Well, all good things must come to an end - so we are starting the long trip home today. I tried to sleep all day so that we would have to stay, but I just couldn't do it. So, up we got, bathed, dressed, ate breakfast and headed east (kind of east). Actually we started east a little, then south, then east - but that is just the way it worked.
As neither of us had ever been to North Dakota, we decided to take highway 2 which crosses a lot of the border states - and across Montana and North Dakota appears to be almost straight. So, it is kind of like driving across Kansas, but a little bit cooler.
The only animal other than cows and horses that we saw was one deer who jumped a fence after he crossed the road. We did see a lot more hay. And, we saw fields planted with wheat. And, there were a lot of silos.
We stopped for the night at a hotel's rv park (maybe 20 spaces) in Glasgow, MT. I ran to the grocery store to get milk, stopped by the local Dairy Queen to get my first sweet of the entire trip, and back to the coach. Jimmy was waiting for the sun to go down, and then he was going to wash the coach and the car. I took my twenty dollar bill and went to the casino. Actually, the casino consisted of about eight slot machines and/or video poker machines in the lounge area of the hotel. Since I only play video poker, and since the only video poker machine was available, I put my $20 bill in the machine. About 30 minutes later, I had $80 in the machine. So, I cashed it out and went back to the rv park.
Jimmy had washed one side of the coach. There were two couples who had been regaling him with stories of their trips to Alaska. Jimmy really wants to make a trip to Alaska in the coach. I, however, am not going to do it. I would be willing to fly to Alaska and rent an rv, or take an Alaskan cruise, or fly to Alaska and stay in hotels. I am not going to spend two months driving to and from Alaska!!! Ain't gonna happen (she said).
Anyway, he finished the coach and I started on the Jeep. The only person who stopped to talk to me was a guy who was traveling to California via Yellowstone on his motorcycle!!!! But, he did help me wash the Jeep. Being vertically disadvantaged means that I can't reach the middle of the hood, the middle of the front window or the top of the car. Jimmy came over to help finish it up.
Oh - I forgot - I also cooked dinner. I really hated that. But, there really wasn't much in the little town. The people were super nice, but it was not a large place. I think maybe even Holly Springs might have had it beat!!!
More tomorrow.
Saturday, July 30, 2011
July 28 - Going to the Sun Road
We spent the evening at the same KOA at which we had stayed the last time we came to Glacier National Park. Once again, the satellite internet connectivity was spotty. However, I was able to use my air card to get on the internet, but I didn't do too much. Of course, the cell phone did not work at all in St. Mary nor in the park.
I know this is going to sound strange, but I was not as impressed with the Going to the Sun Road the second time around. The park is very strange, there is really only one road (the Going to the Sun Road) which goes into the park for any distance at all - and it goes all the way across. There are a lot of hikes one can do in the park - and we did one or two. I continue to be in awe of how man was able to hone that road through the mountains. There is an itunes podcast which you can download to your i- whatever you have - which is great to use as you drive over the mountain. I also found an application on the various national parks, but I was never able to download it.
When we got to West Glacier - cell service kicked in - so I got caught up on telephone calls, Jimmy got caught up on telephone calls, and I cleared all of my emails. We continued on to see the wonderful hotel at West Glacier. I continue to be amazed at the size of the trees used for the pillars in the lobby of the hotel.
I probably don't have near the number of pictures from this trip as from the last, so I'm going to just include the links to the pictures from the last time we were here!!! I know that is cheating, but if you missed them the first time, you can enjoy them this time. And, if I had not told you I was recycling pictures - you would never have known.
Pictures to follow. Some are pictures I took this year, but I am linking the ones from the past trip.
More later.
I know this is going to sound strange, but I was not as impressed with the Going to the Sun Road the second time around. The park is very strange, there is really only one road (the Going to the Sun Road) which goes into the park for any distance at all - and it goes all the way across. There are a lot of hikes one can do in the park - and we did one or two. I continue to be in awe of how man was able to hone that road through the mountains. There is an itunes podcast which you can download to your i- whatever you have - which is great to use as you drive over the mountain. I also found an application on the various national parks, but I was never able to download it.
When we got to West Glacier - cell service kicked in - so I got caught up on telephone calls, Jimmy got caught up on telephone calls, and I cleared all of my emails. We continued on to see the wonderful hotel at West Glacier. I continue to be amazed at the size of the trees used for the pillars in the lobby of the hotel.
I probably don't have near the number of pictures from this trip as from the last, so I'm going to just include the links to the pictures from the last time we were here!!! I know that is cheating, but if you missed them the first time, you can enjoy them this time. And, if I had not told you I was recycling pictures - you would never have known.
Pictures to follow. Some are pictures I took this year, but I am linking the ones from the past trip.
More later.
Wednesday, July 27, 2011
July 27, 2011 - Waterton to St. Mary's
Our intent was to get up early this morning since we wanted to take the 10 am cruise on Waterton Lake and we would need to park the coach in one of the tour bus parking spaces (permission had been given the day before). However, we actually woke up about at about 8:30 am - which gave us a little less than an hour to bathe, dry hair, do my makeup and get the coach (and us) down to the harbor. Believe it or not, we made it. I drove the car so that I could get in line for the tickets as soon as I got there. Jimmy and The Bear drove the coach.
As I walked up to get our tickets, there was an older lady and her husband who were buying 38 tickets. Luckily, they sold me my two tickets while a second attendant was figuring out how much she would owe - since all of the tickets were not adults. I cleared out all but about 17 cents of my Canadian money buying the tickets for the cruise - so that was a good thing!!! The Bear attracted a good bit of attention to the coach, because he was intently watching what was going on, standing in the window so people could see him, and all around being cute. Peaches was asleep on her bath mat - so she didn't care what we were doing.
The cruise went south on the lake and actually crossed the 49th parallel - the border between the US and Canada. They actually cut down the trees along the border and put up monolith like markers where a hiker in the US (or Canada) can determine if they are crossing the border. If you had your passport (we did not), you could actually get a special stamp that the US Border Agents use which is the Goat Haunt entry stamp. We didn't even have a piece of paper on which he could have done the stamp. The trip up was quite educational about the mountains in the area. We spent about 15 or 20 minutes walking along the edge of the lake. Others on the cruise were actually taking longer hikes and catching later cruises to return to the harbor. On the way back, we sighted a bald eagle (I got pictures, but you can only see a white speck unless you zoom in on the picture) and a bear (again, you would have to zoom in quite a bit). The most interesting thing we saw was a rock formation which the guide called a V and an A. Essentially, when the tectonic plates hit up against one another to form the Rocky Mountains, in this plate the rocks bent but did not break. I got pictures of that which will be uploaded later. Really cool. He said that people getting married would frequently rent one of the cruise boats and come out there to have the ceremony conducted.
After a brief lunch on the coach in the parking lot, we hooked up the car and headed south to the United States of America. About seven miles before the border, there was a bear on the left side of the road. It is much more difficult to pull the coach over on the side of the road to get pictures, so we missed pictures of that one.
When we arrived at the border, there was a big bunch of motorcycles waiting to cross. We were next in line after them. So, we put on the brake and waited. When we were motioned forward, the border agent was on my side of the coach. So, I let him in the door. He asked pretty standard questions of us (where are you from, where have you been, how long were you there, are you bringing in any illegal aliens, etc.). All of the time he was asking questions, he was petting The Bear on the head. Peaches, once again, slept through all of the petting. He also came on the coach. He had to look behind every door on the coach to make sure there was no one hiding behind them. He looked in the freezer, but I think he was really looking for ice cream - at least, that is what he said he was looking for!!! They let us through, so we must not have broken any laws.
There is a section of road that you go through coming from the border to St. Mary where cows kind of roam free. At that point, we saw more cows than we had seen elk and moose combined. We pulled into the KOA at which we had previously stayed and got settled into our space. Nothing has changed. The wifi is satellite and it is really sketchy. Right now, I am updating using my air card and praying that it is not roaming!!! After I cleared up emails using their wifi, we headed off to a point within Glacier National Park called Many Glacier. We saw a bunch of people stopped to look at one bear on the way in. We checked out the campgrounds in the park. Then, we had a light dinner of soup and salad at the hotel at Many Glacier. Again, there are pictures coming. On the drive out, we did see another bear. Once again, with my point and click cameras, you will have to zoom in to see the bear - but he was definitely there. The ranger said it was a brown bear.
We are now back at the campground. We will drive the Going to the Sun Road tomorrow. Hopefully we will be somewhere with a strong internet connection when we stop on Friday evening and I can get all of the pictures uploaded.
As I walked up to get our tickets, there was an older lady and her husband who were buying 38 tickets. Luckily, they sold me my two tickets while a second attendant was figuring out how much she would owe - since all of the tickets were not adults. I cleared out all but about 17 cents of my Canadian money buying the tickets for the cruise - so that was a good thing!!! The Bear attracted a good bit of attention to the coach, because he was intently watching what was going on, standing in the window so people could see him, and all around being cute. Peaches was asleep on her bath mat - so she didn't care what we were doing.
The cruise went south on the lake and actually crossed the 49th parallel - the border between the US and Canada. They actually cut down the trees along the border and put up monolith like markers where a hiker in the US (or Canada) can determine if they are crossing the border. If you had your passport (we did not), you could actually get a special stamp that the US Border Agents use which is the Goat Haunt entry stamp. We didn't even have a piece of paper on which he could have done the stamp. The trip up was quite educational about the mountains in the area. We spent about 15 or 20 minutes walking along the edge of the lake. Others on the cruise were actually taking longer hikes and catching later cruises to return to the harbor. On the way back, we sighted a bald eagle (I got pictures, but you can only see a white speck unless you zoom in on the picture) and a bear (again, you would have to zoom in quite a bit). The most interesting thing we saw was a rock formation which the guide called a V and an A. Essentially, when the tectonic plates hit up against one another to form the Rocky Mountains, in this plate the rocks bent but did not break. I got pictures of that which will be uploaded later. Really cool. He said that people getting married would frequently rent one of the cruise boats and come out there to have the ceremony conducted.
After a brief lunch on the coach in the parking lot, we hooked up the car and headed south to the United States of America. About seven miles before the border, there was a bear on the left side of the road. It is much more difficult to pull the coach over on the side of the road to get pictures, so we missed pictures of that one.
When we arrived at the border, there was a big bunch of motorcycles waiting to cross. We were next in line after them. So, we put on the brake and waited. When we were motioned forward, the border agent was on my side of the coach. So, I let him in the door. He asked pretty standard questions of us (where are you from, where have you been, how long were you there, are you bringing in any illegal aliens, etc.). All of the time he was asking questions, he was petting The Bear on the head. Peaches, once again, slept through all of the petting. He also came on the coach. He had to look behind every door on the coach to make sure there was no one hiding behind them. He looked in the freezer, but I think he was really looking for ice cream - at least, that is what he said he was looking for!!! They let us through, so we must not have broken any laws.
There is a section of road that you go through coming from the border to St. Mary where cows kind of roam free. At that point, we saw more cows than we had seen elk and moose combined. We pulled into the KOA at which we had previously stayed and got settled into our space. Nothing has changed. The wifi is satellite and it is really sketchy. Right now, I am updating using my air card and praying that it is not roaming!!! After I cleared up emails using their wifi, we headed off to a point within Glacier National Park called Many Glacier. We saw a bunch of people stopped to look at one bear on the way in. We checked out the campgrounds in the park. Then, we had a light dinner of soup and salad at the hotel at Many Glacier. Again, there are pictures coming. On the drive out, we did see another bear. Once again, with my point and click cameras, you will have to zoom in to see the bear - but he was definitely there. The ranger said it was a brown bear.
We are now back at the campground. We will drive the Going to the Sun Road tomorrow. Hopefully we will be somewhere with a strong internet connection when we stop on Friday evening and I can get all of the pictures uploaded.
July 26, 2011 - Banff to Waterton Lakes Park
It rained all night long last night. The Bear and Peaches had two major running, jumping, hissing, squalling fights during the night. So, Jimmy and I did not sleep as well as I would have wished we could have given that we are leaving to head south to Waterton Lakes National Park today. We had our breakfast, our baths, got dressed and started to gear up to get into the rain to hook up the car and leave Banff. It may have been a miracle, or it might just have been the timing. Either way, it quit raining long enough for us to get the coach unhooked from power and the car hooked up to tow it down the highway.
There was nothing really exciting about the ride to Waterton. When we arrived at the campground, the young lady looked at the coach and asked me “how long is your vehicle?” I told her that it was about 42 feet long, not counting the Jeep which we would be unhooking. We had booked on line and their system showed that the only thing that was available was a space with no electricity, water or sewer. That is actually fine for us since we have a generator, the water tank was full and the black and gray tanks were empty. Apparently, though, they didn’t really have a space in the no hookups area which would accommodate a vehicle of our size. Luckily, they had had some early departures which made available a space for us with full hookups. So, we unhooked the car and I led Jimmy on a very circuitous drive around the campground to find space B-40. We were surprised to find 50 amp service (vs. the 30 amp service that most parks in Canada offer). There is water convenient to the coach. However, the sewer connection is in the middle of the space on which the coach is parked. I think most people who come here use trailers and it is fairly easy to use their set up for sewer. We would have to crawl under the coach and hook up the sewer hose – or we would have to put the discharge end of the sewer hose in the hole and try to not run over the rest of the hose when we got into the space. We just didn’t try to hook up sewer. Even if we had needed to dump the tanks, we are one space away from the bath house!!!!
And, we saw Rocky Mountain Deer and prairie dogs right in the campground. The deer are everywhere in the city of Waterton. The last time we were here, we were just amazed by the deer in the park area across from the ice cream place. She had just made herself at home. We saw a minimum of 6 deer in the campground, and four of them were bucks. The Bear had noticed the prairie dogs when we drove in. He didn’t really bark at them, but he got really attentive.
