Hello folks! We have been without cell or internet service for the last several days, it’s good to be connected again! It was difficult not being able to call the kids or to feel like we could be reached if needed. I know there will be other patches of no connection along our route to Alaska and I don’t look forward to that.
We have spent the last 7 nights in the Banff and surrounding area, staying at 2 different campgrounds – one in Banff National Park, which I talked about in our last post, and then at David Thompson RV Resort, about 2 hours north of the last spot, still in Banff National Park. We have been facinated with the beauty of this area. It is impossible to describe how majestic and amazing the landscape is here. In every direction there are mountains and glacial lakes and snow melt streams. We went on several great hikes, taking a picinic lunch with us each day. We ate by waterfalls and glacial lakes. It’s hard to imagine Alaska will be as beautiful as this area has been, but we are eager to find out!
We departed David Thompson RV park this morning (Monday) and drove to Hinton, Alberta, Canada – about a 4 hour drive. It took us almost an hour to get out of the campground this morning – there was a line of 4 RVs in front of us to use the shared “dump” or sewage. Each spot at this campground did not have an individual sewer hookup, we only had electric and water, then had to use the shared sewer dump on the way out. I just read that last sentence and realize it sounds like whining! No, we are not roughing it, with electric and water hookups at our campsite! I continue to be amazed at how these RVs work, it really is like being in a condo on wheels. I have made many meals in my kitchen, baking in the oven and using the stove. I also purchased a Crock Pot in Banff, which has been very handy to use when we are out all day hiking.
Speaking of which, grocery shopping in Canada has been interesting. I am surprised at how different their products are, and many labels are in French. This surprises me, as the French speaking areas in Canada are primarily in the eastern part of the country. Also, everything is in Kilos or liters. And it’s expensive. I had selected a bag of fresh cherries, the same size I would buy at home at Giant Eagle for about $4.99. They rang up at the register for $13.99! Even with the exchange rate, which is about $1.36/$1.00 canadian, that was way too much and I put them back.
We continue to meet so many nice people. On one hike, we met a nice younger couple from Wisconsin – we hiked together for most of the day and liked them even though they were Badgers! We also met another couple at the David Thompson RV Resort that are from Red Deer, Alberta, Canada. Very nice, with a 10 year old daughter. They visited us in our RV and also invited us to spend a few days parked on their acerage which has a group of 12 moose living in the back. Unfortunately their home was in the opposite direction we need to travel in but we promised to let them know if we are back in the area.
Gerry is doing great and brings us much joy. He loves to hike and is always the center of attention on any trail. I’m getting better with picking appropriately sized campsites. We arrived today at Cougar Creek Cabins and Campground. At bit rustic, and we’ll call it eclectic :). But we have a nice spot that we could pull through and no backing up – I have learned we must have pull throughs and the campground must be built to accommodate big rigs like ours. I have also realized I need to look for the words “big rig friendly” in the campground descriptions. We are here for 2 nights, then on to Grand Prairie, Alberta for 2 nights, then on to Dawson Creek, BC. Dawson Creek is the “official start, Mile 0” of the Alaska Highway or the Alcan. From there we’ll have about 1400 miles to the Fairbanks area. We do not have exact plans for our time in Alaska yet, I am working on researching that. We will depart Dawson Creek, officially on the Alaska Highway, on Sunday July 2nd. At this point I’m guessing we’ll arrive in Alaska somewhere around mid-July.
We are starting to see animals along the roads – we’ve seen 3 bears (2 black and 1 brown), several mountain goats, several longhorn sheep, and a pair of Elk – a male and a female. We also saw what we think is a wolf (could be a coyote, but we convinced ourselves it was a wolf).
I am trying something new for pictures. In addition to putting some pictures in the blog post, I am attempting to share an album I created with more pictures. I am not good at this technology stuff, and I hope it works. There should be a link at the end of this post with some recent photos. We love hearing from you all, please keep the comments coming! And let me know if the link for the photos works.
Try this link out to view more photos:
https://1drv.ms/a/s!Ap-2lg-EnL0pjmrANu_2q1QBVBHE
