Day 94

Happy Birthday Karen!!!!!

After another uneventful night in Calgary, we went back to Cummins at dawn, and demanded an explanation as to the exorbitant costs, which we felt were totally unjustified, and of course we got fobbed off with a bunch of BS.

However, this matter is not yet over, coz later in the day we had starting problems, so we called Cummins Calgary, and told them we would be going to a proper Cummins dealer, in the US, and any charges for fixing our problem would be back charged to them.

So, off down the road and out of Calgary and Canada as quickly as possible. The southern part of Alberta is flat, open and surprisingly pretty. It is all prairie land, rolling wheat fields, and this time of year the harvest is in full swing, with combines creating clouds of yellow dust all over the place.

We went through the town of Lethbridge, which has a humungous iron bridge over a gorge or river or something, and then we went past the best named town so far:

Head Smashed In Buffalo Jump.

Back in the olden days, Indians used to stampede buffalo over a 1000 ft cliff, thus killing them quickly, and saving money on arrows.

But, this town was not named for that. Apparently some “brave” (get it?) Indian decided to stand at the bottom of the cliff and watch the entertainment. He got hit by a passing buffalo, and was enshrined in glory for ever more as the head that got smashed in.

We got to the border, and were asked the usual questions and then they wanted to know if we had any meat on board, so we said yes, just normal grocery items.

We were made to pull over, and were taken into the customs office, and told to fill out a customs declaration form. Meanwhile, two customs officers inspected our fridge and confiscated the steak, kidney, liver and limes we had.

“National Security”

“If we let you take Canadian steak into the country, the terrorists have won!!!”

Such crap. Anyway, it was only about $20.00 worth of stuff, so we smiled and said have a nice day.

So, we wandered on and are spending the night on Wal Mart parking lot, in Havre, Montana, about 120 miles east of Shelby.

We did see some wildlife today.

Two jackrabbits, a bunch of quail, and lots of sheeps.

Day 93

Hopefully our last day in Calgary, Canada.

After a quite uneventful night on Cummins parking lot, we were in their office bright and early at 7.30, fully expecting to be given the run around again. However, we actually got some response, and the coach was finally examined.

We were told the existing fuel filters were the wrong sort for the engine, so they needed to be changed.

OK

We were told that one of the connections to one filter was the wrong type and needed to be replaced.

OK

We were then told that “the plumbing” for the fuel system was wrong, should never have been built this way, and we didn’t really need both fuel filters.

OK

We were then told that they had discovered the fuel lift pump was not working, and needed to be replaced.

OK

Then, after taking off the old lift pump, they told us that they had been mistaken, and the plumbing in fact was correct.

OK

So, after spending all morning here, we finally left around noonish, to finally continue our journey towards somewhere, anywhere else.

Not OK

100 yards down the road, coach engine stopped, exactly the same symptoms as before, but with us having just paid over $ 1000.00 to have it fixed by the “experts”.

We spent the next two hours sitting on the grass at the side of the road, watching the clouds, snoozing, eating ham sandwiches and gently sipping from a bottle of water, while the mobile mechanic worked on the coach.

Finally, the coach was running and we went back to Cummins, where we sat for another couple of hours while they finally figured out that the fuel filters had not been bled properly, and it was quite possible that we did not in fact need the lift pump replacement after all. Of course, by this time, the service foreman had left for the day, so we were asked to go back in the morning!

We will be there at 7.30, demanding a partial refund, since we have no confidence that any of their diagnoses were correct.

We drove two blocks away, and parked next to an empty lot, in the heart of the industrial area of Calgary.

This is a good tip for any potential RVers out there, boondocking and generator running in industrial areas is OK, all office staff have usually gone home, so you won’t be disturbed.

No wildlife today, sorry.

Day 92

So we awoke to the delicate sounds of a motel cleaning crew vacuuming the corridors!!

We partook of the continental breakfast and then gently wandered over to Cummins Diesel to check on the coach.

As expected, nothing had been done, so we politely discussed our situation with the Service Foreman, who was, again politely, worse than useless.

He told us that they could probably look at the engine “this afternoon” and that we would be telephoned and kept updated.

So, with all day in front of us, we went across the city to Guarantee RV dealers, and bought some latches to replace those broken during the rough road trip out of Alaska.

The staff at this dealership are extremely helpful and friendly. They obviously went to a different charm school than the Cummins employees!!

