Bluebird's Nest

Ugh… What a terrible sleep and not only that, my stomach was cramping all night long. I felt horrible. I just kept thinking… I’d been so careful not to eat or drink anything that I shouldn’t have. And on top of it, I was planning on seeing the pyramids today! How was I going to walk around them if I was doubled over in pain and unsure if I was going to be able to make it to the next bathroom.

It felt a little like my dreams were coming crashing down.

We all gathered at the front of the hotel waiting for our taxi that the company we had hired for the tour, had organized. And we waited. After about 20 mins the hubby decided to call Marmoud and see if he could help us. As it turned out, the driver who was supposed to pick us up had gone to the wrong hotel. So now everyone was a little concerned as we had a 7:20am flight that we needed to get on and it was about 6:00 am by this point. The hotel driver told us not to worry, the airport was only a half an hour away.

The driver of the bus said that it would only take him 6-7 minutes! So we all piled in the bus. It was one the most horrifying experiences I’ve ever had. So here I was in pain with stomach issues, breast feeding over a car seat while the side of it dug into my ribs while going over crazy bumps, potholes, and swerving around gates… by the time I got there I was already spent. And it only took him 6 minutes.

We went through a few different security checks at the airport (never once taking our water away from us – we could have as much as we liked), got our boarding passes and we were left with about 30 mins to wait. As we waited, I gradually got worse and worse… my hubby and the tweenager were wonderful the whole time. He took the wee babe and entertained her, he rubbed my back, scratched my hair and they both kept asking how I was doing.

Finally we boarded and I was sitting next to the tweenager. I was writhing in pain. The cramps were almost unbearable. I kept wondering if I should try and go to the bathroom and throw up in hopes that the pain would go away but I wasn’t sure if I stood up if I could make it there. Finally the drink cart came around and I asked for Sprite and expressed the agony I was in. They offered me some pills. I’m not even sure what I took but I trusted that this wasn’t a first for them.

After I drank the Sprite I began to feel better and better. Eventually the pain was gone! I asked for a bottle of Sprite to take with me (I attempted to pay for it but they wouldn’t let me) in case the pain came back.

An hour later we were on the ground, picked up by Mohammad and on the way to the Cairo Museum.

The pain did get worse, and the Sprite didn’t help. By the time we were at the museum, the pain was just as bad as in the plane. I wasn’t even sure if I was going to make it all the way to the museum without throwing up in the bus. Can you imagine how disheartened I was to be in Cairo, wondering if I was going to be seeing the pyramids from inside a van while passed out in the back seat??

Mohammad said that there was a doctor at the museum (I know weird right?) and that he could give me an injection that would fix me up immediately. Yeah, you read that right, an injection in Egypt. Of course I was a little wary but I was in agony and had no idea what the rest of the day was going to be like for me if I didn’t figure it out quick.

So almost as soon as we got to the museum, we headed to the doctor with the hubby in tow. Up onto the bed for the woman doctor (she was about 60) to ask some questions about how I was feeling in her broken English. According to her diagnosis, it was a bacterial stomach infection and I needed two injections. What you may ask were in the injections? Not really sure. But one was for stomach cramps and the other for diarrhea. I was in so much pain that I forgot to ask if they were ok to take while breast feeding. The hubby didn’t think of it either. Whoops. That was a bad parenting mistake. Luckily, nothing happened to the wee babe. I’m sure it hopefully couldn’t have been any worse than when the wee babe was in uteuro, I was passing a kidney stone and was given Morphine. You do what you gotta do.

So I got two injections in my rear, 4 more boxes of pills to take that I couldn’t remember when to take them, we paid some serious backsheesh and off to the museum tour we went. What I had neglected to hear was that the museum tour was going to be 2.5 hours. All I wanted to do was sleep. Like seriously – sleep. After speaking with my mom, she thinks it’s possible they may have given me a large dose of Gravol as Gravol makes you really tired. And I was so tired (no more pain thank god – it was instantaneous) that I think I fell asleep a few times standing up while Mohammad gave us a run down on the Ancient Egyptian artifacts. There was no way my brain could stay awake and translate what he was saying so I chose to try and stay awake and look at all the pretty items.

After 2+ hours we headed back to the bus. I almost instantly fell asleep inside. 40 mins later we were at lunch where the restaurant had prepared special food for me: lightly fried carrots and zucchini, rice and steamed potatoes. Mohammad instructed me to take my pills and drink my electrolite drink.

