Back to dry camping today or so we think. We needed to do a store run, so we headed west to Columbia Falls. The town had a large proper grocery store (Smith’s) so we stocked up with groceries here. And boy did we stock up! Our fridge is completely full and so are our cupboards. Next, on to St. Mary which is the Eastern entrance to Glacier NP. But, because of our length, we can’t cut across the middle section of the park (and we wouldn’t want to if we could cuz of the construction delays). Instead, we have to drive around the bottom to East Glacier and then north to St. Mary.
After following an extremely slow truck for some time, we made it to East Glacier. We stopped to check out the hotel here. It was pretty and even had a golf course in the back.
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Here, there are two different routes you could take to St. Mary. One was a straight shot to the north. The other route took us east back to Browning and then back west to St. Mary. I, as the navigator, decided to take us the northern route cuz it was the fastest route. Turns out that half way up that road, they suddenly enforce a length limit on the vehicle. And, yes, we were too long. Seeing the sign too late to turn around, we drove onward for a bit until we found a small bit of gravel. No one was coming so we did a three point turn, scrapped the ground a bit, and headed back to East Glacier. Driving an RV of this length, you really need to watch where you take it so you know you can get back out of it.
After taking the longer route, we safely made it to St. Mary. We checked out the campground in St. Mary and it was very barren and desolate. David really didn’t like the east side of Glacier NP. So, we decided to head to Babb for the night. On arrival, we didn’t see any campgrounds. We thought, since we were so close to Canada’s border, why not stay the night in Canada, eh?
From Babb, it was a quick drive to the Chief Mountain Customs. Looked like a slow day for them! We pulled up and had to wait a minute for someone to come greet us. She asked us the standard questions you get asked at any border and then David asked if she could stamp our passports! :) She did and we were on our way to Waterton Lakes NP.
click for galleryThey have a peace partnership with Glacier NP since they share land along the border. The signs in Canada are in both English and French (at least near Waterton Lakes). It didn’t take us too long to get to the park’s entrance. The ranger said that the campgrounds that could accommodate us were full so if we wanted to try back tomorrow and save on admission today. Very nice ranger! He even gave us directions to a campground just outside of the park. It was about 10 minutes away. They had a spot with full hook-ups! So, we have electricity for tonight. That’s cool – will give David sometime to process some pics. And, we could watch movies too! So, we watched the Queen and Idiocracy.
The Queen was a really good movie. I enjoyed it quite a bit. Idiocracy was a B comedy but it made me think about how the world could turn out if intelligent people (like myself :P) were selected for extinction because they chose not to have offspring. As long as I’m not still a live when it happens! :)
Before heading to bed, I went outside with David to check out the stars.
Man, were there a lot! The Milky Way was so bright and so clear. It was amazing. David took some pics of it. Soon, I had to head inside cuz it was very cold! And soon David joined me cuz he thought he heard the growl of a bear!
Anyway, I’m exhausted. David’s getting sick and hopefully I won’t be following suit. So, I should get some rest. Good night!!
August 5, 2008
Today we headed into Waterton Lakes NP in Canada. They had some spots available in the more remote area of the two campsites: Crandell Campground. They gave us a campsite that had two big pine trees at the entrance, but we manage to back the RV into the site successfully. No hookups here. Since David was still feeling under the weather, we had a chill day to recover. The camp site is actually pretty neat. We have an amazing view out our back windows of the mountains and pine trees. And, not too far from us is a creek.
Our neighbors made a mess of their camp, leaving ice chest and camp stoves out while they were away. We’re wondering if it will attract a bear. It has already attracted a deer, some squirrels and chipmunks earlier today. We took a walk this afternoon and paid for a few more days to stay here. We’re gonna hike to Waterton Townsite tomorrow and explore that area. David took more pics of the stars tonight while I scanned the trees next to the creek with my flashlight for bears. I’m glad I’m not in a tent.
Well, that’s all for me tonight. Goodnight!
August 6, 2008
Hiked 15 miles today. The scenery was pretty, but boy am I sore. We came back, took a shower and immediately took a nap. We couldn’t even stay awake! It was a hard hike.
We hiked to Crandell Lake and then to Waterton Townsite.
The townsite is a cute little town with a bunch of shops and motels overlooking a lake. We had burgers in town. I got a burger with cheese and bacon. They were so good! Maybe because we had hiked 7 and 1/2 miles before we ate them. Ha!
Anyway, not much to tell and am too tired to tell it. I will be very sore tomorrow. Tomorrow is a rest day! :) Night!!
August 7, 2008
Yes, it was nice to relax today. Finished my book: The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Universe (the 5 story volume). All 800 pages of it. I’ve been reading it for a while. We had homemade pizza for dinner. It was pretty good. And, I’m not sore today. What a relief. This last hike wasn’t as difficult as the long one we did in Glacier NP.
Tomorrow’s my birthday. I’m not 30 yet! Only 29. David promised me some good meals. :) We just have to find a place with lots of parking. We’re heading north to Calgary, then to Edmonton and on to Banff after we hit up Jasper. I hope Banff is really neat. K, back to reading about Dirk Pitt’s adventures. :D Night all!
August 8, 2008
Yep, lucky 8’s and it’s my birthday! Yay. But it kind of sucks being in a RV on your birthday if you are looking to have a good dinner at a restaurant. A 30 foot RV isn’t the easiest thing to park. :) But, David promised me sushi once we get to Banff if we can’t find anything today. I don’t mind prolonging my birthday a bit!
