Happy Trails

I am, I suspect, one of the happiest travelers you will ever meet. While there are experiences on the road that get to me, by and large I am happy when on the road. I am happy in a decent, modestly priced hotel, happy in an expensive hotel. I am happy on a plane, on a train, in a bus, in a car. While I was driving home this evening I thought to myself that I would be happier if we had gone for longer, yet when I got home I was happy to be home.

I suspect the truth is that I am just happy, mostly. The few experiences which make me unhappy are when hotels misrepresent handicapped rooms, when expensive food or wine tastes like crap, and when I am compelled to sleep somewhere that feels unclean or uncomfortable. My Dad, when we would travel, constantly wanted to stay in the lowest prices, ugliest joints he could find. Nothing made him happier than a motel at $29 a night; that experience made me unhappy which might explain why I rarely did motel stops with him.

Today was a happy drive. The exhaustion of yesterday past, I arose early this morning, at least for me. I was up at 10:00 AM and, with help from Katherine, dressed by 10:30 AM. Check-out was at 11:00 AM, a challenging situation for me under most circumstances. Today we couldn't even get a late check-out; the hotel was fully booked and they were behind schedule for room preparation. No matter, we managed to get out of the room by 10:35 AM, a minor miracle if you know what it is like to travel with me.

Our stay included the Sunday Brunch Buffet, so we ate plenty and had a couple of cups of coffee, all the while sitting by the giant windows in the restaurant, admiring the trees and the hot pools, watching people come by in their hotel robes on their way to or from a good soaking. Everybody seemed to be in a good mood, with children laughing both in the restaurant and outside on the pathway. The food was simple, good, easy fare; we enjoyed our time.

The drive home was more of a wander than anything else. We meandered up to Kimberley, a small ski town in the Purcell Mountains of southeast BC. Once a thriving mining town, home to the largest lead-zinc mine in the world, it is now primarily a ski resort. It is, in many places, an interesting mish-mash of alpine chic showing its mining roots. From there we headed back to the Crow's Nest Highway, headed east, bypassing Cranbrook altogether.

We stopped for coffee in Fernie, then for pictures of the world's largest truck in Sparwood, then again to take a look at the Frank Slide from the interpretation centre. It was Katherine's first time taking a good look at this, one of Canada's deadliest rock slides ever. Once done, we headed up the Cowboy Trail, also known as Alberta Highway 22, back to Calgary.

It was a good day, a happy day; a happy day to travel and a happy day to be home.