I was finally feeling back to my old self. By this time it was the afternoon and we were heading to the pyramids. Mohammad gave us some more interesting information while we sat in the air-conditioned bus. To be honest, I fell asleep through a lot of it which was really unfortunate for me. One thing that I did remember though was that you can put a pitcher of salt water in the centre of the Pyramid and it will turn to non-salted water about 3 hours later. Oh and people have been known to sit inside the pyramids to heal themselves.

Mohammad also instructed us not to talk to anyone. Not even a hello or hi which felt really weird when we were being constantly talked to by the locals trying to get us to buy things. If felt really bizarre pretending that they weren’t there. Not very Canadian of me. But from what I understand, if you engage with them, they can become really aggressive trying to get you to buy whatever they are selling.

We stopped up near the top for some photos of the 3 pyramids. The sun was at the perfect spot again for beautiful photos. We then moved down to the Great Pyramid and walked the entire distance around it. Altogether I think it was 800 meters all the way around. Time was running out before the area closed. I felt like I wanted to spend more time there. Really appreciate their greatness.

We moved down towards the Sphinx to take some last photos of the setting sun on the Sphinx and pyramids. It was truly awesome.

Before we moved on, I made sure I too grab the tweenager and the hubby and just reflect on our last glimpses of the pyramids and the sphinx. This would be the last time we see this in a long time. Time to just reflect and take in their grandioseness. One of the things that Mohammad said as we were leaving that was pretty crazy was that there was a archeologist that had taken a piece of the Sphinx and did some tests and research on it. He deduced that the Sphinx is actually 70,000 years old. This blows all the previous knowledge and thoughts about Ancient Egypt and Egyptians out of the water. I’m intrigued to learn more about that.

Then Mohammad took us to a perfume factory. A very nice exuberant woman gave us a demonstration of a lot of the perfumes and essential oils that she had. They always seem to start out with a “complimentary” drink of your choice. Don’t buy into this. It’s meant for you to feel a bit pressure to buy since they gave you something for free. My sister-in-law asked some poignant questions regarding their essential oils which the woman had a hard time answering. When it was all over, my sister-in-law asked everyone one at a time (while the woman sat in front of us) if we were interested in buying anything. None of us were. She looked like she was going to cry. The tweenager felt bad and felt like maybe we should just buy one thing from her so she wasn’t so sad. I explained that this was their tactic to try and make you feel guilty. We left a couple of euros to ease our conscious and headed to the next factory.

The papyrus factory was next. And I think we got ripped off – again. You know when you’re getting ripped off as they throw in a bunch of free stuff. And we got a bunch of free stuff. We bought the Egyptian calendar, tree of life, head of Tutenkhamen, a free bookmark and picture for the wee babe (with her name in hieroglyphics).

We left there and headed to the airport. It was a longer wait again but this time we had free wifi so I was able to check my email and connect with the outer world.

All in all I would definitely recommend this tour company. Some of the benefits were that you weren’t in a huge group being corralled around like a herd of cows. The guides did what you wanted to do. Everything just felt more personalized and customized to what we wanted. And I just wanted to take one last opportunity to thank my father-in-law for paying for all of us. That was really kind of him.

We got back to the Hurghada airport FINALLY around 10:00pm and back to the resort around 10:30pm. We were exhausted and all I wanted to do the next day was play in the pool and recharge my battery…

Tomorrow is pretty uneventful until the evening rolls around…

I’ve decided I’m a bed diva. Not only do I need my pillow (yes I brought my own) but every single bed, save for the bed on the ferry, has been shite. The difference with the bed on the ferry was it was soooooooft and non-squeeky. Last night’s bed was hard and noisy. And guess who got to sleep with me and the hubby alllll night long. I guess you could almost say that I’m co-sleeping even though I don’t want to be. Trust me. I don’t want to be. It was just so hard to get her back into her tent without waking her up last night so I toughed it out.

After waking up, we had pancakes for the last time. We’re now working on ‘last times’ again. With only three days left, we don’t have long until we’re outta this country. Tonight will be the last camping trip (thank the lord.).

On the road… We did a lot of driving today. It’s very true that if you don’t take the side roads off the main highway on Newfoundland, you don’t see ANYTHING except the same treed road.

We stopped for lunch at Bishop’s Falls. Sandwiches again. Tomorrow should be the last day for sandwiches (thank the lord.).

