A visit in Alberta

The reason for stopping in Kananaskis was to do some visiting. My cousin Kelly came from Calgary with her 3 dogs on Saturday. She arrived early afternoon; and even though there were some rain showers, we still managed to have a campfire going. We enjoyed having Kelly for the afternoon and had a nice visit. The next day, my friend Sam and her husband Lou and their dog Barnie came for a visit. We were also able to have a campfire and spent the afternoon catching up; and learning about all the places we needed to see while in the area.

Monday, we drove North; and started out at Johnston Canyon. The day was beautiful; and off on the hike we went. We finally ended at the falls; and were again awed by mother natures beauty.

After making our way back to the truck; we continued on to Lake Louise. Unfortunately, this early in the spring the lake was still frozen, but the mountains surrounding the lake were still beautiful. Guess we'll have to come back here in another season to see the emerald colours of the lake.

Next stop was Banff. We spent roughly an hour driving around Banff, with stops at the hot springs and then the gondola. We didn't actually use the hot springs, as it was getting late in the day; but it wasn't anything like how I remembered it as a kid. And because we had just taken the Peak 2 Peak Gondola at Whistler, we decided to pass on the Banff Gondola. It was pretty overcast and we wanted to get home to Molly. Monday night we decided to burn up the rest of our fire wood; and plan our route home.

We left on Tuesday and by the time we stopped at the dump station, we were only the road by 10:30. Kelly had told us of a by-pass for Calgary, and as we try to avoid most big cities; we paid close attention to her; and found the by-pass easily. We ended up only seeing the backs of homes and the downtown skyline in the very far distance.

Within a short period of time the landscape had changed drastically. Behind us the Rockies were quickly disappearing and ahead lay the Canadian prairies. The temp was hovering around 17 again; and mostly sunny. The Trans Canada highway is a great highway to drive on. It's a divided highway and a lot of the time you can't even see the west bound lanes. Nice not having to have lights in your eyes, or have traffic bunching up behind you. However, there were quite a few areas that are in desperate need of repair.

We ended up just East of Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan and found a Husky Truck stop to spend the night. The next morning we woke up to SNOW!!! BRRRRR it was freezing! And after filling our tank, we were soon on the highway again. The price of diesel has drastically dropped in price and the lowest that we have seen it for was 69/litre. It's a darn sight better than the $161.9/litre last summer. We hope that this trend continues, and of course we had just filled up for 73.9 when we passed the 69. Never seems to be in your favour. But were still not complaining!!!

Mike was driving at this time; and all I had to do was take pictures; especially the one that said Welcome to Manitoba; well, don't you know, I missed it! But trust me, we were there. We seemed to breeze across the prairies; and last night we found a truck scale with a lot for truckers right at the Manitoba/Ontario boarder; so that's were we spent the night. And boy was it cold! I don't think that Mother Nature has gotten the memo that it's spring yet. Sure hope that it warms up soon.

And today, we are currently in Kenora, Ontario. We have been invited to some relatives/friends in Dryden for the long weekend; and we thought we would hang out here for a day; and rest up from the long drive. Molly is glad to be out of the truck; and we're glad to have warmth again. Nice hot showers, and then off to the Walmart to send this blog. As the Internet is also not working here. Canada needs to "kick it up a notch" as far as Internet for travellers goes.

Take a look at our pictures