On the road again

When we left home yesterday morning in the sunshine we could have questioned our decision to leave home again – I was reluctant anyway, since the trip to Ecuador was still so close. But soon the tingling of excitement took over, that special feeling that happens when one leaves and, carefree for the moment, knows nothing of what lies ahead.

The further we drove south, the less snow there was in the ditches, and in Calgary not much was left. Joggers along the Bow River were in shorts and t-shirts, the river itself flowing freely in several spots already. Ducks were sitting on the ice at the edge of the water, and little groups flew back and forth, in a hurry to get to a destination, the way ducks often seem to do. Geese, too, were part of the picture, once even a flock of twenty or more in loose formation. This was like a different season already.

We spent the night at friends in Black Diamond, a nice little town about forty minutes south of Calgary. When we arrived last night the starry sky stretched out above, and the haloed moon was tangled in the branches of the poplars across the soccer field behind the house. It smelled like spring. 

A beautiful day is in the forecast, with high temperatures of +13, and we will go for a walk in the nearby hills soon. It is dangerous to forget, however, that this is still just the beginning of March: a winter storm watch is in effect for the area around Calgary and further south, so we haven’t quite decided if it is safer to leave this afternoon and be at the southern end of the storm area or wait till tomorrow morning, which had been our original plan.