Tuesday, August 08, 2006
What a pic-tacular 4-day weekend!
I managed to slip out of work a little early to beat all that rush hour traffic that is associated with a city of a million plus people, and the plan was going perfectly. We were way out of Longview on Highway 22, just five minutes from the Highway 3 junction which would take us to Creston in the Kootenays, when Michelle and I looked at each other simultaneously as I said, do you hear something? FLOOM! No, it wasn’t a “boom” noise as it was a more squishy, not quite filled with air type of busting noise. Regardless, I wrestled control of our minivan and managed to pull over to the miniscule shoulder, stepped out of the van and saw this:
The second picture, the one on the right, shows that the tire tread managed to stay on, actually acting like an onion wring on a finger where the finger is my axel and the onion wring is my lost hopes of reaching Creston in record time. The funny and ironic thing, and by funny I mean “tear-inducing”, is that Michelle pointed out quite a few pieces of tire on the way to the spot where the fan decided to have a rest. She asked how that occurred, and I casually mentioned that most of the time it was due to the large truck, semis, with dualies, those are the side by side tires you see on semis, tractors and trucks owned by red necks, where one of the dualies has become flat, but the driver keeps driving. As a result, the tire literally explodes from the excess wear and tear it receives as a lack of proper pressure. Apparently it can also happen to nincompoops driving minivans, as well.
A situation like this can’t get anymore perfect, let me tell you. Oh, wait! It can! It just so happens that this blowout, and this was definitely a blowout, occurred at the most excellent tome of the day where everyone in the small towns between Calgary and Creston closes shop for the day and has a siesta. There was no one open in Crowsnest, and I wasn’t about to double back to Longview, and there wasn’t even any point in going to Lundbreck That town has a population of 234 according to a little poking around on the internet. I heard that all of them feast on wayward travelers force to stay the night due to vehicle troubles and bad weather; I wasn’t about to take any chances (just kidding Lundbreck).
So, hopping along on the spare, or “donut” as some motor enthusiasts like to call it, we passed through Frank Slide. You should really follow that link and read the story about the town of Frank and the little known but Earth shattering devastation that occurred there. It's a quick read but gripping.
I’ll probably take some pictures of it on the way through next time, but for now you should just do a quick search on Google to see the tonnes of rock that came down on the town of Frank.
I tried to explain to Rylee about the tragedy that happened there, and for the most part I was successful. However, she just couldn’t get over the fact that the town was named Frank. She kept asking if Frank survived the rock slide which goes to show how much she listens to me. I explained the Frank Slide to Kristen when we moved from Victoria, and she just accepted it in stride.
So we hobbled all the way to Creston because not a single tire place was open. We made it to Cranbrook a little after 9pn, but Canadian Tire had just closed, and the Walmart Service Centre hadn’t been open for an hour. So we made it to Creston on that cute little Barbie tire. The owner’s manual said that the spare was good for 60mph and 3000 miles which is a heck of a lot better than most spares I’ve had before. Most said not to go over 60 kpm and a distance of 60 kilometres.
The rest of the weekend was fabulous. We spent the first day at my parent’s place. During the day I hung out with my pop, Walter and Orin on the golf course, but seeing as I can’t play I just got to drive the cart around. That was pretty fun in itself because those little electric numbers seem to be able to go pretty fast. I kept worrying about damaging it though because it wasn’t mine; it was Walt’s.
While I was at the course, Michelle managed to snap a few pictures:
The above one is some sort of fancy cheese stick party that was too good for the likes of dad and I as we weren't invited. Below is a rare cooperative moment that involved gluing the children in place. The adhesive eventually wore off in time for bed:
Saturday evening was spent over at my sister's new house, and we had a little pizza party. Wendy has settled into her place pretty quickly as I noticed she had more pictures up on her wall than mom and dad did. She has the same view of the mountains that my parents previously did in their old house. One of our conversations:
Derek: Did you know you had mountains back here?
Wendy: Is that what they are?
Derek: Well, they’re not mole hills.
Wendy: I hear some people try to make mountains out of those.
Ah! Good times! Good times! Later on in the evening she was relating to me a tiresome quality she found in children. That is, the lack in quality of their hearing which I just ascribe to selectively blocking out certain adult voices so children can do what they want.
Wendy: Your daughter had a box of apple juice downstairs and was trying to feed it to your dog. The conversation went something like:
Rylee: Here Lilly!
Wendy: I don’t think Lilly wants any, Rylee.
Rylee: Here you go, Lilly.
