Wouldn’t you know that things never end up going according to plan.   Granted, truth be told, I didn’t really have an extensive plan.  On Friday, I decided that it was the day I was going to leave to begin my vacation time in Alberta.  You know what that means. . . ROAD TRIP!!  I packed up my belongings and began the drive with the hope that along the way I would have the opportunity to take some pictures.  I was surprised by the lack of congestion on the highway, afterall, it was a Friday afternoon.  Where were all the weekend vacationers?  I chalked it up to good timing and continued on my way.

Just past Chilliwack however, my good fortune changed.  Traffic slowed to a snail’s pace and I could see that it was backed up quite a ways.  “No sweat,” I thought to myself, since I had no real schedule and was in no rush to be any particular place.  Thirty-five minutes later, I was able to see what was causing traffic to slow.  It was an accident.  Hard to tell, really, what happened, but it didn’t look good.  Off to the right-hand side of the road was a tractor trailer hauling huge pieces of lumber.  The driver was out of the cab and appeared to be rearranging a few loose pieces.  Off to the left-hand side of the road was a police car with his lights flashing and directly behind him, a black SUV with a camper.  I’m assuming the SUV had at one point been hauling the camper, but as I passed, they were no longer connected and the SUV was turned around facing the opposite direction with a huge hole smashed into the passenger-side window.  I can only imagine what chain of events led to that scene and I hope and pray that none of the passengers I saw sitting along the side of the road were seriously hurt.

Interestingly enough, the next few hours were completely uneventful, aside from the black bear ambling across the road.  I relaxed and took in the beautiful scenery as I drove.  As the clouds started to roll in and the sun began its decent, I decided I would stop for the night in Valemount, BC.  I would get a room at the Super 8 and then head back to a quaint little lake, I had seen just outside the town, in time to get some great sunset shots.  Great plan, right?  If only it had worked out. . . Instead, when I arrived at the Super 8 I realized I probably should have booked my room ahead of time (oops). . . There was no room at the Inn, nor the chalet across the way, or the Ramada down the road.  What could a girl do?  Find a cute little, out-of-the-way place to stay that ended up being cheaper (woo hoo)!  Except, by the time I had registered for the room and settled in, storm clouds had overtaken the sky and alas, there were no beautiful sunset pictures to be taken.

In my mind though, this wasn’t a huge setback.  The weather report said things should be clearing up by morning.  New plan.  Go to sleep early in order to be well rested for a 4:00am alarm.  Sunrise pics!  YAY!  Ummmm. . . not so much.  Hello, insomnia.  There I lay, tossing and turning, for hours on end.  I believe I finally fell asleep by 3:00am, a mere hour before my alarm was set to go off.  Funny thing. . . I don’t remember my alarm going off and didn’t wake up until almost 9:00am.  So much for that plan.  However, I decided that even though my plan for awesome pics didn’t quite come to fruition, I was going to make the best of the day.  I was able to spend an incredible afternoon in Jasper, AB and made some plans for the photo trip my mom and I will be taking in about a week.  Following that trip I will have more photos to share here that will be added to our store.  Until then you can still take a look at the various prints we have to offer, along with our Featured Print for this month, The Future’s End.