Surrounded

...by beautiful mountains!

After a couple of weeks of seeing(and driving) great distances across the plains it is really a nice change to be looking up!

We found an RV park in Canmore just outside of Banff National Park in Alberta. As you can see the we were surrounded by mountains. As it turns out most of the towns in Banff NP have views like this. Route 1 goes into the valley between the spires. Even though these are the part of the Rocky Mountain chain they look more like the Alps.

On our last trip west to the National Parks, we used the Park Pass, and usually drove to the entrance gate, then to the Visitor's Center to find out what to do. Banff is very, very different. We could not find an "entrance gate" on the map, and the visitor's center appeared to be in the town of Banff. So we headed out to go to the park. Turns out that the gate is a toll booth in Highway 1. And everyone pays that goes up the highway, no matter what you are going to do. The pass is good for 24 hours, so we did a little the first afternoon, and spent the day there the next day.

The first town inside the park is Banff, it looks a bit like a Bavarian town.

The main street is loaded with many shops and restaurants, and is quite busy during the summer. Also located in Banff is one of the hot springs that are prevalent through out Banff NP.

We tried it out after our hike in Johnson Canyon(below). It was like a getting into a hot tub, the water temperature is a constant 102 degrees year round. It was a really good way to relax!




We stopped in the Visitor's Center and picked up a map of the hiking trails. A suggested one was Johnson's Canyon. There were two sets of falls, Lower and Upper. You could continue on, but we had more to do and see.

The trail was very easy to follow, and quite popular. But as we went higher the crowd thinned out to the "hearty few". About the only wildlife was a ground squirrel, which looks alot like a big chipmunk.

Don and Marilyn arrived on Monday evening after two long days of travel. They had had more than their fair share of car trouble in Wyoming, but are back on the road now. We drove up to Lake Louise together and enjoyed a walk along the lake. It is still partly frozen, but you could see the unusual aqua blue color of the water. We did catch a glimpse of a mother bear and cub while we were on the highway,,,missing the exit we wanted for Lake Louise.

There is a lovely hotel there. You, too, can stay there, for $250 to $650 a night. A room with a view!

As to wildlife, we feel pretty safe hiking. Glen and Ardyce told us that bear bells weren't good for scaring away bears, and gave us whistles. This bear tried out mine.

We have seen some elk, and deer, and way in the distance there was a black bear and a cub.

These little guys were in the campground. There were lots of them. We don't know the story behind them, but they were very used to people.

Okay, we are ready for the next big push to Alaska. We sat and looked at the maps and made a plan. It looks like we will be there around the first of June. That's the plan!

Jim and Sue

The Real Bones

With reccomendation from Glen and Ardyce, we went to Dinosaur Provincial Park to learn all there is to know about dinosaurs in Alberta, Canada. We walked the trails, and did the loop by car. Saw some pretty neat stuff.

These are the hoodoos formed by harder rock on top of softer sandstone. They are very different from the ones we saw in Utah. These are quite a bit shorter, and more mushroom or table shaped.

While walking the trails, we came to this sign. Where is a red pen when you need one? The park was great, but they lose 5 points for spelling!

The next day, we headed to the Royal Tyrell Museum in Drumheller. We noticed a sign that said "Suspension Bridge" so we checked it out. Seriously! It goes over the Red Deer River, and was used by the coal miners to get to the mine. We walked acrossed and back. Very eerie! There was a bit of a breeze, but fortunately not windy. And, would you believe it, it was free. Not in New York!

We stopped in town at the visitor's center for maps, and saw the "Biggest Dinosaur in the World" You can climb up to the mouth inside it. (Not free)

The Royal Tyrrell Museum was great. A dinosaur lover's dream. Any kid would love it. (Ben?)

There were dinosaurs and fossils, and examples of research. Very well layed out. It turns out that the badlands are really very rich in fossils and dinosaur remains. They recently were able to display the biggest sea dinosaur.

This is a view of where they are extracting the fossils from the casing of plaster that they put them in when they find them in digs.

We continued on around the Dinosaur

Trail, and came to Horse Thief Canyon. You can really see the different layers of sandstone and mudstone here.

We left Drumheller this morning, and drove through Calgary and are in the Canadian Rockies, in a little town called Canmore. More about that in another episode. Finding internet access is a challenge. The campgrounds often have it, sometimes very weak and slow. We figured we would go to a McDonald's. Nope. Starbucks, closed. So, believe it or not,,,,, we are sitting in a Safeway Grocery Store. Well, in their cafe area, not in the frozen food!

Jim and Sue

Along the road to Alberta

Part one of the long drive is over for a few days. We left Traverse City and had a nice drive up to Mackinac Island area. Cherry trees were in bloom for much of the way. But it was starting to get windy. We planned on spending the next day going out to Mackinac Island and exploring around. But the next day was windy, cold, rainy, and promising to get worse during the day. So instead of going out to the island, we went across the bridge and spent the day exploring Mackinaw City. Went to a very interesting light house on Old Mackinac Point, and found Pasties for dinner. Kind of a meat pie with the pie crust wrapped around it. Miners used to take them in their lunch pails.

