A Travel Day Departing Lethbridge at 7:30 AM Saturday found us traveling through Fort McLeod, home of the founding of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, driving for Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump Interpretive Centre, a UNESCO world heritage site where Indians chased buffalo off a cliff, butchering them for food, clothing, etc. This site has reportedly been used for some 5,000 years. The center was very nice, and the exhibits were outstanding; we consider this a must see if in southern Alberta. We are still traveling in a group of 4 motorhomes, and this can sometimes prove cumbersome. It certainly tests one’s flexibility as different couples want to stop at different places. In this regard, the group stopped at an aviation museum, and we opted to wait in the motor home for the 2 hours, have lunch, and visit with another couple who chose to do the same. Traveling north, we drove through Calgary on perhaps its busiest weekend of the year; the Stampede had just begun! We purchased our first Canadian gasoline at Canmore for 99.9 cents/liter. It takes 3.78533 liters to equal a gallon.
Finally, Some Mountains We began to see the Canadian Rockies at Canmore, making the rest of the drive a very scenic one. When we finally arrived at Lake Louise Campground, we had to wait in line for about 45 minutes to be assigned a site, a reminder of our wait at the border. After dinner, we did a brief hike along the Bow River, with the snow-covered peaks of the mountains in the background. We’re not supposed to be out after dark because of the bears, so we headed in and called it a night.
Day 2 (Sunday) Day 2 in Lake Louise found us up early, hiking the Bow River Loop, a loop around the hard-sided vehicle campground and the electrified, fenced-in tent camp on the other side of the river. To our surprise, many wild flowers were in bloom, with Indian paintbrush everywhere. As we traveled the trail, we didn’t spot any fish in the Bow River.  Upon returning to the motorhome, we had a great breakfast of eggs, sausage, and English muffin—enough to get us through mid-afternoon.
We drove to Lake Louise for the mandatory photos; Lake Louise is one of the most photographed lakes in the world! Foreign tourists, i.e. non-Canadians and non-Americans, were everywhere, especially Asians. The poor economy apparently doesn’t extend to the Far East or Europe.  After fighting the crowd at Lake Louise, we drove to Moraine Lake, as pretty as Lake Louise, and hiked almost to its end. Again, there were lots of foreign tourists.

After a brief rest, we drove to Banff, one of Donald’s favorite places—just kidding; way too many people for him. He agreed to go to attempt to access the internet and read email, and found success at Starbucks, plus a good latte, while Kay had a quick coffee and left to shop for groceries. When we were here in 2000, there were several elk frequenting the golf course, but we were under the impression they had been removed. We did find two lying near one of the greens, and saw either a coyote or wolf in a clearing near the Bow River in Banff. On our return trip from Banff to Jasper, traffic in the opposite lane, southbound, was backed up for over 15 miles—Canadians returning to Calgary and other places after a long weekend. Thank goodness we were going in a different direction. Tomorrow, Monday, we head up the Icefields Parkway, one of the most scenic drives in the world.
Kay’s Take I forgot to mention that one of the couples in the trip is English and he is a ‘hoot’! He offered a suggestion for us while traveling, especially thru Alaska. He said ‘get you some boiled sweets to hand out to the flaggers or road crew workers as you pass thru—it makes their day and really cheers them up’. We all said, “What’s boiled sweets?” It’s hard candy, wrapped if possible. We went hiking several times the second day. We hiked a great trail that circled the river that ran thru our campground. We crossed the river two times on bridges and the walks in the woods were beautiful. Donald took pictures of many wildflowers. I did sing and whistle – didn’t want to scare any bears! We were on bear alert, I think the berries were coming in. We did drive to Lake Louise and hiked; then to Lake Moraine and hiked. We ran across another couple in our caravan on that hike. We went back to “Mellie” our RV and rested a bit. Then we drove the Bow River Valley Drive to Banff. Some of our group took the gondola to the top of the mountain and ate at the restaurant up there but we did not. We went to the Starbucks and hooked on to free wi-fi and enjoyed some lattes. Listen up, ladies! I was people watching thru the Starbucks window and a bald-headed, muscular, short guy walked by and our eyes locked for a moment. He kind of smirked and I realized that he was Bruce Willis and he thought I wasn’t going to recognize him. He was dressed very casually – faded t-shirt, sleeveless, and shorts. He looked older than he does in films and definitely shorter than I had imagined. But, I’m absolutely positive it was him and why not? Banff is a very popular spot to escape the heat of summer. Then I went to the local Safeway to get some basic supplies. Needless to say, in a resort town and in Canada, this was an unusual experience. The store was somewhat ‘gourmet and definitely organic’. I didn’t recognize many brands at all, especially in the canned goods. We drove thru the Banff golf course to see if any elk were there and we did see several. We came to this area on our honeymoon. At that time they had two herds of elk spread all over the courses and the golfers were having to ‘dodge’ the elk as they played and rode in their carts. We had read that they had relocated the elk herd but we wondered if some had returned. We also saw another animal that was either a wolf or a coyote. We have a picture of it as it was running off. It seemed too large to be a coyote, but its ears are pointed. I think it’s a wolf and Donald’s still deciding. In the visitors’ center was a large grizzly bear, mounted. The story behind it was very interesting. She was a mother bear with two cubs that raided a campsite and garbage bin at Lake Louise. They relocated her and the cubs to another park over 30 miles away. She and the cubs came back within 30 days and did it again. They relocated them again, this time to a park over 100 miles away. Within 3 months they were back. The mother was put down and the cubs were relocated to another province several hundred miles away and were also put on tracking bands. Unfortunately, the male cub has shown back up in the area and was raiding a garbage bin. He’s been relocated, but the officials aren’t hopeful. The female cub hasn’t been seen again. Early learned behavior is hard to break in bears and humans, I think. The Canadian park system is very strict on their campers keeping ‘bare’ campsites to keep bears out and away from humans. The entire country seems to be very eco-smart and eco-sensitive. I guess that is one benefit to a socialistic government.
Campground Lake Louise Campground (Trailer), Lake Louise, AB. This is a Parks Canada campground, electric only. Because of bears, it is limited to hard-sided RVs only. Tent campers have an area across the Bow River with an electric fence around it to keep the bears out.





