an amazing museum devoted to Charlie Russell, the Cowboy Artist. This artist and Remington pretty much define Western art.

I picked up an unusual piece - a gourd dyed the color of the red rocks so typical of the West beaded with semi-precious stones around the neck opening. It's ambiance, to me, is the essence of what I felt as I traveled through the ever changing yet same landscapes.

We headed North, making our way to Sweetwater, the border point that accepts imported vehicles. Once there, anticipating problems due to stories heard, Andy was a bundle of nerves fumbling his cell phone, dropping it and shattering the glass. That was the greatest mishap/problem we encountered.

We headed to Antelope Creek Ranch.  There we met Neal Wilson the manager of the ranch. We spent a lovely evening with he, Shannon and their two boys - Boyd and Reed.  I discovered two type of swallows who were acrobatic in their consumption of mosquitos. There is the Cliff swallow which creates a mud-dabbled nest and the Barn swallow with the sharp forked tail. Next day Neal gave us a tour of the ranch.

Grand Tetons & Yellowstone

Grand Tetons were very impresive. However Andy thought the range was larger than it was.


The winding road to Yellowstone showed the ravages of forest fires with all the new growth of trees. 


Old Faithful was reliable. 
We got to the giser site about 10 minutes before it was to erupt.  After we rode around to the 'paint pots.' 
Because of my allergy to sulfa I could only get so close before my chest began to hurt. 
Andy was able to get up closer. I stayed back enjoying the meadow with the purple flowers. 

The other draw of Yellowstone, which 
I didn't know about, is the 'Grand 
Canyon of Yellowstone.'  

Leaving the park was as thrilling as getting into it. We saw a grizzly bear 
(brown spot in the back) and a small group of elk.

Leg to Yellowstone

Andy has to send in paperwork on importing the motorhome into Canada 72 hours in advance. We are held up until that is done.

Looking at the routes we could take and in consideration of Barbie-mobile's ability to climb mountains we are going to take the Idaho Falls route. This will place our approach to Yellowstone from the South.

There was this shop as we left Idaho Falls. I thought their sign funny. After getting on our way we ran into road construction.  They placed the barrels past the center line so that we hit one of the barrels. Poor Barbie got her steps bent just abit. They still work.

The drive into Jackson and thus into
The Grand Tetons began.