For Father's Day - #15 Trips to Moose Dome

Moose Mountain

A few times a year we would be taken to Moose Mountain, driven along the old roads that Doral had helped create in the 1930’s and that finally lead up to the cave on the top of the mountain, at least on the journeys that we took there.

A picnic lunch and everyone in the back of a van was all we needed.

As well, Doral took groups of scouts often to the mountains or to the foothills of Alberta. He had a truck and gas.

There was moose meat at home which Wyora made up into goulash, enough to feed 10 or 12 hungry boys, and it was a Saturday, so by the time they arrived back from their trip, our house was clean and ready to receive them.

Food and then pool, billards or snooker.

Doral built cohorts of many men that way, with a van, some gasoline and a Saturday morning's drive. Some he even took hunting with him. Alan LeBaron shot a moose on one of those trips. Doral asked Alan how he did that. Alan said the moose just looked at him, so he shot him. I think Alan felt pretty bad for the moose.

Arta

Sydney BC - The Cut Cartel

...  Rebecca with her pool cue ...

I asked if I could take some pictures inside of The Cut Cartel.

The owner said she didn’t mind.

And Rubin, who was cutting Duncan’s hair, said he wouldn’t mind.

I am an amateur who cuts people’s hair if they will let me.

... Rubin's station ...

A cap for their shoulders and a pair of sharp scissors in one hand and a comb in the other, and I like picking up lengths of hair and trying to even them out.

... beverage menu ...

As my kids got older, I noticed those that finally earned their own spending money began to like to get their hair cut elsewhere.

Still, I feel comfortable close to a pair of scissors that are snipping hair, so I think was getting in Rubin’s way, since he was circling from side to side with Duncan and I was pretty stationary, trying to get just the right shot.

So I left that part of the shop and began to take pictures of everything else that was going on, which is what the rest of the pictures in this post are about.

I was mesmerized, really, by so many stations of interest.

Even though I didn’t want a beverage, I loved the blackboard that listed the possible beverages available and their seeming infinite variety.

What biker’s barbership wouldn’t have a dog, I thought.

... the dog who needs 20 pounds o muscle...

Whomever owned the dog was telling Steve that the dog came from a place where it hadn’t been fed enough, so the new owner had already put flesh on the dog, but had another 20 pounds to go before they would feel that they had done a proper job.

The low coffee table had a top made of distressed wood and the bottom of the table was a pair of wheels, so it seemed that the coffee table might have been a platform that carried weight on some small rails, but I couldn’t really tell.

The books on the coffee table were outstanding with interesting titled. I think one title of a newspaper was “The Uncommon Barbershop”.

... 10 past 11 and the cut goes on ...

And two of the books lying there were collector’s editions of tattoo artistry. I grew up with a pool table in the basement of our house.

... fooze ball game on coffee table ...

The pool table in the barbershop was not as big as that one, but there was plenty of room for a pool cue to move easily back and forth and a whole rack of them were on the wall, as well as many balls on the table just inviting patrons have a game of pool while waiting to be the next in the barber’s chair.

There were 3 empty seats when we walked into the shop, and a fourth which would be for display only.

Even the individual station where the tools for a hair cut are kept had some interest for me, though by now I was trying to stay out of the way of the person with the scissors.

... antlers above products for sale ...

I didn’t take pictures of the comfy couch nor of the TV overhead and in fact I don’t even remember the channel, just that it was playing.

Now why did I have to take time to make a full description of The Cutlery Cartel?

Maybe because seeing it was worth the day-trip just by itself.

... care to sit in an old fashioned  barber's chair? ...

The Cut Cartel: Barber's Den

... an age old sign prepresenting a place for a hair cut ...

picture from MVRC, "Uncommon Barbering"

 ... cenre piece of tattoo book ...

.. how green was my pool table ...

High Voltage Tattoo
and
article called
"Build Your Perfect life"

One last word.

What a great place for a hair cut.

 Or as in Steve's case, a close shave.

Arta

The 300 short miles to the Shuswap

This was as close to a perfect day as I would ever want.  Doral said that we would leave Calgary early and take a leisurely trip to the Shuswap, stopping everywhere we wished.

