Alberta hiatus - June 14 to 23

Hey, this is hard, waiting around.  The days are slipping by and I'm enjoying the break, visiting with Teri and Dan, and seeing some old friends, but am certainly looking forward to being on the bike again and heading in one direction through the prairies.  Let me provide a quick update.

 Saturday, June 23rd

We drove to Edmonton (Spruce Grove) in style (see below) to see Wayne's twin sisters and their families. Thank you Janice and Joyce for getting everybody together on short notice and dishing out such a terrific feast.  It was such a pleasure to see you again and for me to meet Reg and Alex, Holly, Ken and Riley, and Pat and Ginny. 

Reg, Holly, Alex, Ken, Joyce, Ginny, Janice, Pat, Riley and Wayne

An early birthday celebration

Wayne at the wheel of Dan's Corvette

We rounded out the day by stopping in on Laura enroute back to Sylvan Lake.  It was great to see her one more time and for her to meet Wayne.  The conversation revolved around computers, of course!

Thursday, June 21st
I am being thoroughly entertained by Teri's grand-kids.  They like looking at pictures on the computer and every time Enoch sees a photo of Wayne he asks me if that is my Dad :)! 

Today was the best day so far during the week in terms of weather, with sunshine, light winds and temps in the high teens.  I abandoned Teri and hit the road for about 76 km then basically relaxed and ate the rest of the day.

Asia and Enoch

Wayne has arrived back in Ottawa and will be making a quick turn-around to Calgary tomorrow morning.  We'll head to Edmonton on Saturday to see his twin sisters and some extended family, and then make our way back to Saskatchewan on Sunday.  The forecast looks great there all week.


Wednesday, June 20^th

Thanks Eileen for the link to info on the Confederation Bridge.  Pedestrians and cyclists are restricted from crossing on their own, but a 24/7 shuttle service is available from both ends.  Sounds like a fine idea to me!

I spent a quiet day hanging out with Teri and her grand-kids Asia (18 months) and Enoch (4 years).  The weather is much better (sunny, light wind, temp around 20) so we walked down to the beach for ice cream and some playground time.  I connected on Skype with my "Ladies and Laughter" book club in Ottawa and one of their first questions was "How is your bum".  Well, Enoch happened to be sitting on my lap at the time and he was so impressed that older people shared his bathroom sense of humour (you know that four year-old stage).

Some thoughts on the cycle trip so far:

·         Cycling through the prairies has been very relaxing because of the lack of traffic and not having to pay close attention to the pavement all the time, as well as the decent weather we had last week.  It was almost mesmerizing and quite meditative on those long straight stretches in the fresh air.  It's just so nice to be outside most of the day in the peace and quiet. This week as I've been on the road in a vehicle a lot, I realize I miss the sights and sounds of the road - the different birds shouting verbal abuse when you get too close to their nests, the strong rush of mountain streams, gophers standing up to see what's coming, hawks circling before deciding you're too big for prey, and even the bears and porcupine. 

·         I noticed my core has strengthened significantly, way more than what I have experienced when doing pilates and yoga classes.  I don’t have a six pack or anything like that, but I feel rather solid inside and attribute it to pedal power required in the mountains.  There were a few times when the old legs simply weren’t enough and my body naturally turned to other muscles for assistance.

·         Two provinces down and only six to go unless we decide to do PEI.  I kind of think it would be neat to cycle Confederation Bridge and must check to see if that is possible.

·         I am worried already about northern ON.  My friend Kathy in Thunder Bay has advised that the northern route through Kapuskasing (where I lived for two years during adolescence and became friends with her) is much flatter and has less traffic than the more scenic and southern route along the shores of Lake Superior.  I have heard that the hills on that route are the most difficult part of cycling across the country, even harder than the Rockies, because they are steep and there are no flat stretches in between them for days.  I am tempted to do the southern route because of the scenery and opportunity to spend a day or two kayaking Superior, but guess I will assess my strength when we leave Thunder Bay and make a decision then.

·         Wayne provided me with a few comments when he finally read the blog.  I’ve overheard him say that my references to we mean the “royal” we.  He has also asked me why I didn’t simply lay my bike across those culverts running down outside the avalanche tunnel instead of throwing it (and damaging the frame and losing the bottles)???  I don’t have an answer other than I didn’t think of it….duh!

·         I’m so lucky to have the opportunity to do this, and I couldn’t have set my sights on it without the generous contribution of Wayne’s time and support with the RV.  I always thought it was “our” cycle, but in the pattern of our days I realize I am the one who is choosing the routes and schedule, and he is the one who is following me and not quite getting the amount of cycle time anticipated. Thank-you, dear.
 ·       It looks like it is much too impractical to try and sell the RV here in Alberta, in terms of availability of smaller units, taking a hosing on the selling price, and the logistics of registering the vehicle in Alberta with a seven day window to transport it to Ontario (thanks for that info, Lorraine).  So we’ll (the royal we) will assess back in Ontario and see what is on the market in terms of something smaller.  In the meantime, I will appreciate the comfort.

Tuesday, June 19^th

This has been a pretty laid back day.  We did some shopping in Red Deer, and some baking in the afternoon.  It was blustery and cool all day with short periods of rain. I managed to get out for a mini cycle in the evening (have I mentioned the daylight here stretching well into late evening) in between dark rain clouds, but it was a bit of a chore with the wind and bugs going down my throat.  I hear there is a heat wave in Ottawa, so I shouldn't complain about this weather.

