I changed the name of my blog to Trippin' with Betty-Lou and that got me thinking about various trips I have been on. There were the LSD trips (2 to be precise) in about 1970 and then a decade later the lone marijuana muffin 'trip'. š³. Leaving the mind trips behind, i recently did some taste trippin' with miracle berries aka LSD for your tongue. š
I digress. The object of this current post is to write about the small road trip that Dale and I took to Banff and Lake Louise. Those were our destinations but the object of the trip was the drive itself and what we might discover along the way. Let us begin trippin'.
The first discovery was a roadside attraction between Enderby and Armstrong called the Log Barn. it was the goats walking on a ramp above the entrance that drew our attention and caused us to drive in. The goats operated a pulley with their feet or heads and brought up a can of corn to eat, which people had filled. Definitely for tourists, and especially families with children, we nevertheless enjoyed our first stop. Did I mention there were dinosaurs?
We visited the cows and calves in the barns and although I would have preferred to see them romping around in a green pasture, we got to pet them and they got to cuddle with us. I have always loved the sweet smell of calves and hay. It reminds me of my childhood and trips to the farms which were special to a "town girl".
Next stop..........Three Valley Gap, beside Three Valley Lake and the sheer rock of the Monashee Mountains. Did you know it was built, owned and operated by the same family for over 50 years?
Field has been on my list of places to revisit and it did not disappoint. It is so quaint and charming and would have been a great place to stay but there were no vacancies. We did, however, find a perfect restaurant in The Siding General Store, which is a general store, liquor store and restaurant in one. It is the "house" with the yellow roof in the photo.
The drive between Summerland and Banff is said to take 7 hours. We spent close to 12 hours on the road and had a most enjoyable day, which ended by checking into our B & B in Banff.
This photo was taken at Three Valley Lake.
BLou. š
What a beautiful trip. However I mostly enjoyed the contrast between the two of you in posing styles; gregarious Betty-Lou welcoming all and sundry to Dutchmen Dairy as opposed to Dale - being urged to smile for her portrait with a T-Rex (although I noticed Miss Glum couldn't help but be charmed by baby calves). Still all in all a very charming recap of your trip, curious though, Betty-Lou you left out some of the most entertaining historical facts: Lady McDonald (wife of Sir John A.) insisting on riding on the steam locomotive's cow catcher from Banff to Three Valley Lake on her and her husband's inaugural cross country trip. The goats there, by the way, are the descendants of the original goats brought all the way over from Scotland (Westerners had a deep distrust of all things Eastern Canadian, including their goats). The Scottish goats are actually super intelligent and some of them helped with the Apollo space program. The cows' ancestors however were originally from Quebec and couldn't spell cat if you spotted them the C and the A. Canada almost went to war with the U.S over the name of Kicking Horse Pass, which was to be called Yankee Pass (the surveyor was American) instead they backed down and made fun of the surveyor (his horse kicked him). Three Valley lake was originally going to be called There Drunken Scots Lake when Sir John A., Adam Smith and Robert Burns met there by chance and celebrated in proper Scots fashion by getting roaring drunk and picking fights with anyone who looked at them sideways, later though when they sobered up they realized it was impossible for Smith and Burns to be there (having died 70 years earlier), not wanting to further risk tearing the space time continuum they decided to just pretend the whole thing didn't happen (thank God this was before the time of selfies). But other than that great post, look forward to more blogging.
ReplyDeleteLooks like a great trip. It has it all, goats, cows, trains, dinosaurs, food and the two of you making memories.
ReplyDeleteWell said, Melinda.
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