The weather was nice and beautiful. Not really hot, just perfect.

I’ve been asked to update everyone on the progress of the wee babe so here goes:

Wee babe update

• She still doesn’t crawl officially but she’s getting pretty good at figuring out how to get where and what she wants.
• She’s pushing herself into a demi-sitting position. She’s kinda on one hip and one hand if you can understand that.
• As for sitting, she’s still not doing this without falling over after a time. I’m not surprised though, she prefers to be on her tummy and after sitting in a carseat it’s hard for her to work those muscles. It will come.
• Wow, is she ever talking and babbling. It’s so adorable.
• She falls asleep in her papa’s arms in the middle of the night. She’s been doing this for a while though.

I’ve been reflecting a lot on the trip we’ve been on. One thing I know that I didn’t anticipate before we left was how much it would become detestable to put up and take down our camping equipment. Even going in and out of hotels gets a bit tedious. If I was ever to do another road trip like this, I would definitely do it in some sort of motorhome or camper. If I was so lucky to have one handy.

I’ve been giving it some thought as to traveling with my girls and the ages that they are at. It’s really perfect. For the wee babe, I think she’s at the perfect age for a baby to travel with. She’s not too mobile yet and likes to sleep a lot still. There is definitely a balance you need to achieve with her so that she doesn’t sleep too much and not enough. I think we’re lucky in the fact that she sleeps well in the car. Also, she’s still young enough that we can just feed her rice cereal and breastmilk and she’s good with that. I’m really looking forward to getting to Switzerland so that we can start her on a lot more different types of foods.

As for the tweenager, she also does really well in the car. Reading, blogging, listening to audio books, she’s not complaining that we need to stop. If she was younger we would need to stop more for potty breaks, and to play with her. She’s very self-sufficient at this age. She also is a huge helper with the cooking, cleaning, camp setup/take down. She helps so much with her baby sister and she’s like having another adult in the car (except she can’t drive yet).

I’m also feeling like I’m so done with this trip which is unfortunate since I kinda feel like I just want to be done and I don’t feel like going out and really seeing Newfoundland.

We did check out Salvage yesterday which I’m so glad we did. One thing that I really wanted to see when visiting Newfoundland is the cute little fishing villages that you see in all the travel mags. I wanted to see this more than the scenery. And I wasn’t disappointed. So beautiful and pristine. You’ll have to check out the photos.

We set up our tent in an RV park. This RV park was for the shriners so it was really really clean. We set up the tent and then had a nap. We were exhausted. Of course the wee babe didn’t want to nap and the hubby had a headache so I ended up with her crawling all over me.

After that hot siesta, we took off to get some food for dinner. Again, we’re trying to use up our food so trying to figure out how best to use up what we have. My hubby really wanted a steak so we had garlic pasta with parmesan and ceaser salad and he ate his steak.

The bugs came out in full force after dinner so we retreated to the tent. The tweenager found some friends to play with on the playground. That was great for her to be able to hang out with some kids finally.

We got ready for the cold night ahead of us. The wee babe was in her PJ’s and a sweater. I got out my hubby’s minus something sleeping bag, fleece pants, fleece sweater but I forgot the socks. Doh!

EXPENSES:

Sleeping: $17 for camping. Really.
Wee babe disposition: Really good.
Weather: 17-20. Sunny.
Stress level: Tired. Oh so tired.

I don’t know what’s going on but I feel worn out. I’m not sure if it’s because it’s dawning on me that we have a week left and it’s almost over or if I’ve just been on the road doing too much lately or maybe it’s the lack of sleep I’ve been getting (the storm and the wee babe kept we awake for a lot of the night) but I’m tired.

We woke up this morning, the storm was over but the skies were grey. Looming almost.  But I cooked pancakes anyways. Two cups of coffee were needed.

We started taking down the camp and then the skies opened up for one last dump of rain. Seriously. It lasted about 5 minutes but the tent wasn’t taken down yet so it was soaked when we put it away. It won’t matter anyway.

We took off and I wanted to stop at a place right by Avonlea. It was a national park called Green Gables. Turns out that we probably should have visited this yesterday, for half the money. It had a wonderful walk through the woods and Lover’s Lane but we missed it yesterday. Oh well. It’s ok cuz we had fun anyways and we didn’t want to pay yet again. It’s a little overboard with Anne stuff in that particular neck of the woods.

