September 22, 2005

September 22, 2005

Lake Louise to Banff, Alberta

YEAR 2 DAY 97

 

It snowed heavily over night, and was snowing heavily this morning. During the afternoon, the snow changed to rain, and back to snow in the evening.

Bo has an understanding about where it is and where it is not acceptable to go to the bathroom. He was baffled by the snow covering the ground this morning. Is it a carpet, like indoors ? He finally decided it was okay to urinate on the snow, but not defecate. Poor Alabama Bo. Had to wait until later in the day when the snow partially melted, and he could find grass to have a dump.

The heavy snow falling, and snow on the ground this morning really slowed down our departure. We had breakfast, showered, and did morning chores. Doing preventive maintenance, then hitching up, driving to the dump station, refilling fresh water, and dumping the holding tanks, took much longer this morning. It was almost noon by the time we pulled out of Lake Louise campground. We drove south on TCH 1 from Lake Louise to Banff in whiteout snow blizzard conditions. On the way there was a semi trailer that had tipped over and slid off the highway and partially into the Bow River. The conditions were pretty treacherous. Fortunately it's not far from Lake Louise to Banff, but what would normally be about a 40 minute drive took us an hour and a half.

We got set up in Banff's Tunnel Mountain campground and had a late lunch. I took a nap, which ended when GM Canada phoned me to reiterate their position of last Friday, which was "not our problem". Not good enough ! Escalate it ... or provide me the phone number of the President & C.E.O. Of GM Canada ! I unhitched the truck from the trailer, and we went into town to sightsee and do some laundry. We got some laundry started at the laundromat up on Tunnel Mountain, then drove down into town. Interestingly, the laundromat near the campground on Tunnel Mountain is in a little strip mall attached to the resort we stayed at many years ago when we came to Banff with my friend Sep, who was living in Alberta at the time. We picked up some information at the Information Centre, then drove up to see the Banff Springs Hotel. Joanne wanted to see it again, as we had honeymooned there. From there we drove over to see Bow Falls, then back into town to shop for groceries at Safeway. From there we went back to the laundromat to finish up the laundry, then back up Tunnel Mountain to the campground. Gee, it was raining in town, but it was snowing up the mountain in the campground. All in all, it was a rather unpleasant day to be out doing anything.

I worked on today's accounting, and journal entry, while Joanne put away groceries and prepared supper. After supper, when I walked Bo, it was really spooky outside. Thick fog, the sounds of elk calling in the forest, headlights coming up the mountain, partially visible in the distance through the trees and fog. We watched some TV, while I worked on downloading, processing, and labelling the photos I took over the last few days.

DSK