Canada – TooBusyForWork

My totally personal view of RV caravans

I wanted to summarize my personal thoughts on RV caravans. Let me emphasize that again – my personal views. These comments are based on the one and only caravan I have ever been on, the 63 day trip to western Canada and Alaska. So take it for what it is worth, perhaps very little!

We signed up for this caravan after our planned trips (sans caravan) in 2020 and 2021 were cancelled due to COVID. We were really worried that with three years of demand we wouldn’t be able to find places to stay or get into attractions we were interested in. It turns out the increase in diesel prices kept a lot of people closer to home this year. Few campgrounds were completely full, and there were nearby options for the ones who were. Oh well, live and learn.

Good things:

Everything is set up for you, and you need to plan very little. This is particularly good if you are new at RVing or new at long trips. I would say well over half of the folks were in the “newer” category, though some had been full-timing for years. We had travel booklets with routes identified in detail.

Lots and lots of full hookup campsites and even more electric/water sites. We have never in our life stayed at so many serviced campsites in the period!

Lots of built in social activities if you choose to participate. Things like drinks around the fire or dinner at a local restaurant.

A good wagon master is well organized, keeps people informed, provides alternatives if an activity isn’t appropriate for an individual. We had travel briefings every 2-3 days to discuss the details of the next few days travel and planned activities. The wagon master also confirmed our campgrounds and directed us to our sites when we arrived. Our wagon master was amazingly organized. He was retired military man, and it showed.

The tail gunner can be extremely helpful if you have trouble on the road. Every morning he went by all the rigs thumping tires to give a brief check. At the start of the trip, he crawled under everyone’s rigs checking out undercarriages, springs, shackles, etc. We had a few people come down with serious rig issues on the road, and the tail gunner stayed with them until they got to the campsite or had service arranged.

The activities that a group can get are more varied than an individual can get. For example, we had guides when individuals did not, for example on an old riverboat. We were allowed into special areas that weren’t open to the public, like a puffin exhibit at an aquarium. We got a special viewing of sled dogs and a presentation that others did not, and there were other things. The bus trips were nice since we got an entire bus to ourselves and the trips were customized to our group.

Now for the not so good things.

With all that planning there were times I really wanted to stay longer or stay less long at certain places. There is significant rigidity in the schedule. And I found the schedule,rushed. I would have taken at least half again as long for the trip, maybe twice as long. It was more of a sample rather than in-depth, even at 63 days.

Some of the activities were of zero value to us. For example, we spent lots of time at coastal towns where the main activity was fishing. The thing is, we aren’t anglers! These are very small places that can be well explored in a day or two, but we stayed longer.

While the social butterflies were extremely happy, I found all the emphasis on group socialization a bit uncomfortable. We are more introverted, and we are used to solitary camping in a wide variety of places. There were a few days where I just hid in the camper because I was overwhelmed and “peopled” out!

I got tired of the complaints people had about the campsites. We were in fairly remote areas much of the time, and campground amenities weren’t 4* except in a very few places. If we had electrical service, it was almost always 30 amp. They didn’t tell us this when we signed up, but they did tell us in the preparatory emails we got a month or so ahead of time. Those with full electric rigs that need 50 amp struggled some, and a few of them (ok, one in particular) whined on a regular basis. I think this fits in with the item above – no control over who we were around.

Summary: We won’t do a caravan again. I am just too solitary a creature to enjoy the forced company of others quite so much. I will happily trade the special group activities for the flexibility of staying as long as we want where we want. While I recognize the value a caravan trip might have for many, it just wasn’t our cup of tea. Oh, and I don’t think Adventure Caravans, the company we went through, is significantly different than Fantasy. It wasn’t Adventure Caravan’s fault that we just aren’t caravan people. They did exactly what they said they were going to do, so I won’t fault them.

On the way to the end of the caravan trip (with some forgotten Teslin shots too)

On Saturday we left the boondock runway to head to Stewart and Hyder. We exited the Cassiar (Highway 37) and took dead end Highway 37A to Stewart. Lovely views even though it rained the entire time. One of the big sights is the Salmon Glacier, and it was fabulous.

