Stampeding along

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My backlog of the trip update will have to wait a few more days... the last few days have been so interesting that I feel the need to write about them before looking back over the last month of happenings!

Last Thursday we left Nelson to head to Fernie, where a friend Barrie lives. Fernie is a cute little town surrounded 360 by mountains – so pretty – with what looks and from all reports is a great ski hill. Barrie travelled in Australia in 2004/5 with friends Amy and Heidi from Lake Louise days, so it was great to pop in and see her in her element – mountains, ski hill, bikes, chefing in a fantastic fine dining restaurant where she gets to assert to creativity to the delight of customers (like Brad and I who were treated to a lovely tasting plate!). Barrie showed us around town on pushbike and introduced us to the great sport of disc golf, played on an 18 ‘hole’ course with small Frisbees in a local park (I’ve only just gotten over my disc golf shoulder... all sorts of arm muscles I haven’t used in awhile!). What a great way to spend an afternoon! Brad and I also checked out local beauty spot Island Lake Lodge.

From Fernie we intended to head to Banff, but got 100 km up the highway and changed our minds thinking we should try to avoid the weekend crowds a bit. We headed for Calgary, spending Saturday night catching up with my good friend Ritchie and his lovely girlfriend Karine (and dogs Paris and Sadie) who kindly put us up in their spare room for a couple of nights.

Sunday we headed to the last day of the Calgary Stampede, ‘the greatest outdoor event on earth’. Brad and I were humming and haaing about whether to fork out an extra $12 to get into the arena to watch the rodeo event finals when a fella came up to us and gave us for free his two grandstand tickets for the event (worth $70 each – score!). One Alberta beef roll with gravy, fries, 12 mini donuts later and two jack daniels and coke later, we were in with the plaid-shirt, cowboy hat and boots donned punters enjoying the rodeo. It was fantastic! Not my usual taste of entertainment but I found myself totally getting into the fun, watching the bareback broncs, barrel races and steer-tackling events. After the rodeo we watched the human cannonball – hilarious – you tube it!

So now, I find myself leaving Calgary headed for the mountains again... my old hood Banff, Lake Louise. Today my heart feels very heavy. It’s sad saying goodbye/farewell/see ya later to friends like Ricthie and Karine, who I really wish we could spend more time with... and of course that goes for your too Barrie, Amy, Kylee and Riley who we have visited in the last month. I never know when and where I may see you again, which of course is very exciting, but a very sad feeling at the same time. It also makes me miss all my dear friends and family at home. I feel very lucky to have such fantastic people in my life, though I don’t get to see you all nearly as often as I would like. My thoughts are with all my friends and colleagues at USC and DPI, this week, sadly one of the most beautiful people I have ever worked with passed away and I feel very far from home.
Next entry won’t be so emo I promise!

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