How many days of travel does it take to find spring?

 

After two years of staying largely within the borders of our province, with a couple of breakouts to neighbouring Saskatchewan and one to BC, we are now trying to pick up where we had to leave off in March of 2020. Once again we are on our way south to the warm and sunny American southwest.

So far there is none of that yet, however; in fact, it is more wintry now than it was when we left home two and a half days ago. Then, the newly fallen snow glittered in the afternoon sun which warmed us at least through the windshield. As so often before we asked ourselves why anyone would want to leave now that spring so obviously seemed to be on its way.

Fondue with friends south of Edmonton was a great start to our holiday: one should not have to be in a rush at the start of a long trip. When we left from there around noon the next day the weather had changed considerably. A review of forecasts in the area we planned to travel had already caused us to change our route: a snowfall warning for the Crowsnest Pass and very snowy conditions for the route from Kalispell to Salmon, Idaho didn't sound like a good prospect at all. Reluctantly we decided to give up on making the Goldbug Hotsprings our first major destination of the trip. Maybe we can go back that way if it works out.

We now would cross the border in Coutts/Sweetgrass instead of Roosville south of Fernie, exchanging forests and mountains for prairie, where we could expect less snow. Well – less snow, maybe, but very strong winds instead. Hwy. 2 greeted us with a slew of cars in the ditch on the first 50 km, blowing snow creating hazardous icy conditions. We almost contemplated turning around and spending another night with our friend but persevered and finally found it a bit less challenging. The further south we got the less snow was there to blow across the road, and with warmer temperatures the stretch between Calgary and Lethbridge was no problem.

On the outskirts of Lethbridge my heart beat a bit faster when I spotted a group of geese looking for a place to land: they know that spring will arrive, as, after all, it always does.

We had checked for accommodation just north and south of the border, depending on how far we would get. It would be nice to get the border crossing behind us that evening and spend the night in Shelby. But then the winds picked up again after Lethbridge, and soon visibility became a bigger problem. The blowing snow seemed to meld with the grey sky, and the prospect of driving in these conditions in the dark was not pleasant at all.

Reason had made me give up on the secret hope of spending the night at the chosen option north of the border, a B&B with the interesting name 'The Old Church' in Warner, about 40 km north of the border. Now, that option was suddenly on the table again, and just in time before the turnoff to Warner we found out that they had room. Thank goodness! The prospect of driving another 100km in these conditions would have been daunting.

In Warner, a little village of maybe 350 people nowadays – though, judging by the buildings along main street, it must have been of more importance once - we found the church on 3^rd Street. A bit surprised that there was no sign for a B&B, I nonetheless walked up to the house and was greeted by a woman who laughed, ''Oh, you are at the wrong church!” She pointed me to another one a couple of blocks up the road, and here it was, a well-maintained building with a small square tower on the side, 'The Old Church' displayed prominently on a sign in front.

Stepping through the large wooden doors into a small lobby I felt as if I did indeed enter a church, an impression that was at the same time maintained and dispelled when we pushed open the set of swinging doors leading into the house – well, church. The owners, Pam and Dan, have done a wonderful job integrating the features of a church – the high, open wooden ceiling and beautiful wooden beams, and, as we were to see during a tour of the house, other characteristics like keeping the confession booths and turning them into closets or transforming the choir loft into a bedroom that still is reminiscent of the former use – with the amenities of a cozy yet modern B&B. Coming in from the cold (-12) and wind I immediately appreciated one of those modern features: the heated tiled floor. Our room, too, was comfortable and quiet, and, by a twist of fate, we felt right at home: we were in the 'Latin American Room', ponchos, wall hangings and decor from places like Peru, Chile and Mexico where our hosts had spent time, as we have so often.

How lucky we were to have landed here! Our hosts told us how they had fallen in love with the church when it came for sale, still with pews, the old furnace, a septic system that had collapsed – but also the steep wooden ceiling and a beautiful stained-glass window facing east, how they had transformed it bit by bit to what it looks like now. Dan, who is a stone-mason, built a huge free-standing fireplace between the main area and the kitchen/dining area that, together with the in-floor heating, keeps this big space warm. Pam designs, and he puts it into practice. 

The high wall on one side features 'Downton Abbey' floor-to-ceiling bookshelves, and beautiful antique furniture add to the ambience of the place. After a delicious breakfast and more interesting stories from Dan and Pam's life we were on our way south again, well sustained to face whatever the day would bring us.

While the wind blew the snow around when we first looked out the window it proved to be not as bad as the night before once we were on the highway. The sun had started to shine, still veiled, but the wind was by far not as strong anymore, and we reached the border without problem. After the usual process, in our case longer than it needed to be since we had forgotten to take care of our ESTA online, conducted by friendly border guards, we continued on our way south.

We briefly stopped in Dutton, about 100 km south of the border, where Johann spent a summer working on a farm in 1973. Until three years ago we still visited the farmer's wife who lived at the seniors centre, but she passed away since then, and her daughter wasn't home, so we continued on, with a fuel stop at Costco in Helena. Here, we thought we had finally left poor roads behind – but once again we had to give up on that hope. We were glad when we finally arrived in Dillon at about six last night, light snow falling once again, the wind whipping the big flags across from our motel.

It looks a lot friendlier today, and even with the Monida Pass at the Idaho border still to cross we will hopefully have no trouble reaching Spanish Fork south of Salt Lake City tonight. The motel is booked, in any case.

                                                ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This is how far I got this morning. The internet in Dillon didn't let me post it, and by now it is Wednesday evening.

We are now at the hotel in Spanish Fork, after finally travelling on good roads, for a good part of the day in the sunshine. We started out from Dillon in -18 degrees Celsius, this cold staying with us until we had descended from Monida Pass (which, btw, was no problem at all). The country looked beautiful in its thin coating of new snow under the blue sky, the play of light and shadow on the round hills. Travel is easy and traffic very sparse until about Idaho Falls when the first hint of what is to come in the Salt Lake City area can be felt. 

Our timing wasn't perfect: we arrived on the outskirts of this huge city right around rush hour. Yet we managed to get through relatively well without any major holdup and arrived in Spanish Fork still in the light. 

By the time we reached Utah the temperature had climbed to +3 degrees, and with puddles on the side roads and water standing here and there in pastures, with geese, ducks, even swans, and starlings flying in groups, with kestrels and red-tailed hawks hovering over fields that from time to time showed some new green - well, who can blame me for seeing 'SPRING!' spelled out in capital letters, even if a snow shower greeted us when we got out of the car at the hotel?

Tomorrow morning we'll hike to Diamond Fork hot springs which we never reached on our last trip when we turned around to go back home from Arco, Idaho. It'll be great to get moving after three days of driving, to sit in hot water surrounded by snowy landscape.