45 Years, 6 months!

No, that’s not my age.  That’s how long Mastercard tells me it will take to pay off my present balance – if I made only minimum payments!  I guess if the world would have ended as ‘scheduled’ yesterday, it would not have been a concern?

 

Relax.  I pay it off in full every month!

Time to get on my soapbox for a while.

Here’s a couple links I like.

First one is right on the money, and calls for the firing of the head of Parks Canada.  Excellent article. Read it!

http://www.counterpunch.org/horejsi05042011.html

The other is a humorous video protesting the proposed Brewster ‘skywalk’ in Jasper National Park, typical of the new commercialisation that threatens our parks under present (mis)management.

The first night after arriving home almost a month ago, we were welcomed by a little overnight snowfall!

Since then, I have been finding home life quite enjoyable.  I find that being here is quite similar to many of my camp spots along the road.  True, the view is not the Gulf of Mexico, or the Pacific, or the Arizona desert, but it is exceptionally quiet and I can hear the water in the river.  The geese are nesting on the banks and a small herd of deer call the place home.  The trees are finally leafing out, and the swallows are swirling. There are no lights at night nor any traffic, so it might as well be a National forest campground somewhere – with no maximum stay limits.  In addition, I get to have long showers, a gas fireplace, a cozy recliner, and unlimited electricity!  But the fifth wheel is still in use.  I have my internet system set up just as when I am on the road, and get all my internet and phone service from it wirelessly, in the house.

Hailey and I did leave it behind for a few days when we loaded up the truck camper for a short trip over to British Columbia, Lake Louise, and even a day of skiing at Sunshine.  There is still lots of snow in the Rockies as these photos approaching from the east show.

Kootenay National Parks was still very white.

While visiting in Invermere, BC, I had to tell Hailey to pick on her own size. Sit boy, sit!

On the way back from Invermere to Lake Louise, we chose the slightly longer route through Golden, BC.

Near Lake Louise, a few crocuses are starting to appear where the snow has melted.

Hailey has turned into an efficient mouser, while still keeping a sharp eye out for the local coyotes.  She has now tested all the climbable trees in the yard, and figured out how to get on the roof of the house and garage!

She is now checking out the deer …

I am continuously amazed with who reads the blog, where they are from and how they find it.  Even though I have not posted for close to a month, I can check online and see that many visitors have passed by even in the last few minutes, hours or days when the blog has hardly passed my mind.

I can see that some find the blog by searching for roadtrip – which is a common phrase.  Lots of folks seem to search for photos and reports about Lake Mead and related camping areas.  But it is interesting to find visitors from Mumbai India, Belgium, Portugal – every corner of the world!

It seems that I have just so many things to catch up on here, that the blog slides off the back burner!  In addition, the photos always seem to be on a different computer than the Livewriter, or some other real or perceived obstacle to getting anything sent out.

When blogger was down for a few days, I was not even aware.  Then, with the world about to end on May 21, I thought ‘why bother’!  But, now that it seems we are going to be Ok till the next doomsday, I’ll have to try to fire off posts with slightly more regularity!  Till the next one …