"May happiness come on secret winds, surrounding you forever in the ways of beauty."

(Found this quote in the ladies restroom in Revelstoke and loved it!}  Just thought I'd share!

Up early this morning to hit the road west to Vancouver!  We left Windermere around 8 AM in Kelli's new car!  We stopped in Revelstoke and had a second breakfast around 11 AM and then continued on.

We travelled through all sorts of weather, rain, sun....and believe it or not, even snow!!!  

Along the way we listened to podcasts which are reviews of material Kelli needs to know for her exam.  I am thinking I should write the exam as well next week!  I am pretty knowledgable on diabetes, pregnancy and hypertension!  The guy doing the podcasts however, was super annoying.  Every teacher should get an opportunity to listen to themselves talk.  I seriously wonder if this fellow ever listens to his own pod casts.  His three favourite expressions throughout the four hours of podcasts we listened to were......."Is that crystal clear???  Right????  Do you know what I mean??? " At one point I was thinking I wished I had counted the number of times he used these expressions.  It was EXCESSIVE!!!  And it was excessively annoying!!!  

The drive was lovely.  It is amazing how once you leave Calgary and head west, you actually do discover spring.  The trees are in full leaf and the further west we came we also encountered trees in full bloom!  We are a good month away from that experience at home, that's for sure.

It was actually a lovely day driving through the mountains.  Every time I travel over the Rogers Pass I am reminded of the summer my friend Wendy and I rode our bikes from Calgary to Kelowna.  It was the summer I turned 16.  We were going to a badminton training camp in Kelowna and decided this would be a fun thing to do.  My dad was all for it being the adventurous soul he has always been.  Years later I told my Mom I was amazed they allowed me to do it and she confided in me that she was absolutely terrified something would happen to me but agreed to let me go because I was so keen to do it!  Three of us left Calgary allowing ourselves two weeks to reach Kelowna.  My friend Kathy's knees conked out on her once we got to Banff and we had to load her on the train and send her home before continuing on our way.  The trip we thought would take two weeks ended up taking only 4 days!  We were both riding 10 speed bikes with hard leather seats and no helmets!  I especially remember the climb up to the summit of the Rogers Pass.  It was pretty gruelling but the ride down the other side was totally and absolutely exhilarating!  My Mom had every reason to be terrified.  I can remember flying down that hill at full tilt without a worry in the world about wiping out or being run off the road!  Oh to be young and stupid!!!  We arrived in Kelowna a week and a half before the training camp was to commence so managed to get a job picking cherries at an orchard.  In return for our labour we were allowed to stay in a camper on their property and were fed meals.  I think the two of us put more cherries in our mouths than in our buckets.  We were paid by the pound and I believe the first day, between the two of us we made a total of $8.00!!!  Another one of those great jobs I had as a kid! 

I was talking with a friend the other day about the jobs we had had during our growing up years.  I had some doozies.  Of course, like most girls, my first source of income was babysitting.  When I was a teen, a babysitter was paid between .35 and .50 an hour!  I can remember babysitting for one family who were gamblers and often stayed out all night.  They had five kids who were a handful.  I felt it was my responsibility to stay awake and would be sitting there quite bleary eyed when they walked in at 7 AM the next morning.  My next job was at Whitburns Greenhouses where I spent my weekends transplanting plants.  It was hard, dirty work.  From there I had jobs pumping gas, flipping burgers, mopping floors, stapling newsletters, working in the hospital laundry, delivering flyers, filing and typing wiretaps!  My Mom and Dad instilled a strong work ethic in both my brother and I and had the philosophy that hard work never hurt anyone and jobs like these would likely encourage us to pursue a higher education.  They were right!  Of all those jobs there were only a couple I actually enjoyed.  

I think I have become a little sidetracked here!  Time to sign off and get ready for bed.  Tomorrow we are going to take our bikes out and ride around the seawall!  I am excited!!!  I've been looking forward to my first bike ride of the season for weeks!!!