Back Online!

I've been without Internet connectivity for the past three days, so it's high time I got back online!!

I've had a wonderful three days, having spent a couple of nights at Teus and Marja VanderVlis's house, the parents of my good friends Bernhard and Annemarie (whose house I am on my way to now).

Couple of things struck me: I had to concentrate at times to understand Teus' heavily accented Dutch brogue and now I'm starting to say, "das is dok ridekulus!!". Also, I SUCK at 5-pin bowling! It sure is a whole lot harder than it appears! Give me 10-pin any day. Okay, so I suck at 10-pin too, but at least I do a little better! They were so very hospitable and it was a great couple of days there too - plus, got to eat some meat again! Thanks, Bern!! :) (Bernie's Dad is a butcher)

Yesterday I went to Radium Hot Springs. That was a very interesting place! I had a blast there! When I read a sign (31C) on a brochure and calculated the temperature in Fahrenheit (why are Americans the ONLY people in the world that refuse to use Celsius!?), I came up with 88. I would hardly call that a hot spring! But since I was that close, I thought I had better check it out anyway. Thankfully, I did, as the COOLED pool was 31C, and the other was 40C (104F)! Now that was a hot spring! I joined about 80 others in that large pool (a big man-made swimming pool to accommodate large crowds with jets of hot water entering at certain locations at the bottom of the pool from a natural spring), and spent a full hour in there! It was sure nice to relax in that pool! I would highly recommend it to someone else making a trip in that area!

NOW I can honestly say I have seen the Canadian Rockies! Absolutely gorgeous! The last time I was in this area with Bernie, well, the weather was lousy with more clouds and fog than anything else. So this has been a wonderfully refreshing comparision! The weather has been absolutely perfect! That said, I've had frost (ice) on my car the past two days. This morning's was pretty heavy too! If it freezes overnight here tonight, I'll take a picture of that for my Nigerian friends too! :)

Today was a short day of driving. I'm now splurging and staying at a Best Western in Sicamous, BC (what classifies as high-class in my book - so you know I'm on a budget!! :)).

Yesterday, on my way across the Rockies and past the Continental Divide, I saw three moose (now, what's the plural of moose? Let's start a new one - meese (you can have mouse and mice, why not moose and meese?)). So, I saw three meese, one black bear, an elk, some rams and some sort of mountain goat. Not bad, I'd say! Sorry, I didn't take any pictures worth showing, so you will have to make do with these instead!!