We had a pleasant lunch at the little local airport café, and then ,with no phone call from Cummins, we decided to do what all 50 year old lovers do, we went to the movies!

What was neat were the automatic ticket machines, no waiting in line to talk to a speaker in a piece of glass, in front of some bored looking, pimply faced adolescent with an attitude.

We saw The Bourne Ultimatum, excellent finale to the trilogy, full of action and suspense, very good.

We then drove back to Cummins, because, as anticipated, we had received no phone call, and when we got here, the Service Foreman had already left for the day.

The night foreman is a study in negativity, and we think he wrote that best selling book, “ How To Cover Your Ass 101”.

So the upshot was that we drove the coach onto the front parking lot of Cummins Diesel, and spent the night there.

So, not exactly the most exciting report of the journey, but we have to take the bad with the good.

Calgary is a quite large, very clean, flat and suburban city. Bland just about sums it up.

It has hosted the Winter Olympics (we think) and has a very impressive place called Olympic Park, with toboggan runs and ski lifts and a massive ski jump complex. Of course, there is not much snow about at the moment, in fact with temperatures in the high 70’s, there is no snow at all, so despite our pleading and begging, we were not allowed to do the ski jump or anything.

The province of Alberta is very green conscious, which is extremely refreshing. No pun intended.

Wildlife watch was non existent today.

New beer watch was Rebel Ale, Grasshopper, and Kokanee. All of these are local Alberta brews, and were excellent.

Day 91

Marlipops and The Captain learned all about pouring concrete bridge supports today.

Our Banff campsite had a checkout time of 11.00 am, so we left at 11.03 coz we are rebels.

We got to Calgary at 1.30, and promptly broke down. The engine just died, and we were right before a stop light. Dead as a Dodo. Not a glimmer. Kaput.

So, we did all the AAA things, got a flat bed tow truck arranged etc etc. “we’ll be there within two hours” they told us.

5 hours later, the truck finally showed up. By that time we had watched the nearby bridge construction crew pour 10 million tons of concrete, and we had resorted to counting the squished bugs on the windshield, and the number of cars permitted through each traffic light cycle (9 at this intersection).

There was evidently a big construction project going on nearby, as lots of big double trailer dirt hauling trucks came by time and time again. We got on first name terms with some of them!!

One guy even stopped his truck in the middle of the road and asked us if we were going to camp there for the night!

To be fair, several people stopped to offer help, but not one of them was a cop.

Interesting.

It took the moronic tow truck driver another hour and a half to load us on to the trailer, at one point we had to even manually push the coach backwards!!

We eventually got the coach dropped off at Cummins Diesel at around 9.45, and finally got into a Super 8 Motel (at a mere $150 night, for the most basic of motels) At least we had full hook ups!!

So, we are not sure what is wrong, hopefully just a fuel filter or other fuel related glitch, coz as we were off loading the coach, I started it. The tow truck driver said that the ride to Cummins may have shooken something loose, so I turned the key and bingo, it started. Then, I touched the brake pedal, the engine died. Did it twice more, both times the engine died. So, we don’t know. It’s with the experts, we hope!

We were told it could be there all week, they are busy, backed up, a holiday weekend ahead, blah, blah, blah. It must be an American company, all the BS we heard.

So tomorrow, we are going to beg.

We did see an unusual sunset type event late at night. Check the pic.

Wildlife watch today was two bored Rolling Hills.

Day 90

First of all, congratulations to Jamie on her Hollywood debut.

We had no squirrel chorus this morning, but were awoken around four o’clock by a howling wolf.

Today is the first day of winter.

We had snow, and we got the pix to prove it!!!

In fact we had so many different types of weather, it’s difficult to know where to start.

Having decided to retrace our steps of the other day, we went first to Lake Louise, by way of highway 1A, which is a 58 kilometer scenic bypass, through some lovely wooded roads. We saw our first coyote for several weeks, walking along the railroad track, obviously training for something.

Then, the lovely Lake Louise, with the obligatory Fairmont hotel and Spa, and millions of far eastern tourists, doing their posing again.

Very pretty, and very touristy, but we got out quickly, and the rain turned to hail.

Then on to 93 and the Icefield Parkway. First stop was Peyto Lake, in the snow!!