Before we could leave to go into town and on the two drives which we wanted to do, Jimmy rinsed off the Jeep. Since it had been raining when we left Banff, we were not able to put the cover on, so it was filthy. Once he was finished with that, we headed into town to check out the schedule for the boat tours of the lake. We decided to do the 10 am sailing since the lady at the ticket office said that we could just park the coach in one of their bus spaces while we were on the tour.
Our two excursions were to Cameron Lake (about a 16 km drive) and to Red Rock Canyon. When we reached Cameron Lake, we saw signs advising that the lake actually went into the USA, but they did not recommend hiking that far. The other signs said that the lake area was prime bear territory. We did not go all of the way to the US border at the lake, nor did we see any of the vaunted bear!!!
So, off we headed to Red Rock Canyon. This drive is supposed to be prime animal territory. All the way to the end of the drive, we saw not one animal! The canyon itself was fascinating – well, what little we saw of it was fascinating. The wind had been blowing really hard until we got to the canyon at the end of the road. Then it quit. And, the mosquitos which are large enough to carry off a small animal were out in force. One man who was walking out of the canyon trail had dead mosquitoes all over him. So, we did not do the hike around the trail. Rather, we got back in the Jeep to make the return trip. We hoped that it had gotten late enough that at least one deer would have come into the meadows. What a surprise we got when we left the parking lot only to see a great big brown bear eating flowers and stuff on the side of the road. This was the closest either of us have ever been to a real bear in the wild. I took lots of pictures of the bear, but not as many as I would have liked. There were, however, other people in queue who also wanted to see the bear. So, we shared and continued on. The only other animal sighting until we got back to Waterton was a pair of deer feeding among the Aspen trees on the side of the road.
But, when we got back to Waterton, we went back down to the harbor so that Jimmy could check where he would be able to park the coach. There was a doe feeding at the entrance to the harbor. A young man with a dog was on the other side of the street. That dog was ready to take on that deer. The deer didn’t even seem to notice the dog. She ate until she was finished in that area. She then just casually walked across the street. The young many had to pull his dog back to keep the dog from attacking the deer.
Tomorrow morning we will take the tour on the lake and then head back to St. Mary’s for a couple of nights so that we can make the Going to the Sun Road ride one more time. So, there should be good pictures from the boat tour!!!
More tomorrow.
There was nothing really exciting about the ride to Waterton. When we arrived at the campground, the young lady looked at the coach and asked me “how long is your vehicle?” I told her that it was about 42 feet long, not counting the Jeep which we would be unhooking. We had booked on line and their system showed that the only thing that was available was a space with no electricity, water or sewer. That is actually fine for us since we have a generator, the water tank was full and the black and gray tanks were empty. Apparently, though, they didn’t really have a space in the no hookups area which would accommodate a vehicle of our size. Luckily, they had had some early departures which made available a space for us with full hookups. So, we unhooked the car and I led Jimmy on a very circuitous drive around the campground to find space B-40. We were surprised to find 50 amp service (vs. the 30 amp service that most parks in Canada offer). There is water convenient to the coach. However, the sewer connection is in the middle of the space on which the coach is parked. I think most people who come here use trailers and it is fairly easy to use their set up for sewer. We would have to crawl under the coach and hook up the sewer hose – or we would have to put the discharge end of the sewer hose in the hole and try to not run over the rest of the hose when we got into the space. We just didn’t try to hook up sewer. Even if we had needed to dump the tanks, we are one space away from the bath house!!!!
And, we saw Rocky Mountain Deer and prairie dogs right in the campground. The deer are everywhere in the city of Waterton. The last time we were here, we were just amazed by the deer in the park area across from the ice cream place. She had just made herself at home. We saw a minimum of 6 deer in the campground, and four of them were bucks. The Bear had noticed the prairie dogs when we drove in. He didn’t really bark at them, but he got really attentive.
Before we could leave to go into town and on the two drives which we wanted to do, Jimmy rinsed off the Jeep. Since it had been raining when we left Banff, we were not able to put the cover on, so it was filthy. Once he was finished with that, we headed into town to check out the schedule for the boat tours of the lake. We decided to do the 10 am sailing since the lady at the ticket office said that we could just park the coach in one of their bus spaces while we were on the tour.
Our two excursions were to Cameron Lake (about a 16 km drive) and to Red Rock Canyon. When we reached Cameron Lake, we saw signs advising that the lake actually went into the USA, but they did not recommend hiking that far. The other signs said that the lake area was prime bear territory. We did not go all of the way to the US border at the lake, nor did we see any of the vaunted bear!!!
So, off we headed to Red Rock Canyon. This drive is supposed to be prime animal territory. All the way to the end of the drive, we saw not one animal! The canyon itself was fascinating – well, what little we saw of it was fascinating. The wind had been blowing really hard until we got to the canyon at the end of the road. Then it quit. And, the mosquitos which are large enough to carry off a small animal were out in force. One man who was walking out of the canyon trail had dead mosquitoes all over him. So, we did not do the hike around the trail. Rather, we got back in the Jeep to make the return trip. We hoped that it had gotten late enough that at least one deer would have come into the meadows. What a surprise we got when we left the parking lot only to see a great big brown bear eating flowers and stuff on the side of the road. This was the closest either of us have ever been to a real bear in the wild. I took lots of pictures of the bear, but not as many as I would have liked. There were, however, other people in queue who also wanted to see the bear. So, we shared and continued on. The only other animal sighting until we got back to Waterton was a pair of deer feeding among the Aspen trees on the side of the road.
But, when we got back to Waterton, we went back down to the harbor so that Jimmy could check where he would be able to park the coach. There was a doe feeding at the entrance to the harbor. A young man with a dog was on the other side of the street. That dog was ready to take on that deer. The deer didn’t even seem to notice the dog. She ate until she was finished in that area. She then just casually walked across the street. The young many had to pull his dog back to keep the dog from attacking the deer.
Tomorrow morning we will take the tour on the lake and then head back to St. Mary’s for a couple of nights so that we can make the Going to the Sun Road ride one more time. So, there should be good pictures from the boat tour!!!
More tomorrow.
July 25, 2011 - Travis Goes Home
We really didn’t do anything today other than drive back and forth to Calgary to see Travis off on his trip back to Alabama.
Once we got back to the campground, we headed into Banff so that I could go to the Starbucks at the gondola ride and upload a few days’ worth of blog as well as get a few bills paid!!! So, we both got something to drink and found a shady place to work on the computer for a while. I got all of the emails cleared, paid the bills, and made one post to facebook. I am just a little bit sorry about posting all of the temperatures we encountered once we got to Canada – the highest being about 72!!! But, that was why we came north – to find cooler temperatures.
From there, we decided to see if we could find the drive which led down to the foot of the falls next to the Fairmont Banff. We had taken a walk along the river and to the falls when Travis was there, but we were not on the right side of the river to get a really good view of the falls. Strangely enough, the road to the river was very well marked and I got some good pictures on my little camera.
Back to town we went trying to find souvenirs. We went to every store on Banff Avenue and still found nothing to buy. We did see a good many people who appeared to have been dressed for watching golf. That is because the Telus Skins Game was going on at the golf course at the Fairmont. When we had been to the hotel, we had noted the full sized cut outs of some golfers, but we did not really recognize all of the names. When we went to the bar side of the Boston Pizza to get dinner, they were replaying the days’ rounds. I truly do not understand skins play in golf, but I do know that the players seem to have more fun than in a round of PGA golf. They always seem to be joking around and kidding each other.
We went back to the campground earlier than most nights and just relaxed since we would be on the road tomorrow.
Once we got back to the campground, we headed into Banff so that I could go to the Starbucks at the gondola ride and upload a few days’ worth of blog as well as get a few bills paid!!! So, we both got something to drink and found a shady place to work on the computer for a while. I got all of the emails cleared, paid the bills, and made one post to facebook. I am just a little bit sorry about posting all of the temperatures we encountered once we got to Canada – the highest being about 72!!! But, that was why we came north – to find cooler temperatures.
From there, we decided to see if we could find the drive which led down to the foot of the falls next to the Fairmont Banff. We had taken a walk along the river and to the falls when Travis was there, but we were not on the right side of the river to get a really good view of the falls. Strangely enough, the road to the river was very well marked and I got some good pictures on my little camera.
Back to town we went trying to find souvenirs. We went to every store on Banff Avenue and still found nothing to buy. We did see a good many people who appeared to have been dressed for watching golf. That is because the Telus Skins Game was going on at the golf course at the Fairmont. When we had been to the hotel, we had noted the full sized cut outs of some golfers, but we did not really recognize all of the names. When we went to the bar side of the Boston Pizza to get dinner, they were replaying the days’ rounds. I truly do not understand skins play in golf, but I do know that the players seem to have more fun than in a round of PGA golf. They always seem to be joking around and kidding each other.
We went back to the campground earlier than most nights and just relaxed since we would be on the road tomorrow.
July 24, 2011 - Athabasca Glacier and points between
We all got up early today as we were heading north to the Columbia Icefield to see glaciers face to face. As we pulled out of the rv park and onto the Tunnel Mountain Drive, the first thing we saw was a herd of mule deer – 4 females with their babies. We didn’t see any males, but it was a thrill to see anything after the lack of sightings the previous days.
Jimmy had out drive all mapped out. We made it all the way to Lake Louise on highway 1 with no delays, took a right onto highway 93 and headed north. Our first stop was Crowfoot Glacier. Of course, the glacier is not near so large as it was previously. The lower “toe” is gone and the middle “toe” is disappearing, but you could still clearly see the glacier which had created the lake. About 2 miles further along, we stopped at Bow Lake and Bow Glacier. Again, impressive seeing the glacier, and the lake was just beautiful. Then Travis and I suggested that, rather than stopping at all of the points of interest on the way to the Athabasca Glacier, we would prefer to go straight to the glacier before we got too tired from all of the walks available to us. Jimmy concurred.
Athabasca Glacier is on the Icefields Parkway about 75 minutes south of Jasper. There is a really big interpretive center with restaurants available. You can either take the big bus which they use to take visitors out onto the glacier or take a commercial guided tour or go to a parking lot below the glacier and hike (in my case crawl) up what seemed like thousands of feet but which Travis said was probably only about several hundred feet. When you reach the top, it is just plain out old fashioned cold. The wind coming from the ice field above the glacier blowing over all of that ice is cold. But, the glacier is a very dangerous place. We saw multiple signs warning people not to walk out onto the “toe” of the glacier. When you get to the top and see the water flowing out from under the “toe” (the ice melting under the top layer of ice), you can definitely see why it would be unsafe to walk out onto the glacier. They had one sign which indicated that the last four rescue attempts were not successful. For sure, we did not get past the cable fence and cones. In addition, there were signs at various points from the glacier to the parking lot showing where the glacier had been in various years. When I upload the pictures, you will see one showing where the glacier was in 2000 vs. where it is now in 2011. We heard one young mother explaining about the glacier receding. She told him that in 60 years, the glacier might not be there at all. We only saw one sign referencing global warming and greenhouse gases as the reason for the glacier receding. It really doesn’t matter what is causing the glaciers to “die”. The fact is – they are receding. I am so glad that we got to see all of these in the Icefields as well as the ones we saw when we were at Glacier National Park on our last trek out this direction. It was quite educational. Travis and I agreed that the Athabasca Glacier was the highlight of the trip so far.
From the Athabasca Glacier, we headed back towards Lake Louise to take in all of the sites we had skipped when we decided to go to the end of the day’s trek and work our way back. Our first stop on the way back was Parker’s Ridge. It is described in the map as a short (2.4 km/1.5 miles) but steep (250m/820 feet elevation gain) trail through alpine meadows which will reward hardy hikers with stunning view of the Saskatchewan Glacier. From the parking lot, one could see the start of the elevation increase. We heard a young man who had just returned from the top explaining that the trail began as a paved walkway, but about halfway up turned into a rocky, steep path. A decision was made that 1.5 miles out and 1.5 miles back equaled 3.0 miles of more than we wanted to do that late in the day. So, back into the Jeep we climbed and proceeded to Saskatchewan River Crossing. Basically, it is an area where highways meet with various services such as fuel, food, snacks and stuff. We bought cokes and snacks and headed back out.
Our next stop was Mistaya Canyon. It is a 10 minute walk to great canyon views. The booklet said to stay away from the canyon edge as you watch the rushing waters and eroded potholes and arches in the rock wall. It was not a bad walk. But, you will see from Travis’ pictures that they were serious about staying away from the canyon edge and the rushing waters. There is a bridge which crosses the river. You can look straight down to where the water is rushing past the most marvelous formations that you can imagine – all of which were formed by the water over thousands of years. Of course, I did not venture out onto the rocks which stuck out over the waters. Jimmy and Travis, however, and got some great pictures of the canyon and its waters. Thank goodness Travis was with us – not just because we wanted him to join us in our adventures – but because he takes much better pictures than I do!!!
Our last stop before hitting the road to Lake Louise was Waterfowl Lake. We didn’t really do anything there other than looking at the campground.
By the time we got back to the campground in Banff, we were all pretty tired. Thankfully, polling of the three of us indicated that warming up a container of the spaghetti which I had made and frozen back home in Holly Springs was a great idea for dinner. I also thawed out a package of the pork loin which I had cooked at home. Those two items with a nice salad made for an enjoyable, quiet evening. Afterwards, we went into town to do some souvenir shopping. I had seen some really cute bear hats at the top of Sulphur Mountain when we rode the gondola. No one else had the brown bear ones. To get a brown bear hat, we would have had to pay $29.95 to ride the gondola to the top. It just wasn’t worth it, plus I wasn’t sure that I wanted to be that brave again. So, we agreed that the rock that we picked up at the glacier would make a perfect souvenir of our time in Canada.
Tomorrow, we take Travis back to Calgary to catch his flights home. We will return to the campground for one last evening, as we are leaving for Waterton Township, Alberta, Canada. We were here our last trip out here, but since we saw animals there the last time and had no luck in Banff, we thought it would make a good stop on the way to Holly Springs.
