Suit Up Thy Man Suit!

Well, well its Finally September 1st!!!

That means I go home in 6 days, I cannot wait. I am so excited to get home to my old life and I'm excited to be out of Waterton. Don't get me wrong I have enjoyed this summer immensely but my time here is done. Especially now that all the freaky, weird, hybrid, mutant bugs seem to be coming out. Seriously, I have never in my life seen bugs like this. They have massive antennas, and then a body like a horse fly with the head of a dragonfly, and they are huge and everywhere. I tried to tan by the beach the other day and gave up because all of the flies!!

The Last Hurrah

So, though this summer has been incredible I felt that I haven't got to spend enough time playing. So we decided to take a couple of days off and head off on a little road trip. We left early, early Wednesday morning and drove through the Crows Nest Pass. I've never driven that way before so it was a wonderful drive. It's so beautiful. One of the coolest things we saw was the Frank Slide. The highway literally carves through a graveyard of massive boulders. It was insane and the weirdest thing was that the whole town that was demolished by that rock slide is still underneath it. It was very cool.

Then we entered B.C. which was very cool for me because I haven't been to B.C. except hiking two km into it. We drove through Sparwood, home of the world's largest truck!, on our way to our destination Fort Steele. Well, Fort Steele is basically like Fort Edmonton park. Its an old town that has been restored as a tourist attraction. We had planned to spend the whole day there but there really wasn't much to do and we left after an hour and a half. We did get some good pictures, even though we weren't supposed to take them! I'll upload a couple when I get home and my internet will allow me.

Our journey continued through B.C. to the border. We passed through some cool places, like Cranbrook, Fernie and my personal favourite Yahk! Yahk is basically three little shops alongside the highway but its really cool. There is a little soap shop where they have built a small ramp up to the roof which has sod planted on it, and their goats, and baby goats head up there and chill. Totally hiliarous. Yahk also had the best ice cream I have had this summer and considering where I am live, thats saying something!

We made it across the border and continued our journey through Idaho. We travelled on the I-95 which is one of the weirdest highways I have ever been on. Its two lanes the whole way and it cuts through residental areas in three towns. We drove across this massive 1 km long bridge over a lake that was huge. Finally we made it to our destination for the night, Bayview, Idaho where we had booked a campground. Our campground was beautiful and Bayview was a cool little town. It was on the edge of that huge lake I mentioned so there was a huge marina that we walked down to. We set up camp and then headed into Couer d'Alene for dinner. While we there we saw G.I. Joe, and you know what, its not even worth a comment. That tells you just how bad it was.

Well, what was the point of this whole trip? Silverwood theme park, in Athol, Idaho which is basically Couer d'Alene. Somehow this was my idea. Anyway Silverwood was intense and a lot of fun. I personally hate rides (then why did I suggest it?) but I still had a lot of fun. We started the day off with the roller coasters which were jittery and unpleasant for me, but still somehow fun. The worst one is called Tremors. Its an old wood coaster that is literally designed to make you feel like you are going to fall off. It goes at least 65 mph, if not more, through tunnels! Its really freaky because no matter how tight you do your seat belt (and trust me, my seat belt was tight!) you still lifted off your seat, especially when you were heading down into the tunnels. It felt like you were going to smack your head every time, so in the roller coaster photo I was leaning forward! Anyway I made it through that one, and for some reason we went on it again at the end of the day and sat at the back. Normally the back is safe, but not on this ride. The back is ten times more rough and our car literally lifted off the tracks. I'm not even joking it was literally off the tracks!!

Anyway I passed one important test, sitting in the very front of a roller coaster which I have never done before. Now it was the easiest coaster we did, but it was also the first one and I survived. I was fairly proud of myself, which kinda shows you just how much of a wimp I am. After the coasters we headed to the log ride (which I normally love) but this one was lame and totally not underrated, so that was disappointing. However their white water raft ride is amazing, I got more wet on that ride then I did on the one at California adventure!!

We played two arcade games and the first one, we won buckets of ammo for this other game/ride. It was so sweet. They had these little boats that you could ride in like a submarine and shot water and balls at your opponents. We traded in our buckets of ammo for the boat ride and had a total blast spraying each other through the cracks in the front. It was awesome, and I got totally soaked. When the balls hit the boats it was so loud because of the covers. My gun stopped working halfway through and by then my competitive side had come out, so I was screaming and hitting my gun trying to get it to work so I could defend myself. Sadly, it never worked.

After the boat ride and when we were good and wet we decided to head over to the Water park. Yes, Silverwood has a waterpark too!! I loved the waterpark, the slides were fun, nowhere near West Edmonton Mall standards but still fun, and it was nice to chill out in the sun. We had a great time!!

Well there was only one ride I wimped out on. Its a roller coaster called Aftershock. Look it up online, it is seriously insane. Everyone else went on it, but I was too afraid. For good reason. The aftershock has two huge poles that go up at least 150 feet into the air. The car rides up the poles, like the drop of doom at West End, and then drops and speeds, essentially upside down the whole way through a series of twists and turns before it goes back up the second pole and drops you again. Finally you go up one more time, and then head home. There is no way I was doing that. Seriously, look it up and you will see what I mean. I already have my sign that roller coasters are not for me, (three times strapped into the Mindbender at West Ed, and never ridden it, thanks to mechanical problems, and many many prayers!!) so despite my companions protests, I'm still not feeling the sting of regret!!

We ended our day and began our drive home. This trip was a lot of fun and a totally awesome way to end the summer. Now I'm just twiddling my thumbs until I head home and get to party with all my friends!! I'm very excited to head home and start school and my old life again. I've really enjoyed my summer here and I think I've accomplished a lot. Now I've got to make it just a couple more days!!

Guilty Pleasure
Ok, road trips are always about turning the music up loud. Now my companions and I have widely different tastes in music but we still managed to have a good time for the twelve hours we spent driving. I've discovered things though that disturb me. My guiltiest taste of music. Oh gosh, I am a sucker for Lady Gaga, why?! I have no idea how this happened but my the third time we listened to lovegame (and the first time I asked for it) I quit fighting it and just sang along to the disco stick song. It hurts my brain and heart but my toes cannot stop tapping. I think I lost a little respect for myself on this trip. Don't worry though, I'll still keep trying to fight it, because I just won't be maddy without my pretentious music.