Current Weather Conditions...

wishing it were fall. Due to Jole's lack of blogittment, the Gone North presence in the blogosphere has turned into a Sarah-only project for the past 12 months, but I am ready to reclaim cyberspace.

Lots has happened, including autumn. It lasted for...about a week. Actually, that's not true, we had an amazing fall and were out on the roadbikes and mtn bikes until the third week of october. We had snow for halloween and it is currently very cold and very snowy. As a result of said snow, ski season has started and we managed to make use of our passes once so far as we braved the -35 degrees with windchild last night.

Jole just returned from Indianapolis where he attended the International Dyslexia Association Conference. It was a very good conference and in between hearing highly educated people give workshops, jole even got to experience all the americana that the middle-american city had to offer including the meals with choices that included red meat, red meat and red meat. The meat hangover is still lingering.

Other highlights included the restaurant/bar/arcade/dance club/bowling alley - 3 floors of pure enjoyment - and the "mall". Hanging out in droves at the mall were literally hundreds of highschol students who were visiting Indianapolis for the Bands of America High School Marching Band Grand National Championships.

This was simply one of the most interstingly bizarre things I have ever seen. The event took place inside the 70,000 seat RCA dome (Like BC Place) and saw dozens of 200-300 student marching bands strut their stuff with trombones, tubas, saxaphones, flutes, trumpets, flags, dancers, rifle twirlers and drummers in highly choreographed routines that amazed and dazzled the accumulated throngs of spectators. It was truly an experience from another planet. The costumes, the makeup, the hair, the white gloves...wow.

Another highlight was the the Eiteljorg (pronounced eye-tell-j-org...???) Museum of American Indians and Western art. Hmmm...a "cowboys and indians" museum...the irony is far too tempting.

All in all the midwest was an experience that was pleasantly surprising. I was blown away by how friendly people were. It was almost creepy friendly. almost. But the funny accent made me chuckle to myself before I could be creeped out. And then there were the people who asked me if i had problems with polar bears in my front yard...

here are some photos too - we missed the polar bears , they were grazing a few hours before we took these shots. One is Sarah in the leaves, one is Todd Cunningham and I shooting the "Gums of Death" rapids (Class 3 eh!!) on the Takhini River and one shot is our uncompleted (at the time) shed. Enjoy rainy November for those of you in Vancouver. We'll be down at Chirstmas and hope to see all of you then.