People go to Stewart, YT in order to go to Hyder, AK to see bears feasting on salmon. We stayed at the Kitawanga River RV Park, a pretty nice place. I was still feeling poorly, so we laid around more than we normally would. We did cross in AK to see the salmon spawn, hoping to catch a view of bears at the Fish Creek Wildlife Viewing Station. It is a NPS official spot that requires a ticket to get to. Easy and inexpensive to get one online, and we got three days of viewings through our caravan. We went on Sunday, crossing an amazingly simple border crossing into the US. It was totally unstaffed without any notice required. A nice ranger checked out tickets at the viewing site, and we went in. It was a lovely place.

And since it was raining (still!) we just enjoyed the day for a couple of hours without seeing any more bears than the one we saw crossing the road on the way in. If anyone else wants to do this, I highly recommend getting a chair and a water proof poncho or something to cover the chair while you wait. I was still not feeling well (darned sinusitis again), and Kevin’s knee couldn’t take much more just standing g around, so that was our one attempt. Others in the group went back a few times and stayed longer. Their effort was rewarded with some good bear photos. Oh well, we have seen lots of bears in other places. I tried for an artsy-fartsy shot of some dangling Old Man’s Bear glistening with raindrops, but the focus on my iPhone just wasn’t up to the task. I am going to order a new camera as soon as I get home!

The only border control between Stewart and Hyder is a Canadian border patrol spot that actually serves both countries. We had filled out our ArriveCan app ahead of time, showed our passports to the nice agent, and she checked everything. The information is then transmitted to the US, or so a sign at the office said. One of the rangers in Hyder said the two communities actually act as one and did so through the entire pandemic.

On Monday we went to Smothers, BC for a simple overnight spot. We stayed at Fort Telkwa Riverfront RV Park, a very nice place. All the sites are directly above the river for some great views. And guess what? NO RAIN! In fact, there was so weird blue color to the sky! I was starting to feel a bit better since I started the steroids for my sinusitis, though I still cough an awful lot.

I actually forgot the pictures from Teslin I took on Wednesday on the way to Watson Lake. We first stopped by the Teslin Tlingit Cultural Center, but they were unexpectedly closed. They had some great totem poles and a fabulous boat though. I was disappointed they were closed.

We did stop by the George Johnson Museum, a fabulous curated museum that was not the standard small town historical spot. Mr. Jonnson was born in a completely isolated village, and had no schooling until he went to Juneau at 16 to stay with an uncle. He taught himself English and mathematics, and was a born visionary. He came back to the area, opened a store, brought the first car to an isolated area without roads except in the winter when he used the frozen lake, and was an absolute local legend. They had some fabulous Tlingit history and costumes that the docent, a longtime white resident, was excited to share with us.

Today we are in Prince George at the Sintich Campground. Sites are decent sized, but they have small trees too close. We had to do some maneuvering to get so our door would open without running into the tree. We have a dinner tonight and breakfast tomorrow as a caravan, and then we are done. We have decided to go through the big Canadian National Parks again on the way home, but just a drive-by. The town of Jasper still doesn’t have electricity after a fire wok out the lines, so it will be interesting. I probably won’t post again until we are in the US. Buying enough cellular data to post in Canada has been expensive!

Valdez, back to Destruction Bay, and on to Skagway

We didn’t have good data service in Valdez so I didn’t post anything there. Therefore a lot to catch up on!

Oh, and it rained again. Pretty much continuously. Have I mentioned that I am so, so tired of rain? We had a big glacier and wildlife tour booked with Stan Steven’s company, and it pretty much rained the entire time. There were a few limited periods of just fog/haze, but it mostly rained. We also went on a day when a major gale was headed our way, so the captain had to get a bit creative with our routing. We did get to see some lovely things though.

