Holiday Monday

With Remembrance Day falling on a Sunday this year, most businesses were closed on Monday, mine included.  Jon and I stayed out at Nordegg on Sunday night.  We both awoke feeling a little groggy and with heads full of cobwebs... a result of a little too much celebration the night before.  We evenutally shook this off and got going.

We did most of the cleanup in the cottage that morning, making sure that the dishes were done and things were tidied up so that we could make a prompt departure later.  We both felt quite a bit better once we got outside into the fresh air and did some walking.  We headed up into Nordegg and parked the truck by the old railway trestle.  We walked along the old railway right of way.  Our first stop was at the shanty town of squatters shacks that had been built down along the railway track.  The mine operated from 1910 to 1953 so these shacks date back at least 65 years.  Some were just sort of cobbled together while others were made out of old railway cars.  They are badly deteriorated now and won't be around much longer.  Even the railway right of way is beginning to get very grown over with trees.

We also wandered in to the base of the mine site and poked around a little at the old briquette press at the lower edge of the site.  The mine is a registered historic site and access is normally by guided tour.  The tours don't operate at this time of year so we showed respect and only wandered around a little and took a couple of pictures before hiking back out.

It was quite a bit warmer on Monday with the temperature rising up to about 4 or 5 degrees.  But, it felt cooler than the day before.  It wasn't as sunny, the humidity level seemed to be up a bit, and there was a bit of a breeze.  But is was still a very pleasant day for mid November.

We got back down to the cottage by about 1:00.  We packed up our gear and locked up the cottage and managed to hit the road around 2:30.  We stopped for a late lunch in Rocky Mountain House and arrived back in the city at about 6:00.  Jon transferred all his stuff into his vehicle and headed for home.  By the time I finished unpacking my stuff it was time to head over to my weekly guitar lesson.  This topped off a very full and enjoyable weekend.  It was really nice to catch up again with Jon, and for a change I didn't work very much this weekend.