Happy Canada Day!

We're in Castlegar, BC, now. Arrived last night, intact, but a very tired. The last few days in Edmonton are a blur of cleaning, packing, and running around. We managed to get the apartment all cleaned up in time (yay!), and all of our stuff moved out to appropriate places. The storage unit is packed solid. It'd be intimidating for anyone opening it up! Leah's storage unit at her condo is also pretty full of our stuff to be shipped to New York too! (Thanks again, Leah!)

Highway 2 (sorry, Queen Elizabeth II Highway) between Edmonton and Calgary was rather crowded with long-weekend holiday-ers. We managed to get our iPod and new speakers working fairly well. Sam spent the entire 3 hrs meowing pitifully. He was even able to keep in rhythm occassionally:

We all live -meow- in a yellow submarine -meow-
a yellow submarine -meow-
a yellow submarine -meow-

There was a short, but intense, hail storm near High River. Then we stopped in Sparwood (home of the world's biggest truck!) for nearly an hour, trying to get a severely dehydrated Sam to drink, but had no luck. On the other hand, we got photos of the truck!

The mountains were amazing to drive through, as usual. Saw the swollen rivers in southern Alberta, and lots of wildlife: deer, elk, hawks (being chased by starlings), gophers... I think we snagged about 300 moths on our windshield. They leave stubborn green-yellow blotches. Ick!

Now we're at my parents' place in Castlegar. It's blissfully quiet and has a beautiful garden. The cat is adjusting much better than expected (although he hasn't figured out that there are two stories to this house). We're well-fed, and had a wonderful night's sleep. The first full night's sleep in quite a few weeks! Ahhhh....

A few chores need to be done today (getting the car's oil changed, giving it a wash), but mostly we get to spend the weekend relaxing. It's beginning to feel like we're on vacation!