We took off for Charlottetown weaving through the countryside. It’s so lush and green. The hubby said he thought it would be nice to live here and I agree but I don’t think I could. Mostly because the thing I don’t like about Victoria is that it’s on an island. And it’s so lame to get off it. Give me the mainland AMEN.

The tweenager needed some supplies so we stopped at Walmart and then to Canadian Tire to see what we could do with the tent. Oh, it’s a good day. Brand new tent. Same tent thankfully (we like it even though this is the 3^rd tent we’ve had (the first one we returned due to a broken pole before we even left.)). I can’t believe we just left our soaked tent in Charlottetown and now we have a brand new one!! Crazy.

I drove through Charlottetown (too tired to walk around). Its houses are so neat looking. There’s a lot of history here – you can feel it.

We stopped for a lunch/picnic in a park.  It’s overcast today so a bit cooler (22 degrees) so it’s a bit of a nice relief. The hubby took off for a walk afterwards and the rest of us just sat under a tree – relaxing.

We loaded up the car again and headed off for the ferry back to the mainland. It’s kinda interesting here where they charge you to leave the island but not enter. I guess they want you to stay. 

Again through the countryside, taking photos from the car. We got to the ferry way ahead of time (45 minutes) but I think I’m so conditioned from the BC Ferries that I feel like I’m always going to miss a ferry if I don’t hurry and get there waaaay ahead of time.

Free wifi in the terminal. You can bet I’m going to post a blog or two if I can. Network is few and far behind all the time. I’m struggling!!!

I didn’t know what to expect on the ferry but it’s like a BC Ferry from 1970. Old Skool! There was is a guy here who is playing a guitar taking requests. Kinda neat.

Immediately off the ferry and we almost hit a porcupine! Turns out that these things are splattered all over the road but the hubby didn’t want to shred the Sube’s tires so he stopped to let it cross the street. Nice guy. Seems the pickup behind him didn’t think so and blasted his horn to let us know. Geesh.

Anywho, we played a rip rousing game of “Name that Band” and it turns out the hubby is pretty darn good! I was in the passenger seat serving up the songs and he was carseat dancing away. I’m serious when I say, I was laughing so hard I was crying. Oh my gawd, the funniest thing I’ve seen in a while. There have definitely been some memorable laughing moments on this trip and this is one of them.

We stopped in Havre Boucher at the Hyclass Campsite. This site is serious High Class. Not. I should take a photo of the bathroom. Straight out of “Leave it to Beaver”. I guess it’s got free wifi so who’s complaining. The shitty thing is that the showers cost $1 for 3 minutes. Sigh… but they do have laundry also. That costs too of course and we’re in need of laundry.

We set up our new tent (it’s actually better than the last even though it’s supposed to be the exact same), had dinner (we’re struggling for healthy food: we had rice with carrots and corn and skewers with shrimp and scallops) and then retreated to the tent to Skype with my parents as it had started to rain AGAIN!!

It was pretty neat Skyping from the tent. Seemed weird to be so technical when you’re roughing it.

Tomorrow we’re heading off on the Cabot Trail. I’m a little bummed that we’re going to miss Halifax but we’ve seen so much that we have to leave something for the next time I get over to the East Coast (Oh and there will be a next time that’s for sure).

EXPENSES:

Sleeping: Camping in Havre Boucher $27.
Wee babe disposition: Sleepy. Like moreso than I’ve ever seen. I wonder if that’s from last nights lame sleep or she’s growing or…?
Weather: 24 and overcast/foggy. Then it rained.
Stress level: Have I mentioned yet that I hate my hubby’s driving?

We left the AIRBNB this morning and I was a little sad. It was such a nice all to our selves place. But the stairs were pretty scary.

It only took us about 2 and a half hours to get to Quebec City. And it was hot again. Sorry Victoria but the weather here on other side of Canada is dreamy to uncomfortably hot. It’s the type of weather where you NEED a shower at the end of every day.

Anyway, Quebec City is very European in its look and feel. The architecture is old. Like way older than Victoria. I think I would have been a little more wowed by it if I hadn’t been to Europe and Switzerland so many times. (I’m not bragging, just telling it like it is. After all, I’m married to a Swiss man remember?) It was still very impressive and definitely felt like a different country altogether. Everyone was speaking French.

My first impressions of Quebec City weren’t really amazing unfortunately. There was the sweet smell of piss where we had lunch on the lawn. The wild aroma of weed on and the drunk/druggy half awake/asleep on the side of the road in the main tourist spot. Thank god the architecture was amazing or I would have regretted stopping.

