Tuesday 17 July 2012

Day 11 - Our first glimpse of the ROCKIES!

BB girl was up early at 0730 and we got ready as Mel (I'm going to call him Bob from now on so that it's not too confusing), the RV repair guy was supposed to come at 1000.  Justin noticed when he brought Bones outside that there was a sign indicating no overnight parking. No wonder we were the only ones! On top of that, Bob told us that we were right on the edge of Calgary's GHETTO!!!  Justin had thought that last night but Bob confirmed it!  He says there was a drive by shooting a block away last year!  Oh well!  We spent a good night.  While Bob and Justin looked over the trailer, baby girl and I went to Walmart to pick up a few things.  I picked up a block of cheese that was on sale for 6$.  Cheese is ridiculously expensive out West.  I remember when my sister lived in Lethbridge, she asked mom and dad when they came up to visit her to bring some cheese because she couldn't afford it! It's regular price 12.50$ for a 500g block! Crazy! On my return, Bob and Justin were just about done.  Bob thinks that the thread on the shower was too tight and that may have been causing our leak but it is really hard to pinpoint a leak in a trailer. He also fixed two cracks on our slide out and gave Justin a bunch of tips. I had taken out a fair amount of money thinking this on location service would be quite expensive but  he ended up charging us 40$ for over an hour of work.  We were so happy, we gave him 50$!

Next on the agenda was to replace the spare tire, get some caulking at the hardware store and hit a camping store to replace the gutter that we lost while we were travelling through Manitoba on Day 5.  Everything was within a city block but it seemed to take a long time to get everything done. I waited for Justin in the truck while he went to the camping store and we he returned he asked me 'Mel - Did you notice yet?', 'Notice what?' I said.  Justin pointed up.  AHHHHH!! Through the buildings we could see our first peak of the Rockies!   It doesn't matter how many times you have seen them, they are always jaw dropping!  It made all the pain of the errands go away!  Well, just about.When we returned to the tire shop to pick up the tire ready on the rim, Justin was not happy.  They put the wrong tire on and tried to tell Justin that it was ok.  They had a Lamborghini in their garage, you would think they know what they are doing.  Turns out we left Calgary without a spare.  We drove by the Calgary Olympic installations.  Both Justin and I have been there before.  A highly recommended stop but seeing as we had both been there we snapped a picture driving by and reminisced about our bobsledding adventures from a previous visit.

We headed out of town and called  Spring Creek campground in Canmore and thankfully, they had a spot for us. Driving towards the Rockies is just unreal!  It is so beautiful!  No words to describe it and the pictures don't do it justice!





We arrived in Canmore at 1330 and were awestruck by the beauty surrounding us!  The campsite was beautiful but the lots were very small.  Justin set up the trailer and we hoped on our bikes to go tour the small village.


Justin setting up
Two of several rabbits roaming the campsite! They had Bones going CRAZY!

Maman! Je veux sortir voir les montagnes!


A not so bad backdrop!


We rode alongside the Bow river.  The water is extremely high here and we saw a few houses pumping their basements.  Oh the horror! Don't we know how that feels!  The village is gorgeous and it was very easy to get around on our bikes.




The people in the trailer in front of us were from Calgary and were taking their new trailer out for the first time.  After putting baby girl to bed, we sat at the fire with them.  It was nice talking with some locals.  We asked about the Stampede and just like all the other locals we spoke to, they get out of town during the Stampede.  We would have stayed up chatting with our friends but our plan is to get going really early tomorrow as it is Canada Day weekend and we have no sites booked.  The National Parks keep aside a fair amount of sites that are on a first come first serve basis so we want to be there early tomorrow.

Hello Beautiful Sunset!

1 comment:

  1. Freakin' cheese why is it so expensive you would think they have a lot of cows on their farms!

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