More Jasper

Reflections on Lake Edith

Mountain reflection in the river along the YellowHead Highway

Don't mess with the RCMP

Dandy-Bug

Engine 6015 at Jasper Townsite

Hanging Baskets are everywhere!

 

Maligne Lake

 

In Jasper National Park, there's Lake Maligne...pronounced Ma-Leen...that is just one more pretty place among a dozen pretty places in the park. 

Nestled in the mountains, is a huge lake where you can canoe or fish...or take a boat ride. You can also sit on the terrace of the restaurant and look at the mountains grow. It does not matter, all of it is good.

Since we were here last, the Boat House has been repainted. If you remember old movies, this is where Nelson Eddy sang "I'll be Loving You" to Jeannette McDonald. 

The light gray mountains behind the Lake

It's a long drive to the Lake, but definitely worth it!

 

 

Icefields Parkway

The drive from Banff to Jasper is one of the prettiest in North America. It's about 150 miles long where you are surrounded by high mountains, glacial rivers, waterfalls, a few glaciers and clear blue skies. It's wonderful.

Bow Lake

Pretty Flowers 

Columbia Icefields 

Grandeur 

 

Yet Another One

I finished another blanket and gave it away to my friend. While it's my favorite zigzag pattern, it's a bit different too. 

She liked it a lot! 

Beautiful Banff

The Canadian Rockies are spectacular! Banff, a National Park and a town, is nestled into those Rockies, and it's beyond spectacular. The town is dominated by Mt. Rundle

A massive piece of rock that juts into the sky.         

The other side of the mountain is wonderful too with a curvy layer of sedimentary rock wiggling thru it. The mountain is gigantic.        

It's hard not to take a picture of Mt. Rundle as it dominates the skyline.

Banff is in a hole, much like Jackson is, as there are mountains all around the area and each is soars into space          

ParCanada has provided red viewing chairs for folks to enjoy the scene. Does it get any better?

From Sulphur Mountain you can view the town site and the beautiful Banff Springs Hotel, as well as the rest of the valley        

In addition to mountains there are lakes and rivers and waterfalls.        

Lake Minnewanka         

Bow Falls

   

And hidden in the underbrush is a tiny harebell.

 

Jason Bourne

Today was rainy, so it was a good day to see Jason Bourne, the movie. In order to get ready for the latest addition to the saga, we saw the 3 previous movies earlier in the week. The first movie was made when Matt Damon, the star, was 29...a young callow kid with a case of amnesia. The fourth movie has Matt Damon 14 years older. He's no longer young, callow, nor an kid; and the amnesia is finally gone. As in all the movies, he's still a stone killer.  I'm not sure if the movie was good or not. The story line was very shallow. We get to follow Jason from Athens to Berlin to London to Vegas as he runs away from a bullet. All the movies have some fantastic chase scenes, and this one was no different ... But it seems as if the whole movie was a giant chase scene. At one point, I was laughing as the chase was getting too absurd as more "stuff" was getting destroyed but our man continued! The movie is a good diversion. It's not great cinema, but it's not horrible cinema either.  Since we have the series on DVD, I'm sure we will buy this one when it comes out. That's not a ringing endorsement of Jason Bourne, it's just something to add to the set as they are all good diversions on a rainy day.

Meet Rocky

We seem to attract Teddy Bears...and here's our newest member of the clan. His name is Rocky, and he is an engineer on the Rocky Montaineer train that travels from Vancouver to Banff. Our friends, whom we met in Banff, were on that train for a week. From what they said, it was "some trip." Right now Rocky is learning about life "on the road" as he will be camping for a few more days. Then when he gets back to Wyoming he has a bunch of brother and sister teddy bears to meet. 

Second Baby with Blanket

On the way to Tahiti I made several baby blankets for babies-to-be....well another was born and here she is

May I introduce you to Clara! BTW she's got her grandpa tied around her little finger in case you were wondering!

 

Baby with Blanket

When we were on the Tahiti cruise earlier this year, I made a number of baby blankets. Today I received a picture of one of the babies

I think it fits her well! 

 

In Canada

We've been in Canada for two days. 

The border crossing was easy. We needed to show our passports, take off our sunglasses, and answer some questions. The guard never looked inside the RV, but we were not expecting that to happen either.   

The first official visitors center is at Milk River and there's a life-sized dinosaur greeting you. This is in the heart of dinosaur alley...lots of big bones have been found in Alberta.

Our first night we stayed in Lethbridge in a nice shady spot. We sorely missed our iPhone map program. Lethbridge is difficult to drive in, and we needed a good set of maps. We used the navigation program on the truck, but it's not nearly as good as the one on the smartphone.

Along the way to Banff, where are now, we saw this neat barn. It's been painted this way for years, and each time I see it, I smile.   

We also like to see the Canadian grain elevators. This one is in the town of Nanton. 

