made it to calgary alive...

it actually rained yesterday. real rain. while i was driving and, i have to tell you, it kind of freaked me out a little bit.

things are mostly really good. there have been a few incidents. i may or may not be a little overly emotional right now. (no, mom, i'm not pregnant!) things are very busy here. there are shpping malls everywhere it feels like. but in between the cities is amazing. i am in awe of our country.

yesterday we drove though jasper and banff. (julia- we asked about a pin, but they did not have any where we stopped and there was a giant visitors centre but we were past it before we realized what it was. sorry.) we actually meant to camp in banff, but there was an incident on the highway and we went right past where we meant to stop. we camped instead in canmore. i have to say it was not quite so exciting. but the bugs were way better than prince george. i felt like we were a buffet there. we were practically being swarmed.

tonight we are staying just northeast of calgary in a tiny town called irricana. its amazing that we've gone from mountains to flat, flat land in about 200 kms. but danny is loving it. a prairie boy at heart he is right at home. also, apparently, the wind is different here. or at least thats what he says.

for me its the smells. the smell of green things. alive. warm. i could just suck it all in.

tomorrow we're off to see the dinosaurs of drumheller(??) and then we're meeting up with a couple of danny's cousins in edmonton. we hope that they plan to feed us bbq (i love bbq!) and let us sleep in their spare room. i am very excited about the prospect of a bed. i love camping and all, but beds are lovely, lovely things.

oh. aminal update. i forgot to mention that we saw foxes. or at least i did. danny as appareantly too busy driving to pay attention. and we have seen another sheep and many more deer. and, lately, lots of cows and horses. sometimes sheep. but not the wild ones we saw in the mountains.

which reminds me. danny decided he would like to learn to milk a bison. not sure how thats going to go, but i fully support his decision. if only because it will be funny.

p.s.-its warm here too!