We headed up the funicular first so we could get a good view of the city. Stopped for lunch by Chateau de Frontinac where we ate our pre-made sandwiches. Then just walked around the city. If you can believe it, the other totally random thing was that a Metallica concert was playing that night so there were people drinking in the streets and lots of rockers wearing heavy metal t-shirts. Kinda strange.

That was about it for Quebec City. We were there for only a couple of hours but we felt like it was enough. It’s a beautiful city. Very charming.

The heat was really beating us down (33 degrees) and with all the people we made a bee line outta there and headed to Riviere de Loup.

I think the lack of sleep from the last two nights (the bed was tooo hard), coupled with the heat and the walking, oh and lets not forget the living out of a car for the last two and a half weeks, made me really sleepy for the drive, and I was driving. My hubby and I played 20 questions (I sucked but it helped to keep me focused). When we were getting closer we typed in accommodation and a Beluga Hotel came up. Since we sang a few rounds of it today we thought maybe it was a sign.

So we took the side road to Riviere de Loup and man-o-man am I ever glad we did. I think this is our first taste of east coast living. Beautiful little sea side/St. Laurent cottages built on quaintly tree lined roads. Picture perfect. My hubby was going crazy. He even got the notion in his head that we might be able to do a BnB if we found something perfect. And did we ever.

Two bedrooms with a welcome drink, a night cap liqueur, a gourmet breakfast (I’ll let you know how it is tomorrow) seemed to be worth the $115 we paid. The only catch is that the tweenager is in her own bedroom in the basement sharing the space with another family. She was ok with it though.

According to our budget, that’s it for hotel/bnb/AIRBNB type dwellings for us. We’ve got to camp and or find some friends to crash at. Thankfully we have 2 more nights at friends of the family in Fredricton and then we’ll be camping the rest. Oh we have a night crossing on the Ferry to Newfoundland and already paid for our last night in St. John’s at a motel.

We headed off into town to get some grub. Since this will be the last meal I take in Quebec, it had to be a serving of poutine. And again, it was not any better than something I would eat in Victoria. But I understand that I totally missed out when I was in Montreal as evidentally, there is a place that serves 50 different types of poutine! Doh!! I’m so pissed I missed that!!! I guess there will have to be a next time.

We came back to the BnB, watched the sunset over the St. Lawrence, all had showers and then relaxed in the living room reading Anne of Green Gables. We’re desperately trying to get through it before we get to PEI in around 3-4 days.

Sleeping: BnB: $115
Items lost: I lost my favourite flip flop while we hiked/walked up Mont Royal. I have since bought a new pair of Crocks but it’s not the same
Wee babe disposition: Hot in the Ergo but other than than, stellar.
Weather: 32 degrees. Smokin’ hot.
Stress level: Tired.

After packing absolutely EVERYTHING we own back into the car (it sure was nice to be able to take a day or two off from packing) we got back on the road a little lighter. We left our camp stove and grill behind (on purpose).

Today was fairly uneventful except for the crazy rain storm where it slowed traffic down to a crawl for about 10 minutes and had everyone putting on their lights and hazards. It was mental.

We stopped a couple of places. One for lunch in Trenton where huge air crafts were flying over head constantly. We thought that maybe it was a special day but after I asked a local he said “That’s our tax payer dollars at work.” Bitter much but I could understand. There was also a crazy water park there, so the wee babe and the hubby had a bit of time to play in the water. Too cute.

We also stopped in a no name place beside Lake Ontario where there was a really strong warm wind and the tweenager and I used a composting toilet. It was calm and peaceful. I imagined myself hanging out there for the day if I lived close by.

Back on the road. The driving didn’t seem near as long as it has on other days. This was our last long day of driving. We’ve covered 5500 km’s of road and tomorrow is the half way mark. So that leaves roughly 2500 km left to drive. From here on out we’re doing shorter trips thankfully.

The wee babe has been really really amazing. She’s doing a lot better in the car than in the beginning. I’m not even sure if she complained at all today. She does really well in her little tent that she sleeps in. During the hot hot parts of the day, she seems unfazed by the extreme humidity and temperature. I would say if anything she prefers to be carried in our arms than in the stroller. I guess she doesn’t get a lot of a breeze on her when she’s in the stroller and let’s face it, it’s a better view. I’m really impressed by her.