Anita had purchased a family parks pass, which comes with a special deal this year.  That pass is also good for 2017 as part of the Park Celebration of 150 years of Canada as a nation.

We stopped at the Spiral Tunnels, at the Field Interpretive Centre, took a stroll to see Wapta Fall,  touched the cold water of the Kicking Horse River at the Kicking Horse Pull over, visited the Natural Bridge, used our pass to get into the Rogers Pass Interpretive Centre and stopped at Rock Gardens, Giant Cedars and Skunk Cabbage Boardwalk.  And altogether that was a 10 hour tour.

We counted the animal overpasses as we drove along the Bow Valley Corridor between Banff and Lake Louise.  There are 7 of them.

We either saw the skins of, or taxidermy examples of a black bear, a grisly bear, a cougar, a wolverine and a caribou.

We read interpretive signs -- yes, that was a small vole that surprised Meighan at one of our stops.

I don't know if counts going to the Skunk Cabbage Boardwalk, for we had barely crossed over the bridge and hadn't reached the boardwalk yet when people coming back from their walk warned us that they had seen a black bear.  None of us had any trouble turning around and heading for the care.  In this case, an ounce of prevention was working for us.

Ceilidh brought a friend with her and as soon as the luggage was in the house, they headed right for the water, and Meighan wasn't far behind.  At 7 pm the beach is deserted so alone they pulled out the paddle board.  Meighan's bucket list this year included going on lots of boats and though the paddle board hardly qualifies as a boat, it was a good start.

The sky was getting dark, and a strong wind was bending trees toward the east and loosing leaves so that they were beginning to tumble from the sky in the wind.  The rain was dancing on the water and the girls wanted to know if I preferred that they get out.  I choose rather to sit in the rain and watch them.

Double Pleasures

 ... my dad likes me to rest my hand on his chin ...

I have double pleasures.

The first is living at the Shuswap and having some of my siblings live within walking distance of my house.

I can visit them on a whim.

I just have to run along the road or take a short-cut through the lawns of the two-cabins and I can have a quick visit anytime of the day or night.

... so why is he talking to my grandma in person
and my Aunt Rebecca on the phone at the same time ...
"I can report a little further.
Aunt Rebecca wants to know what happens
when you forget to put the butter in the butter horns."

My double pleasure is that in Calgary I live within walking distance of Wyona and in twenty minutes I can climb enough hills and turn enough corners that I can be at her house.

I guess my pleasures are really triple, because right next door I have some grandchildren whom I can shovel snow with in the winter, and whom I can watch on their play equipment in the summer.

Richard dropped in to my house with Alice Saturday night.

He had been up to Mike Card’s house where all of Mike’s brothers and sisters had gathered, as well as Mike’s parents, his grandparents and all of Mike’s nieces and nephews (6 of them under 5, I think). In the course of the evening Grandma Card asked Richard where he lived.

... I've just come back from Mike Card's house.
He is my dad's friend from their teen years ....

“Well, you know Frank who is in the ham radio club with Lester? I moved into his house and it happens to be right next door to my parents,” Richard said. “The only thing that is missing from the house is the ham radio antenna and Frank took that with him.”

“I could drive right to your house,” she said. “I know where that is.”

I am practising getting 2 fists in my mouth

So Richard and Alice slipped by late at night, to tell me they had met old friends of ours at a dinner party. Old friends who know right where he lives.

Only if a mother lives next door to her son and daughter-in-law can a quick visit like that happen.

I enjoy my triple pleasures.

Arta

LRT Side Adventures

I have a side interest in using my crock-pot, a method of cooking that is new to me. I have owned the crock-pot for years. I just haven’t used it. Miranda has a new cookbook called Crock-Pot: The Original Slow Cooker Recipe Collection. She lent the book to Kelve. The cover says the book contains more than 500 crock-pot pot slow cooker recipes. I purchased a similar book at Chapters for Kelve – the same title, but only 350 recipes. A step down. Now I have looked at his book so much I don’t want to give it to him. Why would I pass it on. I have annotated some of the recipes, added a list to the front cover of book, the list containing recipes I want to try. Already I have organized my weekly menus around some of the recipes.

