We had been calling British Columbia the promised land well before we left, and this was proven to us within 15 hours of arriving. As we approached the rockies leaving Alberta, we saw road trippers and van-dwellers alike pulled over, desperately fixing flats, so close yet so far, weather beaten hitch-hikers walking toward Banff as if Woodstock. I don't know if we were expecting in true Ontario fashion for a path to be blown through the Rockies, but I personally was not anticipating the freaky drive between Banff and Golden, where we stopped for the night.
Picture this: Mindblowing drop-offs metres away from the road, which is narrow and winding with hair-pin turns while transports honk at you to go past the speed limit, avalanche nets supporting rocks on one side while big-horned sheep grin at you on the opposite side where they are standing on an impossibly steep cliff as if daring you to join them and terribly steep hills with run-off roads and break check stations- all with not the best breaks. But we made it and had a celebretory rum and coke in Golden, staring at the snowy peaks and green river. We arrived in Golden around 7 pm. In the morning by 10am, before Shawn even awoke, we had a job. I texted a number I'd found on kijiji for pickers on a fruit and vegetable farm in Spences Bridge, a few hours from where we were staying. They told us to come on down. What we didn't know was it was the HOTTEST PLACE IN CANADA, the only desert; complete with rattle snakes and black widows, and temperatures rising to as high as 46 degrees in the dry, nosebleed inducing heat of the prime summer, which we signed up to work in the unforgiving fields in.
Enough with the dramatics though. We marvelled at the fact that less than four days before we had been wearing jackets watching Canada day fireworks in the small town of Wawa. Why not go from 10 degrees to 50? We had free camping with hookups, could make our own hours, and come tomato season, would have a small fortune, enough to allow us to travel further and enjoy more. We are here likely until the end of July, and, now that we can afford a few surf lessons, hello Tofino?
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| I think at this point I said "these are the coors light mountains". This one's for you Dad! |
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| Setting up Camp |
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| Death by weeding |
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| Well earned brews. |
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| Toughen up these soft city hands!! |
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Grasshoppers, a few generations before Locust due to this being a former alfalfa farm :/ You have to make friends with them.
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| campsite 2.0 |
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| home for now |
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