From Machinac to Superior, Wisconsin, and then from Superior,Wisconsin through Minnesota to Minot, North Dakota. Two very long driving days! There were two highlights, though.

Bemidji, Minnesota is the birthplace of Paul Bunyan. There is a statue of Paul and Babe to prove it. It is also the headwaters of the Mississippi, and since Paul made the Mississippi, Bemidji gets to claim him. Babe used to be mounted on wheels so they could take it all over Minnesota to parades. Cool, huh?

The second is the geographical center of North America in Rugby, North Dakota. Bet you didn't know that. Well, Glen and Ardyce do!

In Minot, we needed to get an oil change for the motorhome. Since it isn't something anyone can do, we had to find a truck place. We were there early, and were on the road by 10:00.

We arrived in Glasgow, Montana around 2:45, Mountain time, and were able to get the Jeep washed, laundry done, and walk down the road to a quilt shop! Pretty good day!

On Wednesday we drove to Shelby, Montana so we would be ready to cross into Canada today, Thursday. When we arrived, it was snowing and raining, and the owner of the campground promised us that it would be below freezing overnight. And we are going to Alaska? When we arrived at the camp ground it was nearly empty, but by early evening it was nearly full and most of the arrivals were headed out early the next morning for Alaska......imagine that!

But, before dark, the sky cleared, the wind calmed down, and we were ready to go in the morning. Again, crossing the border was a breeze. We must look very honest! We left a little late and most of the other rigs had already departed, since we didn't see any of them at the border we assume they all made across without trouble including the guy with all his guns and the family that thought they had to eat all their food before crossing. They were going to stay an extra day at the campgound to accomplish the task but the owner talked them out of it.

We are in Drumheller, Alberta Canada and are in a fairly new park down in the Badlands area. There are hills all around us, and we'll go to Dinosaur Provincial Park, and see the HooDoos and Dinosaur things for the next few days. After that we plan to go to Banff and then meet Don and Marilyn.

Hope all is well back East.

Jim and Sue

Everything is ok now!

We were able to get out nice and early as we had planned. Had a nice drive all the way up into Canada and no trouble crossing the boarder. We did have an incident early, we stopped at the rest area in Owego to tighten the car shield and discovered that we had run over a piece of steel and it had kicked up into one of the outside compartment doors going through the gasket and tearing the insulation inside. Fortunately there is no visible outside damage.

That was apparently an omen. When we turned on the heat pump at our first camp ground in Ontario, Canada, it sounded like a garbage disposal with a spoon in it. Turned it off and used the propane heater. We decided to wait until we crossed the boarder back into the US before calling for help to get it repaired.

Crossing the border back into the US was no problem again. A few questions, the guard had a sense of humor, and on we went.

We made a call to Coach Net, like AAA, and started the process to find someone to check the heat pump. It seems that many of the RV repair places are gearing up for the start of the season, and weren't interested in repairing anything. "Maybe in a week or so" The two agents in CoachNet really worked hard to find a place. They finally found a person in Manton, MI. So we headed to Cadillac, MI for the night.

However,,,,,, before we could stop for the night, other things started going wrong. First, something on the dashboard blew a fuse, and we lost the radio, communications with the breaking system in the car and the Garmin. Then with a loud beeping, the Jack Indicator lightwent off, telling us that a jack was down! Yes, at that point, we were wondering why we were doing this! Jim messed around with the jack, gave it some time, and it was okay. Then he found a fuse that looked bad, so that problems were on their way to being solved.

We got up early the next morning, and found the RV repair place. A little town, and the RV repair was also a refigerator repair and feed store. But the mechanic knew what he was doing, and with a stop at WalMart for fuses, we were on the road within a couple of hours.

We decided to come to Travers City, (Cherry City) and stop there for two nights. We needed a break!

There is a peninsula that sticks out into Grand Traverse Bay called Old Mission. Very pretty. There were groves of cherry trees in bloom. Even though it was overcast, it was still pretty. And guess what! The climate is also great for vineyards! Who knew! And of course we were able to squeeze in two stops for wine tasting. Pretty good stuff.

On Thursday, we headed out to Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore. It is very impressive, a combination of sandy, windswept dunes, and woodlands. We did the scenic loop, two of the hikes, and climbed a Dune. It reminded us of France!

In the woods, the spring flowers are in bloom. The Trillium are huge, and in places, cover the forest floor. We stopped at one spot on a climb to the top of the trail because a young lady was taking a picture of a bird. Jim got some good pictures of it too. Seemed to be posing with it's best side!

Today we are off to the Mackinac Bridge, and are going to visit Mackinac Island tomorrow. Then it will be a big push to get to Montana in the middle of next week. (Aarrgghhh!)

Jim and Sue

Note: We are still trying to figure out how to place pictures.

The Beginning

This is a new experience for us! We hope this will keep friends updated as we travel.

We expect to leave on Monday, May 11th. We will head toward Niagara Falls, and cross through Canada and Michigan, and the Upper Peninsula.

Posting news will depend on internet access as we travel, and we will try to send a note that we have updated.

Jim and Sue