Over the weekend I drove to Golden, British Columbia for the wedding of my friends Kristi and Tyson. It was an opportunity for a reunion with my university friends, specifically those that I lived in residence with. The timing was apropos as we had all gathered around this time last year for Daunean and Ian's wedding in Regina, and we were due for our yearly meetup. More of that in part two.
Part of the fun of this wedding was having an excuse to take my Jag for a cruise in the mountains for the first time. This meant driving up through Calgary, going through Banff National Park, doing some exploring around Lake Louise, and finally spending a few days up at the Kicking Horse Resort in Golden. I took the Friday off work to take the relaxing 6.5 hour drive from Medicine Hat with nothing else on the schedule that day except for meeting up with Jeanette that evening for dinner.
The day started out with cloudy skies, which were dashing some of my plans to stop more often and take pictures. It actually wasn't until just after Lake Louise that the clouds finally dispersed and the sun came out. Everything seemed perfect from there until Golden, except that evening I heard that the rain around Banff had caused a mudslide that was blocking the West bound traffic. I think I must have missed it by an hour or two, but it did cause delays for my other friends who had yet to make it out for the wedding.
I checked in at the Glacier Mountaineer Lodge late that afternoon, which was a very scenic 14km drive up the mountain from Golden at the Kicking Horse Resort. I was really impressed with the views and my room. The resort was actually pretty quiet over the weekend, and it was actually really nice feeling like we had so much of the place to ourselves. It was a great scene for the mountain top wedding to come, and the day long drive put me in a great mood. Those winding roads were a lot of fun.
Revisiting a few of the key locations from the Buick to the Future shorts my friend Tyler and I made in the summer of 2007 was a trip. With the series now 5 years old, it's tough not to think about it without film school memories flooding back in. The project really marked the beginning of the end of my time in Regina and university, so it seemed fitting to explore these scenes along with the film school itself.
In addition to being a little bit older ourselves, the locations actually have changed quite a bit. The Cinema 6 drive-in site where we shot the third episode was a giant marsh when we went out there. The movie screen has since been torn down and only the sign remains in a flooded ditch. In 2007 we took a picture underneath the sign, but couldn't get near as close this time.
The parking lot where we shot the first episode at the university has seen a few changes too. The road where we got the Buick up to 8mph has now been paved, and a new lab building sits in the background. Even the Buick now resembles a Jaguar.
Fremont Street, or Old Vegas as it's known, is a weird place to be in the morning. After a single night stop over on our way to California on our 2010 road trip, Dave and I awoke in a bit of a haze from the drinks, music, and casinos that fueled the previous evenings adventures. By morning light we weren't feeling too bad, but Fremont Street was practically bare compared to the shoulder to shoulder crowds that we'd experienced over the Sunday night of the Labor Day long weekend.
Despite all of the crazy and giant signs, the absence of glowing neon was like seeing the city without her makeup on. Not long after thinking that we realized how much blinking lights would irritate our modest hangovers and went back to looking for a good breakfast buffet. It was on to the Hoover Dam from there, followed by gridlock traffic along the interstate as everyone else was headed back to L.A. as we continued south.