Pictures will be uploaded as soon as I have a stable enough wifi network to which I can connect.
Jimmy had out drive all mapped out. We made it all the way to Lake Louise on highway 1 with no delays, took a right onto highway 93 and headed north. Our first stop was Crowfoot Glacier. Of course, the glacier is not near so large as it was previously. The lower “toe” is gone and the middle “toe” is disappearing, but you could still clearly see the glacier which had created the lake. About 2 miles further along, we stopped at Bow Lake and Bow Glacier. Again, impressive seeing the glacier, and the lake was just beautiful. Then Travis and I suggested that, rather than stopping at all of the points of interest on the way to the Athabasca Glacier, we would prefer to go straight to the glacier before we got too tired from all of the walks available to us. Jimmy concurred.
Athabasca Glacier is on the Icefields Parkway about 75 minutes south of Jasper. There is a really big interpretive center with restaurants available. You can either take the big bus which they use to take visitors out onto the glacier or take a commercial guided tour or go to a parking lot below the glacier and hike (in my case crawl) up what seemed like thousands of feet but which Travis said was probably only about several hundred feet. When you reach the top, it is just plain out old fashioned cold. The wind coming from the ice field above the glacier blowing over all of that ice is cold. But, the glacier is a very dangerous place. We saw multiple signs warning people not to walk out onto the “toe” of the glacier. When you get to the top and see the water flowing out from under the “toe” (the ice melting under the top layer of ice), you can definitely see why it would be unsafe to walk out onto the glacier. They had one sign which indicated that the last four rescue attempts were not successful. For sure, we did not get past the cable fence and cones. In addition, there were signs at various points from the glacier to the parking lot showing where the glacier had been in various years. When I upload the pictures, you will see one showing where the glacier was in 2000 vs. where it is now in 2011. We heard one young mother explaining about the glacier receding. She told him that in 60 years, the glacier might not be there at all. We only saw one sign referencing global warming and greenhouse gases as the reason for the glacier receding. It really doesn’t matter what is causing the glaciers to “die”. The fact is – they are receding. I am so glad that we got to see all of these in the Icefields as well as the ones we saw when we were at Glacier National Park on our last trek out this direction. It was quite educational. Travis and I agreed that the Athabasca Glacier was the highlight of the trip so far.
From the Athabasca Glacier, we headed back towards Lake Louise to take in all of the sites we had skipped when we decided to go to the end of the day’s trek and work our way back. Our first stop on the way back was Parker’s Ridge. It is described in the map as a short (2.4 km/1.5 miles) but steep (250m/820 feet elevation gain) trail through alpine meadows which will reward hardy hikers with stunning view of the Saskatchewan Glacier. From the parking lot, one could see the start of the elevation increase. We heard a young man who had just returned from the top explaining that the trail began as a paved walkway, but about halfway up turned into a rocky, steep path. A decision was made that 1.5 miles out and 1.5 miles back equaled 3.0 miles of more than we wanted to do that late in the day. So, back into the Jeep we climbed and proceeded to Saskatchewan River Crossing. Basically, it is an area where highways meet with various services such as fuel, food, snacks and stuff. We bought cokes and snacks and headed back out.
Our next stop was Mistaya Canyon. It is a 10 minute walk to great canyon views. The booklet said to stay away from the canyon edge as you watch the rushing waters and eroded potholes and arches in the rock wall. It was not a bad walk. But, you will see from Travis’ pictures that they were serious about staying away from the canyon edge and the rushing waters. There is a bridge which crosses the river. You can look straight down to where the water is rushing past the most marvelous formations that you can imagine – all of which were formed by the water over thousands of years. Of course, I did not venture out onto the rocks which stuck out over the waters. Jimmy and Travis, however, and got some great pictures of the canyon and its waters. Thank goodness Travis was with us – not just because we wanted him to join us in our adventures – but because he takes much better pictures than I do!!!
Our last stop before hitting the road to Lake Louise was Waterfowl Lake. We didn’t really do anything there other than looking at the campground.
By the time we got back to the campground in Banff, we were all pretty tired. Thankfully, polling of the three of us indicated that warming up a container of the spaghetti which I had made and frozen back home in Holly Springs was a great idea for dinner. I also thawed out a package of the pork loin which I had cooked at home. Those two items with a nice salad made for an enjoyable, quiet evening. Afterwards, we went into town to do some souvenir shopping. I had seen some really cute bear hats at the top of Sulphur Mountain when we rode the gondola. No one else had the brown bear ones. To get a brown bear hat, we would have had to pay $29.95 to ride the gondola to the top. It just wasn’t worth it, plus I wasn’t sure that I wanted to be that brave again. So, we agreed that the rock that we picked up at the glacier would make a perfect souvenir of our time in Canada.
Tomorrow, we take Travis back to Calgary to catch his flights home. We will return to the campground for one last evening, as we are leaving for Waterton Township, Alberta, Canada. We were here our last trip out here, but since we saw animals there the last time and had no luck in Banff, we thought it would make a good stop on the way to Holly Springs.
Pictures will be uploaded as soon as I have a stable enough wifi network to which I can connect.
Monday, July 25, 2011
July 23, 2011 - Lake Louise
The morning started a little late, but the weather did not do as expected based on the forecasts we had seen or heard the day before. At 7 am, it was clear in the campground. At 8 am, it was raining in the campground. But, the fearless travelers did not let that bother us in our search for new adventures and animals not seen in Mississippi except in zoos!!!
So, after breakfast, the three of us piled into the car and headed north towards Lake Louise in search of beauty, glaciers and large hotels. Everything that we had read indicated that you should get to Lake Louise early since parking is limited. So, we got on highway 1 – the Trans Canadian Highway. We were making extremely good progress when, suddenly, there was a massive traffic jam. We all thought that it could be an animal sighting because in the Smoky Mountains when someone sights an animal, everyone stops to see it (or them as the case might be). Instead, we finally saw a sign which indicated that there was bridge construction ahead. Since we didn’t know how far ahead, we got off highway 1 and went over to highway 1A. The speed limit was lower, but we were not backed up in traffic on a major highway. AND – highway 1A was supposed to be a mecca for wild animals. In fact, there frequently were signs indicating that there were bear in the highway. NOT!!!! We decided that all of the animals from this Canadian National Park have headed south on vacation looking for warmer weather before winter sets in at home. Either that or they are on strike in Canada!!! No animals on the highway.
When we got to Lake Louise, we went first to Moraine Lake. And, as advertised, there was no parking to be seen. Jimmy let me and Travis out at the lake while he went parking space looking. At the end of his first lap around the parking lot, he had reached a fairly high level of frustration. Hence, Travis and I became frustrated. He said to head on out and he would continue looking for a parking space. Travis and I decided to dawdle so that we were not seeing things twice once Jimmy found a place to park. On his second circuit of the lot, he was waiting for someone who was backing out of a space when someone behind him passed him and drove into the space. It was definitely lucky for that person that I was not in the car. They would have moved. It actually worked out better for us, because he got a really close space.
He caught up with us at about the second marker. We proceeded on the trail around the lake with Travis taking large numbers of pictures. There were people canoeing – some who knew what they were doing and many who did not. I thought that we should have rented a canoe. But, when they told me that the incapable canoeists had to sit on the middle seat – and then they told me that was me – I decided that we should not rent a canoe because I would probably turn them over out of spite. The lake was formed by a glacier. At the foot of the lake (closest to the parking lot) you could actually see the pile of rocks that would have been deposited as the glacier receded.
From Moraine Lake we proceeded to Lake Louise to see the Fairmont Lake Louise hotel and the lake. Lake Louise was also a glacier lake. We didn’t walk around it. Instead, Jimmy and Travis watched the other tourists and took pictures while I walked up to the hotel and bought lunch at the deli!!! There were roast beef as well as turkey with brie sandwiches, chips and water (the sandwiches were huge, so I knew that they could be split between three people). We found a bench overlooking the lake, put the umbrella up to protect us from the rain which had started again, and enjoyed a marvelous lunch. There were a number of birds who thought that they should be invited to dine with us, but we shooed them away and enjoyed watching the people go by. Once finished with lunch, we walked to the back side of the hotel where a wedding was about to begin. We didn’t see the bridal party, but the guests were starting to arrive. The interior of the hotel was much more modern than the Fairmont in Banff. But, we decided that some of the suites on the top floors of the hotel would provide superior views of the lake. Now, what they would cost is a different question entirely. The gentlemen greeting guests outside were dressed in Tyrolean attire, which kind of seemed out of place at the Lake Louise locale, but would have been perfect in Banff.
After walking back to the car, we headed back to Banff – deciding immediately to take highway 1A right off rather than getting involved in another traffic jam. Of course, when we rejoined 1 at the exit where we had left 1 earlier in the day, the traffic was moving at the speed limit going both east and west.
Back at the rv park, we all freshened up and headed to the gondola ride and dinner at the top of Sulphur Mountain. Since there is a Starbucks there, I took my computer with the intent of cleaning out emails and paying some bills on line. Of course, the wifi was slow, so I only got the emails cleaned out and the most essential of the bills paid. Jimmy and Travis took the laptop back to the car while I got in line for our prepaid tickets. When I got to the window, I was told that there would be a 90 minute wait for a gondola. The people buying their tickets at the window next to mine were told it would be a 60 minute wait. So I figured it was probably somewhere between 30 and 45 minutes. Our tickets for the gondola ride and dinner were found, and off to the end of the line we went. I am sure that some of you do not know that I am afraid of heights. 35 minutes after getting into line, we approached the door of the gondola. The attendants told me that I should sit on the bench away from the door. I really don’t know what difference it made since it was glass all around, I just didn’t have to worry about the door popping open on the way up!!!
I survived the ride up. In fact, I was looking down for animals, Travis was taking pictures and Jimmy was watching the people who were hiking to the top of the mountain. I went directly to the restaurant to get a time for dinner only to be told just to show up when we wanted to eat, but earlier was better that later since they started seating with the best view out the panoramic windows. Then, up to the observation deck on the top of the building for more pictures and more hugging the inside wall for me. From the point where the gondola stopped, there is a plank walk which takes you across the ridge to a higher point where Canada’s Cosmic Ray Station had been located. The Cosmic Ray Station was eventually replaced by a weather station. You just walk down a bunch of steps across plenty of flat patio areas and up a bunch more stairs which have plenty of stops along the climb to catch your breath and enjoy the view. Then, you are at the top of the next peak. No, I didn’t go all the way, but Jimmy and Travis did. When they rejoined me, we trekked back to the restaurant and enjoyed a really nice prime rib dinner. After dinner, we were ready to go back down the mountain. I was definitely not as afraid as I had been going up, but there were a couple of times when I grabbed the bottom of the seat!! I was not nearly as bad as the sweet little lady who was supposed to be riding the gondola up. She did not want to have to get off at the top – she just wanted to get on at the bottom and ride right around and down the slope. Of course, that is not how the gondola works – you get on at the bottom, off at the top, get on again at the top and get off at the bottom. A really nice park worker rode the gondola with her so that he could override the rule about having to get off at the top. We did not see nor hear the lady again – well, we thought we might have heard her scream once or twice, but we weren’t sure.
One thing I did learn was that, if you hike up the mountain – which is free to do, you can ride the gondola down free. I guess that they figure if you made the trip up, you deserve the free ride down. We saw lots of people walking up. The path was well maintained, but there was cutback after cutback after cutback. Without the cutbacks, it would have been a really hard climb.
More tomorrow!!!
So, after breakfast, the three of us piled into the car and headed north towards Lake Louise in search of beauty, glaciers and large hotels. Everything that we had read indicated that you should get to Lake Louise early since parking is limited. So, we got on highway 1 – the Trans Canadian Highway. We were making extremely good progress when, suddenly, there was a massive traffic jam. We all thought that it could be an animal sighting because in the Smoky Mountains when someone sights an animal, everyone stops to see it (or them as the case might be). Instead, we finally saw a sign which indicated that there was bridge construction ahead. Since we didn’t know how far ahead, we got off highway 1 and went over to highway 1A. The speed limit was lower, but we were not backed up in traffic on a major highway. AND – highway 1A was supposed to be a mecca for wild animals. In fact, there frequently were signs indicating that there were bear in the highway. NOT!!!! We decided that all of the animals from this Canadian National Park have headed south on vacation looking for warmer weather before winter sets in at home. Either that or they are on strike in Canada!!! No animals on the highway.
When we got to Lake Louise, we went first to Moraine Lake. And, as advertised, there was no parking to be seen. Jimmy let me and Travis out at the lake while he went parking space looking. At the end of his first lap around the parking lot, he had reached a fairly high level of frustration. Hence, Travis and I became frustrated. He said to head on out and he would continue looking for a parking space. Travis and I decided to dawdle so that we were not seeing things twice once Jimmy found a place to park. On his second circuit of the lot, he was waiting for someone who was backing out of a space when someone behind him passed him and drove into the space. It was definitely lucky for that person that I was not in the car. They would have moved. It actually worked out better for us, because he got a really close space.
He caught up with us at about the second marker. We proceeded on the trail around the lake with Travis taking large numbers of pictures. There were people canoeing – some who knew what they were doing and many who did not. I thought that we should have rented a canoe. But, when they told me that the incapable canoeists had to sit on the middle seat – and then they told me that was me – I decided that we should not rent a canoe because I would probably turn them over out of spite. The lake was formed by a glacier. At the foot of the lake (closest to the parking lot) you could actually see the pile of rocks that would have been deposited as the glacier receded.