Wendy: Rylee, she doesn’t need that!
Rylee: C’mon Lilly, have a sip.
Wendy: Rylee, Rylee, Rylee!
More good times!
The next day we went to a swimming hole that was part of the river going through Creston. Is it the Kootaney River? I don’t know! All I know is that the river that was flowing was cold and that the sectioned off swimming hole was warm. As a result, more pictures were taken:
I love Kyle’s Hulkster pose, brutha’!
We also managed to take in a walk in the nature sanctuary, and by nature sanctuary I mean “swamp.” Nothing spectacular out there that beat the nature hut although a sign said that a black bear had been spotted in the neighborhood recently. My biggest regret is not getting a photo of the turtle crossing sign. Next time, I guess. The guide:
…on the back of which were points of interest. One point of interest, I think it was point number 4 or 5, was entitled “annoying females.” I quickly scanned the swamp for some of my ex-girlfriends, but upon further reading discovered that it was actually referring to female mosquitoes. A widely known fact that the female mosquito is the only one of the species that bites. A little known fact is that the Creston nature preserve is so hard up for exhibits that it includes mosquitoes as one of them. These pictures resulted from that little excursion:
Believe it or not, Wendy’s actually smiling in that picture. However, she’s cleverly disguising it as disdain for my taking her picture. We also went to the nature hut where the kids were attacked by a bear and Rylee hugged an ugly duckling:
I like these photos:
When transferring the pictures to the computer, I noticed that Michelle had taken about 5 or 6 pics like the one on the left. Apparently she just wanted one without Luke’s tongue hanging out. I guess Luke got tired of it and started laying the smackdown on Papa’s hat.
The day we were leaving, mere minutes before we left in the van, Rylee let out the most ear piercing scream. This was the reason:
That sucker could fly, and it landed right in front of Rylee prompting her to believe it fell out of her hair. See how big it is in the second photo? Someone tell me what type of bug that is, please.
Now it is time to go. I slept like dog-leavings last night, so I’m going to attempt it again. Guess I was too used to sleeping in different beds this weekend. Any way, I’d be witty for you, but I don’t feel like it right now. Maybe read a Farside cartoon if you feel let down.
Oh, and I should say happy birthday to Kathy even though I did it in person, I mean, on the phone. With my voice. Yeah! It was the first one in a long time that Michelle didn;t get to spend with her, and she got all emotional about it. That part kind of sucked. Three good friend's birthdays go by and all we get to do is...woah, I'm tired. I'm getting a little morbid or expressing self pity which means it's bed time. Night all!
The second picture, the one on the right, shows that the tire tread managed to stay on, actually acting like an onion wring on a finger where the finger is my axel and the onion wring is my lost hopes of reaching Creston in record time. The funny and ironic thing, and by funny I mean “tear-inducing”, is that Michelle pointed out quite a few pieces of tire on the way to the spot where the fan decided to have a rest. She asked how that occurred, and I casually mentioned that most of the time it was due to the large truck, semis, with dualies, those are the side by side tires you see on semis, tractors and trucks owned by red necks, where one of the dualies has become flat, but the driver keeps driving. As a result, the tire literally explodes from the excess wear and tear it receives as a lack of proper pressure. Apparently it can also happen to nincompoops driving minivans, as well.
A situation like this can’t get anymore perfect, let me tell you. Oh, wait! It can! It just so happens that this blowout, and this was definitely a blowout, occurred at the most excellent tome of the day where everyone in the small towns between Calgary and Creston closes shop for the day and has a siesta. There was no one open in Crowsnest, and I wasn’t about to double back to Longview, and there wasn’t even any point in going to Lundbreck That town has a population of 234 according to a little poking around on the internet. I heard that all of them feast on wayward travelers force to stay the night due to vehicle troubles and bad weather; I wasn’t about to take any chances (just kidding Lundbreck).
So, hopping along on the spare, or “donut” as some motor enthusiasts like to call it, we passed through Frank Slide. You should really follow that link and read the story about the town of Frank and the little known but Earth shattering devastation that occurred there. It's a quick read but gripping.
I’ll probably take some pictures of it on the way through next time, but for now you should just do a quick search on Google to see the tonnes of rock that came down on the town of Frank.
I tried to explain to Rylee about the tragedy that happened there, and for the most part I was successful. However, she just couldn’t get over the fact that the town was named Frank. She kept asking if Frank survived the rock slide which goes to show how much she listens to me. I explained the Frank Slide to Kristen when we moved from Victoria, and she just accepted it in stride.
