5/27/12 BANFF NATIONAL PARK, CANADA

POSTED FROM STARBUCKS:

We made it to Banff with no reservations in advance. Being a holiday weekend I was afraid it may be a problem especially since we had a nail in one of the camper tires.  That held us up 2-3 hours waiting to have it fixed at the tire store.   We arrived at the only FHU campground around 5:00 and were able to get a nice site with a view of the snow capped mountains nearby.  It’s a huge park, very nice, lots of pine trees with loop sites.  We prefer to have electricity when the nights get this cold (32 degrees last night) so we can run the electric heaters.  Otherwise we can use the propane heat but it goes through propane pretty quick if it has to run a lot.  Hopefully it will warm up so we can do some dry camping.  It helps offset some of the camping fees.  Here it’s $38 Canadian.  Yesterday was a cool 57 degrees, perfect for hiking.  No rain, no wind, just a slight breeze here and there.  After a late breakfast of omelets we hiked 4 miles that meanders along the Bow River.  We drove into the town of Banff to get information at the visitor’s center.  Stopped at the liquor store for beer.  Yikes, $24 for a 12 pack.  I had heard booze was expensive in Canada and it certainly is.  $42 for tequila that normally cost about $14 in the US.  They only sell alcohol at liquor stores, not Wal-Mart or convenience stores. 

Glacier National Park

 Our campsite at near Glacier.

5/27 Monday – Beautiful weather today, warmed up to the low 60’s, sunny, many families picnicking everywhere.  We took a scenic drive up to Minnewanka lake, Cascade Ponds, Vermilion Lakes then back to the town of Banff and ate our sandwiches in Central Park.  A very nice park in town right next to the Bow River.  Afterward we walked this very pretty little town and shopped a bit.  It reminds me of Ouray, Colorado, kind of a little Switzerland. 

05/25/12 UPDATE: NOW IN CANADA

5/19 Saturday - Made it to Great Falls, Montana, the last big town before we go into Canada.  We stocked up on supplies ($500).  We camped in a Wal-Mart parking lot along with several other RV’s and many vans.  I like that!  There must be a race track nearby as we heard race cars half the night.  A man camping in a van said something to us about the race; apparently the winner gets 1.5 million dollars, WOW, that would buy a lot of diesel.

5/20 Sunday - Left Great Falls and made it to Glacier National Park in 4 hours.  We found the park to be closed but a portion of the road is open.  We were not able to stay in the park but found a very nice rv park not far from the parks entrance (Johnson’s of St. Mary Campground, $20 a day with FHU off season, in season rate starts later this week, $40 a day).   We met the owners, three generations.  The grandmother is 94 years old, her daughter and granddaughter.  We are on a mountain with a beautiful view of St. Mary’s Lake below and the snow capped mountains all around.  Weather is very nice, around 60 degrees.   No cell service, no wifi, but our satellite locked on so we do have tv.  I miss being able to research the area we are in and the places we are going.  Our tv satellite gets east and west coast feeds.  No local channels so we’re not able to see local weather forecast.  We do have a tentative schedule of our summer travel, no reservations or commitments, just something to keep us on track so we cover all the places we want to see before being pushed back southward due to cold weather.   

5/21 Monday – Weather was cool, overcast and drizzly all day.  We went on a 1.5 mile hike on a trail in Glacier Nat’l Park.  It took us down to a beautiful waterfall.   The trail is on the side of a mountain,  steep in many places.  The forest reminds me of a fairy tale forest, Madison would love it.  Thick with trees and moss, and probably a few fairies hiding from us.  On the way back we passed two female moose grazing beside the trail.  One of them was to close for my comfort.  They just watched us scoot on by (me much faster than Norm).  Today I’m missing my chiropractor; my sciatic nerve is shooting pain up my back every once in a while.

5/22 Tuesday – It turned off cold today, heavy overcast, no sun, rainy all day and VERY strong winds.  Probably 40-50 MPH, shaking the rv pretty good at times.  We drove into the park and went on a short hike down sunrift gorge.  The gorge was beautiful; a waterfall carved a deep crevasse in the rock, the water was rushing fast creating waterfalls along the way.   In the forest we’re protected by the wind and the rain wasn’t too bad with our rain gear on.  However it was pretty cold, the temp was 41 degrees according to the thermometer in the truck.  We only stayed out about an hour or so.   Several rv’s left the park we’re in leaving us and two other soles up on this windy mountain.  We had a large 5^th wheel pulled by a freightliner that also had a smart car on a lift behind the freightliners cab.  They were from Texas and had two dogs, a large dog that was as big as a great dane, white with black spots like a dalmation, and a very small foo foo dog.  They put out steps so the big dog could exit the cab of the truck.  They only stayed one night, I imagine they are on their way up to Alaska. 

5/23 Wed – Cold, drizzly and very windy again today.  Hiked 1.5 miles to St. Mary Falls.  Hiking in the cold was worth it as the falls were beautiful, fast rushing water. 

5/24 Thur – Still cold today, in the 40’s.  Hitched up and left around 11:30 (yes, we are in no hurry, don’t have far to go today).  We made it to Okotoks, Ontario, Canada, just south of Calgary.  Going through the boarder was a bit of a hassle.  They asked questions for several minutes then made us pull over, go inside, ask more questions, run background checks and look through our truck and camper.  They are mainly looking for firearms.  I guess since we’re from Texas they assume we’re packingJ  We are staying at a very nice park (Okotoks Lions Sheep River Campground, FHU, 38 Canadian dollars).  It’s cold here to, normally it’s in the 60’s which would be perfect.  Unfortunately it’s high of 40’s a low tonight in the 30’s.  We have been out of cell service and wifi so have not been able to look at weather, etc.  for several days.  The park we are in gives you one hour wifi, but you have to use it in one hour of log on or lose it.  Don’t know if we’ll stay here another day or not, next destination is Banff National Park only 90 miles from here. 