From Moraine Lake we proceeded to Lake Louise to see the Fairmont Lake Louise hotel and the lake. Lake Louise was also a glacier lake. We didn’t walk around it. Instead, Jimmy and Travis watched the other tourists and took pictures while I walked up to the hotel and bought lunch at the deli!!! There were roast beef as well as turkey with brie sandwiches, chips and water (the sandwiches were huge, so I knew that they could be split between three people). We found a bench overlooking the lake, put the umbrella up to protect us from the rain which had started again, and enjoyed a marvelous lunch. There were a number of birds who thought that they should be invited to dine with us, but we shooed them away and enjoyed watching the people go by. Once finished with lunch, we walked to the back side of the hotel where a wedding was about to begin. We didn’t see the bridal party, but the guests were starting to arrive. The interior of the hotel was much more modern than the Fairmont in Banff. But, we decided that some of the suites on the top floors of the hotel would provide superior views of the lake. Now, what they would cost is a different question entirely. The gentlemen greeting guests outside were dressed in Tyrolean attire, which kind of seemed out of place at the Lake Louise locale, but would have been perfect in Banff.
After walking back to the car, we headed back to Banff – deciding immediately to take highway 1A right off rather than getting involved in another traffic jam. Of course, when we rejoined 1 at the exit where we had left 1 earlier in the day, the traffic was moving at the speed limit going both east and west.
Back at the rv park, we all freshened up and headed to the gondola ride and dinner at the top of Sulphur Mountain. Since there is a Starbucks there, I took my computer with the intent of cleaning out emails and paying some bills on line. Of course, the wifi was slow, so I only got the emails cleaned out and the most essential of the bills paid. Jimmy and Travis took the laptop back to the car while I got in line for our prepaid tickets. When I got to the window, I was told that there would be a 90 minute wait for a gondola. The people buying their tickets at the window next to mine were told it would be a 60 minute wait. So I figured it was probably somewhere between 30 and 45 minutes. Our tickets for the gondola ride and dinner were found, and off to the end of the line we went. I am sure that some of you do not know that I am afraid of heights. 35 minutes after getting into line, we approached the door of the gondola. The attendants told me that I should sit on the bench away from the door. I really don’t know what difference it made since it was glass all around, I just didn’t have to worry about the door popping open on the way up!!!
I survived the ride up. In fact, I was looking down for animals, Travis was taking pictures and Jimmy was watching the people who were hiking to the top of the mountain. I went directly to the restaurant to get a time for dinner only to be told just to show up when we wanted to eat, but earlier was better that later since they started seating with the best view out the panoramic windows. Then, up to the observation deck on the top of the building for more pictures and more hugging the inside wall for me. From the point where the gondola stopped, there is a plank walk which takes you across the ridge to a higher point where Canada’s Cosmic Ray Station had been located. The Cosmic Ray Station was eventually replaced by a weather station. You just walk down a bunch of steps across plenty of flat patio areas and up a bunch more stairs which have plenty of stops along the climb to catch your breath and enjoy the view. Then, you are at the top of the next peak. No, I didn’t go all the way, but Jimmy and Travis did. When they rejoined me, we trekked back to the restaurant and enjoyed a really nice prime rib dinner. After dinner, we were ready to go back down the mountain. I was definitely not as afraid as I had been going up, but there were a couple of times when I grabbed the bottom of the seat!! I was not nearly as bad as the sweet little lady who was supposed to be riding the gondola up. She did not want to have to get off at the top – she just wanted to get on at the bottom and ride right around and down the slope. Of course, that is not how the gondola works – you get on at the bottom, off at the top, get on again at the top and get off at the bottom. A really nice park worker rode the gondola with her so that he could override the rule about having to get off at the top. We did not see nor hear the lady again – well, we thought we might have heard her scream once or twice, but we weren’t sure.
One thing I did learn was that, if you hike up the mountain – which is free to do, you can ride the gondola down free. I guess that they figure if you made the trip up, you deserve the free ride down. We saw lots of people walking up. The path was well maintained, but there was cutback after cutback after cutback. Without the cutbacks, it would have been a really hard climb.
More tomorrow!!!
Day 13, July 22, 2011 - In Banff
I cannot say that we were up bright and early today. Jimmy had already been up and shaved before I even knew it was morning. Travis was all curled up on the couch under the blanket. Once we all got our eyes opened, breakfast in us, all of us showered and dressed, we were ready to head out for the day.
Sadly, it rained off and on all day. That did not deter these intrepid travelers!!!
As we drove into town, we saw our second wild animal of the trip. There was a doe mule deer dining on the fresh, tender grass on the side of the street as we came down from the campground. We did not get a picture of her, as Travis was busy doing something and she just kind of appeared!!!
Our first stop was the gondola. We needed to find out how the Saturday night ride and dinner worked. We had bought the special tour on line, but they didn’t explain about how to determine when your meal seating would be. It is easy – you just get on the gondola, ride up to the top, go to the restaurant and arrange your seating. Then you can go off wandering on the top of the mountain until time to eat. There was also a Starbucks at the gondola station with a really strong wifi!!! I’m going to get the guys to head up to the gondola a little early on Saturday so that I can take the computer and upload all of my notes which I have kept in Word since we got to Canada!! I’ll not worry about uploading pictures until we are back in the States and have strong, consistent internet. And, I need to pay some bills!!!!!
From there, we headed off to the Fairmont Banff Hotel for pictures with the real camera. There is a golf tournament going on, but none of us recognized the name of the tournament. They had full sized pictures of the players, and I did recognize some of the names. The hotel was not quite as expected. We kind of were mentally comparing this railroad hotel to the ones that we had seen in Yellowstone. We were looking for the huge lobbies and restaurants, but that is not what we found. The entry lobby was utilitarian. As we climbed to the second level, we all thought it was really dark. But, the restaurants and grille were beautiful. We went out on the patio overlooking the Bow River and could easily visualize how it would have looked on a sunny day. The croquet field was set up in the event anyone would want to play a game. The outside tables were all covered, but you could still visualize how it would have been. The hotel is huge – very tall and very late 1800’s style. The elevators had been modernized, but they retained the semi-circular floor indicator – so when you saw the elevators – they still looked period. There was a room which was where tours of the hotel started. We were not there on a tour day, so we just read the inscriptions under the pictures. When the hotel first opened, the rooms were about $4 a night. We saw a bill for a family which spent 4 nights in the hotel in 1929, and their total bill was about $71. That included three or four meals also!!! One of the pictures said that during the 1920’s and 1930’s, rich people would arrive with $50,000 to fund their three to four month stay at the Fairmont and in Banff. After having seen the price for golf, the food prices (chicken sandwiches with sides were 60 cents), and everything else, I wonder what they needed that much money for!!!
The rain had increased a bit, so we decided to go back to the coach for lunch rather than finding a place to park in Banff and then finding a place to eat in the rain. Plus, we need to eat some of the food that is in the refrigerator!!!
The rain slacked off, and we headed back to town. I needed to change some more money from US bills to Canadian money. Plus, we wanted to go to the Park Headquarters at the end of Banff Avenue as they have absolutely beautiful grounds. There was a lady there in her wedding gown with the minister, her attendant and her daughter. Everyone was kind of hanging around waiting for the groom to arrive – which he did shortly after the photographer had finished taking pictures of the bride and her attendants. From there we headed back across the bridge to find a place to park the car. We should probably have just left the car at the park headquarters!!! Then we followed the path to the waterfalls which are close to the Banff Hotel. Of course, we wound up being on the wrong side of the Bow River. We should have taken the pathway on the Park Headquarters side of the bridge instead of the pathway on the Banff side of the river. But, Travis was able to get some good pictures. Here they are starting at the gondola area and ending with pictures from the walk to the falls.
After that walk (I think it was probably over a mile – but both Jimmy and Travis just laughed at me), we drove out of Banff to find highway 1A and Johnston Canyon. This is truly a canyon with a walkway along one bank of the river. Plus, there are supposed to be animals along the drive to the Canyon. I say supposed to be because they had signs all along, but we never saw anything that they indicated we would see. Again, we started the walk along the canyon wall. There were lots of small waterfalls. In my mind, we had seen the lower, middle and upper falls because my legs were tired so we had to have walked 3 or 4 miles. I stopped and stepped off the walkway and ask how far we were going only to find out that we had not yet reached the lower waterfall – a walk of about one half a mile. On top of the fact that everyone had to have been lying about the distances traveled and to be traveled, the pathway was along the side of the canyon and frequently consisted of walkways suspended out from the canyon wall. In other words, frequently there was nothing under me but air and a little steel attached to the canyon wall with super glue (I think). We finally arrived at the lower falls. I’m going to admit, the falls were awesome. There was a bridge across the river and a cave where you could literally go stand in the mist from the waterfall. I did not go into the cave. I did go over the bridge and look through the cave. For those of you who do not know, I am afraid of heights. When we were on the walkways, I was hugging the left side which was next to the canyon wall. I only went to the fall off and break your head side when other people felt it was necessary for their groups to return to the parking lot (which I thought was fairly thoughtless of them given that I needed all of the walkway in order to feel comfortable). I did realize that the walk back would be mostly downhill and that I would legitimately be able to hug the canyon wall!!! The only difficult spot was when I was hugging the wall going back and a lady was just as afraid of heights as I was and she wanted the wall also. We worked it out. We did see a lot of ground squirrels. They would just come right up to you. The signs all said not to feed them, but for them to have been so friendly, someone had fed them!!! One got about 2 inches from Travis’ leg while he was taking pictures of another one which was posing for him on a log which had fallen. These pictures are from the ones which Travis took on the walk. I probably should have deleted some of the pictures, but they were all really good in my opinion!!!
Tomorrow we are going to Lake Louise and then to our gondola ride with dinner on the top of Sulphur Moutain. Stayed tuned.
Sadly, it rained off and on all day. That did not deter these intrepid travelers!!!
As we drove into town, we saw our second wild animal of the trip. There was a doe mule deer dining on the fresh, tender grass on the side of the street as we came down from the campground. We did not get a picture of her, as Travis was busy doing something and she just kind of appeared!!!
Our first stop was the gondola. We needed to find out how the Saturday night ride and dinner worked. We had bought the special tour on line, but they didn’t explain about how to determine when your meal seating would be. It is easy – you just get on the gondola, ride up to the top, go to the restaurant and arrange your seating. Then you can go off wandering on the top of the mountain until time to eat. There was also a Starbucks at the gondola station with a really strong wifi!!! I’m going to get the guys to head up to the gondola a little early on Saturday so that I can take the computer and upload all of my notes which I have kept in Word since we got to Canada!! I’ll not worry about uploading pictures until we are back in the States and have strong, consistent internet. And, I need to pay some bills!!!!!
From there, we headed off to the Fairmont Banff Hotel for pictures with the real camera. There is a golf tournament going on, but none of us recognized the name of the tournament. They had full sized pictures of the players, and I did recognize some of the names. The hotel was not quite as expected. We kind of were mentally comparing this railroad hotel to the ones that we had seen in Yellowstone. We were looking for the huge lobbies and restaurants, but that is not what we found. The entry lobby was utilitarian. As we climbed to the second level, we all thought it was really dark. But, the restaurants and grille were beautiful. We went out on the patio overlooking the Bow River and could easily visualize how it would have looked on a sunny day. The croquet field was set up in the event anyone would want to play a game. The outside tables were all covered, but you could still visualize how it would have been. The hotel is huge – very tall and very late 1800’s style. The elevators had been modernized, but they retained the semi-circular floor indicator – so when you saw the elevators – they still looked period. There was a room which was where tours of the hotel started. We were not there on a tour day, so we just read the inscriptions under the pictures. When the hotel first opened, the rooms were about $4 a night. We saw a bill for a family which spent 4 nights in the hotel in 1929, and their total bill was about $71. That included three or four meals also!!! One of the pictures said that during the 1920’s and 1930’s, rich people would arrive with $50,000 to fund their three to four month stay at the Fairmont and in Banff. After having seen the price for golf, the food prices (chicken sandwiches with sides were 60 cents), and everything else, I wonder what they needed that much money for!!!
The rain had increased a bit, so we decided to go back to the coach for lunch rather than finding a place to park in Banff and then finding a place to eat in the rain. Plus, we need to eat some of the food that is in the refrigerator!!!
The rain slacked off, and we headed back to town. I needed to change some more money from US bills to Canadian money. Plus, we wanted to go to the Park Headquarters at the end of Banff Avenue as they have absolutely beautiful grounds. There was a lady there in her wedding gown with the minister, her attendant and her daughter. Everyone was kind of hanging around waiting for the groom to arrive – which he did shortly after the photographer had finished taking pictures of the bride and her attendants. From there we headed back across the bridge to find a place to park the car. We should probably have just left the car at the park headquarters!!! Then we followed the path to the waterfalls which are close to the Banff Hotel. Of course, we wound up being on the wrong side of the Bow River. We should have taken the pathway on the Park Headquarters side of the bridge instead of the pathway on the Banff side of the river. But, Travis was able to get some good pictures. Here they are starting at the gondola area and ending with pictures from the walk to the falls.
After that walk (I think it was probably over a mile – but both Jimmy and Travis just laughed at me), we drove out of Banff to find highway 1A and Johnston Canyon. This is truly a canyon with a walkway along one bank of the river. Plus, there are supposed to be animals along the drive to the Canyon. I say supposed to be because they had signs all along, but we never saw anything that they indicated we would see. Again, we started the walk along the canyon wall. There were lots of small waterfalls. In my mind, we had seen the lower, middle and upper falls because my legs were tired so we had to have walked 3 or 4 miles. I stopped and stepped off the walkway and ask how far we were going only to find out that we had not yet reached the lower waterfall – a walk of about one half a mile. On top of the fact that everyone had to have been lying about the distances traveled and to be traveled, the pathway was along the side of the canyon and frequently consisted of walkways suspended out from the canyon wall. In other words, frequently there was nothing under me but air and a little steel attached to the canyon wall with super glue (I think). We finally arrived at the lower falls. I’m going to admit, the falls were awesome. There was a bridge across the river and a cave where you could literally go stand in the mist from the waterfall. I did not go into the cave. I did go over the bridge and look through the cave. For those of you who do not know, I am afraid of heights. When we were on the walkways, I was hugging the left side which was next to the canyon wall. I only went to the fall off and break your head side when other people felt it was necessary for their groups to return to the parking lot (which I thought was fairly thoughtless of them given that I needed all of the walkway in order to feel comfortable). I did realize that the walk back would be mostly downhill and that I would legitimately be able to hug the canyon wall!!! The only difficult spot was when I was hugging the wall going back and a lady was just as afraid of heights as I was and she wanted the wall also. We worked it out. We did see a lot of ground squirrels. They would just come right up to you. The signs all said not to feed them, but for them to have been so friendly, someone had fed them!!! One got about 2 inches from Travis’ leg while he was taking pictures of another one which was posing for him on a log which had fallen. These pictures are from the ones which Travis took on the walk. I probably should have deleted some of the pictures, but they were all really good in my opinion!!!
