Days 33, 34, 35: It's All Becoming A Blur of Time and Fields

So...obviously I did not get that internet to work in the McDonald's parking lot of Calgary. Oh well! Here we are now.

Day 33 (Wednesday, July 13)

So we slept in WalMart's parking lot last night. This made for an early morning, but that's okay because we're trying to get across Canada pretty much as fast as we can, minus the two things we had to do today: Jasper and Banff, Alberta.

Jasper and Banff are both two cities and they are two national parks in the Canadian national park system. Jasper is supposed to be Canada's equivalent to the US's Yellowstone. It was beautiful, don't get me wrong, but...I was just at Yellowstone 5 weeks ago or so, and there's just no comparison. Granted, our National Parks System is way more organized and much larger. Also, Yellowstone doesn't have a HIGHWAY running through it. It was weird being in a place with so many people. There was a lot of traffic, and in the few places we stopped and got out to look at things, there were people everywhere. After being in Alaska for that long, darkness and people are taking some getting used to.

First stop in Jasper was a canyon. Not the Grand Canyon, by any means, but it was a pretty impressive canyon considering. We get to the parking lot, and I am not hoping for much. There aren't any mountains super close by, the walk is supposed to be easy...what is this canyon? It was actually really cool. The river has just cut this massive gorge into the ground. There are millions of gallons of water coming through this itty bitty, narrow space. There are little cubbyholes carved out. In one place, there's a rock wedged between the two sides of the gorge and there's a tree growing out of the rock. The water is loud. It was surprisingly cool. The power of water will never cease to amaze me.

It was pretty all throughout the park, but it was cloudy, so where there were lakes that would have had super cool reflections in them, there was just gray clouds. We stopped at a couple of other places. A waterfall was one. It was nice, but nothing crazy. Then we went to see one more glacier off the Columbia Icefield. You could walk right up to this one if the park didn't have it roped off! This means it was extra cold. And there was a brutal, nonstop wind tearing down the glacier hill. We literally almost got blown over. Ashley got some glacial silt from the river that flows out from under the glacier. Then we really hit the road through Jasper. It was pretty, but Alaska and Yellowstone were better.

We got to Banff just a bit before sunset. (SUNSET!) We were hungry. We thought we were going to have to resign ourselves to Chili's when, wonder of wonders, there was an Old Spaghetti Factory. I don't think sourdough bread, salad (or soup), pasta, and vanilla ice cream ever tasted so good. It was fan-freaking-tastic. Mmmmm. I had some weird cheese-topped pasta (Mithzner? That's not right, at all, but...it's rich and salty and very, very yummy.), the other three had spaghetti with marinara and mushrooms. De-lec-ta-ble!

Then we drove to Calgary in the almost completely dark. Lovely. We saw the ski jump from the last winter Olympics, held in Calgary, as we were driving to our hotel. It was cool.

Day 34 (Thursday, July 14)

In the morning, we were in Calgary long enough to grab some more groceries, coffee mugs from Starbucks, and eat breakfast at a Park-n-Bike place. They really love their bikers up here! Then we pushed east. And south. And while I was thinking it was more east than south, it was definitely more south than east. Since we took the ferry up to Alaska, we really had no concept of the actual driving time it took to get there. We were in a nice big boat with someone else driving for 2.5 days. What were we paying attention to? Dolphins and whales. Well...these days, we are in a tiny van. And Dad's doing all the driving. And while there are some nice big lakes or wide rivers occasionally, there have definitely been neither dolphins nor whales. We keep hoping because the landscape is way more boring than it has been: flat.

We had to push straight south again this evening, actually, because we decided that getting back into the good ole USA would be a good idea. Gas is cheaper, there's no silly exchange fees, etc. etc. Plus we could actually use our phones for what they were made for rather than using them as clocks. That is when the storm came. We watched ourselves blast 100 km/hr down the highway towards it--the lightning was fantastic. (100 km/hr really isn't blasting speed. It's around 65 mph.) I posted about the storm already, but I'll say one more time: It was terrifying. Yet with all the rain and all the wind, part of our van, the back right bumper/tire area, is still covered in dirt.

We made it to customs. Had to get the officials' attention because their sensors were all off because of the storm. They made us eat our oranges rather than take them into the country. Then we were back on home soil. Still quite a ways from home, but in the United States. Dad kept driving and Mom stayed up with him. I went to sleep. I had said I was going to take a nap about 2 hours earlier, but then the storm hit. Finally the adrenaline wore off, and I passed out.


Day 35 (Friday, July 15)

And, oh wait, more driving. Dad drove until I have no clue. 4 am? 5 am? And then he and Mom slept until 6 am? The sun was blinding them, they cried. The sun wasn't bothering me... They got up and kept going. We stopped for breakfast at Cracker Barrel--Cracker Barrel!--we haven't seen one of those since...probably 5 weeks ago. We had a wonderful breakfast, then kept what? I'll give you one guess. Good job: We kept driving. I actually drove. Dad was falling asleep at breakfast, so we decided it would be best for the health of all if he wasn't in the driver's seat. I drove through North Dakota today and into Minnesota. We ran up to Bemidji to see a giant Paul Bunyan and his blue Ox statue. It was soooo coool! Paul Bunyan had much too broad shoulders however. Then we headed south. We are in St. Cloud with hardly a cloud--or mosquito--in sight. Maybe this is a saintly city. Tomorrow we see the world's largest ball of twine! (Thanks Sara-May Colon!) Then we head up to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. We'll lose one more hour--closer to home we be!

Again, I apologize for only more words and no more pictures. Constant driving is actually really hard work, and I am quite tired. I think it's been decided though that there will be a vespers on August 6 at Martinsburg Church. At some time. I don't remember the time. I'll definitely post all the details once I get them. And I promise, there will be many, many pictures at the vespers, and many stories as well. Eventually pictures will be posted, but mark your calendar now if you want a live event. :)