Lethbridge

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Weekend in the Kootenays

I just got in from a great weekend visiting with Donna and Ken who are staying at a lovely RV park just outside of Cranbrook, BC. This was my first time driving through the Crowsnest Pass area on my own and the four hour trip was much longer with just the radio for company, but still as beautiful!

The wind was terrible along the entire stretch out of the Prairies and into the foothills. I stopped in Pincher Creek for coffee and fuel and it was just as bad as the last time I was there.

Pincher Creek

I was glad to cease my white-knuckle driving by the time I hit the Crowsnest pass, and by Blairmore a few speckles of rain had replaced the wind. It was then a smooth and easy drive to Fort Steele, 10 minutes north of Cranbrook. I arrived around five and quickly made myself at home. I was impressed by how much progress Ken and Donna had made in turning their new rig into an organized and functional home!

We didn’t do much Friday evening because I was running on very little sleep and exhausted. I did walk around the park a bit

the Ark 2.0

and check out their emu neighbours!

emu

We hit the sack pretty early, but made up for it with a very full Saturday!

When I planned this weekend, I sort of thought of doing the Kootenay circuit to make up for missing the stretch from Banff to Cranbrook after my engine troubles.

Kootenay circuit–Lethbridge to Cranbrook to Radium Hot Springs to Banff to Calgary to Lethbridge

But that would have meant an eight-hour trip home, most of it through familiar territory. I instead proposed that we drive up to the village of Radium Hot Springs, gateway to Kootenay National Park, about 300km round trip from Cranbrook. Ken and Donna thought that was a great idea and Midnight was happy to come along for the ride.

One of the most interesting things we came across on the drive to Radium was Columbia Lake, which is the source of the Columbia River, along the banks of which I spent quite some time this spring. It’s very beautiful!

Columbia Lake

Radium is the typical hot springs resort town. We drove through quickly and turned around at the gate to Kootenay National Park since we wouldn’t have gotten our money’s worth out of the admission fee.

There’s a sign in the video for This is Our Home that piqued my curiosity because I had no idea where it’s located. Well, I found it in Radium!

We also saw the very strange house of the Radium woodcarver:

strange house in Radium

The Kootenays were beautiful on this crisp autumn afternoon, with snow on the higher peaks and lots of amber. It was a great drive!

vista just south of Radium village

Today’s agenda was for me to get to know the emus. Here’s a video of Donna feeding them:

Lots more pictures of my trip are in the gallery below!

I left Fort Steele around 2 and was in Lethbridge by quarter to six where I was expected for dinner! Gary made sure to send me home with leftovers of the perfectly normal variety. You know, a few roasted sweet potatoes, a couple of muffins, some fresh baked bread, a container of homemade soup, and two whole roasted chickens. You read that correctly. I adore that man! 😀

Pincher Creek

Pincher Creek

Pincher Creek

Pincher Creek

emu

emu

emu

emu

emu

emu

emu

emu

daddy emu

daddy emu

the Ark 2.0

the Ark 2.0

Pepe in overflow

Pepe in overflow

Kootenay sky

Kootenay sky

north towards Radium Hot Springs

north towards Radium Hot Springs

Columbia Lake, source of the Columbia River

Columbia Lake, source of the Columbia River

Columbia Lake

Columbia Lake

Columbia Lake

Columbia Lake

Columbia Lake

Columbia Lake

Columbia Lake

Columbia Lake

Columbia Lake

Columbia Lake

Columbia Lake

Columbia Lake

my favourite dog, Midnight

my favourite dog, Midnight

north towards Radium Hot Springs

north towards Radium Hot Springs

north towards Radium Hot Springs

north towards Radium Hot Springs

north towards Radium Hot Springs

north towards Radium Hot Springs

north towards Radium Hot Springs

north towards Radium Hot Springs

north towards Radium Hot Springs

north towards Radium Hot Springs

north towards Radium Hot Springs

north towards Radium Hot Springs

strange house in Radium

strange house in Radium

strange house in Radium

strange house in Radium

strange house in Radium

strange house in Radium

strange house in Radium

strange house in Radium

entrance to Kootenay National Park

entrance to Kootenay National Park

vista just south of Radium village

vista just south of Radium village

vista just south of Radium village

vista just south of Radium village

vista just south of Radium village

vista just south of Radium village

vista just south of Radium village

vista just south of Radium village

vista just south of Radium village

vista just south of Radium village

vista just south of Radium village

vista just south of Radium village

Donna taking a picture of the vista just south of Radium village for her blog :-)

Donna taking a picture of the vista just south of Radium village for her blog 🙂

you'd swear my car was in the Okanagan!

you’d swear my car was in the Okanagan!

heading south from Radium

heading south from Radium

heading south from Radium

heading south from Radium

heading south from Radium

heading south from Radium

heading south from Radium

heading south from Radium

heading south from Radium

heading south from Radium

heading south from Radium

heading south from Radium

heading south from Radium

heading south from Radium

emu coming for a snack

emu coming for a snack

emu snacking

emu snacking

emu snacking

emu snacking

emu hoping for more snacks

emu hoping for more snacks

Kootenay sky

Kootenay sky

approaching Fernie

approaching Fernie

approaching Fernie

approaching Fernie

back to the Prairies

back to the Prairies

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The Amazing Bottomless Tote

This afternoon, I decided to pull the ‘cold weather gear’ tote out from the basement of the rig. By this point, I had no idea what was in it. I vaguely remember doing a huge cold weather gear purge and consolidation back in Campbell River and the contents of the tote were a mystery.

