Day 7--June 27--Creston to Cranbrook

Day 7--June 27--Creston to Cranbrook.  Today we lose Andrew as he is flying from Cranbrook back to Montreal.  However, he'd like to fit in just one more leg of the ride!  Of course!  The boys get away at 8 a.m. and Andrew will bike until 10.  It's a gradual climb out of Creston and the mountains surrounding us have changed colour again.  Just beautiful.  Creston is in a wide valley with market gardens and vineyards.  We pass cherry and apple orchards on our way out.  Helen and I can't believe how far the riders have gone before we catch up to them.  Of course, we've had to do our daily grocery run and pack up the rest of our gear.  I am now wary of the refrigerators in the rooms as I tend to leave things behind in them!  Getting better at this as I now have a note to self hanging on the handle of our plug-in cooler.  The cooler has been a godsend, by the way.  Have I noted before that Helen and my first order of business when we arrive is to get the beer and wine on ice so it will be cold for our riders?   As usual, I digress.  The drive today is very pretty with some rivers and a big lake (Moynie) thrown in.  We load Andrew and his bike at Yahk, famous because my dad sent Helen her first telegram from Yahk announcing Elsie's and his imminent arrival to Trail on the train.  This was in the Spring of 1948 so I guess I was along for the ride as well!!  Andrew left Gordon and Ward after giving them last-minute instructions.  As with Marlie and Tom's departure, and then Sou and Olin's,  this one was bittersweet as well.  I guess we really have been on a team journey!  It will be doubly hard to lose Helen when we reach Lethbridge as she has been such a tremendous support to me as well as to the riders.  She keeps the grocery list each day and makes sure the water bottles are refreshed, and helps out with the mapping, etc.  Everyone along the way is amazed that she is 81!!  She can outrun us all, and does!   We reached Cranbrook airport in good time and set ourselves up in the far reaches of the parking lot so we could get out our picnic and Andrew could get his bike loaded into its travel box.  The countryside looks quite open with lots of small ranches.  Everywhere we look, the Rockies are in the distance, craggy and looming, with some snow on the hillsides.  They are like a dark wall.  Quite a different feel from the Kootenays.  Then Helen and I headed back in to Cranbrook, a railway town (great museum of rail here, David Morse) which seems to stretch for miles along a strip of highway.  Not much in the actual centre--we kept driving around hoping to find a place to stay that wasn't on the highway strip.  No luck.  We finally settled in at the Elizabeth Lake Lodge, right on the highway  but with a pitch and putt golf course and a waterfowl park at the back.  Gorgeous rooms and lovely hosts.  The bonus is that there were laundry facilities.  This has turned out to be a great stop.  The riders arrived about 4 and immediately went to find a bike shop. Helen went for a walk, and Madge finally got out for a little bike ride around the town, my first on the trip.   We then all cleaned up and took our drinks out to the "golf course".  Great hilarity.   Dinner was at the Allegro, a cute restaurant with a Swiss chef.  Great food.  We lucked in yet again.  The time changed here.  We all of a sudden were an hour later.  It was lucky that Helen had realized this or Andrew would have missed his plane!!
All for now.
Madge