It was a good trip out to Red Deer, but not as fun as wheeling with the club of course.
We left our place at about 6am i think it was, the van loaded right up, luggage strapped to the roof racks, 2 kids sound asleep. Filled up with the cheap stuff in Silverdale at 1.19/litre, stopped in Hope to wake Beckys brother up, and then up to Yale to pick her parents up. Left Yale around 9:30 and back to Hope, forgot stuff in Yale so back again (doh!), then back again to Hope, load up her brother and then finally off and up the Coke.
We decided to take the long scenic tour through Jasper as the last road report still had the mudslide closing the road before Golden. Some damn beautiful country! I had never driven east of Revelstoke previously so this was quite the experience for me. We took the highway down through the icefields (HIGHLY recommended), even tho those cheapass Albertans want you to pay for driving thru a park, but by the time we got there we just sailed in thru w/o paying.
It was dusk now with lots of wildlife along the roadside, so keeping careful eyes out we headed east at the Saskatchewan River Crossing and onward to Red Deer. We rolled in some time after midnite and 1243 km later.. and about 150$ in gas poorer. Tired, but there.
As for the nuptials that this trip was based on, it was Beckys cousins wedding. more like a renewal of vows/4th anniversary really. They had originally been married in the back of a pickup, in a mud bog, by a JP. This time Evelyn wanted it done "all proper like". So they rented a hall, and the majority of the guests showed up with their F350s and trailers in tow and camped out for the weekend. The ceremony was very short and sweet, with the bridal party walking down the aisle, beers in hand, to some music I had never heard before. When I asked later what kind of music they had, I was told 'we have both kinds, country AND western'.
We did manage a few sidetrips: Becky, the kids and I stayed at some relatives in Olds (1/2 tween Red Deer and Calgary) and went out to Drumheller and the Royal Tyrell musuem, very cool! Having never seen that kind o stuff before was pretty interesting, but I thought they would have been much larger to be honest.
We headed out of Alberta yesterday morning (her mom and Dad stayed for a coupl extra days) so now with 3 adults and 2 wee ones it was a little lighter of a ride back. We decided to go to Banff and from there to Radium. At the park gates we were told it was about an hours delay past Golden, so we went for it and ended up only waiting 15 mins in the lineup at the mudslide.
Another long day of driving came to an end, and collapsed in my own bed at 11:30.
So after that driving experience with the kids, we would do it again. They were born to cruise it seems.
oh, and it was snowing in Calgary monday morning.
We left our place at about 6am i think it was, the van loaded right up, luggage strapped to the roof racks, 2 kids sound asleep. Filled up with the cheap stuff in Silverdale at 1.19/litre, stopped in Hope to wake Beckys brother up, and then up to Yale to pick her parents up. Left Yale around 9:30 and back to Hope, forgot stuff in Yale so back again (doh!), then back again to Hope, load up her brother and then finally off and up the Coke.
We decided to take the long scenic tour through Jasper as the last road report still had the mudslide closing the road before Golden. Some damn beautiful country! I had never driven east of Revelstoke previously so this was quite the experience for me. We took the highway down through the icefields (HIGHLY recommended), even tho those cheapass Albertans want you to pay for driving thru a park, but by the time we got there we just sailed in thru w/o paying.
It was dusk now with lots of wildlife along the roadside, so keeping careful eyes out we headed east at the Saskatchewan River Crossing and onward to Red Deer. We rolled in some time after midnite and 1243 km later.. and about 150$ in gas poorer. Tired, but there.
As for the nuptials that this trip was based on, it was Beckys cousins wedding. more like a renewal of vows/4th anniversary really. They had originally been married in the back of a pickup, in a mud bog, by a JP. This time Evelyn wanted it done "all proper like". So they rented a hall, and the majority of the guests showed up with their F350s and trailers in tow and camped out for the weekend. The ceremony was very short and sweet, with the bridal party walking down the aisle, beers in hand, to some music I had never heard before. When I asked later what kind of music they had, I was told 'we have both kinds, country AND western'.
We did manage a few sidetrips: Becky, the kids and I stayed at some relatives in Olds (1/2 tween Red Deer and Calgary) and went out to Drumheller and the Royal Tyrell musuem, very cool! Having never seen that kind o stuff before was pretty interesting, but I thought they would have been much larger to be honest.
We headed out of Alberta yesterday morning (her mom and Dad stayed for a coupl extra days) so now with 3 adults and 2 wee ones it was a little lighter of a ride back. We decided to go to Banff and from there to Radium. At the park gates we were told it was about an hours delay past Golden, so we went for it and ended up only waiting 15 mins in the lineup at the mudslide.
Another long day of driving came to an end, and collapsed in my own bed at 11:30.
So after that driving experience with the kids, we would do it again. They were born to cruise it seems.
oh, and it was snowing in Calgary monday morning.
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