Life on the Road: Elk, Rain, Tim Horton’s and Breathtaking Scenery

VANCOUVER, British Columbia – I was supposed to fly from Edmonton to Vancouver on Thursday. I booked a ticket to do so a couple months ago. Except, I actually booked it for Dec. 15, not Nov. 15.

That boneheaded error will cost me some money in the end, not only for the “No chance in hell we’re giving you a refund or credit” type of ticket I had with Flair Airlines, but for the $150 or so in gas it’ll take to get from Alberta to British Columbia and back. It’s about 750 miles each way.

But, you know what? Maybe it will prove to have been a blessing in disguise. If I hadn’t made the stupid, idiotic, boneheaded booking mistake, I never would have seen an Elk by the side of the highway on the drive from Edmonton to Vancouver on Thursday.

I never would have seen the mountains in Jasper, Alberta, like this:

Or, this:

I wouldn’t have enjoyed the Double Double I had here in a leisurely ski town:

And, I wouldn’t have been able to do something tomorrow that I now have planned, that I think you’ll like.

This is probably my 100th combined trip to both Alberta and Vancouver in the last 25 years doing this, but I’d never seen the country in between like I have this week. Do I wish I had a refund for El Cheapo Air? Yeah. But you can’t have everything.