Angus sent me a document with Williamina Bell-Irving's family stats, which I shared with my daughters.  Sam was intrigued and went online to learn some more.  Here is some of her feedback:  
"It's so cool to look at this sort of stuff! I did a little bit of internet researching this morning because I was interested and I found this link to the Bell-Irving family tree:
http://www.clanirving.com/pdfs/Descendant%20Chart%20for%20the%20Bell-Irvings.pdf
You can see your grandmother on it, as well as William and Williamina and even further back to the 1500s! Did you know that the Bell-Irving name was created in the 1700s when Mary Irving married Thomas Bell and she refused to take his name? She was from a more prominent family and didn't want to give up the Irving title so she became Bell-Irving. Which was pretty rare in those days!
I was also able to find a picture online of Williamina Bell-Iriving.  Apparently the picture is in the archives at a museum in Calgary called the Glenbow and there's a picture of her husband there too.
http://ww2.glenbow.org/search/archivesPhotosResults.aspx?XC=/search/archivesPhotosResults.aspx&TN=IMAGEBAN&AC=QBE_QUERY&RF=WebResults&DL=0&RL=0&NP=255&MF=WPEngMsg.ini&MR=10&QB0=AND&QF0=File+number&QI0=NA-4286-2&CISOPTR=DF=WebResultsDetails
Cool eh?  There's also tons of information online about Henry, Williamina's eldest son and his work in and around Vancouver. I even found some academic papers written about him.

Monday, June 18th

Another day on the road, but what an interesting one it was.  Teri and I picked up our uncle Angus in Calgary in the morning and then we all headed to Cochrane to dig up some old family history.  My grand-mother was a Bell-Irving and her grand-mother homesteaded in Calgary and the Cochrane area. As I mentioned earlier in the blog, Angus is a treasure trove of information on his mother’s side of the family and it was such a delight to listen to his stories all day long.

Angus and I

We stumbled upon a wonderful librarian in the Cochrane Archives.  She helped us find some passages in the historical record books about the family, and located the tiny Anglican church (of which my great-grandfather was the first warden) for us.  It was moved by horse from Mitford to Cochrane at the turn of the century, quite a mean feat in those days and a plaque was erected at that time to commemorate the people who were buried in the original church graveyard.  The first person on the list is Frances Bell-Irving, my grandmother’s sister who died at three years of age on the ranch in the same week my grandmother was born.  The church has since been moved to a senior’s residence in town and is used for services there.  We tracked it down were lucky to find the pastor still at the residence late in the afternoon.  He was most helpful and enthusiastic.

We found the old church in it's new place

We delivered Angus back to Sue in well after supper time, and I think we may have tired him out gallivanting all over the place.  He had a smile on his face, though!

Sunday, June 17th

Teri lent me her brand new (hybrid) SUV yet again and I motored off to Edmonton to see a dear old CG friend Laura McWilliam.  Laura and I were at the College together, worked in St. John’s at the same time, and saw each other quite a bit when our kids were young and she lived in Kingston and worked at Queen’s.  Laura is a talented computer techie and sadly for me, she was recruited for a job in Edmonton ten years ago and I hadn’t seen her since.  We had a great time with years and five kids and extended families to catch up on.  I don’t think we stopped talking for six hours straight.  I got to see her son Chris again and this time we got some pictures taken. 

Laura and I

Laura is on the executive of the Alberta speed skating association (her kids are athletic to say the least) and will be in Montreal this August, so we’re hoping to catch up with each other again.

Saturday, June 16th

I took Wayne to Calgary airport in the morning, then had a nice second visit with my old high school friend Lorraine.  She is selling her house in Calgary, so had to be out for lunch anyway!  It was great to see her again and catch up even more.  It’s funny how after 40-odd years of staying in touch sporadically we can pick up the conversation so easily and laugh at each other again.  Unfortunately I forgot for the second time to get a photo of the two of us together.  Drat!

The day was warm and by the time I arrived back in Sylvan Lake in late afternoon the wind had died down and I thought it would be a good idea to get a cycle in around the lake to keep the legs in shape.  Well, the paved roads around the lake don’t really hug the contour of the shoreline but rather stretch out in a large box encompassing it.  Sixty odd km later…….

Friday, June 15th

This day consisted of laundry, lots of yacking, Wayne behind the wheel of Dan’s Corvette, and a gorgeous boat ride on Sylvan Lake in the early evening.  It was a little cool so we virtually had the lake all to ourselves with Dan giving us a tour of the entire perimeter, after which he cooked his specialty bok choy beef dinner.  Mmmmm.

Teri and Dan

The royal "We"

It's not warm in Sylvan Lake at this time of year

Thursday, June 14th
We headed to the Horseshoe Canyon lookout and what a nice surprise it was!  It kind of hits you all of a sudden like the Grand Canyon – one minute you’re on the flat prairier and the next staring down into an abyss.

Horseshoe Canyon

One cannot visit Drumheller and not see the dinosaur museum, so I told Wayne.  Wow, we were both quite impressed.  It was so well done and worth every moment (we only took 62 pictures)!

 

 

 

Dino pictures

We started driving to Sylvan Lake about mid-afternoon, arriving at Teri and Dan’s just at dinner time J, and what a lovely dinner we were treated to indeed!  Wayne sometimes calls me a food snob in terms of trying to eat organically and gluten-free and passing on this and that, so when I find kindred folks on the same food page it is a nice surprise.  Another welcoming treat - we have come indoors to a bedroom, bathroom, wifi, and all the amenities.  I have a very generous sister.