The rain, which had turned to hail, decided to turn to sleet, and we said “ Wouldn’t it be neat if……….” And it did!! Snow!! Yippee!!

Peyto Lake is a brilliant turquoise blue, set deep in a valley under a glacier and some towering snow capped mountains, and what is special is that it is not accessible for the general public, so is completely unspoiled.

There is a half mile hike up the side of a mountain from the parking lot to get to a viewing platform, which overlooks the lake, but is hundreds of feet above it.

We rushed about taking pix in the snow, coz by this time Mr. Sun had come out and was melting the white stuff as quickly as it had come down.

Onwards we went, through the stunning scenery once again. We trust by now that you have all looked up the Icefield Parkway on line, studied it, and can name each mountain we send a picture of.

We stopped at Athabasca Glacier,

right in the heart of the Columbia Icefield, and they have these huge six wheeled bus beasts, for carrying passengers actually on to the glacier itself. So, we stopped, took pix, and then looked over the road, and saw people walking on the glacier!

So, we thought, let’s do that!

So we did. Parked the peril, hiked uphill for what seemed like six hours, but was only about fifteen minutes, and we got to walk on a glacier!

It was very slippery, and after about ten feet or so, there were signs warning of the danger of cracks and crevasses and people falling down them, never to be seen or heard of again.

So everyone ignored the signs and kept on walking, except Captain Wimp. I just stayed by the sign, taking pix of the Pops as she headed into the distance.

Of course, nothing untoward happened and we went on our merry way, back towards Banff, Marlipops in the driving department.

As we got nearer the town, the rain eased off, the sun came out and there was the most incredible double rainbow.

You may not think this is much to report, but when you think back, how many times in your life have you seen a full, double rainbow, one which is extremely brilliant, and lasts for about half an hour?

For us, it was a fantastic end to the day, with all the weather changes we had.

Mark and John, I met a guy wearing a Leicester City shirt. We talked for a while, and it turns out him and his wife were at The Mol on 10.25.03, when we came from 0-3 down to beat them 4-3. Quite made my day reminding them of that!!

Taylor and Kitty, enjoy school, it beats work. ( but then again, how would we know?)

Wildlife watch was another coyote later in the day, and a squirrel hiding his nuts for winter.

Day 89

Rain, rain and more rain.

We were awoken by what sounded like small pebbles dropping on the coach roof. The rain was persistently hammering down so at first we thought it was just heavy rain drops off the trees. Then we realized there were no trees above the coach, the rain had eased off, and the “pebbles” continued.

So, Captain Fearless rushed outside, armed with absolutely nothing, to discover a squirrel, in the only tree branch remotely above the coach, gnawing off fresh pine cones, then scampering down to the ground, picking up all the cones and disappearing into the woods to bury them for winter food. So, when we eventually leave here no doubt there will be a trail of cones falling off the roof, creating a tremendous road hazard behind us.

As y’all can see already from today’s report, there is not much to write about.

The weather was lousy all day and we could not see any of the scenery around. We went into Banff, at around lunchtime, and it is one of those touristy places which is busy all year round. There is a strong skiing presence here, so the winter months are extremely crowded, and coz it is so beautiful, the summer is busy as well.

The place was a mass of humanity from all over the world, and I wonder why it is that so many Orientals like to stand in front of everything when picture taking?

Too many people for us, and too many stores all selling the same made in “somewhere else” crap.

Of course, if the word “ski” is put in front of anything, just like the word “marine”, then the prices triple.

For example, a 2 gig SD camera memory card, $ 27.00 in Sam’s Club, Anchorage or Houston. Here in Banff, they ranged from $ 70.00 to $ 130.00.

Together with all the designer stores, such as Louis Vitton, (spelling? who cares) and the ski people, this place is a complete Posers Paradise, definitely not for us. We drove around, looked at the river, drove up Norquay Mountain, looked at the ski resort which was closed (duh) drove round the golf course, and went back to the coach, and it was still raining.

We had a wonderful stir fry dinner, lovingly prepared by her ladyship, and watched Out of Africa, the weepie from 1985.

Having said all of the above, we cannot complain about the weather. We have been incredibly lucky for three months, and although we were not impressed with the heaving throngs of gawkers here, the place itself is clean and pretty, and we love to people watch, so we enjoyed the day.

Wildlife watch today was one pesty squirrel.

Sorry, no pix today.

