Nature beckons Us
The day couldn’t go fast enough for us to get away. The 3 hour drive through the mountains would be a bit of a crap shoot as to which route we would have to take. The TransCanada passage through to Golden from Banff is notorious for road closures (mudslides / avalanches / landslides / heavy snow conditions, etc) and we were crossing our fingers that we wouldn’t be stuck in the middle of it all. An alternate route would be to go south when reaching the intersection of the ‘Golden Triangle’; this merging of roadways gives the driver the opportunity to either head west as intended, or drive south through to Radium and then north to Golden (of course, that means a longer trip, by about 1.5 hrs, give or take, dependent upon the weather).
I excitedly split my day at work in half with a trip to the close-by Interfaith store. With winter coming to an end (YAY!), this charitable volunteer-run agency is having their end-of-season $5 bag sale: they sell you a garbage bag for the said amount and you fill it with anything available on the racks / shelves. Basically and literally, a free-for-all!. I ran to this 2nd hand haven, taking an early lunch hour, in anticipation of filling a bag or two. A pack-rat’s dream, to be honest (sorry honey). And, ka-ching, did I ever make out like a bandit! Not to worry. Come leaving Calgary, I’m freecycling anything that can’t fit in the car (good thing my beloved knows how to pack really well!).
Come 4:30pm, I was walking out the door and ready to become a traveling nomad, ready for the adventure which lay before us. The night before we had packed everything and set aside the food that we wanted to contribute (I made a kickin crockpot of lasagna), giving us a head start on getting out the door with plenty of daylight for the first few hours of our drive.
Apart from the meandering stomach car-sickness which befell me, it was a spectacular drive with plenty of groovy tunes, fairly clear non-icy roads, cloud-topping skies icing the mountains with an ethereal glow and a car-filled with laughter and smiles. We truly savour our road-trips and getaways … one of the reasons why we’re so well-matched … we can spend weeks at a time 24/7 in each others presence without getting bored or bitchy. Now THAT’s compatibility!
The sun was just beyond setting when we crawled up the steep icy-slope to Robin’s driveway in the woods. It was difficult to see and appreciate the view around us {which we knew would be spectacular}, so we waited in breathless anticipation for the morning to come. In the interim, we enjoyed several hours of camaraderie around the etched glass, wood-burning stove (brrr, it was cold! thank goodness for the heating pads on our mattress).