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200 soldiers arrived from Shilo, late this morning, to help with the battle against time. The Souris River rose a foot overnight, and is expected to rise another 8 feet or more in the next few days. Nearly 2km of dike are needed, as you see it isn't there yet!

See my last post to see how high the water has risen. It is now to the base of that beautiful old tree!

I think the volunteers and army are doing a great job, I hope they finish in time!

Lots of super bags being made!

Even though there was no celebrating here, I wish everyone a belated Happy Canada Day!

Souris is preparing for the large volume of water coming in early July. At last report we can expect 9 feet higher water. The river is already flooding with many homes evacuated. Here is what the dam looked like during a normal spring break-up.

And here it is today.

I posted a few videos on youtube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DbOsOgrr40U

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=arZb86fS4hE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gc8x9ato1x4

More photos, the bowl:

The west Park entrance:

I couldn't get close to the pool and waterslides, but they have been super sandbagging around it.

Banff to Jasper!

This was a very long, but stunningly beautiful trip! It took the whole day, as we took the slow route out of banff Park. Besides many striking mountains we saw lots of wildlife! It is the first sunny day of our trip, so I took hundreds of photos. Here are a few. We saw big horn sheep, some playing along the highway, elk, bear and mountain goats.

We had a great day! It was supposed to be rain all day, but by lunch it pretty much stopped, so away we went! We took a drive up Tunnel Mountain Road, where we parked and walked up a steep trail to where we could see some hoodoos.

The road is so named because the original plans were to dig a tunnel through the mountain, raher than going over.

Then we went back to Banff and decided it was clear enough to go on the gondola. we read that if you couldn't see the top of the mountain save your money! From the bottom of the gondola we could see the top. so away we went!

These photos do not do justice, or clearly show how high we went, or how steep it is. but, oh wow! it was a great ride!! Here we are at the top of the mountain!

Maybe you can get a sense of height by this picture of the town....waaaaaay down there!

Then I had a fun experience. At the mountain top lookout I had some cashews. This bird flew down, landed on my hand and stole one! Then he came back and did it again! lol It was too quick for Larry to get a picture, so I tried a third time, using the table, and as you see he landed on the table, walked over to my hand and helped himself! He had no fear of humans! I had to google this bird to find it is a Clark's Nutcracker. Clearly no fear of humans!

Well, tomorrow we're heading for Jasper National Park, with a stop at Lake Louise for sure. We will be staying at Hinton, just outside the park.

It was great to hear from you, Poop! Hugs to you, Ryan & Adam!! Thanks to Adam for the suggestions, but that would be backtracking, unfortunately. Any suggestions for Jasper area would be appreciated!

Now, back to the game. Go Canucks, GO!!!!

It rained off and on all day, but we went exploring parts of Banff, including the very beautiful town of Banff. There are endless quaint shoppes to spend your money quickly in! After we exhausted ourselves there we came back to Canmore to rest...for a little while. Then we ate and went for a long drive up the side of a mountain. The narrow roads were getting slippery in the rain, and rocks tumbling down onto the road, so we decided to play it safe and come back down. We did get more than halfway up though! Even in the rain we had a wonderful day, albeit exhausting!

Statue in front of our hotel.

We have arrived! It is just gorgeous here! Our hotel is perfect, with glorious scenery all around. we will rest tonight and go explore anff national Park tomorrow!

Here is the view from our room.

Out the other side is even better, I'll show you tomorrow. Here are a few photos of the trip from Medicine Hat through Calgary to here in Canmore!

Leaving Medicine Hat

Nearing Calgary.

Into the foothills!

And the giants just keep getting closer and closer as we go over each hill and "Ooooooh" at the beauties before us!

Those photos do not do justice to the scenery. they are taken from my little camera. I'm not feeling great tonight, so we'll watch the hockey game tonight and I'll upload the pics from our good cameras later.

Live cams in Canmore (refresh your page to update)

Day 1 of our vacation! Also called our second honeymoon. We are in Medicine Hat Alberta, plum tuckered out! I didn't get many photos today, but I'm sure tomorrow will be great! We should be at Canmore early, then start exploring Banff. So check back daily to see what we saw!

I don't know what this structure is in Medicine Hat, maybe I'll check it out in the morning.

We saw not ONE single gopher from Souris to Swift Current!! It was warm and sunny to boot! Mystery...maybe all the water? We started seeing antelope, often, after that!

Well, like I said, we're too pooped to poop, so a little TV now, then a whole lot of bed!!

What a beautiful visitor we had in the yard this morning!

As we prepare to go on our little vacation I'd like friends (and family) to keep an eye on this blog. I will be posting a few photos each night, and thrill you with tales of our adventure! lol PLEASE, if you read my blog, say hello! Make up a fake email if you want, but please, say HI!! (click comments in the upper right to post)

I have moved, or added new, items for sale to an old forum I had. If you are interested in buying anything, just email me and we can make arrangements. I am happy to put the item(s) on eBay as Buy-It-Now if that is preferred. Please follow this link to the forum where you will find lots of good estate items!

http://z8.invisionfree.com/Chamber_Spot/index.php?act=idx

You do NOT need to register to look or post!

Today we expect water from Melita, and a crest. Final crest? I do not know. They do say the water will stay high for weeks. As of 2pm it had not increased a great deal from last night. If it suddenly rises more I will add more this evening. Today's photos.

The dam is under there somewhere!