Wednesday, May 27, 2009

Entering Canada - Fort MacLeod and Calgary

Monday, May 25, 2009 – Today was just a travel day. We left West Yellowstone at 8:40 AM and intended to stop in Great Falls, Montana. When we got there it was only about 1:30 so we decided to continue on to Shelby, MT which is only about 30 miles from the US/Canadian border. We arrived at the Lewis and Clark Campground just after 3:00 PM. The campground is nothing special but the setting is pretty and it is right off the highway. We made dinner and then took a short walk around the campground where we met two other families heading to Alaska. In the morning we will top off the fuel tank and cross the border by mid-morning.

Tuesday, May 26, 2009 – We topped off our fuel tanks in Shelby and continued north on Interstate 15 to the US/Canadian border. The first stop was the United States customs where they checked our passports asked a couple of questions and came on board the motorhome briefly. They cleared us and sent us forward about 100 yards to the Canadian customs checkpoint. Once again they looked at our passports; asked if we had any guns, tobacco, or alcohol; asked how long we would be in Canada and when we were there last and sent us on our way. For all the horror stories we had heard about crossing the border it was absolutely no problem and took maybe three minutes total. We stopped just across the border at the Visitors’ Welcome Center where we got maps, brochures, and information on what to see and do while in Alberta, Canada. As soon as we crossed the border we had to give ourselves a crash course in converting to kilometers and meters instead of miles as well as other little differences in Canadian signage. We traveled through Lethbridge and continued on to Fort MacLeod, the home of the North West Mounted Police (later known as the Royal Canadian Mounted Police). We looked at the displays throughout the fort and then watched a film about the arrival of police into the area to deal with whiskey dealing and a general lack of law and order. The film was somewhat interesting but a little too long. Immediately after the film a small troupe of actors presented a play. The actors, for the most part, were very amateurish and the play went on and on and on! We were literally a captive audience and had to stay until the bitter end. We finally left Fort MacLeod about 3:30 PM and since it was only 90 miles to Calgary we decided to go there for the night. It turned out to be the longest most exhausting 90 mile drive ever. We hit Calgary during rush hour traffic that rivals anything they have in Los Angeles. We arrived at the Calgary West RV Park about 6:00 and got set up. Today is Bill Dickey’s 69th birthday so Pam invited us over for chili. We had dinner and enjoyed visiting with them over dessert. We can certainly tell we are moving north – as I write this it is almost 10:30 PM and it is just now getting dark outside.

Wednesday, May 27, 2009 – We left the campground at about 10:00 AM to go into Calgary. Our first stop was The Calgary Tower in the city center. We rode the elevator up to the observation deck and spent some time enjoying the 360 degree views. There was a glass floored bay window that you could walk out onto and look straight down to the street. I reluctantly walked out but could not bring myself to look down. I am a big wimp when it comes to looking down through a glass floor, open slats or spaces to the point that my stomach actually gets queasy. However, if I am on solid ground I can look down and it is no problem. After we left the Calgary Tower we walked over to the bank and exchanged some of our money for Canadian money. I exchanged $200 US and got $217.22 in Canadian. Our next stop for the day was Heritage Park. The park has numerous historic buildings and homes from the late 1800 and early 1900s that have been moved and restored. Another part of the park is called Gasoline Alley which is a museum of antique gas pumps and cars. The cars were beautiful and very valuable. We spent a good part of the day at Heritage Park and decided we wanted some pizza for lunch. You wouldn’t think it would be that hard to find a place to go in and sit down and have a pizza but we completely struck out. We finally gave up and returned to the campground. Bill and Pam wanted to stay home so Bill and I dropped them off and went to the Canadian Olympic Park which is the site of the 1988 Winter Olympics. The first building we saw was the Ice House which was the first fully refrigerated building with indoor runs for training in the luge and bobsleds. We rode the chair lift up to the top of the mountain and saw the bobsled run and then hiked over to see the ski jumps. The 90m jump is no longer used for ski jumping and has been transformed into a zip-line run. The smaller ski jumps are used year around for training. The jumps are covered with an artificial turf and when it is wet down with water it becomes slippery and they can ski down the slope just as if it were snowy. We watched several kids ski down the jump. At the same location there was a freestyle bicycle course where people could pay $45 for unlimited use for four hours. They load their bicycles onto a specially designed chair lift and then they catch the next chair to the top of the mountain. Once at the top they mount their bikes and ride them down the mountain. It’s not my cup of tea but they seemed to be having a good time. When we got back to camp Bill and Pam had spoken to the office staff and got directions to a good pizza place. We drove over and had pizza for dinner and then came back and had some of Bill’s birthday pie for dessert. Tomorrow we will leave Calgary and head to Banff, Lake Louise, and Jasper.

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