Tomorrow we are going to Lake Louise and then to our gondola ride with dinner on the top of Sulphur Moutain. Stayed tuned.
Day 12 - July 21, 2011 - Travis Arrives
Travis is flying in today from Birmingham via Dallas. He was to leave Birmingham at about 6:30 am and arrive in Calgary at about 1:20 pm (Mountain time). So, Jimmy and I really didn’t plan to do anything this morning other than to finish getting the coach cleaned up, driving to Calgary, finding fuel for the car, finding the airport and finding a place to eat after we picked Travis up since we figured he would not have eaten anything between breakfast and when he arrived (we were right about that part BTW). Anyway, we figured that, if the traffic and construction on the way to the airport were as bad as they were getting from the south of Calgary to the highway to go to Banff, we had better add a bunch of time in order to get the fuel, find the eating place and get to the airport in time. Guess what – we found the airport almost two hours before Travis’ arrival from Dallas.
So, we head out in search of diesel fuel for the car. That quest made us realize even more than our previous observations that Calgary appears to be a city of tall buildings in the middle (town centre as it would be spelled up here) surrounded by bedroom community after bedroom community after bedroom community. And, if you get to the middle of the bedroom community, you will find all of the amenities such as gas stations, fast food restaurants, shopping centers, grocery stores, pharmacies, etc. There was an A&W Root Beer, a Time Horton’s, a Burger King and lots and lots of other familiar places. There was also a Shell station with diesel fuel whose pumps did not recognize our stateside Shell card (Jimmy had to go inside to pay for the fuel).
We quickly eliminated the chain fast food restaurants (I had originally said that I didn’t want to eat in a chain restaurant the entire time we were gone. Jimmy took that to mean that we would eat on the coach since I had prepared a few meals in anticipation of having to stop en route in some places where eating out would not be convenient.) Anyway, we found a Pacini restaurant very close to the airport. So, that was the identified place to eat after we picked Travis up.
So, back to the airport we went to await his arrival. We were still a good 40 minutes early. But, Calgary has what they call cell phone waiting lots which are free. You park in the lot and await a call from your passenger. They are supposed to call you when they are curbside in one of the purple waiting areas. Then you leave the parking lot and head to the arrivals area to pick up the passenger. We patiently waited until we saw an American Airlines place land at about 1:20 pm. We figured it would be about 10 minutes to the gate, but we had no idea how long it would be until he cleared customs. After about 25 minutes, I just couldn’t wait any longer, so we cranked up and drove to he arrivals area. He was curbside our second time around.
We threw his stuff in the back of the Jeep and headed to the restaurant to eat. It was great. They have their own water, and you have a selection of sparkling or not. They have a bread bar where you grill your selection of bread on a flame grill. We all ate fairly light and hit the Trans Canadian Highway west back to the coach where we could get him settled in.
The first thing we did after we got to the campground was walk out to the Hoodoo’s since Travis brought his good camera. For the 21st through the 24th, the pictures that I upload will be taken by a real camera instead of a point and shoot that I use.
We then drove into Banff. Travis wound up getting a new pair of shoes since the only hiking shoes he brought are over the ankle boots. Up here, for what we were doing, you don’t really need anything that rough and ready since most of the walking we are going to be doing is less strenuous. We went to eat at the Rose and Crown and sat in the roof top patio. It was just warm enough to be enjoyable, plus there was not a really big crowd up there for the first 30 minutes or so. I had traditional fish and chips, Jimmy had a salad with prawns, and Travis had a sandwich with sweet potato fries. We were kind of disappointed in the sweet potato fries – they just had not retained the sweetness we are familiar with. But, everything was good.
One thing that Jimmy had read about was Lake Minnewanka – which is across the Trans Canadian Highway from Banff. It was said by those who had written in their travel logs that it was a good drive if you wanted to see animals. We saw one female elk who had a collar on eating grass on the side of the highway. We couldn’t tell if she was staked out by the park personnel so that everyone would get to see one wild animal, or if she had just been left behind when all of the other wild animals went on vacation for the summer. Either way, she was the only large animal we saw. There were some tourists in the area who could be referred to as wild animals, but they did not count technically.
We came back to the coach since all of us were tired. We played with Peaches and The Bear for a while, then made down the couch for Travis and we all went to bed.
More tomorrow.
So, we head out in search of diesel fuel for the car. That quest made us realize even more than our previous observations that Calgary appears to be a city of tall buildings in the middle (town centre as it would be spelled up here) surrounded by bedroom community after bedroom community after bedroom community. And, if you get to the middle of the bedroom community, you will find all of the amenities such as gas stations, fast food restaurants, shopping centers, grocery stores, pharmacies, etc. There was an A&W Root Beer, a Time Horton’s, a Burger King and lots and lots of other familiar places. There was also a Shell station with diesel fuel whose pumps did not recognize our stateside Shell card (Jimmy had to go inside to pay for the fuel).
We quickly eliminated the chain fast food restaurants (I had originally said that I didn’t want to eat in a chain restaurant the entire time we were gone. Jimmy took that to mean that we would eat on the coach since I had prepared a few meals in anticipation of having to stop en route in some places where eating out would not be convenient.) Anyway, we found a Pacini restaurant very close to the airport. So, that was the identified place to eat after we picked Travis up.
So, back to the airport we went to await his arrival. We were still a good 40 minutes early. But, Calgary has what they call cell phone waiting lots which are free. You park in the lot and await a call from your passenger. They are supposed to call you when they are curbside in one of the purple waiting areas. Then you leave the parking lot and head to the arrivals area to pick up the passenger. We patiently waited until we saw an American Airlines place land at about 1:20 pm. We figured it would be about 10 minutes to the gate, but we had no idea how long it would be until he cleared customs. After about 25 minutes, I just couldn’t wait any longer, so we cranked up and drove to he arrivals area. He was curbside our second time around.
We threw his stuff in the back of the Jeep and headed to the restaurant to eat. It was great. They have their own water, and you have a selection of sparkling or not. They have a bread bar where you grill your selection of bread on a flame grill. We all ate fairly light and hit the Trans Canadian Highway west back to the coach where we could get him settled in.
The first thing we did after we got to the campground was walk out to the Hoodoo’s since Travis brought his good camera. For the 21st through the 24th, the pictures that I upload will be taken by a real camera instead of a point and shoot that I use.
We then drove into Banff. Travis wound up getting a new pair of shoes since the only hiking shoes he brought are over the ankle boots. Up here, for what we were doing, you don’t really need anything that rough and ready since most of the walking we are going to be doing is less strenuous. We went to eat at the Rose and Crown and sat in the roof top patio. It was just warm enough to be enjoyable, plus there was not a really big crowd up there for the first 30 minutes or so. I had traditional fish and chips, Jimmy had a salad with prawns, and Travis had a sandwich with sweet potato fries. We were kind of disappointed in the sweet potato fries – they just had not retained the sweetness we are familiar with. But, everything was good.
One thing that Jimmy had read about was Lake Minnewanka – which is across the Trans Canadian Highway from Banff. It was said by those who had written in their travel logs that it was a good drive if you wanted to see animals. We saw one female elk who had a collar on eating grass on the side of the highway. We couldn’t tell if she was staked out by the park personnel so that everyone would get to see one wild animal, or if she had just been left behind when all of the other wild animals went on vacation for the summer. Either way, she was the only large animal we saw. There were some tourists in the area who could be referred to as wild animals, but they did not count technically.
We came back to the coach since all of us were tired. We played with Peaches and The Bear for a while, then made down the couch for Travis and we all went to bed.
More tomorrow.
Day 11 - July 20, 2011 - High River to Banff
We got up in High River, Alberta, Canada and decided that we should go to the bank and change some US dollars into Canadian dollars. You don’t get one for one. It was about $0.96 Canadian dollars per one US dollar (their money is worth more than our money right now). So, I head into the bank with two one hundred dollar bills to get Canadian money. The young lady who helped me went right to work. Her first attempt was to tell me that I would be getting $96 and some odd cents for my money. I kind of looked at her askance and asked was she sure that would be all I would get for $200?!?! She looked at her counter and, sure enough, there were two US one hundred dollar bills. So, she had to rerun it through the computer. Then, I asked another question which got her distracted. She promptly put all of the bills she had counted out back into her cash draw, the coins on the counter, and proceeded to explain to me why the fuel in Canada is listed as 100.9 per liter when it is really $1.009 per liter!!! The reason this came up was that I had done my conversion of the money and volume and had figure that one gallon of diesel was going to cost us about $400 if the price was $100.9 Canadian dollars per liter. Anyway, she counted out my change and I suggested that I might need the bills also!! She apologized and explained that she was not a teller – she was just filling in for a lady who had called in sick!!!
Then I went to the bakery that was right around the corner. I almost didn’t want to leave. I was second in line to be waited on and they had two chocolate covered donuts left – which is what Jimmy wanted. The whole time I was waiting my turn, a gentleman who came in behind me was standing right in front of the two chocolate covered donuts. When it came my turn, I asked for the two chocolate donuts, he took a really deep breath, and I changed my order to get four cookies and cream donuts and left the two chocolate donuts for him. He tried to talk me into taking the donuts. I explained to him that I was from the South and we would never take the last two chocolate donuts when there was someone in line who clearly wanted them more than we did!! He went on and on about how grateful he was – plus I got a muffin thrown in for free.
Before we left to head north to Calgary and Banff, we went back the way we had come to a little town named Nanton, Alberta to see a garden railway setup. It cost $7.00 Canadian per person, but it was a beautiful layout. The owners were apparently originally from Switzerland. Both had really strong accents. The gentleman was in charge of the railroad layout – which was huge. The lady was in charge of the plantings – which were beautiful. If you bought something from them, they basically refunded the admission fee. I kept thinking Jimmy was going to buy something. They had more LGB stuff than we had seen in one store in a long time. But, he didn’t. Right next to the garden railway setup was a hamburger place – so we bought two hamburgers and ate on the coach!!!
Finally, we headed north towards Calgary. The mistake that we made was following the GPS instructions. It basically took us into the south side of Canada and then around to the west side. All through town. Stop and go. Instructions like stay left and keep right (in one sentence from the GPS!!!). Roads being worked on. Etc. Etc. We finally made it out of Calgary, and the first thing we saw was the ski jumps from the Olympics which were in Calgary a couple of years back. They looked a little weird sitting on the grassy hillside!!!
From there, it was pretty much clear highway with the mountains getting closer and closer. You could feel the temperature cooling down as we left Calgary and got closer to the mountains. We had not been running the air conditioning all day since the temperature was in the low 70’s, but it was really starting to feel good. We could see snow in the shady spots in the mountains. We had found it – cooler climes.
As we approached Banff, we had to stop at the park entrance. You have to have a $20/day pass to go into Banff. Jimmy had bought a one year pass on the internet before we left home, so we just had to pull over and get the map that they were handing out to the people who had to buy a daily pass. Very shortly, we turned onto Banff Avenue (the easternmost entrance to Banff) and then took a pretty quick left onto Tunnel Mountain Drive. We found out that there is no tunnel through the mountains for the railroad because they found a way around the mountain. But the name stayed. We passed the ‘no amenities’ campground which was basically tent camping. About ½ mile further along we came to Tunnel Mountain Campground 2. One end has full hookups (30 amp power, water and sewer) and that is the end we are on. The other end has only power and you have to go to a dump station to dump your tanks and another spot to get potable water. In fact, until the Saturday night before we left home, that is where we were going to be. Luckily, Jimmy noticed that the full hookup section had openings and we changed our reservations. We are in space 246. The spaces are just pull offs along roads that run parallel to Tunnel Mountain Drive. There are spaces on both sides of the side roads and the roads go up the hillside. I think maybe there are 8 roads with probably 50 spaces on each road. Once we got hooked up, I washed one load of clothes. As soon as they were in the dryer, we headed into town, parked and just walked around. Again, dinner was selected based on wifi availability – not menu. We ate at Wild Bill’s. Jimmy had an elk burger and I had a chicken club!!! I had wifi and cleared emails again.
We got back to the campground. Jimmy had to wash the bird poop off the hood of the car, I needed to fold the clothes that I left drying and wash another load of towels, and Jimmy had to empty the black tank. Then we walked about a mile to the Hoodoo’s. Hoodoo’s are simply rock formations which are found through the Rocky’s. They just jut up like stalagmites in a cave. We stayed on the path and I was feeling every one of my 64 years by the time we got back to the RV!!!! Between the altitude and walking up hills, I pretty much got tired.
Anyway, we are back to the campground, watching a little tv while I type up what we did today so that I can upload it the next time I have internet access and waiting for the towels to get dry. Tomorrow Travis flies in to Calgary, so we have to be at the airport to pick him up at 1:20 pm. I cannot wait for him to get here. We are going to do the gondola ride in Banff and have dinner at the top of the mountain, go to the ice fields, go to Lake Louise and jam as much in to the few days he is going to be here as possible!!!
More later!!!