Day 88

Marlipops fell over today.

We had not even hooked up the peril to start our trip, when she was off shutterbugging. That is a word we have discovered used to describe a snaphappy person who takes a picture or two.

Anyway, she stepped onto the grass verge at the side of the road, and it was wet from the rain, and over she went, smack onto her right shoulder. After the past year of trying to get her left shoulder fixed, she damages her other one!!

So the Captain picked her up and manfully carried her to the coach, and spent half an hour massaging some feeling back into the damaged area.

It is said that the drive from Jasper to Banff, in Alberta, Canada, known as the Icefield Parkway, is the third most scenic and beautiful drive in the world.

Well, numbers one and two must really be out of this world, coz this drive today was mind blowingly, breathtakingly stupendous.

We have decided not to try and describe the splendor of this place, just strongly suggest you go on line and look it up, or better still, come see it for yourself.

We are actually going to drive it again, from Banff to Jasper and back, tomorrow. This is for two main reasons. Firstly, it is very difficult to stop the coach, or The Titanic as it has been christened by a certain nameless relative, Larry, to take every picture opportunity. It will be much easier to pull over anywhere when we drive the peril.

The second reason is that it was raining today, and we mist ( get it?) the first 40 miles or so coz of non visibility.

What we did see, when Mr. Sun decided to show his big round face, was enough for a total change of plan, again.

We had decamped Whistlers Mountain campsite in Jasper, taken pix of some mule deer wandering around the site, and were heading to Calgary, via the Icefield Parkway, to find a site to stay at for several days, even a week, to take care of some bizniss and maintenance.

Once we had driven the Parkway, we decided to stay in Banff, Marlipops did her magic with campsite locating, and we are currently sitting in Tunnel Mountain Trailer Park government campsite, just on the northeast of Banff. A wonderful site, with full hook ups, quiet and full of trees and greenery. The staff are friendly and helpful, not like them at Whistlers.

One very interesting thing they have here is large animal bridges.

Once the Parkway ends at Lake Louise, the road becomes 4 lane and very busy, and is fenced on both sides to protect both animals and vehicles. So, as there are lots of big animals, moose, cariboo ( that’s how they spell it up here, eh) elk, deer and bears, they have constructed two wide bridges out of rock and earth and grass, to make them feel like normal ground, for the big critters to safely cross over the road.

Canada is an enigma.

There is obviously a very strong American influence, but also there is a British feel to the place. The currency has The Queen on everything, the government is exactly along British lines, the newspapers are written Englishly, the spelling of words is the English way. It is also interesting to note that a lot of the Canadians we have met speak with a French accent. Strike one misconception, that only certain areas of this country have French influence. Having said that, the other misconception that anything with a French connection is not good, is totally wrong also. There has only been one person we have met who was less than helpful. Everyone else is pleasant, smiling, and eager to help. A very enjoyable country to visit. Prices are higher than the States, but a) we are in tourist areas, and b) from what we see and hear, state benefits are better here, so the money has to come from somewhere. If we don’t like the prices, we shouldn’t be here!!

Enough.

The good news from England for our American viewers is The Wolves won again.

Animal watch today was mule deer.

Day 87

So, the Captain had to eat his words, this place is worth the money!!

We left the campsite around 9.30ish, and went towards Jasper. We had only gone ½ mile and we had to stop to take scenery pix.

The mountains around here are totally different from each other. There will be a snow covered bald mountain, next to a tree covered mountain, next to one with steep uncovered rocky slopes, so diverse!

The river threads it’s way through all the little valleys, and with a cloudless sky ( almost) the total package is stunning.

The little town of Jasper is very touristy, but extremely clean, and very picturesque, with mountains all around as backdrops.

We had a good breakfast in The Black Sheep Café, reasonably priced and excellent food, while we internetted to y’all and others.

We drove the 50 km scenic route to Lake Maligne, pronounced Maleen coz it’s French, saw some deer and big horn sheeps. The drive was windy windy, but good roads and stunning scenery. As Marlipops puts it “We have never met an ugly mountain.”

We detoured to “Bridge 6” and “Bridge 5” over the river, and then down to Maligne Canyon, a scenic hike down to a ………..canyon.

Marlipops went down and down and down, while the Captain sat at the top, making sure no one stole the bench or spoiled the view!

