Day 3, easier on the legs!

What3words: repaired.riddle.drags

For day 3 we were 'up and at 'em' bright and early - mainly because I kept saying we were going to Cranmore (which is tomorrow and almost 5 hours from where we were) instead of Cranbrook - which is today and where we are now.....I really must work on my memory skills :)

The drive here was, once again, stunning. Just us, a few trucks and vast mountains. I truly hope I never get tired of these views.

It is much greener here, no fire devastation so the trees are fully verdant.

We took a side trip to Fernie, which was just as you would expect to see in the movies or American TV - similar to the 'Good Witch' if anyone has watched that on Netflix.

What3words: lampshade.clues.airstrikes.

This was such an unexpected find, it was not on our itinerary at all, but it was well worth the detour. Imagine waking up to this view every day.

Or when you go to do your shopping and this is what you see from aisle five.....

or this is where you park your bike....

These are the Three Sisters - I actually see four peaks, but who am I to argue with the locals!

and these are the types of shops you wander past

The primary schools were just finishing as we entered the town and there were loads of kids with painted faces being quite hyper - it is obviously a great place to bring up children, there was lots of laughter and it felt good to be in the midst of it all.

The railroad is clearly important to this area, I was reading in the town museum about the railway whistle, and how it has been sounding in the town for over 100 years. We just steped back into the street and there it sounded - I have to say there was something very familiar about it, but I think it is the soundtrack to any movie that has a train in it!

Fernie is definately not at the budget end of locations though, lots of artisan shops showing work by local artists - mainly paintings and jewelry, and several snowboarding stores, with the labelled clothing that goes along with outdoor activities. Even the changing rooms were top end and bougee...

We got to Cranbrook at about 2pm, and called in to the Visitor Centre to see what they recommended that we did not miss.....Between the car and the door - literally 20 feet, there was a sudden gust of wind and we got drenched! We could not figure it out, but after much scratching of heads we realised that the hanging basket above us had been watered and the wind had blown the surface water all over us. The Visitor centre staff suggested the History Museum, which was all about trains, or the Heritage Museum which was closing at 3pm - so we opted for a mooch around the town and a coffe in a sweet coffee shop connected to a bar. We played pool and I was whooped well and truly - well, she is her mother's daughter!

There is some pretty cool graffiti - as I said, the railroad is important here...

Went to check in at the motel and completely confused the check in clerk who had never seen a European driving licence - he asked for my passport instead and when I reached out to get my licence back off him, I knocked the whole plexiglass screen off the counter and it smashed to smitherenes - eek! People are still very Covid wary here - the US has only opened the borders two days ago, so things are only now starting to become more normalised.

We decided on an easy night and did something we don't do often enough - we went to the pictures. (what3words: withdraws.skinning.diodes).

The movie theatre was in the back of a parking lot,

and becasue we were 20 minutes early for the showing, they would not sell us popcorn, as they like to pop it just before you eat it, and they did not want it to go stale while we waited for the movie - how sweet (not the popcorn, they apparently don't do sweet popcorn over here!). The cinema itself was lovely, the seats were huge and super comfy, and although we opted for the regular seating, the seats reclined, and also rocked back and forth, which was handy as we saw the Elvis Presley movie and rocked out in our seats. Not pertaining to Canada, but the movie was excellent!

On the way back we saw a couple of deer just munching on the grass by the side of the road, they were so relaxed it would have been rude to stop the car and photograph them.

We are in for a treat tomorrow as we will drive over Kootenay Pass - I get the feelng it will be like Snaefell Pass, only bigger - everything is bigger here - but we will see....