September 20, 2005

September 20, 2005

Lake Louise, Alberta

YEAR 2 DAY 95

 

Today was partially sunny, cold, with brief heavy snow in the afternoon.

This morning we slept a little later than we do on days when we're travelling. I made some phone calls, to my investment broker in Ottawa, to the Service Manager of Finley GMC in South Beloit, Illinois, and to Autopac to make a claim for a new windshield. Actually, I was calling Autopac to get some information on how to file a claim for a damaged windshield, while travelling out of the Province of Manitoba. Before I finished getting my questions asked and answered, a claim file had been opened. Fine ! I'll probably replace the windshield when we get to Vancouver a couple of weeks from now. I phoned the Kicking Horse Mountain Resort in Golden, B.C., about a 2 hour drive from here, to make reservations for lunch tomorrow in Canada's highest restaurant. We're going to take a day trip tomorrow through Yoho National Park, and to the Kicking Horse Mountain Resort to tour the Grizzly Bear refuge, then take a gondola ride up Kicking Horse Mountain to their restaurant for a late lunch. Then I phoned SunKatchers RV Co-op in Keremeos, B.C. to arrange for us to visit there in a week or so. We drove over to the shower building, had showers, then returned to the trailer for lunch. The National Park campgrounds don't have water and sewer services at each campsite, so we're using our fresh water, and filling our waste holding tanks, as little as possible, so we don't use up our water, or fill our holding tanks, in the 3 days we will be here.

After lunch we drove over to Lake Louise Village. First stop was the Visitor Information Centre to ask questions and get directions. Next stop was the Post Office to buy stamps, post some mail, and do some photocopying. It was in the same small mall as the Visitor Information Centre. Then it was over to the grocery store in the same small mall. Pretty convenient one stop shopping. We realized that the village of Lake Louise is the one small mall, and 2 adjacent service stations. That's it ! We paid the most outrageously inflated price we have encountered so far in our travels. A gallon of drinking water, that is 78 or 79 cents in the big cities, was $3.99 here ! There was nowhere to get online, so I'll probably do it tonight in the trailer, through the cell phone. That's a slow, expensive way to do it, but sometimes there's no better choice.

We drove back to the trailer to put away the groceries, then to the campground office to pay for tomorrow night in this campground. Yesterday when we arrived we paid for 2 nights, and have decided to stay for three. We drove up the mountain to Lake Louise. WOW ! What a classic Canadian scene. We were a bit surprised by how many people were there, given the time of the year. Today was the second time that Bo got obedience "worked" while walking in crowds of people. He did very well, heeling close. Same thing a couple of days ago in crowds at Athabasca Falls. Good dog, Bo ! We drove down from Lake Louise, then up the Valley Of Ten Peaks to Moraine Lake. Beautiful ! As we began to drive down from Moraine Lake, it began to snow heavily. Good timing. We returned to the campground in slow falling, huge fluffy snow flakes. Very Christmas like ! Too bad it's more than 3 months until Christmas. It snowed heavily, but only for half an hour or so. We had a snack, and I took a brief nap. I downloaded, processed and labelled today's photos. I did today's accounting, then began work on today's journal.

I was just outside ( 8:00 P.M. ) and the sky has cleared. The temperature will be below freezing tonight. I'll turn on the trailer's "Artic (sic) Pack", which heats the fresh water and waste holding tanks, and plumbing lines.

DSK