Strangely enough, my capacity to retro-post has disappeared! Could this be a mac thing? Will try to log in on a pc and see if I can modify this... K - seems to be a mac thing... I was able to retropost just fine from my laptop. Strange.

Anyway, this post is actually from October 30th... written in Midway during the recent Kootenay tour...

Midway, BC

This morning started out in a re-powered Kaslo. Had a hearty breakfast at the Treehouse Café – my standard road trip fare of two eggs, over easy, hash browns, toast, and coffee. Then, over to the big, old wooden building, up the stairs, and inside – to find myself in the town hall with some very confused clerks staring at my gigantic portfolio.

“Library?”
“Downstairs.”
A teeny, weeny library was, indeed, tucked into the basement – the double wooden doors under the big stairs I’d just schlepped up and then down. A small group (25 students in a Grade ¾ split and a handful of parents) joined us for a really friendly, fun session. When I held up the big photo of the tower at Aigues Mortes, ready to launch into my spiel about how the tower got transformed into the Tower of Carnillo one of the moms squeaked in the back row and said, “I was just there last week – that’s Aigues Mortes!” What a shock. Turns out her parents-in-law live there! There were a few other out-of-the-usual responses to my questions in this group.

“What does a farrier do to your horse?”
One boy suggested, “Takes it away for meat?”

Hmmm…. And in answer to my question about design flaws in my badly drawn spaceship copied from a notebook circa 1970 one girl suggested it didn’t have any chocolate bar storage. Indeed. A critical design flaw.

Wrapped up shortly after 10:30, hopped in the car and headed down the highway for Nelson. The sun had come out (thank goodness) so though there were occasional stray snowflakes, it was nothing like what I had to endure yesterday.

In Nelson, parked, ran to the bank to deposit the SNP cheque for Dani and run in to pick up a couple of sandwiches, a chocolate bar, and two pepperoni sticks at the deli. Ate the roast beef sandwich in the car as I dashed from the deli to the school and set up for the next talk, this time two split classes – grades 3-4 and 5-6, about 60 kids in total. This was another excellent, attentive, fun group despite the fact we went nearly the full 90 minutes at the end of the afternoon on the day before Halloween. Tomorrow the whole school seems to be participating in a talent show – too bad I couldn’t have seen some of that.

Diane had driven up from Winlaw and was parked outside the school with a care package – a fresh box of Kleenex (I’m still getting over my cold) and a bag full of tasty food – croissants, cookies, a couple of delish creamy smooth fruity drinks that double as meals and contain eighty-seven servings of veggies each, and a mocha! Oh, and chocolate!!!!! What a treat!

Then, a loooong drive to the west, listening to Gilead on my broadcasting ipod, racing the dying light to make it to Midway just as darkness was completing its arrival. Gilead is probably a little too contemplative for my ideal driving listen – I think I might switch to something else tomorrow for the drive to Trail and finish Gilead after I get home.