5/18/12 STILL IN THERMOPOLIS

That train is really close.

There are 3 pools at the hot springs. One is 140 degrees (Yikes!), another is 110 and the 3rd is cooler, no thermometer but probably around 95.  We go between the 110 and cooler one.  Look at that view! 

We really like it here, so stayed on another day.  Weather has been in the 70's and 50's at night.  We've been puttering around the RV & truck doing maintenance things.  Norm changed the oil in the generator, drained water off the truck (diesel), etc.  I started pulling up the carpet in the rv.  That's the thing I miss the most, home projects.  The carpet in this rv is terrible.  It took me all afternoon to just get the carpet off the stairs.  We would like to stay here a bit longer, but will move on today. The weather is turning off rainy with possible thunderstorms, but it looks like the same weather is on our route north.  This rv park is a bit expensive at $35 a night. But the fast wifi & thermal hot springs make up for it.  Our next destination is Glacier National Park, just this side of the Canadian border.  We should be there in 3 days.

5/16/12 THERMOPOLIS, WY

Sunday we drove up to Deb's place in Rock River to see her RV.  She has a 1982 Winnebago that is in excellent shape.  We can hardly wait to RV somewhere with her.  I do hope that happens.  Monday turned out to be a beautiful day in Laramie.  Deb & Jordan took us out to some forest land for a hike.  The trees and huge boulders we saw were awesome.  With temps in the 70's it was a perfect day for hiking.  I think we hiked about 4 miles. 

We left Laramie, Wy yesterday after Debbie made us a big breakfast and made our way North.  We sure had a nice time with Deb & Jordan.  They spoiled us something fierce by cooking delicious meals every day, twice a day in fact.

We are now at Thermopolis, Wy which is nice little town known for their hot springs.  We are staying at the Fountain of Youth RV park on the North side of town.  It has it's own hot springs on the property which Norm and I enjoyed last night and will again tonight.  We plan to stay a day here to do some work around the RV.  There is a train track close by, boy would Holden love seeing those trains! 

5/11/12 LARAMIE, WY

We picked up the small rv and got inspected, cleaned and packed for Alaska.  We left Waco on Sunday around 10:00 and made it to a small town just south of McAlester, Oklahoma.  We stayed at an RV park that was nothing more than a gravel place on the side of the highway. With full hook ups and only $16 a night we were glad to find it.  Monday we proceeded on to Tahlequah.  We made it there by 2:00.  There are not many RV parks in the area, other than several out on the Lake/River geared toward water activities.  We did a lot of driving around and visited the chamber of commerce for information.  We remembered seeing an RV park in town when we were here two years ago and were able to find it.  $20 a night with full hook up.  It was a very nice park but strange that we were the only ones there.  Maybe it gets busy on the weekends. 

After getting all set up we drove over to the hospital to get Norm registered with their medical facility.  The next day we were at the dental office at 6:45.  He was the first patient in.  After 1 ½ hours he came out. They had done an emergency partial root canal.  He will need to return for a full root canal in several months.  We’ll return after our trip to Alaska.  Our experience with the Cherokee Nation’s service was a very positive one.  Good deal!
We thought we would be here a week or more dealing with Norms dental problem but since it was taken care of so quick we decided to continue on North with our plans.  We left Tahlequah Wednesday heading for Laramie, Wyoming so we can see Deb & Jordan before they leave on vacation next week.  It’s 900 miles we plan to cover in 3 days.  Our goal of 300 miles a day is a little longer driving than we really like to do.  Since we drive slower than the speed limit it takes us longer to get where we’re going than the GPS calculates.  Between 55-60 MPH is our optimum mileage at about 10 MPG or slightly more.  We almost made that goal, stopping at a Wal-mart overnight in Norton, Kansas.

The weather up this way is warmer than we like, 80’s in the day, but no humidity so it’s tolerable in the shade.  The night get cold tho, in the 40’s I think.  Not sure, I’ve been without internet for several days.  Thursday we left Norton, KS and made our goal of 300+ miles, stopping at an out of the way Kansas State Recreation area.  We got the only FHU site, which wasn’t hard to do since we are the only ones here.  $18 a night with $5 a day use fee.  Geez, just like Texas state parks.  Why don’t they just include the day use fee with the camping fee? 

5/12/12 UPDATE:
We made it to Deb & Jordy's in Laramie, Wyoming last night. 

Red Willow Resevoir near McCook, Nebraska

5/1/12 WACO, TX

We left Kerrville Sunday for Waco.  We are staying at Riverview RV Park for one week.  We plan to be here one week wrapping things up in order to go to Alaska.  Why are we not staying at our property here in Waco? Because we don't have the electricity hooked up yet. We'll do that this fall when we return from Alaska.  It's to hot to go without AC right now.  Temps are in the 90's. 

Alas another delay, Norm has to have that tooth taken care of.  Most likely a root canal.  We will pack up for Alaska and go by the Cherokee Nation in Tahlequah, OK for his dental work.  We plan to get the RV inspected, etc. to make sure it's road worthy.  Hopefully we'll be ready to roll out of here on Sunday.  We are disappointed that we won't be able to see Deb & Jordan in Wyoming before they leave on their vacation.  Maybe on our return trip we'll catch them. 

Yesterday was a "rest" day.  That rally wore us out!  Today we went down to Temple to see Bonnie and the kids.  We took Madi shopping so she could pick out her birthday present.  She will be 7 in two days.  We're gonna miss those kids!  And I will miss my little girl and besty Bonnie!  :(

Madi learned to ride without training wheels this day!!!!  

Madi's wig.

My favorite little people!