Aylmer Express "MoHo" Extravaganza 2006

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to live in the Rocky Mountains? We met some people on our trip way back in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario who decided to find out. They were from Quebec City but an opportunity arose and they decided to move to Canmore, Alberta to see what it is like to live in the mountains … as well as learn English! Now THAT is adventurous. Canmore happens to be our destination today. We arrived in a beautiful little ski town surrounded by gorgeous mountains. I can’t remember the exact number but our friends who lived here told me they skied something like 85 days last winter! Now there is a lifestyle that I can envy.
We took it easy today and before we left Calgary we made a trip to our favorite hotel, the Four Points Sheraton, so that we could check our email. We thought it prudent to do so now while we could still get internet access as there was some dubiety among us as to how easy it would be to find this in the mountains. We then enjoyed a scenic drive into the beginning of the Rockies. Upon arriving in Canmore we first stopped to do some grocery shopping. That was when I realized how cool it is to live in the mountains. Just walking to the grocery store was a visual delight not unlike something out of the movies. It was strange to see all the people walking around like everything was normal and there I was with my camera out taking pictures in the grocery store parking lot! Tourist, eh?

We got a reasonable campsite Well it seemed alright until the first train went by. It turns out the tracks ran right along side the campground and the people decided to put us in an area about 40 feet from the tracks! Perhaps they saw me in the grocery store parking lot? Anyway, it allowed us to find out that you can get used to just about anything. How’s that for seeing the the glass half full? And besides, it turns out we found another gratuitous WiFi signal at our MoHo allowing us to be online … as long as we didn’t mind being outside. Good thing is wasn’t raining!
That evening we went for a walk around the campground and ended up chatting with a couple from South Carolina. They usually MoHo around for about 5 months a year and had made their way across the middle of the US to California, then up the west coast to Vancouver and then east to Canmore. The nice thing was that they gave us a long list of campsites that they stayed at on their way here and told us which ones were good and which ones to avoid. They did make mention of the fact that most of the campgrounds through the mountains are very close to railroad tracks simply because the road and the railway are practically side-by-side all the way through the Rockies and there is typically not a lot of space between the mountains in these towns to situate yourself away from a train track. So I guess that would be one of the downsides of mountain living.
We have some big plans for tomorrow. Tune in to see what we wanted to do and what we actually ended up doing! But before I sign off I want to share with you something I heard André-Paul say as we were driving down the road. I guess he was thinking about what kind of MoHo he would like to have someday. After much quiet thought he turned to me and said, “When I grow up I want to have a MoHo that is so big that is has to have an ‘Oversized Load’ sign on the front and back.” Well, I guess it is good to have a goal.

Today’s word:

dubiety \doo-BY-uh-tee; dyoo-\, noun:
1. The condition or quality of being doubtful or skeptical.
2. A matter of doubt