We are coming to the end of our summer in Alberta.
Sorry this post is a week later than promised in our last post. I didn't notice that I had put only one week in Banff instead of two weeks.
On August 15, we headed to Irricana from Vulcan. On the way, we stopped at Walmart in Strathmore to pick some much needed mosquito repellent, only to find that they had sold out. After we set up in Irricana, we headed to the local store where we found the repellent we needed. When we mentioned we had trouble finding it in Strathmore, she was surprised that we had come to Irricana to get it. We clarified that we had come to the campground in town. We enjoyed the sights walking around town.
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| Ode to Pioneers |
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| Yard Ornament |
We spent some time in Cochrane, walking the trails in town, until we went to Olds for a week. After visiting with Mom and Dad there, we headed to Banff for two weeks, which we had booked in January as soon as we could make reservations this year.
We hiked to the top of Tunnel Mountain with Elizabeth, did some hiking with George, and wandered through downtown Banff with Selena.
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| Bow Valley from Tunnel Mountain |
For Trev's birthday, he and the family brought their kayaks to Lake Louise where we met them. While Trev and Taylor paddled to the far end of the lake, we walked the trail with Sue and Jamie to meet them. Jamie paddled back to the dock with Taylor.
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| Taylor and Trev |
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| Taylor and Jamie |
When we got back to Trev's car he discovered he had lost his keys, the only ones he has for the car. After a long search, and checking with the boat rental and the Chateau registration desk to see if anyone had found the keys, and finding out we couldn't leave the car in the parking lot, but could move it to the Chateau parkade, we called a tow truck to move it there. By the time we were done, it had been a long time since the kids had eaten, so instead of going to the Magpie and Stump, we went to Wendy's in Canmore, where there was no waiting to eat. Anthony, who hadn't come out with the family, came to meet us at Wendy's to take the family back to Calgary. Trev decided he wasn't going to celebrate his birthday with us, as this is the third time in the last ten or so years, that something has happened when we got together for his birthday. Fortunately, his keys had been turned in to the Chateau when a guest was checking out the next morning. Since he didn't have to replace his key fob, it saved him a lot of effort and expense.
We were disappointed that we didn't see many animals in Banff. We only saw a couple of elk one evening as we were driving back the trailer. We did get a shot of this little fellow enjoying his pine cone treat.
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When we left Banff, we took the trailer to Hobo's in Calgary to check our propane connections for leaks, make some adjustments to our main slideout, and fix a problem with the hot water heater. It hadn't been working on electric mode for a few weeks, but worked okay on propane mode. We figured that the element probably needed replacing. When we had finished our shopping for the day and returned to the shop, the technician apologized for having to charge us for an hour to fix the hot water problem. He couldn't figure out why there was no power at the water heater until he finally found the switch beside the vanity that either provides power to the hot water heater, or to the clothes dryer in the bedroom closet. We had forgotten about this switch since we have never had a washer and dryer in the trailer. We must have accidentally bumped the switch. Duh! To prevent this from happening again, Joan has taped the switch down so it will stay on hot water, and tagged it with a sticky note, so we won't forget about it again.
We returned to Cochrane for a month. We enjoyed Thanksgiving at Trev's along with Sue's grandmother, parents, sister's family and uncle. We had a nice visit with Don and Jackie in Calgary after we got our teeth cleaned and checked.
Friday morning we are heading for Magrath, where we hope to have warmer weather. Today, they are turning off the water in the RV park here in Cochrane. It has been cold enough overnight here that we disconnected and drained our water hose a couple of weeks ago, and have only used it to fill our water tank whenever it has gotten low. A few mornings, we saw people out with their hair dryers trying to get their water running, so are glad we decided to use the tank instead of the hose.
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