By the time we finally arrived in Edmonton, having circumnavigated the city due to highways in North America being named with multiple names to confuse the foreigners, we were rank. Wet, smelly in body and clothing (especially shoes) and DIRTY. But this did not deter our relatives who welcomed us and our laundry with open arms at 11pm. South Africans, remember that legendary Skip soap-powder ad where the youthful son arrives home from jolling overseas and his mom says, ‘You know we thought that bulging back-pack was full of presents, but it was jam-packed with dirty laundry!’ and then holds the Skip box up to the camera with a plastic smile? We were that prodigal son and the Nunes were the present-less family.
The next four days consisted of laundry, catch-up time with the Nunes, sitting in the sun (ooh those Arctic-frozen bones were happy), more laundry, partaking of the conveniences of modern Western life (such as all-you-can-soak-up hot water streaming out of a metal pipe), even more laundry and Mark getting another tooth fixed. Yip, another one. We’re wondering if our travel insurance will cover 2 dental emergencies in 3 weeks. The man showed characteristic fortitude and endured his 3-hour wait with the ‘people’ at the city hospital with good grace. He then showed characteristic delight at a good deal when reporting that this tooth repair cost a third of the Fairbanks one. One for state-subsidised health care. This episode delayed our departure for Jasper National Park by a day, but this proved a fortuitous eventuality as we sneaked a family Saturday morning with more juicy bites and chin-wagging with Jen, Abs, Michael and Timothy.
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