Tuesday, June 22, 2004
Another french press of coffee brewed and poured, we were on the road again. With great brew in our hands, we drove on towards the Alberta border. Angelo and I were quite enamored with the beauty of the Crowsnest Pass. It is an immense valley with a lake on both sides of the highway and the Rockies seemingly guarding the border between BC and AB.
Shortly after the Pass, we arrived at the Frank Slide in Alberta. The last time we drove through this area, there was snow on the ground, so we missed the details of the monumental disaster. This time around we recognized this incredible marker of nature's power over man. Frank Slide is a place where the top of a mountain fell off and caused a massive slide of 90 million tons of rock to fall and buried an entire community called Frank, Alberta. Seventy people died while sleeping in their homes as the rubble tumbled down the mountain side. Driving through the area is incredible as the remainder of the rocks stay put and the highway is cleared to drive through them. The railway is also cleared from the rubble, making columns of lightly colored boulders on each side visible.
Driving on, we began to recognize the Rockies fading away while the dominating, fancy, massive "windmills" took over. These windmills (or properly termed: Vertical axis electric wind turbines) are sleek, creamy white, and perched above the land, disproportionate to the cars, houses and people of the prairie. I thought the shape of the three propellers were much like a human leg calf with a cockpit of a plane at the centre, behind the entirety of the propeller. Along the ridge of the hilled prairie landscape, wind turbines turned slowly at attention to the blasting wind. I preferred the turbine(s) that stood alone, like they had gone awol from the rest of the group.
Shortly after the Pass, we arrived at the Frank Slide in Alberta. The last time we drove through this area, there was snow on the ground, so we missed the details of the monumental disaster. This time around we recognized this incredible marker of nature's power over man. Frank Slide is a place where the top of a mountain fell off and caused a massive slide of 90 million tons of rock to fall and buried an entire community called Frank, Alberta. Seventy people died while sleeping in their homes as the rubble tumbled down the mountain side. Driving through the area is incredible as the remainder of the rocks stay put and the highway is cleared to drive through them. The railway is also cleared from the rubble, making columns of lightly colored boulders on each side visible.
Driving on, we began to recognize the Rockies fading away while the dominating, fancy, massive "windmills" took over. These windmills (or properly termed: Vertical axis electric wind turbines) are sleek, creamy white, and perched above the land, disproportionate to the cars, houses and people of the prairie. I thought the shape of the three propellers were much like a human leg calf with a cockpit of a plane at the centre, behind the entirety of the propeller. Along the ridge of the hilled prairie landscape, wind turbines turned slowly at attention to the blasting wind. I preferred the turbine(s) that stood alone, like they had gone awol from the rest of the group.