I had an interesting conversation with an eighty year old gentleman from Scotland, who was speaking English supposebly, but I could only understand one word in five! Still, when two Brits get talking football, …………..

We carried on to the end of the road, and watched a couple of Harlequin Ducks dispute part of the river with a couple of Common Mergansers.

Lake Maligne is clear and blue, blue, blue. It is big and scenic and has lots of boaters and kayakers and canooers on it.

We drove back at a leisurely pace, coz the ‘Pops was still knackered from her 30 minute mountain climb, and wandered back to Jasper. We had dinner on the second floor balcony of the Villa Carouso Restaurant, which was not brilliant at all. Still, you win some and you lose some, the views of the mountains were some recompense for the poor food quality.

After, we took a drive around the town itself, which is interesting, because each house seems to have been built individually, and therefore every house, garden and fence is different from it’s neighbor, the overall effect being diverse, pleasant and a homey feel to the town. We found out that real estate prices are high here, as expected, but they are coming down in real terms as the rest of Canadian prices are catching up with them. Twisted logic if you ask me.

Anyway, afterwards we went and had a look at the cable car which goes up to the top of Whistlers mountain, just round the corner from our campsite. They wanted $ 24.00 each for us to take the 5 minute ride, so we decided to let other people have the pleasure of spending some money, and we stayed at the base, and took pix of a red squirrel instead!

Then, an early night with Marlipops editing pix and The Captain catching up with The Generals Daughter. ( Nelson De Mille book)

Wildlife watch today was bighorn sheeps, deer, red squirrel, harlequin dux, common mergansers, ravens and a eagle.

Day 86

Today’s report was going to be very short, coz we thought nothing but travel would be boring and uninteresting.

We left our overnight boondock rest area, where we had four other RVs join us overnight.

They could not see the sign that said no overnight camping, since we had parked in such a way as to hide it completely from view!

We left at 8, and by 8.30 had seen two black bears and a deer.

Now, for some statistics. Today, we passed the 10,000 mile mark, miles driven since we left Houston. We have averaged 8.5 miles per gallon, Average cost per gallon $ 3.35, average nightly rate $11.69.

We eventually came to civilization, and horror of horrors, traffic lights. We were in Prince George, British Columbia. We have to pass comment that every little town in British Columbia we have gone through has been spotlessly clean, virtually no trash anywhere. Very impressive.

After filling up with diesel and washing the peril, it IS yellow not grey, we trogged on down route 16 towards Jasper.

The scenery prior to Prince George was pretty, but nowhere near as good as Alaska or Yukon.

However, after leaving Prince George the terrain quickly became more rugged, wilder and the mountains started to grow!

We headed towards the Canadian Rockies, down the Robson River valley.

A sign to our right indicated a small 5 minute trek to Rearguard Falls, so we duly trekked. Not only were the falls spectacular, the salmon trying to get over them were pretty neat as well. And we watched a bunch of idiots get into a rubber boat and go down the river, over all the rapids, and they were sitting on the edge of the boat, not in it! Crazy.

We carried on down the road, came round a bend in a twisty turney section, and Mount Robson, the highest point in Canada, just appeared out of nowhere, with the most interesting snow patterns, and the top shrouded in clouds. We fortunately came to a rest area, pulled over, and took some pix.

Then, we got to Jasper, and it was getting dark, and we got to the gate on the road to the National Park System. If you are stopping in the Park, and you have to go to a designated site, then you get charged to enter. Then, when you get to the campsite, you pay to park for the night. Only if you are not stopping overnight anywhere do you get to not pay.

Still, as the Pops said, it is worth it to see such beauty. I will reserve judgment until tomorrow, when it is light!

We pulled in to Whistlers Campsite, after dark, and were told there were no sites with hook ups available, so we have to dry camp for 2 nights, yet cannot run the generator at all, except 8 to 9.30 in the morning, and 5 to 7 in the evening.

The French guy at the check in told us there is as much room as Texas to park. Navigating around all these pine and birch trees in the dark was hairy, but the Captain, ably assisted by first mate Marlipops, managed with no problem, and once I put the coach into reverse, there was enough light to land a jumbo jet!!

I tried a new beer tonight, brewed by Okanagan Spring Brewery, of Vernon, BC. It was their mild dark ale, and absolutely average.

Wildlife watch today was 2 black bears, some deer, a rat, some salmon, and a elk.