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!!!
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