Behold:

cold weather gear

There’s several warm skirts in there, gloves, mitts, hats, a full-length reasonably dressy coat, a snow suit, and another four-season versatile activity coat. That last one made me groan. I worked so hard to find a fleece coat for hiking the Chilkoot Trail and I had one all along! This neat coat uses a fleece coat as the liner, so you get three coats in one. It was my winter coat back when I lived in Lindsay, Ontario, from 2000 to 2002. I can’t believe I a) still have it, and b) forgot about it!

But the real find was that skirt on top, the plum and brown one with ribbons. I love that skirt, used to get so many compliments on it, and thought I gave it up for my nomadic existence. Now, if it’ll only get cold enough for me to pull it on! 🙂

As it ends up, I really won’t have to buy that much to be comfortable this winter. I need a bunch of tights and leggings and a few button down sweaters in neutral colours to layer over my long-sleeved cotton tops. I have a really cozy and cute pair of winter boots I bought for super cheap ($10!) in Omak last fall and I have to see if I can water proof them. If not, I also need a pair of warm boots.

I’m really impressed by how much I was able to stuff into that tote (needless to say, most of it needs ironing), and I think that I might as well hang on to the clothes since they are accessible but out of the way, and do not use up valuable space I could use for something else.

In other news, my boy has a new favourite place to hang out. If anyone can explain this picture to me, I will be very grateful:

Neelix chillin’ in the tub

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Feeling Claustrophobic

It’s amazing how, in three years of living in an RV, I have never felt claustrophobic. Miranda’s layout with its many rooms and areas makes her feel very spacious. This apartment, with one giant room for living, feels much smaller. It is unpleasant to have to sleep in the same room as the computer, cook with a toilet almost right by the stove, and stare at the front door while working on the computer.

While I am enjoying my three-flight commute to work, I am less enjoying the gauntlet I have to go through to get outside to my car. To be fair, my neighbours just say hello, but there are times I’d just like to be able to go for a walk without having to talk to anyone.

Complaining aside, there are advantages to being here, such as the aforementioned commute, having so many things to walk to, and not having to deal with holding tanks!

To mitigate the claustrophobia somewhat, I am taking half of Friday off so that I can drive to Cranbrook to visit with Ken and Donna this weekend! It’ll be nice to get out of town and drive that familiar route on my own for the first time.

I am really enjoying the October weather in southern Alberta. It is crisp, cool, and very sunny. The weather forecast for the next week indicates more of the same so I have plenty of time to finish off Miranda’s winterizing preparations, although all the crucial stuff has been done. I just wanted to give her a really good scrubbing and vacuum now that the cats aren’t in there so I can have a nice fresh home to return to in the spring.

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Sunday Brunch

The weekday time I have gained through the loss of my flier routes and commutes has slowly trickled into weekend time. This was the first Sunday morning in a very, very long time that I had the time to make my favourite Sunday brunch:

pita (I was out of sliced bread), scrambled tofu, sausage, tomato, coffee

I had a full day of work to do this weekend and stretched it out over two days. So I got up this morning, did an hour of work, then stopped for brunch. What a lovely way to define today as being about having a freedom of choice in how I parcel out my time. I’m not sure I’m even going to get out of my pajamas today. 😀

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Thuan Hoa Vietnamese Restaurant, Lethbridge

After work, I needed to get away from the apartment complex, so I decided to walk to a restaurant for dinner. I was in the mood for ‘exotic’ and decided to head over to a Vietnamese restaurant, Thuan Hoa, near head office, about 1.5 km away. It just so happened that Jody’s daughter recommended it to me during Thanksgiving lunch.

I haven’t had Vietnamese in ages, maybe even since I left Ottawa. I used to meet a friend at a Vietnamese restaurant in the Hull sector of Gatineau on a regular basis, with my favourite dish being squid in a sweet and spicy black bean sauce served with tasty minty spring rolls. So tonight I looked forward to a wonderful, fragrant, tasty dinner.

Well. There was nothing wrong with the food at Thuan Hoa Vietnamese Restaurant, but it was bland! What?!

I had the dinner combo 1A: two salad rolls, a spring roll, vermicelli, and pork, for $11.50. When I’d looked at the menu online, it said I could add a bubble tea for $2.50, but I found out that was just for take out orders. The server let me have it for that price anyway since I had waited so patiently to order; I asked for a mango tea.

The salad rolls were very pretty roll ups of rice paper, vermicelli, shrimp, cucumber, and lettuce served with a sweet peanut dipping sauce. Where was the Vietnamese mint?! Without the sauce, the rolls had great texture but no taste.

Dinner came in a giant bowl. If I had known the portions were going to be so outrageous, I would have had only one roll and half the dinner and brought the rest home. Anyway, the dinner was a bed of vermicelli over which were a carroty over-cooked spring roll (at least there was sweet fish dipping sauce on the side), really tasty crispy pork, and more lettuce and cucumber. I had to drizzle peanut sauce over everything to get any real flavour.

The mango bubble tea was a huge disappointment. It was the creamy kind that was pure sugar. The tapioca bubbles literally made my teeth hurt they were so sweet. I thought I’d had bad bubble tea before, but this was terrible! I didn’t even finish it. Next time I want a mango bubble tea, I’ll do like I did last time, and pay the $5 for a fresh juice one at Umi Sushi.

It would be grossly unfair of me to say that this was a terrible meal. Tea excepted, everything was fresh and beautifully prepared with generous portions. I just can’t get used to the way flavour is stripped out of cuisines out west to suit the meat and potatoes palate of the population. The only thing I was pleased with was the pork. I’ve only just started to eat pork again and am finicky about grizzle, but this was cooked and seasoned perfectly. It’s just a shame that everything else was so plain.

The restaurant is very popular and was super busy. I won’t be going back, but I can’t categorically not recommend it. It was really a case of the food not being right for me rather than the food not being right.