posted Jun 5, 2012, 8:20 PM by Michael Schwarz
[
updated Jul 10, 2016, 2:14 AM
]
Calgary has grown into a city of more than a million people. Camping
here to visit the city is like camping in Chicago. Fighring traffic here made us feel like we were back in Dallas. We spent two days
here, which was around a day too long. In town yesterday we fund 17th St. It's like 6th St in Austin or Beale St. in Memphis. Had a great burger at Clive Burgers.
We were originally going to
Banff, but the weather is bad, the trails are muddy, and there is still
snow in the forecast. The elk are calving and that makes them particularly aggressive.
Since elk calves are a tasty snack for bears, they are pretty busy, too.
We decided last night that we would bypass it going up and hit it
coming back in August. The fastest route to Dawson City takes us through Edmonton,
which has a population of more than 700,000. We will be bypassing it.
Wayne and the Oilers aren't playing so there's no reason to stop.
We arrived in Calgary Tuesday afternoon to mild temperatures of 22° C. You figure out what that is in American :). Unfortunately, our lovely weather didn't last long. We had a huge thunderstorm all night and rainy overcast weather until noon Wednesday. Yesterday afternoon's weather was clear and the effects of being
this far north were pretty apparent. At 10:30 last night, the last rays
of the sun were shining over the mountains to the west. By 5:30 this
morning, the sun was already up and it was bright daylight. Ellie is
conniving ways get the bedroom totally black. We'll see how that works
out.
The last price I saw for diesel was $1.069 per liter (or litre as they
spell it here). That works out to about $3.97 US per gallon. When we
filled up in Montana, it was around $3.869 so it's close. I haven't
fueled up in Canada yet. I'll need to today or tomorrow so we'll see
what the differential is. Good thing I saved up for it. Gas in Calgary
is $1.169 per litre. I don't know if the difference in price means that
diesel is cheaper than gas or that fuel is higher in Calgary.
Everything here sure is green. There's lots of trees and the landscape
is a lot more varied than Dallas. The Rockies in the distance look quite
majestic with a lot of snow still on the top. I think I found the one
they use at the beginning of Paramount movies. It doesn't have any stars
around it, though. We bought raincoats in Grand Junction and have
already had to use them; probably not for the last time.
Olympic ParkMake sure to look for coupons in any of the Visitor Centers. We found a 2 for 1 so it only cost $10. My 1st wildlife sighting!! Look at how long his back legs and feet are. We stayed at Calaway Rv Park and Campground just West of town. Full hookups for $37. If you want WIFI it costs an extra $9.95 a day Downtown Calgary. Admission is free for seniors (even though I know you're not seniors, nod, nod, wink, wink) the 1st Tuesday of every month so we got in for free. Lucky us.
More later...cocktails await. |
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