Then I went to the bakery that was right around the corner. I almost didn’t want to leave. I was second in line to be waited on and they had two chocolate covered donuts left – which is what Jimmy wanted. The whole time I was waiting my turn, a gentleman who came in behind me was standing right in front of the two chocolate covered donuts. When it came my turn, I asked for the two chocolate donuts, he took a really deep breath, and I changed my order to get four cookies and cream donuts and left the two chocolate donuts for him. He tried to talk me into taking the donuts. I explained to him that I was from the South and we would never take the last two chocolate donuts when there was someone in line who clearly wanted them more than we did!! He went on and on about how grateful he was – plus I got a muffin thrown in for free.
Before we left to head north to Calgary and Banff, we went back the way we had come to a little town named Nanton, Alberta to see a garden railway setup. It cost $7.00 Canadian per person, but it was a beautiful layout. The owners were apparently originally from Switzerland. Both had really strong accents. The gentleman was in charge of the railroad layout – which was huge. The lady was in charge of the plantings – which were beautiful. If you bought something from them, they basically refunded the admission fee. I kept thinking Jimmy was going to buy something. They had more LGB stuff than we had seen in one store in a long time. But, he didn’t. Right next to the garden railway setup was a hamburger place – so we bought two hamburgers and ate on the coach!!!
Finally, we headed north towards Calgary. The mistake that we made was following the GPS instructions. It basically took us into the south side of Canada and then around to the west side. All through town. Stop and go. Instructions like stay left and keep right (in one sentence from the GPS!!!). Roads being worked on. Etc. Etc. We finally made it out of Calgary, and the first thing we saw was the ski jumps from the Olympics which were in Calgary a couple of years back. They looked a little weird sitting on the grassy hillside!!!
From there, it was pretty much clear highway with the mountains getting closer and closer. You could feel the temperature cooling down as we left Calgary and got closer to the mountains. We had not been running the air conditioning all day since the temperature was in the low 70’s, but it was really starting to feel good. We could see snow in the shady spots in the mountains. We had found it – cooler climes.
As we approached Banff, we had to stop at the park entrance. You have to have a $20/day pass to go into Banff. Jimmy had bought a one year pass on the internet before we left home, so we just had to pull over and get the map that they were handing out to the people who had to buy a daily pass. Very shortly, we turned onto Banff Avenue (the easternmost entrance to Banff) and then took a pretty quick left onto Tunnel Mountain Drive. We found out that there is no tunnel through the mountains for the railroad because they found a way around the mountain. But the name stayed. We passed the ‘no amenities’ campground which was basically tent camping. About ½ mile further along we came to Tunnel Mountain Campground 2. One end has full hookups (30 amp power, water and sewer) and that is the end we are on. The other end has only power and you have to go to a dump station to dump your tanks and another spot to get potable water. In fact, until the Saturday night before we left home, that is where we were going to be. Luckily, Jimmy noticed that the full hookup section had openings and we changed our reservations. We are in space 246. The spaces are just pull offs along roads that run parallel to Tunnel Mountain Drive. There are spaces on both sides of the side roads and the roads go up the hillside. I think maybe there are 8 roads with probably 50 spaces on each road. Once we got hooked up, I washed one load of clothes. As soon as they were in the dryer, we headed into town, parked and just walked around. Again, dinner was selected based on wifi availability – not menu. We ate at Wild Bill’s. Jimmy had an elk burger and I had a chicken club!!! I had wifi and cleared emails again.
We got back to the campground. Jimmy had to wash the bird poop off the hood of the car, I needed to fold the clothes that I left drying and wash another load of towels, and Jimmy had to empty the black tank. Then we walked about a mile to the Hoodoo’s. Hoodoo’s are simply rock formations which are found through the Rocky’s. They just jut up like stalagmites in a cave. We stayed on the path and I was feeling every one of my 64 years by the time we got back to the RV!!!! Between the altitude and walking up hills, I pretty much got tired.
Anyway, we are back to the campground, watching a little tv while I type up what we did today so that I can upload it the next time I have internet access and waiting for the towels to get dry. Tomorrow Travis flies in to Calgary, so we have to be at the airport to pick him up at 1:20 pm. I cannot wait for him to get here. We are going to do the gondola ride in Banff and have dinner at the top of the mountain, go to the ice fields, go to Lake Louise and jam as much in to the few days he is going to be here as possible!!!
More later!!!
Day 10, July 19, 2011 - Going Through Customs
We traveled from Great Falls, MT to High River, Alberta, Canada today. We had really been dreading the process of going through customs, but it wasn’t bad at all. We pulled up to the entrance for motorcoaches and the customs man stuck his head out the window and told Jimmy to shut off the engine so that we could hear him!!! That was fairly logical given the situation. I had gathered all of the information that we thought we would need to get through customs – our passports, the vehicle title, the vehicle registration, the vehicle insurance, the shot records for the two cats and their health certificates. Just so you know, Peaches and The Bear had to go have physicals before we left. They had fecal exams – which required the insertion of a plastic thing into their rear ends – and which neither of them was particularly happy. And, guess what, the customs guy did advised that he would trust us that we had the health certificates. Of course, this was after he asked us the following: how long will you be in Canada (Jimmy’s response – about ten days); do you have anything that you will leave in Canada (Jimmy’s response – no); do you have any weapons (Jimmy’s response – no); do you have any alcohol (Jimmy’s response – 1 bottle of Jack Daniel (he actually said bourbon), 1 bottle of wine (he forgot my three little boxes of wine), and 12 cans of beer (that was exactly right)). I honestly believe that the customs guy thought that anyone who knew down to the can how much beer they had probably was doing everything by the book.
Except for a few small changes, you could almost not tell that you had crossed into Canada. The first thing we noticed is that there is not one sign that says speed limit. We saw a lot of signs that said maximum 110. It only took us one or two signs to figure out that meant that the maximum speed was 110 kilometers per hour maximum. Luckily, I had downloaded an application on my phone before we left the good ole USA which would convert metric to US measures. I was able to quickly tell him how fast we could go!!! After a few speed signs, we got fairly good at estimating – plus Jimmy was able to quickly read the metric speed indicators on the speedometer!!!
We stopped at the first information center we came to so that we could have lunch and pick up a few brochures. I think we might have gotten one of each brochure and map that they had relative to Calgary south in Alberta. Then we took our crackers, ham and turkey out to the picnic table. We then saw our first critter – we think it was either a marmot. It wasn’t a squirrel because it didn’t have a big tail. It didn’t come to where we were eating – it just dived into a hole.
Then back on the highway and Jimmy sees an elk leaning up against a fence. I didn’t see it, so it did not count as a sighting – in my opinion.
After that, the drive was just unremarkable other than seeing field after field of grass being cut and bailed and an equal number of fields of the prettiest yellow plants. We challenged our mental capabilities to try to figure out what it was, but there was nothing that we could think of. When we got to High River and the RV park operated from May to October by the local Lion’s Club, we found out that the beautiful fields were saffron. The lady in the office also told us that the fields would change color once more before the saffron was harvested – they would become an even brighter yellow. The landscape was gently rolling fields with a modern four lane highway running almost due north. It was not an interstate in the way we understand an interstate to be. It was not limited access, it ran right through a few of the towns (including stop lights), but it was very well maintained. Plus, we weren’t doing but 60 anyway – since we were getting over 7 miles to a gallon once we started driving 60!!! And, we knew that 60 was less than the speed limit – and we did see multiple vehicles stopped!!!
I told Jimmy that I didn’t care where we had dinner, but we needed to eat somewhere they had wifi. There was an A&W Root Beer, a Dairy Queen, a MacDonald’s and a Boston Pizza. I picked the Boston Pizza – even though it was a chain restaurant – it was one in which I had never eaten. Guess what – their wifi was not working. So, we ate, paid and left. We drove to the side of the A&W Root Beer place, high their wifi and cleared out our emails.
More on the trip tomorrow.
Except for a few small changes, you could almost not tell that you had crossed into Canada. The first thing we noticed is that there is not one sign that says speed limit. We saw a lot of signs that said maximum 110. It only took us one or two signs to figure out that meant that the maximum speed was 110 kilometers per hour maximum. Luckily, I had downloaded an application on my phone before we left the good ole USA which would convert metric to US measures. I was able to quickly tell him how fast we could go!!! After a few speed signs, we got fairly good at estimating – plus Jimmy was able to quickly read the metric speed indicators on the speedometer!!!
We stopped at the first information center we came to so that we could have lunch and pick up a few brochures. I think we might have gotten one of each brochure and map that they had relative to Calgary south in Alberta. Then we took our crackers, ham and turkey out to the picnic table. We then saw our first critter – we think it was either a marmot. It wasn’t a squirrel because it didn’t have a big tail. It didn’t come to where we were eating – it just dived into a hole.
Then back on the highway and Jimmy sees an elk leaning up against a fence. I didn’t see it, so it did not count as a sighting – in my opinion.
After that, the drive was just unremarkable other than seeing field after field of grass being cut and bailed and an equal number of fields of the prettiest yellow plants. We challenged our mental capabilities to try to figure out what it was, but there was nothing that we could think of. When we got to High River and the RV park operated from May to October by the local Lion’s Club, we found out that the beautiful fields were saffron. The lady in the office also told us that the fields would change color once more before the saffron was harvested – they would become an even brighter yellow. The landscape was gently rolling fields with a modern four lane highway running almost due north. It was not an interstate in the way we understand an interstate to be. It was not limited access, it ran right through a few of the towns (including stop lights), but it was very well maintained. Plus, we weren’t doing but 60 anyway – since we were getting over 7 miles to a gallon once we started driving 60!!! And, we knew that 60 was less than the speed limit – and we did see multiple vehicles stopped!!!
I told Jimmy that I didn’t care where we had dinner, but we needed to eat somewhere they had wifi. There was an A&W Root Beer, a Dairy Queen, a MacDonald’s and a Boston Pizza. I picked the Boston Pizza – even though it was a chain restaurant – it was one in which I had never eaten. Guess what – their wifi was not working. So, we ate, paid and left. We drove to the side of the A&W Root Beer place, high their wifi and cleared out our emails.
More on the trip tomorrow.
Monday, July 18, 2011
Day 9 - Just Driving North
Another slow day - just driving west, then north, then west, then north and then west again. Lots and lots of not a lot of anything. We saw more hay today. I do believe that in the last two days we have seen enough hay rolled up in rolls or squished into squares to feed a whole bunch of cows. We mostly saw Angus cattle today, but there was one farm with a mixture of breeds.
The only animals other than cows we saw were two antelopes. They were playing on the range. Actually, they were eating grass left by the hay baler in one big field. But, they were our first animals other than cows and a couple of deer that we have seen. Hopefully Canada will produce more sightings.
As we traveled west, we did see snow in the mountains. I took pictures, but I don't know if anything will be visible in the pictures. There was also one really big wind farm. Lots of great big windmills just generating power like crazy. The little town that was close to the farm looked a bit more properous than some of the towns we had driven through.
Our final destination tonight was Great Falls, MT. We got here, headed south to the same truck stop where we purchased fueld when we were here on our Yellowstone trip. And, we are staying in the same RV park. Not just the same park - the exact same space as the last time!!! Kind of ironic.
I've made my final stateside grocery trip to get milk, butter and a few more cans of cat food. I'm thawing some pork loin that I had prepared for the trip. Jimmy is washing the coach. Both cats are asleep (not like they didn't sleep most of the day). They will both probably be up a lot during the night since this space backs up to the highway. Jimmy nor I will hear anything, but the cats most likely will.
That's all for tonight until I get the pictures uploaded. Hopefully there will be more exciting updates tomorrow.
The only animals other than cows we saw were two antelopes. They were playing on the range. Actually, they were eating grass left by the hay baler in one big field. But, they were our first animals other than cows and a couple of deer that we have seen. Hopefully Canada will produce more sightings.
As we traveled west, we did see snow in the mountains. I took pictures, but I don't know if anything will be visible in the pictures. There was also one really big wind farm. Lots of great big windmills just generating power like crazy. The little town that was close to the farm looked a bit more properous than some of the towns we had driven through.
Our final destination tonight was Great Falls, MT. We got here, headed south to the same truck stop where we purchased fueld when we were here on our Yellowstone trip. And, we are staying in the same RV park. Not just the same park - the exact same space as the last time!!! Kind of ironic.
I've made my final stateside grocery trip to get milk, butter and a few more cans of cat food. I'm thawing some pork loin that I had prepared for the trip. Jimmy is washing the coach. Both cats are asleep (not like they didn't sleep most of the day). They will both probably be up a lot during the night since this space backs up to the highway. Jimmy nor I will hear anything, but the cats most likely will.
That's all for tonight until I get the pictures uploaded. Hopefully there will be more exciting updates tomorrow.
Sunday, July 17, 2011
Days 7 & 8 - Not a Lot to Tell
We were at dinner tonight when I realized that I didn't post anything yesterday. So, I guess I have to play catch up tonight.
Yesterday was strictly a travel day. We had scoped out the turn that we were going to have to make to get on the highway we would be on to get to Billings, MT from Spearfish, SD. It was going to be a really tough turn on a narrow, muddy piece of road. So, we road right down the middle of Spearfish in order to not have to make the turn.
We did not actually go into Belle Fourche to look for the marker, but that is supposedly the geographical center of the 50 United States of America. We had seen the signs for some time, and neither of us could believe that the geographical center of the US was in SD. I googled it and found out that the geographical center of the 48 contiguous states is in the middle of a hog farm in Kansas. SD holds the honor of being the geographical center of the 50 states. So, including Alaska and Hawaii - it makes more sense.
We turned onto highway 212. You should just look it up on a map. There is nothing there. I believe we saw 1,576,423 bales of hay - not counting the bales left over from last year's harvest. Now - that is an estimation. It was unbelievable how much hay had been baled up - those big round bales - not the little square ones. I think every farm had its own pattern for stacking the bales also. The weird thing was how few cows or horses we saw. I wondered if they were just growing hay to sell. There was one farm which had shrink wrapped his bales - so that might have been the case with him.
