TURTLE MOUNTAIN

  We planned this trip with forethought…it’s the way we both prefer

but no matter how well we planned it…unexpected things occur:

Today instead of using our GPS to take us to Banff

I used a map …and apparently I still have a lot to learn…

because it wasn’t until we entered British Columbia 

I realized somewhere along the way…I’d made a wrong turn.

What made me realize I’d made a wrong turn?

that I wasn’t a great map-reading man?

because the province of British Columbia was never in our plans.

But on the lost part of our journey (when I turned left instead of right)

we drove through some beautiful country and saw some amazing sights.

We happened on Turtle Mountain…an awesome sight to see…

It’s where a massive rockslide buried part of the town of Frank…April 29, 1903.

There is a museum there to commemorate that moment…

of the Frank Slide and all the lives it took…

So, thinking we were heading in the right direction and had a lot of time,

we stopped to take a look.

The museum had this beautiful but eerie presence…from the moment we arrived…

as we learned about the devastation of that day…and heard the voices of those who survived.

If I hadn’t made that wrong turn…(which at this point was still unbeknownst to me)

we would have missed this wonderful moment to learn a little of Alberta’s history.

We would have missed this moment…

what happened on Turtle Mountain we’d probably never know…

and we wold have never stopped to pay our respect to those who died all those years ago.

It wasn’t long after Turtle Mountain (thank you Welcome to British Columbia sign!)

when I realized my mistake and turned the car about…

and once our GPS accepted my apology she guided us to Banff…

even took us on the scenic route.

Unexpected happenings will always arise in spite of our best wishes, plans and hopes….

the true measure of a vacation, however, is how we carry on…and cope.

We always leave time in our day for the many unplanned stops we make.

We know out there our new memories to be  collected

but we’ve also learned to embrace the unanticipated…the unforeseen…the unexpected.

And this trip we’ll add Turtle Mountain to the wonderful memories we’ve collected…

her memories join those of the mountains, the rivers and the lakes…

Because no vacation would be complete…without a few memories of our mistakes