WE ARE IN CANMORE, ALBERTA, NEAR BANFF

We are now in Canmore, Alberta near Banff. On the road here we passed two antelope with a baby right next to the highway. The highway was very narrow and twisty above deep canyon. The rushing stream below is well used for white water rafting. Once we were over the pass, we saw the distant dark bare mountains by Banff. Sadly there were many dead evergreens because of the pine beetle.

Canmore is surrounded on all four sides by these huge monolithic mountains. The view is spectacular every way you look. Canmore itself is a sweet little town that can easily be walked out. There are also some great pubs that we had to check out. So far in Canada we have seen very few US chain stores and only a couple of Starbucks. They are very proud to keep their country to Canadian products, which is a good chance to brush up on my French as everything is in both English and French.

We did do a day trip to Banff and had lunch in the historic and spectacular Banff Springs Hotel. The rest of the town was packed with tourists (of course, we’re not tourists) and we didn’t explore the town. Banff Springs Hotel was originally a stop place for the Canadian Pacific Railroad. Our route through Canada seems to parallel the RPR trains but that is because the towns sprang up beside the rail line.

We took a drive ten miles on a dirt road up into the nearby mountains and had a picnic on a lovely lake up there. After we got back, we read in the local paper that because of the heavy production of wild berries, there were lots of bears (black and grizzly) in the area, especially where we were. I guess ignorance is bliss.

We no sooner put our new itinerary on this blog than we found we had to change it. We have decided to go straight to Gillette, Wy from the RV Convention in Minot, ND. Lovern is having trouble with her hip and leg and wants to go back to the orthopedic doctor she had before. Finding good doctors on the road is one of the problems of fulltiming. Hairdressers are another. In Canada, getting our mail is iffy, our current mail was held up by customs because they had to check out a card shuffler that we ordered. Go figure.