When last we visited our intrepid explorers they were in Shelby, MT spending the night at an RV park just 30 minutes from the Canadian border….
It was the 4th of July and it ended up being a stormy and windy night. Another night that I was sure the RV would blow over because the winds hitting the side were so strong. But we made it through. We wanted to get an early start on the border crossing because we’ve read its often less crowded and the line moves faster in the mornings. Also, it was a fairly long drive to Lake Louise and we’d need all day. This is our first trip to Canada and first Canadian border crossing – should be exciting.
First things first. Get prepared. Gather all the paperwork needed to cross the border: Eat or trash fruits and vegetables – check. Passports – check. Dog shots – check. Medication prescriptions – check. Vehicle registration – che- what!? Where’s our RV registration? We’ve got the Jeep registration and insurance, we’ve got RV insurance and inspections sticker… where’s the registration sticker? Didn’t we ever register this thing? Will they let us cross the border without papers on this RV? Will they think it’s stolen? We’ve already paid for our campsite in Lake Louise. I know, lets log on to the Texas DMV and see if we can find registration info… what? Down for maintenance! and its Sunday morning, no need trying to call!! Oh no, our Canadian adventure is destroyed!
“Here’s what we’ll do”, Tina says. “We’re so close we might as well drive up to the border patrol gate and just beg them to let us in registration or no registration”. But they can be grumpy people. What if they put “me” in handcuffs until they figure out I’m not trying to smuggle RV’s into Canada…?? I’m worried…. I’ve seen that show “Locked up abroad”. I know how they treat gringos in these foreign prisons!! I can’t do the time!
OK… yeah it all went fine. We drove up and I was hoping the insurance and inspections sticker would get us by and if not, they’d just turn us around. Well he just asked for my license plate number, punched it in and all was OK. The RV is registered, we just never got the sticker. I never even got a chance to explain anything. He didn’t ask for registration, insurance, medications or dog shots. He just asked about reason for visit, any weapons on board, where is your home (Texas), then asked again about handguns onboard… have a nice trip. whew… I didn’t spend a single night in a foreign prison!
The first thing I did in Canada was to make an international splash by discovering a new species of dinosaur. You can read about it in Nat Geo…
Next it was on to Banff.
On the highway we saw bears, elk, and coyotes… That’s right, only on road signs!
I’m beginning to wonder if Banff actually has bears! I wanted to see a grizzly… from a distance.
Banff (the city) is a nice little tourist town and finally the weather has cooled off. We walked the town main street, had dinner in the square then continued on to Lake Louise campground.
From Lake Louise we hiked nearly 8 km and nearly 1300ft straight up to the “Tea House”. What a hike… nearly killed me and Tina the marathoner too. Even the 70 year old dog was pretty tuckered out. But we made it to the tea house and guess what they had to snack on…? Tea and a cheese sandwich (just bread and cheese… that’s it, no mayo).
That’s the tea house in the background… I couldn’t get that lady out of my selfie, she wouldn’t move!
It was very busy. Most of those people must have been airlifted up there ’cause I don’t believe they all made the same hike I did.
That hike wiped us out. Next day we went to Moraine lake and took a gentle stroll along the lakes edge to the waterfalls that fill the lake at the far end.
But that wasn’t enough so we drove on to Bow Lake for a picnic and a little water sport…
That still wasn’t enough so we decided to go ahead and drive the 3 hours to Jasper and surely we’d see a bear or something…nope…
On the way we stopped at the athabasca glacier… The “marathoner” and dog were pooped so I hiked to the toe of the glacier myself and took selfies!
“Hmm… wife and dog are sitting comfortably back there in the car… maybe I should go back…?? ”
It was a stiff little hike… nothing like the Lake Louise tea house, though…
Dig these glacial striations!
“Excuse me ladies, but you could DIE over there!!!”
There it is. The toe of the glacier. That’s as close as you can get without paying for a special climbing tour. I’d rather die some other way than in a deep crevasse.
It was a bit like walking on the moon up there… barren, rocky and cold. There was a distinct drop in temperature as you crest the top of the hill and could feel the brisk breeze blowing down across the glacier.
Jasper was a nice little town too. The 4 hour drive back to Lake Louise campground was tiring, but amazing views the whole way, just no bears! On our whole trip in Canada we saw birds, squirrels, one deer and one WOLF… that’s it… We will need another trip to Banff when we can stay a little longer.
But now we head back to Montana for the Missoula Marathon Tina is running Sunday the 12th. She should have a race report up soon if you are interested…
I just started getting a cold! When you’re retired you can’t take sick days. If I was still working I could take a couple of sick days off. Since the cold hit me on the weekend I would have to take Monday and Tuesday off the compensate.
I wondered what it would be like getting sick while traveling… yep, its just like getting sick while at home…
Oh and now my mom is complaining about my typos… I know the difference between dear and deer… I just get in a hurry and after I’ve written a long post I sure don’t want to read it. I don’t know why anyone wants to read it…
Not sure what we’re doing after the Missoula Marathon… probably heading up to Glacier National Park… See you next time…
Looks beautiful Eric. Great pics and captioning. I know you said it was warm in the Dakotas, what is the temperature here. Must feel a lot better than our 95 degree Texas heat and 70 percent humidity.
Keep um coming !
The weather was really nice. Never had to wear a jacket – just shorts and T-shirts. It was something like 50’s in the mornings and 70’s in the afternoons…
It was a lot like Camelot… 😉