Today, we left Waterton Lakes NP in Alberta, Canada. We saw a bear way off in the distance when we were driving out of the park. And we saw a coyote running along side the road. Right outside the park is a bison paddock. No RV’s allowed tho. :( From the lookout point we could see a herd way off in the distance. Oh well.
Heading towards Calgary, we stopped for lunch in a very small town called Stavely. Nothing to report about that town except it was small.
Just south of Calgary, we stopped for gas and to put air in our tires. Getting the gas was the easy part. Getting air was not. None of the nozzles worked and the lady told us to find another service station. Nice huh. In the process of trying to figure out if the air station worked, we let out half the air out of the tire. Oops! Can’t drive on that. And there were no other service stations at that exit! Thanks lady! Luckily, David came up with a brilliant plan. He found a Peterbuilt dealership and they had a service center. They filled up all our tires for free! Now we had air, gas and water (I filled the freshwater tank while we were at the Flying J). On to Calgary!
We hit rush hour traffic in Calgary. The city has a neat skyline and even has a building that looks like the space needle in Seattle. We didn’t want to stop near Calgary for the night so we kept on driving past. There really wasn’t much in the way of campgrounds in the AAA campbook that were close to the freeway, so we decided to use the multitudes of signs along the freeway for a place to camp. First we tried a town named Carstairs. All full. Next, we saw a sign for a “rest stop” in Bowden. It turns out that the ”rest stop” was a little RV park that you have to pay to use. Nothing like rest stops in the US. But, once we exited the “rest stop”, we could only go south on Hwy 2. We needed to go north. So we drove south for 16 km until there was an overpass so we could turn around. Finally, we were heading north again.
We made it to Red Deer, Alberta ahead of a huge storm. We could see it approaching from the west as we drove north. Red Deer is a fairly large city. They have a huge shopping center which includes a Wal-Mart. Perfect place to park the RV! The shopping center also had a large number of restaurants. I chose a Montana Rib and Steakhouse. Yes, I’m in Alberta, Canada. And, yes, I ordered fajitas for dinner. How ironic huh. They were pretty good. David ordered some ribs and garlic mashed potatoes.
For dessert, we had deep fried cheesecake with chocolate and caramel sauce and whipped cream. It was the size of a burrito. It was huge! We, the two of us, could only eat half of it. It was so rich! Good birthday dinner.
It was raining when we left the restaurant and the RV wasn’t close by! But, yes, I have become wise in my ways and brought an umbrella. :D We ran with the umbrella back to the RV with lightning and thunder going on all around us. The storm seemed to be circling our location. We got back to the RV right before it started pouring.
click to see galleryThe storm was massive. It came in from the west. First came the rain. Then, the hail the size of marbles (we’ll have to check for hail damage tomorrow)! The entire time, the thunder was booming and the lightning was crashing all around us. Then, the wind came and shook the RV, blasting the rain into the sides and roof. Water started to leak in from the vent over the stove. Next, the shower started to leak from its dome.
It’s still raining now. It started around 9 pm and it’s 11:30 pm now. And the lightning is putting on an amazing light show. We took some video. Not sure if it came out cuz it’s so dark. We and seven other RV’s are still parked in the Wal-Mart parking lot. There’s some silly city law that prohibits overnight RV parking in this parking lot. I hope, under the circumstances, the cops will feel it is safer for all of us to stay off the roads and let us park here overnight. If it stops raining, we might try to find a truck stop to park in overnight. For now, here we stay. :)
August 9, 2008
David woke me up before 7 am so we could depart from the Wal-Mart parking lot before the cops came to kick us and the other seven illegally parked RV’s (which I really doubt they would now). The storm was so intense (there were a lot of accidents and flooding in Red Deer last night) that no one came to kick the RV’s out last night. We drove north on the hwy a bit and found a rest stop. I got another hour of sleep. :) We then headed north to Edmonton and to the west on Hwy 16 towards Jasper. We stopped just south of Edmonton in a town called Leduc and refilled out propane tank. We had lunch at a little service area near Niton Junction. There is nothing on Hwy 16! But, it’s nice cuz there isn’t any traffic.
For tonight, we stopped at a KOA in Hinton. We have internet access but it is satellite access so it comes and goes. Makes it really hard to IM and is very frustrating!! But, I’m happy to have internet. Plus, I got to read all my birthday wishes. Btw, thank you all! It put a smile on my face. It rained on us again after we setup camp here. There was a little bit of lightning and thunder, but not too much rain.
So, we’ve been relaxing, using the internet and watched the Waterhorse. It was alright. It was a cute story, but the way they presented it just didn’t work very well. Anywho, I’m tired. I’m going to bed! Night!
August 10, 2008
It is soooooo windy today! There’s another storm coming in. Don’t think that it will rain today, but it will most likely tomorrow. Nothing special about today. Mainly just a recharge day for browsing on the internet (it worked better in the morning), cleaning up the RV and doing laundry. I watched Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle. That is a funny movie! And, yes, I’ve never seen it. :P But, ya, I really enjoyed it. I’m excited to see the sequel now. And I watched the first Rambo movie. Good stuff.
We’re heading into Jasper NP tomorrow so probably won’t have internet for awhile again. Look for more of my journal later! Bfn. :)
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