Carley and
Joel began their travel back to their Seattle home early in the morning. The
good byes weren’t as hard this time because they will see us in Pittsburgh the
day after we roll in to the burgh!
Still, it always gives us a little lonely feeling without the older
kids.
The rest of us packed up and headed out, our destination being north and also a bit more west into the heart of the Canadian Rockies. The Columbian Icefield is an incredible feature of Jasper National Park with glacial runoff streams that feed the Pacific, Atlantic, and even the Arctic Oceans. We will now roughly follow one of these flows for the coming days as it forms the Saskatchewan River and winds east to the Great Lakes.
Seeing bear, mountain goats, a wolf, and elk were also highlights of the drive which ended in a Jasper area campground where it remained light almost until the 11pm quiet hour restriction. Since this was our first night with all 7 of us in the rig, bedtime was anything but quiet. We had never really tested the wooden platform bed that Carl had engineered back at home for Ian to sleep on and now “we” were forgetting just exactly how to put the thing together….Carl persevered to the point of exhaustion at which point he decided to take a little rest atop his creation. It was then decided that a lighter candidate like Gordon should try the new bed and Ian would sleep in the hammock with an air mattress suspended from the ceiling. (Carl in his wisdom had evidently foreseen this when reconstructing the motorhome ceiling to include the perfect hooks for hanging a hammock.) Anyway, when it was all figured out, no one slept on the floor and we were thankful to be safe and fairly warm inside, while the rain pattered on our roof.
Tomorrow our crew of the five youngest Schartner children and two parents will begin to head east on our long journey home.
The rest of us packed up and headed out, our destination being north and also a bit more west into the heart of the Canadian Rockies. The Columbian Icefield is an incredible feature of Jasper National Park with glacial runoff streams that feed the Pacific, Atlantic, and even the Arctic Oceans. We will now roughly follow one of these flows for the coming days as it forms the Saskatchewan River and winds east to the Great Lakes.
Seeing bear, mountain goats, a wolf, and elk were also highlights of the drive which ended in a Jasper area campground where it remained light almost until the 11pm quiet hour restriction. Since this was our first night with all 7 of us in the rig, bedtime was anything but quiet. We had never really tested the wooden platform bed that Carl had engineered back at home for Ian to sleep on and now “we” were forgetting just exactly how to put the thing together….Carl persevered to the point of exhaustion at which point he decided to take a little rest atop his creation. It was then decided that a lighter candidate like Gordon should try the new bed and Ian would sleep in the hammock with an air mattress suspended from the ceiling. (Carl in his wisdom had evidently foreseen this when reconstructing the motorhome ceiling to include the perfect hooks for hanging a hammock.) Anyway, when it was all figured out, no one slept on the floor and we were thankful to be safe and fairly warm inside, while the rain pattered on our roof.
Tomorrow our crew of the five youngest Schartner children and two parents will begin to head east on our long journey home.
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