Eight days on the road......

Haven’t had time to catch up on our travels…until now.  It is about 5:00 in the morning on Thursday July 7th, and we are in Banff, Alberta Canada. 

We crossed into Canada near International Falls MN around the 1st of July, and headed West on TransCanada Route 1.  There was nothing exciting about the trip across Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta.  Just miles and miles of prairie, fields of Canola, and ranches.  We stopped for the night in Moose Jaw SK, and toured the tunnels underneath the town.  During the early 1900’s chinese coolies were hidden from the authorities in these tunnels, since they were illegal immigrants.  The town presents these tours as a dramatic play, engaging the tourists in the act.  I thought it was a bit over dramatized, but I’m sure they want us to be entertained.

We drove all day, and stopped on the West side of Calgary….took over an hour to get thru Calgary during rush hour, and also because of the Stampede.  That very day they were herding a large group of horses thru the streets, a train blew its horn while they were going thru a tunnel, and the horses  spooked, dashed to the end, and some plunged into a river, and were drowned. 

We were all pretty tired after checking in to the Calgary West CG (located up the side of a mountain, terraced with sites.  Not my choice of a place to spend the night.

Next day we were only 70 miles from Banff, and met Bill and Barb at the CG.

 Today is July 10th, and we are in Dawson Creek, British Columbia.  We travelled about 250 miles today from Jasper, Alberta, where we spent the night in one of the Provincial Parks.  By the time we arrived, there were no sites left with hookups, so we were forced to use the “boondocking” sites.  Canada charges $24.00 to use these sites. That means we had to use power from the coach batteries, and from the generator.  We were only allowed to run the generator from 5:00 p.m. until 7:00 p.m., and in the morning, from 7:00 a.m. til 10:00 a.m.  First time we have had this experience, and it worked out pretty well.  It got pretty chilly at night, but we just bundled up with extra blankets, and slept soundly.  We could have run the on board furnace, but we have not used it enough to get rid of  the “new” smell, which is pretty obnoxious.

Next morning the batteries were still fully charged even though we left a light burning out front all night.  I was impressed and used the inverter to make coffee.  About quarter of seven, I saw the neighbors outside, and went to ask if they minded if we ran the generator.  With the generator running, Shelby had full power to run all of her hair equipment, etc. 

We found out that the Alcan hwy has numerous pullouts where you can spend the night, just using your generator, batteries. I’m hoping we can find some nice locations next to lakes, streams, etc.  Saw some today coming up Route 97 thru British Columbia.  Beautiful scenery, coming around each bend it just gets better.

Getting back to Banff.  We met Bill and Barbara at the CG in Banff, and we were able to get sites right next to each other.  I had some steaks that I had been hauling around since home, and we put together a pot luck dinner that was stupendous.  We talked Barbara into making here famous corn pudding, and it was just great, as usual.

The next night, after sightseeing during the day, Barbara and Bill and Shelby and I went to dinner at the Banff Hotel.  This hotel is a pretty ritzy place, and requires “dressy casual” attire.  Neither Bill nor I brought a jacket, so we decided to try wearing a sweater over a dress shirt.  They didn’t even seem to notice….guess if you’ve got the money to pay the tab, they can overlook little things like that.  The food was great, the presentation was great, just an impressive way to dine.  However, ……I couldn’t take much of this scene on the long term.  First, it was excessively expensive, and second, it is just not my type of food.  I could care less if my asparagas came from France, tasted just the same as Maryland’s..

Don and Sharron went to dinner that same night at the lodge where Matt and Raye stayed on their honeymoon….and, from all reports, had a enjoyable evening.

 O.K., we’ve been missing on the Alaska Highway for about six days now, today is Saturday July 16th and we’ve been without cell phone service since we left Banff.  NorTel has a monopoly in British Columbia and the Yukon, and will not allow any other carriers to participate.  Hopefully, when we reach Alaska, things will change.

We reached Dawson Creek where the Alaska Highway begins, and, naturally, had our pictures made there.  Events were pretty routine, good highways, etc. until we reached Fort Nelson.  We went into a CG there that was below standard by any stretch of the imagination….swampy, misquito infested, electrical outlets hanging off the post, etc.  Since we were all very tired, we decided to tough it out for one night.

As I was putting the jacks down, all of our 12v power suddently failed.  The rear jacks were already down so there was no way to move the MH.  After Don, Bill and myself did our checks with the meter, we were still baffled about what had happened.  I went up to the office to ask about a mobile RV repair service…..none!  The lady gave me the name of the only repair place in town, but not before warning me that they wouldn’t come out.  I called anyway (on her phone), and talked to the owner for awhile.  He finally agreed to stop by after he closed the shop.  After waiting until almost 7 p.m., Bill and I took a ride to his place, and he was still working.  He decided to turn us over to an “electrical specialist” that he uses occasionally  for problems.  Called him, he agreed to come down “after dinner”.