Driving Statistics
Beginning Mileage: 11,256.0
Beginning Time: 7:15 AM MDST
Ending Mileage: 11,527.7
Ending Time: 1:30 PM MDST
TOTAL MILEAGE FOR THE DAY: 271.7
CUMULATIVE MILEAGE: 2,136.2

The First Beginning This marks the official beginning to the unofficial pre-rally trip to Dawson Creek, BC, where the caravan formally begins on July 8. Along with three other motor homes, we departed this Friday morning at 8:15 AM, perhaps being the first subgroup to depart. After a “top-off” fuel stop in Shelby, MT, where we purchased our last USA-priced gasoline for the next 20 days, we reached the US-Canada border at 10:46 AM, and waited in line about 50 minutes to cross. Two vehicles in our caravan were detained, one to go through immigration, and the other for a random search; otherwise, the crossing was about as smooth as could be expected. We anticipated all kinds of questions with respect to guns, beef, fresh fruits and vegetables, and pets and dog food, but all we got were questions regarding where we were from, how long were we going to be in Canada, did we have guns, and what was our license number. After all the big ‘hype’, we didn’t even have to show them our passports; amazing.
Another stop followed in Lethbridge, AB, for a visit to the tourist office, then to the campground, Bridgeview RV Park, and our parking site for the evening. The RV Park was crowded for the holiday weekend, and every site was occupied. Tired from 9 days of travel, we walked the grounds, took long afternoon naps, and met other caravan members at 7 PM to discuss tomorrow’s travel to Lake Louise in Banff National Park.

Kay’s Take BTW, we did see a motorhome from AR on our walk, and of course, I had to knock on their door to say ‘hello’. It was a very nice couple who used to call Cabot home. They were up here to go to the Calgary Stampede. Donald wants to do that some day.
Campground Bridgeview RV Park, Lethbridge, AB. Expensive, big, clean, but with pay showers and no internet, though wi-fi was advertised as being available; this park is part of a resort system.
Driving Statistics
Beginning Mileage: 11,068.9
Beginning Time: 7:15 AM MDST
Ending Mileage: 11,256.0
Ending Time: 1:30 PM MDST TOTAL MILEAGE FOR THE DAY: 187.1
CUMULATIVE MILEAGE: 1,864.5

