I’ll start at the end and then circle around to the beginning. (That sentence pretty much describes my life!) We arrived home late Friday night. It was so good to be home after a long day of travelling. Everyone went straight to bed. I woke up yesterday morning, ready for a productive day. And it was.
I was up first, and was sitting on the front stairs enjoying a cup of coffee. On of the mama cats wandered over and I could tell she had had her babies. She hung around me in the yard for a couple of hours, which was a long time for her to be away from her kittens. I was starting to have a bad feeling.
When the boys got up they were thrilled to discover the “empty” mama cat. They had been wondering the whole way home if there would be any kittens yet. I told them I was worried that something might have happened to the babies. I just wanted them to be prepared for what they might find. They found the babies, dead, in the loft of the shop. They had been killed by something. Poor little things. Lyndon thinks our tom did it, but I have a hard time thinking of our sweet Sunday as a murderer. Remember Sunday… he’s the kitten Carter put in the freezer a few years ago because, “Sunday likes the cold.” Poor mama cat, she really is empty.
Our other mama is still pregnant, so the boys are stalking her everywhere she goes. They would like to see baby kittens being born. Carter says she should have them in about a week, because she was humped a week later than the other mama cat. That’s what he said! And he was very serious, almost scientific, about it all.
The day was productive, however. We cleaned out the camper, got water, did laundry and dishes, got groceries, got water, mowed grass, weeded the flower beds, burned leaves, and… got water. Carter and I had a fire last night. We haven’t quite got the camping bug out of our systems yet, I guess.
Anyway, back to the beginning. The Journey.
The trip to Salmon Arm was a fourteen-tarp-strap trip. That is the number of tarp straps we counted along the side of the highway between Gravelbourg and Salmon Arm.
We drove from Gravelbourg to Airdrie the first day, in a hurricane wind. Well, it felt like it. Lyndon kept saying, “There’s no wind in B.C.” Other than stopping for nourishment or to pee, we drove straight to Airdrie. We spent the night at Mom and Dad’s, although they were gone. Had pizza with Kathy and Quinn that night, and watched National Treasure 2. I like that kind of movie. It was a fun evening.
We were up early the next morning. I was getting nervous about driving through the mountains. I am a prairie girl; I admit it. In fact, I’m proud of it! I do not enjoy driving through the mountains, especially the area around Golden. Anyway, it was chilly and raining to start out with, and still very windy. The drive was fine, though. As we entered the foothills, we saw a car pulled over to the side of the road. Someone was curled up in a sleeping bag in the ditch, lying next to a little white cross. A relative, I suppose, of whoever had died there. It was raining pretty hard at that point. A sad, and sobering, start to the trip.
We had packed snacks as I didn’t want to stop until we were on the other side of the mountains. That’s my approach, just get through them as quickly as possible. We did end up stopping, however, on the west side of Golden, at the Northern Lights Wildlife Wolf Centre. We saw the sign on the highway and decided to check it out. I’m glad we stopped.
The centre is owned by a couple who live on site. We were given a tour by a young woman who works there. It was very interesting. We arrived just as they were opening. Another vehicle drove in shortly after us, so we did the tour together. We had our little poodle with us, and she started barking in the truck. This got their dogs barking, and then the wolves starting howling. It was so cool!
The centre raises Karelian Bear Dogs, and promotes their use in keeping bears out of populated areas, rather than killing problem bears. Apparently, the dogs are being used in other areas for this purpose. Our tour guide said that 1,000 bears are killed every year in B.C.
The centre keeps five wolves and one wolf dog. The boys asked lots of questions. Did you know that there is an alpha male and an alpha female wolf in a pack, but there is also an omega wolf? The omega wolf is at the bottom of the pecking order. Carter wanted to know how many teeth a wolf has. A wolf has 42 teeth. I found it interesting that the owners exercised the wolves off-leash. They pack them up, two at a time, and drive a few kilometers down the road to an open area. And just let them run. I would have like to have seen that.
Back on the road. We hadn’t gone far when Lyndon pulled off the road again. “Look behind us, boys. There’s a bear cub in the ditch.” We watched for awhile, althought the bear was quite a ways behind us and we couldn’t see it very well. Finally, Colton said, “Dad, we’re done looking at the black dot. Can we go now?”
We arrived in Salmon Arm shortly after lunch and stopped at the first Tim Horton’s. Everyone was ready to be done travelling. I opened the door and just like that Bella, the poodle, was out the door and heading for the highway. And just as quickly, three boys were headed after her. I’m calling the boys to tell them not to go on the road. A man across the street who was out in his yard, yells at me, “Lady, your dog ran away.” Uh, yeah… I know. Cars screeched to a halt, and Bella was safely retrieved. Whew. We trooped into the restaurant and I ordered a dozen donuts, thinking that would be enough to also have a snack later. Nope, they were gone in a few minutes. When we got back outside, Lyndon discovered he had locked the keys in the truck. Did you know you can jimmy the lock on a Dodge Cummins Turbo Diesel with a hotdog stick?
So began our time in Salmon Arm. I could feel the eyes of the B.C. natives, checking out our license plate and watching us. “The tourists are here,” I could almost hear them saying.
