WILD HORSES COULDN'T KEEP US AWAY

When it was time to go home, we wanted to go home. After almost 2 months away, including a great month in Vancouver, we  drove east in a mad dash of 3 nights on the road. Huge range of scenery  --- were these wild horses trying to keep us away?? Snow caps, giant reservoirs, mountain ranges, cornfields, all along an endless ribbon of interstates.

The skies impressed with a range from blinding morning sun, to sci-fi clouds, through pelting rain and then double rainbows! We dodged the snow flurries that covered the route 3 days later...

GEOGRAPHY QUIZ!! From British Columbia to Ontario, we passed through 9 states and two border crossings. Put these signs (ID and WA not shown) in order, west to east...

So grateful to arrive home safely on the fourth day. Our friend Sunrise as welcome as ever but further south on the horizon. Leaves covering the slippery driveway up, and in the eavestroughs. All the rituals of fall come back immediately, like cleaning out the pond. Bliss!

The yard is dressed in a coat of many colours. Red is in the majority, with sumac and tomatoes and oak. The spruce cones are thick --- a sign that winter will be cold and snowy?

But there's no place like home. There's no place like home!!   :)    :)

EMILY, BAKER, AND GORD

Three giants (each in their own way) were celebrated this week, and one even nationally revered. Pat managed to see the Monet exhibit just before it closed. A true pioneer in art, he introduced impressionism in unique paintings of nature. But also in the exhibit was the work of a Giant in Canadian impressionist art, Emily Carr. Her depictions of giant forests or single pines evoke the west coast like no one else.

On a rare sunny day, nearby Richmond evoked old tyme fishing villages. Boats still haul in daily loads of salmon, crabs, shrimp, and shellfish. Pat lined up at a famous local shop to try some of that fish nicely battered with a side of fries! Dominating the scene even though 100 miles away (over in Washington State) was another giant --- Mt. Baker. Second most active volcano in the state, after Mount St. Helens. And one of the snowiest places on earth ---- in 1999 it got 100 FEET of snow!

Sadly, even the long growing season out here comes to an end. The last of the rose blossoms are fading. The display areas seem weary to an experienced eye. And the compost pile shows the remnants of a summer-long garden party.

At the harbour, international students were herded into class photos before flying home. Float planes are framed in crimson leaves on shore. And the last cruise ship of the season merrily defies the angry black clouds overhead.

Those black clouds hung over the entire country this week with the passing of our musical Giant, Gord Downie, lead singer of the truly Canadian rock band The Tragically Hip. You can read all the tributes elsewhere, but Prime Minister Trudeau said it best, tearfully; "We are less of a country without Gord Downie in it." Pat and I never caught on to his music but we are in awe of him as a human being who loved, entertained, inspired, and yet thanked everyone else. Long Time Running, indeed...

The skies seemed to be in mourning too with daily monsoon levels of downpour and wind. People now look down to see the rainbow of leaves, instead of up.

This is being posted a bit early this week, because Sunday morning we will have started our epic drive home over snowy Rockies and endless plains. Go East, young man!