So when Michael and I were on our LRT trip, we got off at the Dalhousie Station so that I could make the purchase of a second book – this time one I will really give to Kelvin.

... these wheels don't seem to stay on this track ...

As an added bonus and in the back of my mind was the fact that over in the corner of Chapters where there are children’s book might also be a nice play to play.

 Michael had already told me that he wanted a hot dog, which I think is code for enjoying an eat-out associated with Costco, but the LRT was not going to drop us off in that direction.

We were well entertained without food.

... we can make it up this hill and over the bridge ...

There is a Thomas the Train play table, not as sophisticated as the two that Ron Treleaven made for Zach and Gabe – but still a table of great stature.

At the table were three engines that work and one that kept falling apart. Michael thought all of the engines were his.

... Do I really have to share? ...

Sharing is not a two year old’s forte.

He could give up some of them up when other two year olds joined him for play.

I sang train songs as I sat there and suggested new train routes or ways to fix crashes that occurred.

One of the fathers corrected me when I said that I was driving my train over to the tower to have it filled with grain.

“That is a water tower,” said the father.

Thereafter I passed all of this knowledge onto other two year olds even making the appropriate water gushing sounds when they would lower the pipe to their trains. It is good to keep learning.

... over one bridge and onto another ... with a hill as an alternate route ...

I did not know how we would make an exit from the store.

I wouldn’t have even been worried about leaving the store at all, but I know from experience that when I keep little people out too long and their mother’s don’t know where they are, that they worry.

So I began to plan my escape from the train table, which escape opened up when another little boy left a dump truck at the train table. Michael took that dump truck and rolled it right up to the front doors of Chapers where I paid for the cook book. I slipped him into his stroller and then left the dump truck there, saying goodbye to it until next time.

Yes.

LRT side-trips are good adventures.

Arta

LRT Ride

... watching the S205 Bobcat from the LRT pedestrian walkover ..

The stars lined up for a trip I have been wanting to take.

Michael and I had the morning together. I have been promising him a ride on the LRT.

I have a pass with an unlimited number of rides on it. The weather was perfect. In January perfect weather means it is above zero. The last time Michael and I went on an adventure we walked so far that he came home with blisters on his heels.  Well, we didn't get all the way, without me carrying him.  I didn’t know that blisters on his heels was why he refused to walk one step further on that trip.

... the 9 am morning sky to the south at the LRT walkover on Crowchild Trail ...

Now he has new boots.

Now I know that I should take along a stroller when we walk.

Since he is tall, I have to keep reminding myself he is not even 2 ½. Just a baby, really.  When we go on our adventures, I cannot tell if he will be pushing the stroller, or in the stroller. The stroller only functions as a way to transport him if he is too tired to walk in which case pushing the stroller turns into a way for me to get more exercise.

... Michael Johnson's  first LRT ride ...

I am on a high learning curve with strollers.

Is it easier to push the stroller through the packed snow at each street corner?

Or should I  turn around and pull the stroller  through backwards?

That is a choice to make at every intersection.

 For one thing, I know the safety bar on the stroller works well. In the alley by the Kaleidoscope Apartment building, the stroller slipped over on its side from the deep ruts. No problem for Michael. His snow suit is padded with bubble wrapped.

We lingered on the corner of the LRT station to watch the bucket of a small bobcat being filled up with snow and seeing it dumped into the Calgary Transit Dump truck. I thought the charm of the trip for Michael would be the ride on the train. No. He wanted to get off at every station and be strolled along the platform.

.... the train platform -- a place to wave to cars and trains ...

Escalators lead to the pedestrian walk overs. I can manage a couple of pieces of luggage on an escalator, but not a stroller so we activated the HELP button to the elevator. A faceless voice asks for information from you, since this is the button where patrons also report crime, vandalism and bullying. “A ride up the elevator, please.” That is all we wanted. Our morning started at 9 am and finished at 12:15 pm. We didn’t get any further than up to the Crowfoot Terminus and back home to the University Station. I am not going to try to get to the Summerset Station in south Calgary until we can shave minutes, maybe hours off of the northern line.

A day I will remember.

Arta