THURSDAY, August 29, day 47

Today is a beautiful sunny day.  Temperatures are the usual 40 something.  The geese are heading South and so are we.

FRIDAY, August 30, day 40

We stayed at the Purdue Lake Provincial Park last night.  Primitive and sooooo cold.  We were on the road early this morning.  My copy of the Milepost that tells you mile by mile through Alaska is three years old (yes, that is how long I’ve been planning this trip).  We trusted it about where gas would be available… the gas station was out of business.  This has happened quite a few times, where business had closed since the book was published, but it never much mattered.  Except this time.  By the time we arrived at the next service station, our Toyota informed us that we had a 10 mile range left.   Way too close for comfort.

We may not have electricity, but we won’t go hungry....

Lesson learned:  Never pass up a gas station!

We skipped Prince George.  It is a large city needing more time to explore than we were willing to give.

Finally  the Iceland Parkway towards Jasper, Lake Louise, and  Banff.  As we entered Jasper, there was a herd of elk eating grass along the side of the road.

Here I will say, I was totally unprepared for this portion of the trip.  I had no idea that these places were very popular tourist towns with many shops, and tons of tours available to see the sights.  There was absolutely no place to park a trailer and no place to stay.  We saw some beautiful scenery along the way but quickly realized Jasper, Lake Louise, and Banff were destinations that had to be carefully planned, not someplace you could just drive in to  and enjoy.  I think Lake Louise was the most surprising.  I truly thought there would be a busy pullout where people would be checking out another gorgeous lake.  Wrong.  Lake Louise is a mountain town and ski resort.  Tourists reminded us a little bit of Branson, with the overflow parking for Lake Louise looking a bit like a SDC lot.  We high tailed it out of there.  We drove through Banff, mostly because we needed gas again.  It is a very old, very well preserved town, but not for driving around with a travel trailer in tow.

Banff

View of evening walk in our primitive campground in Banff

Finding a place to stay was the biggest challenge.  We set our sight on a provincial park about in the middle between Banff and Lake Louise, hoping most people would be trying to stay closer to one town or the other.  We drove through the campground the first time and saw that all sites were reserved.  Just on the off chance we had missed a tag, we drove through again.  Just as we were about to give up, Jim noticed a green tag clipped on top of the red reserved tag.  It was available for one night only.  Thank you God (yes, I was once again praying).  I cannot tell you how many times I have said a prayer and it has been answered!  So we stayed at Rampart Provincial Park and watched car after car drive through hoping to snag that one last site that we had already taken.

SATURDAY, August 31st, day 41

We left our site in the rain once again.  We have not been unhooking the trailer during these one night stops, so getting going consists of securing the inside of the trailer.   Even though it has been raining, the beauty peeks out around every corner.  The mountains dodging in and out of the fog are especially fascinating, but impossible to capture on film.

Today we took off on the Trans Canadian Highway.  There were quite a number of animal crossing  tunnels over the road.  That was neat to see.  Tonight we stayed in a very full Bridgeview RV Park in Lethbridge.

SUNDAY, September 1, day 42

We are still on the Trans Canadian Hwy and After many weeks of Mountain View’s, our systems are being shocked by the wide open farm country we have just entered.  Oops.  We forgot to get gas. Again.  Thankfully we only had to backtrack 5 or so miles.  We were finally waved through our final border crossing at Coutts/Sweetgrass with the usual questions of how long have you been in Canada (which time and we can’t remember at this point), what have you bought (nothing, we can’t afford it) and do you have an Cannabas products on you (never got into that).

MONDAY, September 2, day 43

We spent last night in Lewistown, MT at Mountain Acres RV Park.  I must say clean bathrooms and a hot shower sure felt wonderful – especially since the showers were free, unlike in CA where they charge you to shower after you’ve already paid premium prices to camp there.  It felt strange to exit the camper this morning and not have to look around for bears, plus the temperatures are already in the 80’s.  What a change a few days can make.

Since we took a trip west through Montana, Utah and many western states just a few years ago, we are intent on making time with the goal of home.

Hello Montana!

The spaces are wide open with mountains in the distance and the grasses golden.  Very pretty.  It seems the little towns we are going through have a Casino in every storefront – in restaurants, bars, and miscellaneous stores.  I cannot imagine how much money people throw away every day hoping to get rich.

We are now sitting in a tiny RV park, appropriately name Small Towne RV Park, in Terry Mt,  where the guy insisted on helping us plug in our electric.  The plan is to make it to Wisconsin by Thursday, a quick visit with our dear friends Dennis & Kris, and then home by Sunday evening or Monday.  The end is near and we are very ready.  If you’ve read this much, more power to you!