So we hobbled all the way to Creston because not a single tire place was open. We made it to Cranbrook a little after 9pn, but Canadian Tire had just closed, and the Walmart Service Centre hadn’t been open for an hour. So we made it to Creston on that cute little Barbie tire. The owner’s manual said that the spare was good for 60mph and 3000 miles which is a heck of a lot better than most spares I’ve had before. Most said not to go over 60 kpm and a distance of 60 kilometres.
The rest of the weekend was fabulous. We spent the first day at my parent’s place. During the day I hung out with my pop, Walter and Orin on the golf course, but seeing as I can’t play I just got to drive the cart around. That was pretty fun in itself because those little electric numbers seem to be able to go pretty fast. I kept worrying about damaging it though because it wasn’t mine; it was Walt’s.
While I was at the course, Michelle managed to snap a few pictures:
The above one is some sort of fancy cheese stick party that was too good for the likes of dad and I as we weren't invited. Below is a rare cooperative moment that involved gluing the children in place. The adhesive eventually wore off in time for bed:
Saturday evening was spent over at my sister's new house, and we had a little pizza party. Wendy has settled into her place pretty quickly as I noticed she had more pictures up on her wall than mom and dad did. She has the same view of the mountains that my parents previously did in their old house. One of our conversations:
Derek: Did you know you had mountains back here?
Wendy: Is that what they are?
Derek: Well, they’re not mole hills.
Wendy: I hear some people try to make mountains out of those.
Ah! Good times! Good times! Later on in the evening she was relating to me a tiresome quality she found in children. That is, the lack in quality of their hearing which I just ascribe to selectively blocking out certain adult voices so children can do what they want.
Wendy: Your daughter had a box of apple juice downstairs and was trying to feed it to your dog. The conversation went something like:
Rylee: Here Lilly!
Wendy: I don’t think Lilly wants any, Rylee.
Rylee: Here you go, Lilly.
Wendy: Rylee, she doesn’t need that!
Rylee: C’mon Lilly, have a sip.
Wendy: Rylee, Rylee, Rylee!
More good times!
The next day we went to a swimming hole that was part of the river going through Creston. Is it the Kootaney River? I don’t know! All I know is that the river that was flowing was cold and that the sectioned off swimming hole was warm. As a result, more pictures were taken:
I love Kyle’s Hulkster pose, brutha’!
We also managed to take in a walk in the nature sanctuary, and by nature sanctuary I mean “swamp.” Nothing spectacular out there that beat the nature hut although a sign said that a black bear had been spotted in the neighborhood recently. My biggest regret is not getting a photo of the turtle crossing sign. Next time, I guess. The guide:
…on the back of which were points of interest. One point of interest, I think it was point number 4 or 5, was entitled “annoying females.” I quickly scanned the swamp for some of my ex-girlfriends, but upon further reading discovered that it was actually referring to female mosquitoes. A widely known fact that the female mosquito is the only one of the species that bites. A little known fact is that the Creston nature preserve is so hard up for exhibits that it includes mosquitoes as one of them. These pictures resulted from that little excursion:
Believe it or not, Wendy’s actually smiling in that picture. However, she’s cleverly disguising it as disdain for my taking her picture. We also went to the nature hut where the kids were attacked by a bear and Rylee hugged an ugly duckling:
I like these photos:
When transferring the pictures to the computer, I noticed that Michelle had taken about 5 or 6 pics like the one on the left. Apparently she just wanted one without Luke’s tongue hanging out. I guess Luke got tired of it and started laying the smackdown on Papa’s hat.
The day we were leaving, mere minutes before we left in the van, Rylee let out the most ear piercing scream. This was the reason:
That sucker could fly, and it landed right in front of Rylee prompting her to believe it fell out of her hair. See how big it is in the second photo? Someone tell me what type of bug that is, please.
Now it is time to go. I slept like dog-leavings last night, so I’m going to attempt it again. Guess I was too used to sleeping in different beds this weekend. Any way, I’d be witty for you, but I don’t feel like it right now. Maybe read a Farside cartoon if you feel let down.
Oh, and I should say happy birthday to Kathy even though I did it in person, I mean, on the phone. With my voice. Yeah! It was the first one in a long time that Michelle didn;t get to spend with her, and she got all emotional about it. That part kind of sucked. Three good friend's birthdays go by and all we get to do is...woah, I'm tired. I'm getting a little morbid or expressing self pity which means it's bed time. Night all!
