AirstreamTour: Canada, O Canada

Here we sit in Banff, Alberta, Canada. Yes, it’s a tough assignment, but we’re taking one for the team. I mean, really, temperatures in the 70’s, sunshine mixed with some light rain, Rocky Mountains as far as the eye can see... you guys have NO IDEA what we go through out here!

We have been having a great time since we hit the Cnada border a week ago. We left Fairchild AFB in Washington on Wednesday and stayed overnight at a small private RV camp off Alberta Highway 22. We were introduced to Canadian mosquitoes there…they make U.S. “skeeters” look downright anemic (pun intended). These guys are BIG, aggressive, and rampant!

Next stop was Calgary, Alberta and the Calgary Stampede. We joined a group of 30 other RV’ers from the Escapees RV Club at the Bow River’sEdge RV Park in Cochrane about 30 miles west of Calgary. We were the youngest of the pack, but this was one active, fun group and we had a blast.

The Stampede is 99 years old this year and if you want a good time, next year’s centennial celebration is already being billed as one of the greatest shows ever. Our first full day included time at the Stampede fairgrounds. This was fairly typical of any state fair back in the states, lots of food, lots of rides, lots of agricultural exhibits, etc.

Daddy, thought of you with this one…

That evening we went to the chuckwagon races, officially known as the Rangeland Derby. These were amazing. Teams of 4 thoroughbred horses (1,500 lbs a piece) hitched to a small chuckwagon being raced around an oval track at full speed with two outriders who must arrive at the end of the track within 150 feet of their respective wagon or incur a time penalty. The wagons raced in heats of 4 teams and how they managed to miss each other, I’ll never know. The announcer mentioned that the horses are worth $30-40,000 each. Total purse money for the week…$1,000,000! They award daily money for the best time and on the final day, the top four teams compete for a $100K purse in the final race. While we’d never heard of it, this is apparently a professional sport that has been around in Canada and the northern U.S. since the 1920’s.

Heading into the first turn

After the races we stayed put for the evening entertainment. It was a Cirque d’Soleil style program by two groups called The Young Canadians and the Underground Circus. Much like the Cirque programs, it was a convoluted story line, but the language was English and the action non-stop. The Canadians provided the dancing and singing and the Circus provided the acrobatics. One of the coolest parts was a 38-foot tall marionette that held an acrobat in a transparent sphere.

Amazing!!

The show ended with fireworks bursting overhead while the Young Canadians sang their hearts out on-stage. Unfortunately, no one was paying any attention to them - we were all busy ooh-ing and ahh-ing at the fireworks.

Ooh...Ahhh...!!!

We got back home from the Stampede at 1:00am, tumbled into bed to grab a quick nap as breakfast was at 0630 the next morning. After breakfast. we all clambered aboard our tour bus for a trip up to Banff National Park. I have to say that this part of Canada just keeps getting more and more beautiful. Banff NP is the second oldest national park in the world, established in 1883. It has around 3.9 million visitors a year. During the day we drove around the park, stopping at various scenic vistas, wandered around the town, and made a new friend who is included in the friends of the day photos at the end of today’s blog.

Town of Banff, from Mt. Rundle

Rocky Mountains with Lake Vermillion in the distance

Friday we headed back to the Stampede for the rodeo and chuckwagon race semi-finals. There was some exciting action.

Notice that all four hooves are in the air…

The day ended with a spectacular sunset… at 10 PM! Summer days are long up in this part of the world. It’s light by 0430 and dark about 2300.

Sunset at the Stampede

Our last day at the Stampede was for the rodeo finals. The top winner in each category won $100,000 - but what a way to make a living. The top calf roper was from Texas, so it made it easy to cheer for him. Pretty amazing, it only took 3.6 seconds to rope and tie the calf!

3.6 seconds for the win

But not everyone's a winner.
One fight, one hand, one hoof…obviously not one team

Monday we packed up and moved a whole 2 hours north to Tunnel Mountain campground in Banff National Park. We are spending four nights here before moving further north. The place is great and who can argue with the view from the trailer door?

Morning coffee vista

Hard to complain

We are hanging out with a couple from Georgia that we met at the Stampede gathering and having a great time. Yesterday was spent hiking up to the Johnston Canyon falls through some of the most beautiful country I’ve seen. It’s an easy hike along a paved trail, but if you go, GO EARLY. We got there at 0900 to an almost empty parking lot at the trailhead and by the time we left the cars were parked along the road for a good quarter-mile in both directions.

Along Johnston Creek

Upper Falls of Johnston Creek

We had quite a storm move through the area two nights ago and the park had around 80 trees go down in the campgrounds. The park rangers told us that quite a few tents were crushed and trees came down on several RVs, including our friends’ rig. Luckily no one was hurt and our friends’ RV came through with only minor damage. The next day the sun was out and the air was and still is pretty brisk (interpret this as pretty nippy!).

We are having a blast, but if you head this way be sure to save your pennies. Canada is EXPENSIVE! The campgrounds are not cheap (anywhere from $30/night to boondock - no electric/water/sewer hook-up for you non-RVers out there, to $45/night for full hook-ups). Staples run 30-50% higher in price than back in the U.S. in the grocery stores while diesel is averaging $1.20/liter (multiply by 4 to get a gallon cost). With the exchange rate only $1 Canadian to $1.04 U.S., there's not much chance of catching a break. We've been doing lots of home eating as restaurant prices are also very high. In fact, Heinz and I had our first dinner guests in the Airstream the other night, Pam, Buzz and kerri (cousin of a friend that was passing through the area) came over for some of Heinz's fresh caught salmon.

Today we were up early and headed up to the Lake Louise area. What a shame, another lousy view... it was rainy and temperatures were only in the 50's, but we persevered and took the 2 km hike along the lakeshore. Sigh...