To Great Falls

We drove a little over 200 miles today from Dillon to Great Falls, crossing the Continental Divide several times, each at a higher elevation. As we were crossing one of those Continental Divides near Butte, Montana, we saw a huge white statue atop a mountain.

Tonight I looked it up, and it's a statue of Mary called "Our Lady of the Rockies." The statue was erected 31 years ago. it's non-denominational and dedicated to women and mothers. 

Once in Great Falls, the Missouri River dominates the scenery.     

The river is wide and calm right here. In the days of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, that was not the case. In 1805, there were five great cascades here creating a noise that could be heard for days. When Lewis and Clark reached the cascades, they scouted the area and discovered 18 miles of waterfalls that were not easy to cross. 

It took them 31 days to portage their goods "up" the Great Falls. Click here read an account of the "The Great Portage."

The Great Falls were dammed in 1898 and no one in living memory can remember them. However, if you go here you can see some pictures of what the cascades looks like now.

 

Dillon, Montana

We are on a short road trip and our first stop is Dillon, Montana. Dillon is a railroad town that was founded in the 1860s after gold was discovered in nearby Grasshopper Creek. We have not seen Grasshopper Creek, but we did see the old Union Pacific railway station. 

The town has less than 4500 inhabitants, but it seems to have a fair amount of Victorian houses. When the gold was running, a few folks struck it rich and built fancy homes to prove it.

Dillon is the county seat for Beaverhead County. The Court House was built when the town was in it's "hay day" and it's absolutely beautiful.

We are not here long, but it's a town that just calls to my camera. There's lot of charm to be found...maybe next time I'll be able to capture some of it.

 

PS...all the street lights have yellow ribbons on them with the name of a soldier who has served. 

 

Trucks Never Die

In 1983 we bought our first pick up truck. It was a 3/4 ton Cheverolet Scottsdale with a Diesel engine. It was a fairly reliable truck (albeit it had a 6.2 liter Diesel engine that was not very powerful and very noisy). We drove that truck for 175.000 miles all around the United States and Canada pulling a fifth wheel trailer. During the fourteen years we had that truck, we saw pick up trucks of all ages and varieties...some in good repair and others held together with bailing wire...but no matter their "shape" they kept on moving. We came to the conclusion that trucks never die, they seem to last forever. 

Here's a picture of an 83 Scottsdale I found on the web...the truck is still going strong 33 years later. 

 

Given that, here's another truck I see around the valley. It's even older        

It's a 1948 International Harvester truck. It's only 68 years old and it still looks good. I'm now on the look out for even older trucks!        

 

 

1/11702

Let's test your car memory? Are you ready for a little quiz?

Yesterday I saw this wonderful RED car parked at a restaurant. It was ZOOMY. Here's a shot of a front bumper. 

Now...take a look at the radiator and fierce-looking headlight. Any clues as to the car?

How about another view of the headlight and this time, take a look at the exposed front wheel struts on 17 inch wheels.  Definitely not your normal car?

Moving down the driver's side of the car, see the sleek driver's side mirror, and the back wheels with just a glimpse of shiny chrome ...is there a running board? Or a trace of a running board? The 20 inch rear wheels gave this car a rakish look. 

Any guess as to what this car is? 

How about another clue...the rear, including a tail light. Don't you love how the light is integrated into the design?

The next picture is a give away...so this is your last chance to guess the name of the car? 

Any ideas before moving on?

it's a Plymouth! And we all know that Plymouths are no longer being made...so this shiny red car was in production while other Plymouths were still being manufactured. 

Do you give up? Do you know what it is?

It's a Plymouth Prowler. Only 8,532 of these cars were made by Plymouth in 1997, 1999 and 2000. When Plymouth stopped production, the 2001 and 2002 models were made by Chrysler. The model was not made in 1998. This car is a 97, 99, or 2000...I don't know which as they all looked about the same. 11,702 Prowlers were made by Plymouth and Chrysler. They came in a limited number of colors including Inca Gold, Purple Mettalic, Black Metallic, and of course Red. (In my opinion, the best color is red). Chrysler even made a little matching trailer for the car as there was not very much trunk space. 

This is one sexy ragtop and a relatively rare one too. When it was new, a 1997 model sold for under $40,000. It could go 0-62 mph in 7.2 seconds and it's top speed was only 118 mph. Later models went faster!  If you look online you will see a number of these beauties for sale, including one with only 4 miles on it! 

I love beautiful cars, rare cars, and interesting cars...The Plymouth Prowler fits these categories well.

 

Flip-Flops

NO! I'm not talking about politics...I'm talking about baby shoes. Remember I made several pairs of flip-flops last month? Today I received this picture:

To give some perspective, the shoes are 4 inches long! I think they are cute.

 

Goldenrod

Another new bloom in my garden and this one I'm not too pleased about.

It's lush and yellow and full of pollen. The goldenrod is blooming...and now I know why my allergies are acting up.