The really aggravating thing about the drive was that, shortly after we got on the highway, there was 13 miles of construction through which you had to follow a lead truck. I do not know what they had done to the highway (it was a real highway - not a dirt road), but there was enough dust blown up on the coach that we could not see out the back up camera. Once we cleared the construction, Jimmy got the broom out and swept the dirt off. When we looked at the Jeep cover, it was gray - not black. Needless to say, Mr. Neatnik had to wash the Jeep and the coach as soon as we got in our parking place - even though their brochure specifically asked that you not do so. He would not have been able to sleep!!!
There were multiple Native American reservations along the highway once we passed Broadus and were approaching I90. We could see the historic park and the grave markers at the place where Custer met his demise!!! Since we had already been there, we elected to pass it by and head on in to Billings.
We arrived at the same KOA RV Park at which we stayed the last time we were here. Supposedly it is the first KOA RV Park that ever was. It is nice. But, tonight is the first night that I have actually been connected to their internet. It just kept coming and going last night.
The bad part - it is hot. Period, end of that discussion. Low to mid 90's during the day. Bright clear skies. Sun that seems to come up early and go down late.
So, moving on to today (7/17/2011). We made up for the sleep that we had lost in Spearfish due to the wind coming up during the night. We slept till 10 am (Memphis time). Once we had breakfast and got dressed (that is my order - not Jimmy's), we headed to Cabela's to shop. We didn't need anything. But, of course, there were things there that had to come back to the RV with us. We bought one fleece, one pair of shorts for Jimmy, a Cabela's 50th anniversary t-shirt for Jimmy and some burnt peanuts for Jimmy. I paid. I must be missing something. Doesn't look like I got anything.
Then, the old obligatory trip to the Walmart. Absolutely nothing exciting about that.
We got back to the RV park and unloaded and stored the groceries. Both Peaches and The Bear wanted to go outside, so we put them on their leashes and out to the patio they went. The Bear thought the swing was super. He just got up on it and laid out while it swung. Peaches spent a few minutes checking out the patio and then decided that she needed to go back inside. We tried to make her stay, but she went so far as getting in the storage bin under the coach trying to get inside. Both of them were fascinated with the blowing cottonwood tree stuff. Of course, the blowing stuff is making my eyes swell.
We then went out across the Yellowstone River from Billings and drove six miles out into the country to the Pictograph Cave State Park. I took pictures. But, you will probably need to look the park up on the internet in order to see the actual pictographs. I took pictures and plan to upload them, but erosion and time has truly eaten away at many of them. What a shame that is.
Tomorrow we head for Great Falls, MT.
Oh, BTW, diesel fuel out here in Billings is about $3.68 a gallon. You feel like you need a big portable fuel bladder that you could just fill up!!!
Yesterday was strictly a travel day. We had scoped out the turn that we were going to have to make to get on the highway we would be on to get to Billings, MT from Spearfish, SD. It was going to be a really tough turn on a narrow, muddy piece of road. So, we road right down the middle of Spearfish in order to not have to make the turn.
We did not actually go into Belle Fourche to look for the marker, but that is supposedly the geographical center of the 50 United States of America. We had seen the signs for some time, and neither of us could believe that the geographical center of the US was in SD. I googled it and found out that the geographical center of the 48 contiguous states is in the middle of a hog farm in Kansas. SD holds the honor of being the geographical center of the 50 states. So, including Alaska and Hawaii - it makes more sense.
We turned onto highway 212. You should just look it up on a map. There is nothing there. I believe we saw 1,576,423 bales of hay - not counting the bales left over from last year's harvest. Now - that is an estimation. It was unbelievable how much hay had been baled up - those big round bales - not the little square ones. I think every farm had its own pattern for stacking the bales also. The weird thing was how few cows or horses we saw. I wondered if they were just growing hay to sell. There was one farm which had shrink wrapped his bales - so that might have been the case with him.
The really aggravating thing about the drive was that, shortly after we got on the highway, there was 13 miles of construction through which you had to follow a lead truck. I do not know what they had done to the highway (it was a real highway - not a dirt road), but there was enough dust blown up on the coach that we could not see out the back up camera. Once we cleared the construction, Jimmy got the broom out and swept the dirt off. When we looked at the Jeep cover, it was gray - not black. Needless to say, Mr. Neatnik had to wash the Jeep and the coach as soon as we got in our parking place - even though their brochure specifically asked that you not do so. He would not have been able to sleep!!!
There were multiple Native American reservations along the highway once we passed Broadus and were approaching I90. We could see the historic park and the grave markers at the place where Custer met his demise!!! Since we had already been there, we elected to pass it by and head on in to Billings.
We arrived at the same KOA RV Park at which we stayed the last time we were here. Supposedly it is the first KOA RV Park that ever was. It is nice. But, tonight is the first night that I have actually been connected to their internet. It just kept coming and going last night.
The bad part - it is hot. Period, end of that discussion. Low to mid 90's during the day. Bright clear skies. Sun that seems to come up early and go down late.
So, moving on to today (7/17/2011). We made up for the sleep that we had lost in Spearfish due to the wind coming up during the night. We slept till 10 am (Memphis time). Once we had breakfast and got dressed (that is my order - not Jimmy's), we headed to Cabela's to shop. We didn't need anything. But, of course, there were things there that had to come back to the RV with us. We bought one fleece, one pair of shorts for Jimmy, a Cabela's 50th anniversary t-shirt for Jimmy and some burnt peanuts for Jimmy. I paid. I must be missing something. Doesn't look like I got anything.
Then, the old obligatory trip to the Walmart. Absolutely nothing exciting about that.
We got back to the RV park and unloaded and stored the groceries. Both Peaches and The Bear wanted to go outside, so we put them on their leashes and out to the patio they went. The Bear thought the swing was super. He just got up on it and laid out while it swung. Peaches spent a few minutes checking out the patio and then decided that she needed to go back inside. We tried to make her stay, but she went so far as getting in the storage bin under the coach trying to get inside. Both of them were fascinated with the blowing cottonwood tree stuff. Of course, the blowing stuff is making my eyes swell.
We then went out across the Yellowstone River from Billings and drove six miles out into the country to the Pictograph Cave State Park. I took pictures. But, you will probably need to look the park up on the internet in order to see the actual pictographs. I took pictures and plan to upload them, but erosion and time has truly eaten away at many of them. What a shame that is.
Tomorrow we head for Great Falls, MT.
Oh, BTW, diesel fuel out here in Billings is about $3.68 a gallon. You feel like you need a big portable fuel bladder that you could just fill up!!!
Friday, July 15, 2011
Day 6 - Not a lot to tell
This was a slow day. We had to go into Spearfish first to get a spray bottle. We have two bottles of Windex on the coach. Jimmy has dropped both of them and broken off the spray part of the bottle. We went trying to find just a spray bottle. But, I found a 97 cent bottle of generic Windex and bought it. Plus mayo, salad dressing and a head of lettuce (all of that while Jimmy was looking for one spray bottle!!!). Right after we walked out of the Walmart, I got an email from a friend. It was a joke that has been going around where the local Walmart writes the lady and advises her that her husband cannot come to Walmart anymore because of all of the tricks he has been pulling!!! Jimmy doesn't do that. But, back to the spray bottle. We got back to the coach - and Jimmy dropped the bottle. Luckily this time, it didn't break. From now on, when he goes out with the spray bottle, I'll just have to tape it to him.
Then we went to Deadwood, SD. Deadwood was a dead town until the citizens passed a referendum which allowed gambling. Now, almost every store front is a gambling establishment. The last time we were here, I did not find that they paid very well. Today, I thought they had not changed until the last hour. Yes, I won a little. At least I came back to the coach with more than I went with.
While I was playing video poker, Jimmy drove through the canyon drive back to Spearfish (which we had done before) and took a few walks in the canyon. Then back to the RV park. He took zero pictures.
When he got back to Diamond Jack's to pick me up, we drove up the hill to the cemetery where Wild Bill Hickok and Calamity Jane are buried. There is a section in the cemetery where the Chinese who lived in Deadwood in the cowboy days were buried. They all came over very poor and opened laundries. The wound up pretty well off. They were buried in the cemetery, but all but two were dug up and their bodies sent home to China. There was a full section for Jewish citizens. I did take pictures in the cemetery and will upload them and attach them to this post later this evening.
We drove back to the coach on a back road which took us back to Sturgis, SD. The motorcycle rally is not until early August, but all of this area of the country is covered with motorcyclists. In addition, there is a Corvette rally here in the area. We have seen lots and lots of absolutely beautiful Corvettes. We went to the place where they meet and saw a new Corvette that lists for over $100,000. I don't think the nose is high enough off the ground to get up the little rise in front of the garage, so I cannot have one. It was really pretty though. But, you have to think about the fact that you would have to pretty much tear up the garage in order to fix it where the car would be able to get into it!!!!
Tomorrow we head to Billings, MT. So, tonight, I am washing the dirty clothes which have accumulated. Kind of sounds like being at home, doesn't it!!! At least I don't have as much floor space to sweep, vaccum and mop!!!
Then we went to Deadwood, SD. Deadwood was a dead town until the citizens passed a referendum which allowed gambling. Now, almost every store front is a gambling establishment. The last time we were here, I did not find that they paid very well. Today, I thought they had not changed until the last hour. Yes, I won a little. At least I came back to the coach with more than I went with.
While I was playing video poker, Jimmy drove through the canyon drive back to Spearfish (which we had done before) and took a few walks in the canyon. Then back to the RV park. He took zero pictures.
When he got back to Diamond Jack's to pick me up, we drove up the hill to the cemetery where Wild Bill Hickok and Calamity Jane are buried. There is a section in the cemetery where the Chinese who lived in Deadwood in the cowboy days were buried. They all came over very poor and opened laundries. The wound up pretty well off. They were buried in the cemetery, but all but two were dug up and their bodies sent home to China. There was a full section for Jewish citizens. I did take pictures in the cemetery and will upload them and attach them to this post later this evening.
We drove back to the coach on a back road which took us back to Sturgis, SD. The motorcycle rally is not until early August, but all of this area of the country is covered with motorcyclists. In addition, there is a Corvette rally here in the area. We have seen lots and lots of absolutely beautiful Corvettes. We went to the place where they meet and saw a new Corvette that lists for over $100,000. I don't think the nose is high enough off the ground to get up the little rise in front of the garage, so I cannot have one. It was really pretty though. But, you have to think about the fact that you would have to pretty much tear up the garage in order to fix it where the car would be able to get into it!!!!
Tomorrow we head to Billings, MT. So, tonight, I am washing the dirty clothes which have accumulated. Kind of sounds like being at home, doesn't it!!! At least I don't have as much floor space to sweep, vaccum and mop!!!
Thursday, July 14, 2011
Day 5 - and they think 91 with no humidity is HOT!!!
We had a really interesting day today. We started out driving to Sturgis, SD just to see what it is all about. That is where they have a huge motorcycle rally each year. It doesn't start until August 8, but they are definitely getting ready for it!!! Sturgis, itself, is not much of a town. They do have a motorcycle museum. But, from the pictures you can find on the internet of the motorcycle rally, it is really hopping. I suspect that they make enough money during a week or so in August to support the town the entire year. That is a picture of the museum at the beginning of today's entry.
Then we took off south on a highway that is supposed to help us find Nemo (the town, not the fish). The first thing I see on the highway is a sign which says the highway is a 'certified weed free highway'. I am still pondering what that meant. There were definitely weeds growing along the highway. So, maybe it meant that you could not smoke weed as you drove along the highway. I don't know, but I thought it was pretty interesting.
After driving a while, we found Nemo. The picture above proves it!! There was not much to Nemo, but I am glad that we were able to locate it without having to swim with the turtles.
From there, we drove on down through Hill City to the highway that goes by Mt. Rushmore (we did not stop at Mt. Rushmore this year, but you can scan our older blog entries to see the pictures from the last time we were here). Right before the turn, we saw a mountain goat family on the side of the road. There were beautiful lakes and lots of rock formations which I got pictures of. THEN, we went back to bear country. All of those pictures are in the slide show below!!!
The last thing to mention is that, on the way back from our outing, we saw a car from Iowa with an Ole Miss Baseball sticker in their window. We waved and they waved back!!! Isn't that great. All the way in SD and we find Ole Miss baseball fans!!!
Wednesday, July 13, 2011
Day 4 - We Found a Little Bit Cooler Temperatures
But, they will be gone tomorrow. We drove from Kennebec, SD, to the starts of the Grasslands in the rain today. Luckily, it had quit before we got to Wall, SD, because we really needed to go back to Wall Drug to see if it was as neat as the last trip. Guess what, it was not better the second time around. We went through all of the shops, had a piece of pizza, bought a little fudge and some doughnuts, and left Wall for Spearfish.
Jimmy had forgotten to pull the driving instructions to the RV Park where we are staying (same park at which we stayed the last trip when we went to Mount Rushmore). So far, I haven't taken any pictures of the park because they would look just like the pictures I took on the last trip!!! I might just reconnect that same set of pictures. I did take a few pictures today which I need to upload. I'll just attach them at the end of today's entry once I get them uploaded.
We drove into Spearfish trying to figure out where we could purchase diesel fuel before we leave to go to Billings. We checked out most of the stations and figured that we could not get the coach in (or out) of them. Finally, we went to the north side of the interstate and found a station that is just perfect - and has the cheapest diesel fuel in the area!!! What more could we ask!!!
So, we ate a quick dinner and headed back to the RV park. I was determined to get out and walk a little since it was cool enough to do so. Tomorrow we will head to the Bear park, or Mount Rushmore, or Deadwood, or something. Luckily, we are staying three nights here, so we don't have to rush.
We met a gentleman when we were out walking from Nebraska. He is heading to Montana tomorrow and on to Calgary for the weekend. He raises cattle and is meeting some other cattlemen friends at the Calgary Stampede. We hope this is the last weekend for the Stampede since we will be there next weekend!!! He told us that he had just placed an order for a new Tiffin Bus, so he is going to be going to Red Bay, AL in the near future!!!
