Day 49 -- Friday, August 13

I know I've been getting lazier and lazier in my writing to you, but I can offer no excuses. Please don't expect very much more mail. I'd rather watch scenery or read books (I finished "Anna Karenina" and I'm now on "Pocket Book of the Best Short Stories"), or just sleep. I've become very inept at that.

I've been continuing to enjoy myself. At Pacific Beach I had a swell time just resting. We went around the Olympic Peninsula (up near Vancouver Island) but then we were just traveling through virgin woodlands. It wasn't too interesting. We went back through Olympia and on to Seattle. That was a nice town. They have a farmers market down by the waterfront (Juan de Fuca Straits) and we all enjoyed ourselves just walking through the place. We stayed in the back yard of a relative of Pop's and we headed on the next day for Grand Coulee Dam. The dam was quite impressive because of it's size but outside of that we had seen almost the identical thing at Boulder Dam.

We've been having terrible weather. It has rained (not for a long time, but just enough to make it annoying) for the last six out of seven days. It's going to be swell when we get on to the Eastern side of the Rockies.

After the dam (I found the talk about their plans very interesting) we buzzed through Spokane and went up to Sandpoint, one of our mail-stops. We spent the next day there using the towns free athletic facilities. I emphasized cheap because Pop has gotten cheap about some things. For instance driving the car a mile or two, or skimping on the good food. The other day we ate in a restaurant and for lunch Pop limited us to 70¢. Tom had a 75¢ dinner and Pop made Tom pay him the nickel. Also, then, he asked us not to buy milk for we

had some in the car. That's getting cheap to me. I know what mother would say about that. You'd say, moth, that we should give it to him straight, but under the circumstances it is really quite impossible.

To continue, at Sandpoint we really had a good time playing football, basketball, ping pong, and doing a little swimming. That was the first sprinkling of athletics I've had this trip and I found out how much I missed it.

From Sandpoint we traveled the remaining 60 or so miles to the Canadian border and we worked our way up to Kimberly, a large mining district. It is said to be the largest iron, zinc and lead mine in the world -- the name -- the Sullivan Mine. In the morning we watched the crushing process (making the ore in the rocks smaller than 4 inches in diameter). In the afternoon we saw the concentration process, -- more crushing and finally the separating of the metals by a process called flotation. It was really worth seeing, but we weren't able to go into the mine itself. From our campsite there in Kimberly, we headed up to where I am now, Lake Louise, in Alberta, Canada. Traveling through beautiful Rocky Mt. country yesterday and today. The roads have been terrible in Canada but that was to be expected. We camped in Kootenay National Park. about 80 miles from here last night and we did the rest. Traveling today we saw a conglomeration of animals. We saw two coyotes -- later we saw two bear cubs. (I got pictures of both of them). Later on we saw two moose. I took a picture but I don't think it'll come out.

We finally got here at Lake Louise. It certainly is beautiful but very small (about 1 mile long and 200-500 yds wide). I know •cause I rented a canoe and had a nice ride. The hotel is quite impressive but they say the one at Bamph is much nicer (it's about 80 miles away). The thing that makes this place is the beautiful Victoria Glacier at the end of the lake. I would advise, however beautiful this place, that you don't base a tour on it. It is expensive as [hell], the roads are poor and it's a long way from anyplace. Once we're here it's nice. Keep the tennis courts at the shore in good shape. Hope you are completely rested.