The End and The Beginning This leg marked the end of our solo trip to join the caravan with us driving our last leg from Garryowen, MT, to Great Falls, MT, where we met up with all but one other RVs in our journey to Alaska. We departed Garryowen at 7:15 AM on a cool Wednesday morning, but we still dressed in shorts and T-shirts. A 25 mph northwest wind hit us head on most of the trip, bringing even cooler weather. We stopped about 2 hours southeast of Great Falls and switched to jeans and long sleeves, arriving in Great Falls about 1:30 PM. After checking in at the campground office, we set up and were immediately greeted by several caravan members who had already arrived. After introductions, large decals were applied to front and rear driver’s side of the motorhome and rear driver’s side of the Saturn. Our first caravan meeting was at 7 PM, and included basic information about the trip, and some do’s and don’ts based on lessons learned from past caravans. If you remember the old television show, Wagon Train, or have read or seen many historical accounts about wagon trains, this is a modern day equivalent. There are all kinds of folks from many different walks of life, and at various income levels. As of this writing, there doesn’t seem to be any bad “eggs”, though one couple was weeded out just before meeting in Great Falls.
Day 2  The falls from which the name “Great Falls” was derived have now been converted to hydroelectric facilities, and lack the visual appeal they must have had when first observed by Meriwether Lewis. On our way to Walmart for some last minute shopping in the US, we opted to tour the Charles M. Russell Art Museum, Studio, and House. It was awesome, with many of his great paintings and sculptures, and lots of artifacts he acquired through gift or purchase dating in the late 1800s and early 1900s. This is a must see if you’re in the Great Falls area. We completed last minute shopping, ate some pre-contraband soup (we’re not sure if we can take it into Canada), and hooked-up the Saturn, ready to depart tomorrow. We had a “stand-up” meeting again tonight to briefly discuss our travel plans from Great Falls to Lethbridge, AB, Canada. We will be traveling in a group with Ron and Hazel, Don and Joyce, and Charles and Julie. Within the caravan, for the remainder of the trip, our motorhome and/or car will be known as Alaska 7.
Kay’s Take We are very pleased with the warm reception we have received from the other RVers in our caravan. The wagon master has done an incredible job of organizing for this trip and planning every leg of our journey. We were invited to travel with 3 other couples and they all seem as excited as we are about this journey. We will be able to communicate with each other via CB radios also as we travel.
SADLY as we were not able to add Canada to our North American Freedom Plan (Alltel and Verizon haven’t ‘officially merged’ many areas), we will be turning our phones off tomorrow before we cross the border and leaving them off for 20 days as we travel thru Canada to the Border of Alaska. We will have wi-fi at several of our campgrounds as we travel and hope to check our e-mail every 2-3 days. If you need to communicate with us, send us an e-mail to our normal e-addresses and we’ll reply as soon as we get service.
I want to add to our earlier write-up — in addition to the Charles M. Russell Art Musem — the Lewis & Clark Interpretive Center here in Great Falls is a Do Not Miss activity.
The highs have been in the 80’s but dry and the lows in the 40s & 50s. There was a beautiful sunset tonight – pink and purple and the aspen tree next to our RV is ‘quaking’. God is good.
Campground Dick’s RV Park, Great Falls, MT. Not exceptional, but more than adequate and probably the best in the area.
Driving Statistics
Beginning Mileage: 10,781.7
Beginning Time: 7:15 AM MDST
Ending Mileage: 11,068.9
Ending Time: 1:30 PM MDST
TOTAL MILEAGE FOR THE DAY: 287.2
CUMULATIVE MILEAGE: 1677.4

On the Road Again We were up and away by 7 AM, heading northwest to 7^th Ranch RV Camp on the Crow Indian Reservation at Garryowen, MT—near the site of the Battle of the Little Bighorn. We stayed here two years ago on our return from Glacier National Park. It remains one of the cleanest RV parks in which we’ve stayed. Our original plans had us taking US Hwy 212 out of Belle Fourche, SD, through the northeast corner of Wyoming into southeastern Montana, but road construction on this route was reported to be causing substantial delays. We opted for I-90 west where Kay took her turn driving the motorhome for the first time. She did great; actually better than me. We traveled through Buffalo, then Sheridan, Wyoming, very near where our friends, Dick and Carolyn Todd were spending the summer. We phoned and arranged lunch together in Sheridan. It was great seeing them.
We arrived at our evening stopover at 3:30 PM MDST, to a very hot afternoon—high 90s. This was our first laundry day; the machines were small, and it cost $2 per load to wash, and $2 per load to dry. A summer storm brought cooler temperatures, a beautiful broad rainbow, and gorgeous skies. Tomorrow, we meet up with the caravan.
Kay’s Take We did have another ‘glitch’ this time with the brake alert system between the car and the motorhome. We called “Brake Buddy” and after trying a different kind of test, it still wasn’t working. I sent the ‘alert’ system into the company via UPS on Wednesday. Our brakes on both the RV and the toad (tow car) work fine, but there is a receiver and a transmitter that are supposed to communicate with each other – the transmitter in the car and the receiver in the RV that light up and let the driver know every time the toad brakes come on. It’s just a secondary precaution. We hope to have them ‘fixed’ and mailed to us in Fairbanks near the end of July.
Campground 7^TH Ranch RV Camp, Garryowen, MT This campground rates among our top 5 RV parks with immaculate restrooms, fairly level sites, and necessary amenities.
Driving Statistics
Beginning Mileage: 10,434.6
Beginning Time: 7:00 am
Ending Mileage: 10,781.7
Ending Time: 2:30 PM (Mountain Daylight Savings Time)
TOTAL MILEAGE FOR THE DAY: 347.1
CUMULATIVE MILEAGE: 1390.2