Life is good. As we drove today, I kept thinking about a couple of Songs - America the Beautiful and I Stand Amazed in the Presence. Isn't that an interesting couple of songs to be in my mind at the same time? But, it is amazing to see the glory of God's creations and American is absolutely beautiful!!! So, it worked for me.
More tomorrow!!
Jimmy had forgotten to pull the driving instructions to the RV Park where we are staying (same park at which we stayed the last trip when we went to Mount Rushmore). So far, I haven't taken any pictures of the park because they would look just like the pictures I took on the last trip!!! I might just reconnect that same set of pictures. I did take a few pictures today which I need to upload. I'll just attach them at the end of today's entry once I get them uploaded.
We drove into Spearfish trying to figure out where we could purchase diesel fuel before we leave to go to Billings. We checked out most of the stations and figured that we could not get the coach in (or out) of them. Finally, we went to the north side of the interstate and found a station that is just perfect - and has the cheapest diesel fuel in the area!!! What more could we ask!!!
So, we ate a quick dinner and headed back to the RV park. I was determined to get out and walk a little since it was cool enough to do so. Tomorrow we will head to the Bear park, or Mount Rushmore, or Deadwood, or something. Luckily, we are staying three nights here, so we don't have to rush.
We met a gentleman when we were out walking from Nebraska. He is heading to Montana tomorrow and on to Calgary for the weekend. He raises cattle and is meeting some other cattlemen friends at the Calgary Stampede. We hope this is the last weekend for the Stampede since we will be there next weekend!!! He told us that he had just placed an order for a new Tiffin Bus, so he is going to be going to Red Bay, AL in the near future!!!
Life is good. As we drove today, I kept thinking about a couple of Songs - America the Beautiful and I Stand Amazed in the Presence. Isn't that an interesting couple of songs to be in my mind at the same time? But, it is amazing to see the glory of God's creations and American is absolutely beautiful!!! So, it worked for me.
More tomorrow!!
Tuesday, July 12, 2011
Day 3 - Our Search for Cooler Temperatures
Day 3 began early with lots and lots of wind in the parking lot rv park at Council Bluffs! Enough to wake the cats. Peaches actually was making lots of noise and pacing the bed. She wouldn't get on the floor to pace - just paced the bed. The Bear rolled over once, looked at her and went back to sleep!
Even though our next leg of the trip is north, we had to back track to I80 and go northeast for about 20 miles to catch I680 west to get back to I29. There is apparently a bridge out on I29 which has resulted in that detour. We are now back on I29 heading north to Sioux Falls where we will turn west towards the mountains.
It has simply been amazing how many fields of corn and other crops we have seen! Plus there have been two places where we were driving through a low spot in the highway with big bags of gravel holding back the water on both sides and in the middle. It is like a bridge but you aren't up in the air! Lots of crop land is still under water.
I just updated the blog for everything else we did today, and lost it all. So, here goes nothing.
We had a little rain most of the trip to Kennebec, SD today. It was overcast all day - and COOLer than it had been. We never had to crank the generator - even when we stopped for lunch!!!
Peaches had a really good day - she just laid on her bathroom rug that we brought from home. Bear moved from his green bag to my lap to the dash to the bag to my lap to the bag to the sofa and back to my lap all day. He really likes to ride on the motor home. Everytime we would slow down or stop, he would jump on to the dash to make sure everyone could see him - as well so that he could see everything.
One thing we saw today was lots of fields of grains which had been harvested. With the bit of wind that was blowing all day, I kind of wish they had not been harvested. Then we would have truly seen the amber waves of grain!!!
Tonight we are staying in a KOA rv park in Kennebec. Ironically, it is the same KOA at which we stayed the on our trip to Yellowstone. No discount or recognition of that fact. The lady told us at check in that there probably had been four other owners of the park since we were last here!!!
Anyway, tomorrow we go to Wall Drug on the way to Spearfish. I truly think you could spend an entire day at Wall Drug and never see everything that is there.
Peace!!!!
Even though our next leg of the trip is north, we had to back track to I80 and go northeast for about 20 miles to catch I680 west to get back to I29. There is apparently a bridge out on I29 which has resulted in that detour. We are now back on I29 heading north to Sioux Falls where we will turn west towards the mountains.
It has simply been amazing how many fields of corn and other crops we have seen! Plus there have been two places where we were driving through a low spot in the highway with big bags of gravel holding back the water on both sides and in the middle. It is like a bridge but you aren't up in the air! Lots of crop land is still under water.
I just updated the blog for everything else we did today, and lost it all. So, here goes nothing.
We had a little rain most of the trip to Kennebec, SD today. It was overcast all day - and COOLer than it had been. We never had to crank the generator - even when we stopped for lunch!!!
Peaches had a really good day - she just laid on her bathroom rug that we brought from home. Bear moved from his green bag to my lap to the dash to the bag to my lap to the bag to the sofa and back to my lap all day. He really likes to ride on the motor home. Everytime we would slow down or stop, he would jump on to the dash to make sure everyone could see him - as well so that he could see everything.
One thing we saw today was lots of fields of grains which had been harvested. With the bit of wind that was blowing all day, I kind of wish they had not been harvested. Then we would have truly seen the amber waves of grain!!!
Tonight we are staying in a KOA rv park in Kennebec. Ironically, it is the same KOA at which we stayed the on our trip to Yellowstone. No discount or recognition of that fact. The lady told us at check in that there probably had been four other owners of the park since we were last here!!!
Anyway, tomorrow we go to Wall Drug on the way to Spearfish. I truly think you could spend an entire day at Wall Drug and never see everything that is there.
Peace!!!!
Day 2 - Heading for Cooler Climes
Not actually a very log day in terms of miles driven, but still a long day. We came from Boonville, MO to Council Bluffs, IA. The drive was actually about an hour longer than it should have been due to the detour around the flooding on I29. As we approached the place to get off I29, we were surrounded on both sides by water. It was like the interstate was a long bridge. The detour itself was not bad, but it did add about an hour to our driving time.
We got to the Horseshoe RV Park and had to maneuver all around because I had put the casino's address in my phone instead of the RV park. But, we finally maneuvered into the line to check it. When we got here, we were the second RV to park, so we were basically given our choice of places to park. We picked slot 1 because it had nothing to the left of it. You have to back in, and backing is not our favorite thing to do. We made it though.
It was so hot, we had all three air units going, but the inside of the coach was just not cooling. Jimmy went up on the top to check to see if the units were frozen up or something. Lo and behold, the front unit was not running. So, down he came to check the switches/fuses or whatever and we had tripped the switch on unit 1. So, we flipped it back on and headed out in the Jeep to Omaha.
Just so everyone knows, Omaha is where the College World Series is played. Our team did not make it this year. But we did!!! It was all locked up. It is very large, but not nearly so beautiful as the ballpark in Oxford. But, we can now say that we have been there. Sure would like to return with our team soon!!! We had forgotten the cameras (they were on the coach), but I took a couple of pictures with my telephone.
We headed out of Council Bluffs with the last (hopefully) detour due to flooding. We have to go east and hook up with another interstate which intersects I29 north of the bridge that is out. I don't know where we will go tonight, but it will be somewhere in South Dakota.
Heading to Where It Is Cooler!!!!
We got to the Horseshoe RV Park and had to maneuver all around because I had put the casino's address in my phone instead of the RV park. But, we finally maneuvered into the line to check it. When we got here, we were the second RV to park, so we were basically given our choice of places to park. We picked slot 1 because it had nothing to the left of it. You have to back in, and backing is not our favorite thing to do. We made it though.
It was so hot, we had all three air units going, but the inside of the coach was just not cooling. Jimmy went up on the top to check to see if the units were frozen up or something. Lo and behold, the front unit was not running. So, down he came to check the switches/fuses or whatever and we had tripped the switch on unit 1. So, we flipped it back on and headed out in the Jeep to Omaha.
Just so everyone knows, Omaha is where the College World Series is played. Our team did not make it this year. But we did!!! It was all locked up. It is very large, but not nearly so beautiful as the ballpark in Oxford. But, we can now say that we have been there. Sure would like to return with our team soon!!! We had forgotten the cameras (they were on the coach), but I took a couple of pictures with my telephone.
We headed out of Council Bluffs with the last (hopefully) detour due to flooding. We have to go east and hook up with another interstate which intersects I29 north of the bridge that is out. I don't know where we will go tonight, but it will be somewhere in South Dakota.
Heading to Where It Is Cooler!!!!
Sunday, July 10, 2011
Day 1-heading to cooler climes
We left Holly Springs today at eight am. We don't really have to worry about things being stolen while we are gone since it is all on the coach! Peaches has already moved to the litter box and The Bear is asleep on the counter for some reason. Nothing planned today except driving. I will update later when we get to where we are going!
Last night after I went to bed to read Jimmy comes up from the basement to tell me that the national park at which we are staying in Canada suddenly has full hookups available (we were going to just have power). So down the stairs we go to make new reservations and cancel the old ones. I was not looking forward to bath house showers since there will be three of us there for a few days! But it all worked out. And $240 for six nights is not bad! Couldn't do a hotel up there for that price.
Nothing very eventful today. We drove a little further than we normally do and spent the night on the parking lot of the Isle of Capri casino. Very nice parking lot. But it was very hot. We has driven most of the afternoon with the genaerator running and the three air units going full blast. It never got below 77 in the salon area. They told me inside the casino that it was well over 100 and that they were not being able to keep the casIno as cool as normal. Leaving for Council Bluffs, IA in the morning.
Last night after I went to bed to read Jimmy comes up from the basement to tell me that the national park at which we are staying in Canada suddenly has full hookups available (we were going to just have power). So down the stairs we go to make new reservations and cancel the old ones. I was not looking forward to bath house showers since there will be three of us there for a few days! But it all worked out. And $240 for six nights is not bad! Couldn't do a hotel up there for that price.
Nothing very eventful today. We drove a little further than we normally do and spent the night on the parking lot of the Isle of Capri casino. Very nice parking lot. But it was very hot. We has driven most of the afternoon with the genaerator running and the three air units going full blast. It never got below 77 in the salon area. They told me inside the casino that it was well over 100 and that they were not being able to keep the casIno as cool as normal. Leaving for Council Bluffs, IA in the morning.
Saturday, July 2, 2011
Starting to Get Ready
Yes, it is over a week until we leave heading north - but I have started getting ready.
Bear and Peaches have had their shots updated and will get the health certificates next week. You have to have that to go in and come out of Canada!! Of course, they are now feeling pretty bad. Peaches spent the night in the middle bathroom - just landed there and had not moved. The Bear was backed in beside the toilet in the same bathroom. They are still there - not moving - and Peaches cries if you pick her up. The Bear just goes limp and whimpers. Plus, their little noses are warmish.
The grocery purchasing has also begun. The other travel blogs Jimmy follows say to be sure and buy your paper towels in the ole US of A!!! So, got them, books for me, the frozen adult beverages that they sell at Walmart and the makings for spaghetti to make and take with us. Will be picking up a boneless ham, turkey breast and barbeque pork roast from Honey Baked next week (those were the coupons on the web today). Then I have to make the trip to Costco for stuff I need to buy in bulk!!! Most important is to stock up on my Coke Zero's!!!!
Have to get the Jeep's license renewed (expires in July) and both the motorhome and Jeep inspected next week. I think Jimmy also has to take it to the tow bar place and get them to check on something. Then there is the trip to the bank. I don't even want to think about that yet.
Bear and Peaches have had their shots updated and will get the health certificates next week. You have to have that to go in and come out of Canada!! Of course, they are now feeling pretty bad. Peaches spent the night in the middle bathroom - just landed there and had not moved. The Bear was backed in beside the toilet in the same bathroom. They are still there - not moving - and Peaches cries if you pick her up. The Bear just goes limp and whimpers. Plus, their little noses are warmish.
The grocery purchasing has also begun. The other travel blogs Jimmy follows say to be sure and buy your paper towels in the ole US of A!!! So, got them, books for me, the frozen adult beverages that they sell at Walmart and the makings for spaghetti to make and take with us. Will be picking up a boneless ham, turkey breast and barbeque pork roast from Honey Baked next week (those were the coupons on the web today). Then I have to make the trip to Costco for stuff I need to buy in bulk!!! Most important is to stock up on my Coke Zero's!!!!
Have to get the Jeep's license renewed (expires in July) and both the motorhome and Jeep inspected next week. I think Jimmy also has to take it to the tow bar place and get them to check on something. Then there is the trip to the bank. I don't even want to think about that yet.
Friday, July 1, 2011
Next Trip
A few weeks ago, I mentioned to Jimmy that I would like to go somewhere this summer where the weather is cooler. I was thinking maybe the mountains of Colorado. But, Jimmy always takes the hint and makes a little trip into a wonderful experience. So, we are leaving around the 10th of July and heading to Canada!!! I'm going to start this blog with the 'getting ready' phase in addition to the going phase and the coming home phase.
Last night we coordinated Travis' travel to Calgary to meet up with us so that he can enjoy the cooler weather too!!! So, this is going to be a family trip, excluding only Rhett and Scarlett - Travis' cats. Peaches and The Bear have both been to the vets today to get all of their shots and their health certificates so that they can go to Canada in the motorhome with us. So, other than picking up a little more cash money, groceries, and a few other odds and ends, we are about ready to go!!!
Watch this site for more information as the trip gets underway.
Last night we coordinated Travis' travel to Calgary to meet up with us so that he can enjoy the cooler weather too!!! So, this is going to be a family trip, excluding only Rhett and Scarlett - Travis' cats. Peaches and The Bear have both been to the vets today to get all of their shots and their health certificates so that they can go to Canada in the motorhome with us. So, other than picking up a little more cash money, groceries, and a few other odds and ends, we are about ready to go!!!
Watch this site for more information as the trip gets underway.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)