We arrived into Ottawa around 5 pm and met Allison. We parked the car in the underground parking. Allison’s condo is really close to the downtown core so we’re going to head out walking from here tomorrow.

After we settled in, I started the laundry, my hubby set off in search for food for dinner (pizza in the oven) and the girls and I headed down to the pool in the building. Refreshing.

We came back up, got dressed, and it seems like we’ve all been glued to the computer since landing here. Ahhhhh…glorious internet. We even Skyped with my parents a bit to touch base.

Until tomorrow.

EXPENSES:

Sleeping: Free! Thanks Allison and Dave
Wee babe disposition: Best yet considering the 5.5 hour drive. We didn’t even have to sing Baby Beluga once!
Weather: Stinking HOT and humid: 32 degrees. AGAIN.
Stress level: Great save for getting out of the Toronto area.

Take two. So I wrote my entire blog post last night before bed and when I went to publish it there wasn’t a connection to the internet so I lost the whole thing. Sigh…

Lesson learned: write in word first and copy/paste when ready to upload.

~~~~~~

A big shout out to Kelly and her family in Richmond as well as the Campbell Family in Coldstream.

Now where did I leave off…?

Right, we left Kelly’s house after a warm goodbye and headed East. (I guess I don’t need to specify that we headed East, that’s a bit of a given no?)

We hit the road and the wee babe pretty much fell asleep pronto.  The hubby took the first leg and he sussed out the best use of the Cruise Control. If you can believe it, he even did research before we left on how best to use it for the least gas consumption. And he calls me a control freak…

We stopped on the Coke somewhere and it was freezing! Ok, maybe not 0 degrees, but 7 degrees was frosty. After a quick diaper change and toilet stop we continued on. I guess that was too much for the baby, because about 10 minutes later she started to howel. Luckily, we were about 20 minutes away from Merritt so she screamed until we got there. My nerves were fried by the time we arrived at lunch.

After some yummy pizza and Greek salad we soldiered on and the wee babe fell asleep again and slept until Vernon.

A quick pit stop to get some Okanagan cherries and we arrived at our destination: Campbell family home. We were greeted by my cousin (or is it my second cousin. Maybe he’s my first cousin once removed or is it second cousin twice removed… anyway he’s family.) and his family. A short while later his mom and dad showed up and then his wife and her mom.

The we had dinner. Man, were we spoiled. 3 different kinds of salad, beef skewers, chicken, corn, and deviled eggs – did I miss anything? It was so amazing.

We went for a walk to the park and the local fire station (my cousin is a volunteer fire fighter) where I took some photos and we were infested with mosquitoes (mozzies die!!). We returned back to the homestead and had a wonderful trifle. So delicious. Thanks Reen!

We watched the photos of a trip that my cousins son, took about a month ago, took of Egypt. I was inspired to say the least about our trip in October. He’s a wonderful photographer!

The wee babe was still not asleep by 10 (argh!!) so it was time for lights out for the family. I was spent and pleasantly fed.

That night the wee babe only woke once in her tent (YES!) but sadly the mattress that I was sleeping on deflated in the night so it was rather sucky for me. My wonderful husband offered up his bed (thanks baby) but there was no point in both of us suffering the next day.

Rise and shine at 6:30 with the sun streaming into the bedroom from the East J. After a shower we were faced again with coffee and a full spread breakfast of pancakes, bacon, strawberries and scrambled eggs. This cousin of mine better watch out or he’s going to have a house full of relatives if the rest of them get wind of how amazing a cook he is.

Packed up we set sail again after another warm goodbye. Thanks guys y’all ROCK!!

The Swiss mister is really loving Vernon and the lakes. What is it called a 4 season city with activities for all seasons. I think I would like to rent a cottage on one of the lakes next summer for a week or so with some friends. That would be grand.

We’re back on the road again (a little behind schedule but albeit good) heading to Calgary. We think we’ll stop in Lake Louis for a photo and somewhere for lunch.

The weather is beautiful. Sunny, a few wispy clouds and the traffic’s not bad (yet).

EXPENSES:

Gas: $20 @ 1.25/litre
Food: $33 lunch and $12 cherries
Wee babe disposition: pretty stellar
Weather: 7 on the Coke, 22 in Vernon
Things that have already broken: air mattress
Stress level: a solid 100% when the wee babe was howling. Back down to a normal 5% for the rest of the time save for mozzie attacks when it would creep back up to 75%.