Phoenix City is full of energy: Five Rocky Mountain Odyssey - Hope to see gold

Phoenix City is full of energy: Five Rocky Mountain Odyssey - Hope to see gold The trip entered the fourth day. This morning, I loaded all my luggage into the car and left the Vancouver Coast Hotel...

The Phoenix City is full of energy: Rocky Mountain Odyssey Part 5 - Hope to See Gold. The trip entered the fourth day. This morning, I loaded all my luggage into the car, left the Vancouver Coast Hotel, and set off for the Rocky Mountains. Tour guide Lao Xie told us that today’s journey is the longest, taking a total of nine hours. We will first arrive at Hope Town for a visit and stay overnight in Golden Town. Good sign! Full of hope, and seeing gold again. Looking along the way, there are high mountains, snow-capped mountains, seas, rivers and lakes with sparkling waves. It reminds me of the wonderful couplet of Li Wenfu, a man from the Qing Dynasty: "Green water is originally worry-free, but its face is wrinkled by the wind; green mountains are not old, but are white-headed by snow." Isn't life like this? The social environment affects you and even changes your life. "People are in the world, and they have no choice but to do what they want." All Vietnamese Chinese of my generation have had their personal expectations for the future changed by the situation of the Vietnam War. The journey was long, and there was no phonograph equipment on the car, only movies. The tour guide was afraid that everyone would be confused, so he proposed to hold a self-introduction activity in the hope that tourists from all walks of life could communicate with each other and enhance friendship. Instead of speaking individually, according to the registered group, one member would be sent to the front seat of the car to speak with a microphone, and the tour guide would translate. He led by example. He first introduced himself as being from Taiwan and settled in California. He worked as a tour guide for Golden Holidays, mainly responsible for Canadian tours. He came here in May and June to serve. This group was the last group of the year. After the end, he flew back to Los Angeles to reunite with his family. Then the speeches took turns according to the seats. For example, the Taiwanese six-person group was represented by a woman, the three Shanghai seniors who immigrated to New Jersey were also narrated by an old woman, and the two Vietnamese couples were a combination of Houston and Orange County. The Vietnamese women also spoke in English. It seems that the women in this tour group are much stronger than the men. Of course, I was the one who spoke. The other couple, Mr. and Mrs. Lan, who are also from Taiwan, and the Indian couple were the men who spoke. There was also Mr. Mei from Guangzhou who participated alone. A young Taiwanese named Pang finally saved the man from losing his temper. Arranging the program in this way is unique and it is the first time I have tried it since joining a tour group. After a two-hour drive, we arrived at Hope Town. This is just a small urban area, quiet and peaceful. There are plaques of Hope placed in the park beside the road, and there are also some wood carvings of wild beasts, which are vivid in shape. It is said that in the 19th century, people dug gold mines in the nearby Shafi Valley, hoping to get rich from gold, so they named it "Hope". Later, it became a tourist attraction due to the filming of the movie "First Blood". With hope in mind, we continued to Golden Town and walked eastward along the Fraser River. We passed an attraction called "The Last Spike." We got off the car and visited. We saw that this railway across the American continent and connecting the East and the Pacific Coast was no different from ordinary railways. It was just that the construction was difficult in the past. When we reached the intersection here, the builders successfully laid the last spike. Later, the Canadian government built a monument, which became a must-pass tourist stop when traveling to the Rockies. I looked down and observed that every nail head on the railway was the same, except that one of them was glazed with golden yellow as a mark. The tour bus continued on to Golden Town and stopped at the tourist resort of Kelowna, also known as Grizzly Town, at noon. According to the tour guide, the orchards and wineries here are very famous, there are also casinos and bars, and there is a beautiful lake area. Due to lack of time, we mainly tasted delicious Chinese food here and followed the car tour to see the scenery. In the evening, we finally saw Golden Town. The scenery here is beautiful, the mountains are majestic, and the environment is quiet. It is the main entrance and exit for tourism in the Rocky Mountains. We were arranged to have food and accommodation here. The station wagon parked in front of the Golden Horse Restaurant, and I saw other tour groups dining here. The business was very prosperous, especially this week is the Canadian Thanksgiving holiday. There were so many tourists here that the owner’s little girl also had to help serve. We had already reserved seats and had to wait for the diners who came first to leave before we could sit down. While waiting for dinner, I called Qin Songye and Lu Shuling, the couple who live in Calgary, to get in touch and see if we could come and get together. They are my old classmates. In 2005, they came to Phoenix to visit me and traveled to the Grand Canyon together. It has been seven years since then. I originally planned to go on a free trip to Canada in September. I would stop at Calgary's Qinfu before setting off to other places. However, due to the unavailability of several friends' schedules, I had to cancel the trip. In the end, Taizu was so happy that he participated in this seven-day tour of the Rocky Mountains. The phone was connected. The old classmates were very happy and exchanged greetings. I told them that we had arrived in Huanghuang Town. They said they were about 90 minutes away by car. During the conversation, they did not express any intention of coming to meet. It is no wonder that because of their age, it is inconvenient to travel, and it is not safe to drive far at night. The driver, Brother Hua, told me that I would stay in Kenmore Town, east of Banfu tomorrow night, which is the closest place to Calgary, so we should be able to meet up. It was our turn to enter the Golden Horse Restaurant and enjoy the Cantonese cuisine in Golden Town. The dishes were good and everyone was satisfied. After the meal, we transferred to a nearby hotel to sleep. The tour guide told us that we can buy breakfast food at the nearby convenience store tonight or tomorrow morning. Since the hotel does not have catering facilities, we will officially travel to the Rocky Mountains tomorrow, and there will be no restaurants to provide services along the way.