Living in the south
all our lives, I guess Ferdie and I
have adapted to the extreme “hot summers”. As far as I can remember, we have
never had a summer this hot for so long. But then, looking at national news
seems that no one has escaped the hot weather this year either…records were
broken everywhere. I guess that is why we particularly enjoyed our summer
vacation this year, visiting parts of Canada, and some of the northern states,
ending up in Colorado for a few days. Waking up to 40 degree weather, and going
to bed at night with temperatures in the low 70’s (sometimes mid 60’s) seems
like ideal temperatures to me.
Our trip was to visit Calgary, Canada and take part in the
Greatest Outdoor Show on Earth — from the mud-crusted spurs on a bull rider’s
boots to the fairytale sparkle of the Midway Ferris wheel by night—the
Calgary Stampede was truly a once in a lifetime experience.
From Calgary, we visited The
Banff and Lake
Louise areas…..road the Icefields Parkway that boasts mountain peaks as high as
11,000 ft., more than 100 glaciers, subalpine meadows, ice-blue lakes and some
wildlife….this Parkway is considered one of the world’s top 10 most scenic
drives, and I would have to agree with them.
Then onto the Athabasca Glacier where we
again traveled on the unique Ice Explorer bus onto the
ancient glacier that is
as thick as the Eiffel Tower is tall……so amazing, that we had to do this trip
again!
We then headed towards the U.S., making a stop to ride the
“rode to the sun” road in Glacier National Park., only to discover that a lot of
the glaciers had really lost a lot of ice, and that, possibly during our
lifetime, the glaciers may no longer be there for future generations to enjoy.
Our trip took us to view some of the national parks in Utah…….we had visited all
of them before, but, they are so unbelievably beautiful, that one just can’t get
enough of the scenery. In Utah, however, we were greeted by 100 degree
temperatures that we were just not ready for just yet. From Utah, we traveled
through the mountain ranges to visit some friends who own a summer home in Lake
City, Colorado. There, we again had the wonderful, cool temperatures for a few
days. And there, also, Ferdie and I, along with friends who were traveling with
us, enjoyed a few days of mountain adventure. We did things I had never
imagined that I would do in my lifetime, and so thoroughly enjoyed it. On one
day, we rode 4-wheelers up to the top of Engineer Pass (12,800 ft elevation),
and made snowballs from the ice on the top of the mountain that one sees when
just traveling through the mountains, and then……we had to make the trip back
down. I had heard a lot from friends, who do this, but we had never done
it…..now, I know about their experiences with this sort of “stuff”….it was quite
an experience and a whole lot of fun.
Not so thrilling, however, was our trip the following day
up the mountain to Silverton, Co. in a couple of mountain jeeps……now, that was
very scary!....Traveling on narrow, bumpy roads that can handle only one-way
traffic, and most of the time, the traffic could not be any larger than a
4-wheeler or a motorcycle…..yep, that was scary! The scenery along the way made
up for the fear I felt (some of the time, not all of the time).
American Coach Association