He did show up, and immediately asked me to show him the converter (converts 110vac to 12vdc).  I explained that our MH has a Inverter/Converter, and not a single converter.  He obvously did not believe that, for he proceeded to search for it for the next hour or so.  I finally told him that I would call Tiffin next morning and ask about the converter.  He agreed, and showed us how to disconnect the 12v “hot” wire, and jumper around it directly from the batteries.  So, at last we had some 12v power (almost everything in the MH relies on this power for one thing or another (refrigerator, heat, pump, etc.), so it’s tough to get along without it.  I offered to pay him for his time, but he wouldn’t accept anything for “he hadn’t fixed anything”.

We decided to get back on the road next morning ,and, hopefully, find a larger city to get repairs or at least get our cell phone service back (this was before we found out about NorTel),  Also, in the meantime our refrigerator quit working on propane, which we use while on the road.  We had to go buy ice, and put our frozen food in the McDonald’s freezer for the night.

Anyhow, to make the story just a little bit shorter, here we are almost to the Alaska border, and we still have not gotten the problems fixed.  We stopped in Whitehorse, Yukon Territory, for two days and couldn’t get any of the three repair shops to take us in before the middle of next week.  So…..we decided to keep travelling with the idea that Fairbanks is a pretty large city, and will have more choices.  At least, we can afford to stop for awhile and wait for an appointment.  We don’t have to meet Lisa, Linda, Wayne and Chase in Denali until July 27th, so we’ll just sightsee around Fairbanks, and try to get things squared away. 

In case you think our trip has been all problems, let me say that we’ve been enjoying ourselves immensely.  We’re only averaging about 200 miles a day because we stop to many times to take pictures, check out shops, rest, and eat out.  Shelby and Sharron brought their little HP picture printers, and usually print all the good pictures of the day for everyone to see.  Barbara is really getting into photography, and came up with the best picture of bighorn sheep that we spotted along the road.  When there is a “spotting”, motorists just stop their RV’s in the road until the animal gets back in the woods.  We’ve seen bear, buffalo, mountain goats, and even a herd of wild horses and buffalo hanging out together.  A flagperson at one of the road repair jobs (lots of those) told us that it is a defense tactic when they know that  grizzilies are in the area.

We all went to see the Frantic Follies show in Whitehorse last night.  It was great!  It supposedly duplicates the entertainment that existed in Whitehorse during the Gold Rush Days.  Very funny, and a really talented group of actors, musicians.  The MC (and the lead actor) is a 7th grade school teacher during the day, and could very well compete in NY or Hollywood.  Cost $20.00 (Canadian) for the tickets, but it was worth it.  By the way, we compute the American dollar vs. the Canadian dollar at 80%….in effect the ticket only cost us $16.00.  We try to use credit cards exclusively since the CC companies automatically compute the exchange rate when they bill.  I tried to get by without getting any Canadian cash, but finally had to give in.  There are some things that you just have to have cash.  The merchants love to have you pay with U.S. currency, they make an extra 20 percent!

Fuel is measured here in liters, not gallons….3.7875 (I think) to the gallon.  In U.S. currency, we are paying a little over $3.00 per gallon for diesel fuel.  The poor Canadians are paying a little over $1.00 per liter……

We’re in a little CG on the Alaska Highway (mile marker 1118)…just a parking lot with about 30 hookups.  They have cable TV (3 channels), internet access ($3.00 for 15 minutes, or $10.00 per hour) which is pretty expensive, but they are out here in the middle of nowhere with some satellite dishes, a huge generator (no local electricity), and they only have five months in which to make a profit.  Can’t condemn them for that. By the way, it is unusual to CG’s that offer more than 20 amp electric service.  You really have to watch what you have running at the same time.

We stopped for lunch today alongside Kulane Lake  (about 100 miles south of here), and met a real group of characters.  The owner is an Italian who grew up in British Columbia, but has run a restaurant, CG, service station, what have you, for the past 35 years.  Turns out he is a Country Music musician, and also writes songs.  His cook is in his band, and they have made a CD….we all bought a copy…..good music.

By the way, I am in possession of a mandolin again.  Yesterday Shelby and I were driving around Whitehorse (after laundromat), and spied a sign for Steve’s Music Center, went in, got into a jam session with Steve, bought a Kentucky mandolin from him.  It isn’t the greatest instrument in the world, but it sounds good (since I haven’t had one since we left home).  As far as I know, mine is still setting in the laundry room at home (where I forgot it).  Thought I would have Linda FEDEX it to me somewhere, but am scared to death that it would get lost, didn’t want to take the chance.

Got to go down to the office, get on the internet to post this, so will close out for now.

Everything here costs more than in the States due to transportation costs, and the sales tax rate is at 7% (on everything as far as I can tell).