Thursday, June 5, 2008

 

We woke in the night to water dripping on our faces.  Apparently it was cold enough outside and warm enough inside that condensation had formed on the canvas over the beds and it was forming droplets large enough to fall from the ceiling.  It was only “raining” on the beds at the ends of the camper so Chris didn’t get wet at all.  It didn’t get us very wet; it was just a surprise when a drop landed on our faces.  Other than that we slept very well.  I am amazed how toasty warm it is under all those covers. 

We got up at 7:30am.  Breakfast this morning was cereal, milk and juice.  The sun was out and the temperature was very pleasant with a jacket.  As we were packing up our things, it got warm enough to shed the jackets.  It still takes us quite a while to get ready to leave a campsite. We left the campsite 9:30 and went to a grocery store to get food for going to Canada.  A clerk at the store told us that we might not be able to take produce or meat across the border so we didn’t buy those things. 

We headed north out of Great Falls on I-15 towards Canada.  Montana north of Great Falls is flat like western Kansas.  There are even large fields of prairie dog mounds.  It was a beautiful day for driving.  There is sunshine and clouds and big open skies. 

At 1:15 pm we reached the US/Canadian border.  We were ready with our passports, notarized note from the Keens giving us permission to have their vehicle and camper, driver’s licenses, everything we have heard that they would ask for.  It only took about 5 minutes until we were on our way into Canada.  The man at the border booth asked for our car tag number and he looked over Tim’s license and our passports.  He asked us our reason for going into Canada and if we had any firearms, drugs or alcohol.  Satisfied with our answers of going to Alaska and no to the second question, he wished us a good trip and let us proceed.  Thank you God for such a nice man at the booth.  Tim’s cousin Randy told us he spend 7 hours at the border trying to get to Canada to work at a job a Canadian company wanted his company to do.

Just across the border was a sign welcoming us to Alberta.  We stopped there to have our picture taken and have a picnic lunch.  Right beside us was an elk farm with lots of young elk.  What a treat it was to have a picnic while watching the elk.  They watched us too.  Some people from Nebraska on their way to Alaska took our picture by the Welcome to Alberta sign.

I-15 becomes highway 4 in Canada so we took highway 4 north to Lethbridge, Alberta where we found another A&W.  It was so good the other day that we couldn’t help but stop again.  Chris wanted some ice cream instead of root beer so they sold us a little package of ice cream that they would normally put in a glass for a root beer float.  Chris said it tasted pretty good even though it looked a little different.

We are still trying to figure out the liters vs. gallons and kilometers vs. mile; almost have it.  The speed limit sign says 110, which makes one think they could go pretty fast but 110 is about 68 mph, which is fast enough when pulling a camper.  

The speed limit signs along the road in Canada are very small (and easy to miss) compared to ours in the US and of course they have kilometers per hour. 

From Lethbridge we took highway 2 to Calgary.  In Calgary we saw the place where the 1988 Olympic were held.  The ski jumps were humongous.  

This evening someone asked us if we were from the east because we had an accent they didn’t recognize for this area.  I guess Kansas is a little east (and a whole lot south) of Alberta, Canada.

We stayed at Canmore, AB at the Rundle campground with the hippies.  Canmore is a resort town and the only place we could find after Calvary that had a campground with showers.  We really like showers.  We cooked hamburgers for supper; it was the first hot meal we have fixed on the trip and it was delicious. 

We turned the heater on in the camper to see if that would keep the condensation from forming on the ceiling.  It kept us warm and dry!  Did I mention that there were railroad tracks just a stones throw away, and the trains kept coming all night?  We have developed quite a habit of picking spots that are very loud…so much for getting away from it all!

It was still light at 10:30, so Sarah, Tim and Deaune took a little walk and enjoyed looking at the mountains; they surround Canmore, and they are beautiful.  Lights out at 11.

Mileage for the day: 409

Temperature high: 60’s

Camping fee: $28.00

Price for gasoline: $1.28/liter