Turns out sea lions will perch just about anywhere

In the lee of a bigger island, this one had clear glass for a reflection

This guy must not have wanted his whiskers or tail to get cold

The glacier is still growing as evidenced by the trees being swallowed on the left

Yes, it is hard to see some of the things through the fog. It was harder to get pictures of other things we saw – sea otters in small and large groups, puffins all over the place, and we even saw a small group of orcas. There were three of them, but Kevin only got this one picture by accident. They were a long way away and pretty fast.

Notice I said “Kevin got only this one picture.” Turns out my camera really has given up the ghost! Too many times it fell off the cabinet I guess. The majority of my pictures from now on will be from my phone or Kevin’s camera. I can’t find the camera I want anywhere in Alaska outside of Fairbanks, and I am definitely not driving back that far! I will order one when we get home. The trip really was enjoyable, but it would have been much better in nicer weather.

We had a free day in Valdez, and we used it doing some sightseeing. We drove up Thompson Pass, the snowiest in Alaska. It was too foggy for good pictures. We stopped by this historic site in the canyon below Thompson Pass. In 1906 multiple railroad companies were fighting for railroad rights from Valdez to the massive Kennicott mine.one group dug this partially completed tunnel, but the effort was abandoned when a gunfight broke out between the groups. Interesting story about very wild times.

We also spent a few hours at the Solomon Gulch Fish Hatchery in Valdez, hoping to see bears catching salmon as they came through the fish ladder there. The hatchery itself was interesting. There are so, so, so many fish! I had never seen a salmon run before. At the bottom of the weir that exists to funnel the fish to the fish ladder, the fish are almost a solid mass.

Just one small part of the thousands of salmon

There were other hunters besides bears pigging out on the salmon though. We saw numerous sea lions eating their fill. They would go under water, looking almost like a lot, then come up with a fish in their mouths. They tossed the fish in the air to get it positioned for their mouth, then the swallowed it.

And another one of the videos that are annoying in this blog, but worth the click. Keep the sound on to hear the thousands of gulls too. They were feasting too.

IMG_8063

We did finally see one bear, but he wasn’t right by the hatchery. There were still lots of fish for him though until people spooked him. He is on shore in this picture, but he wandered out into the water to do some catching a bit after this was taken. Oh, and it was raining again.

After Valdez we headed back to Tok, staying in the same place as before. We then had to drive the road from HELL that is the Alaska highway between Tok and Destruction Bay. It was actually worse than our first trip through due to more frost heaves. I have never been so glad to see an uneven gravel parking lot in all my days! The views were pretty spectacular.

The weather had cleared up as soon as we headed away from the coast. The drive to Tok was nice, and the views of the drive to Destruction Bay were nice too, but I was concentrating too much on not shaking my motorhome apart to take pictures. The one above is from our “campground” – a gravel lot. Note the colors in the hills. Autumn has arrived in the Alaska and Canadian hill country. We did have to cross the Canadian border again, and this time it took almost an hour. That’s what we get for crossing on a Saturday! A nice border agent, just a lot of vehicles.

I will leave the description of the drive we took today to arrive in Skagway, AK along with those adventures for another post after we have completed some of our planned activities here. I will say that it only sprinkled on us some this first night in Skagway!

The road from hell (or Yukon Territory to Alaska)

We left Whitehorse on 30 July to head to Destruction Bay. The scenery was as lovely as anything we have seen. The place was a construction depot during the build of the Alaskan Highway. One night a massive chinook wind of 60+ mph came through and basically destroyed all the tents near the lake where the crew stayed, therefore the name! The campground was Destruction Bay Lodge and RV Park, but there wasn’t any lodge any more. The RV park was a gravel parking lot on a sloped hillside, but they had solid 30 amp power and the best views we have had from any campground plus NO BUGS.

There are 16,000’ mountains trying to hide in the smoke haze

Gorgeous mountains with the Kluane River below them

Trumpeter swans are making a come back in Tetsin National Wildlife Refuge

Our campground in Destruction Bay looking towards Kluane Lake

Destruction Bay campground looking to the mountains

We left early the next day to get to Tok, AK. We had been told by many people including our wagon master that this would be the worst stretch of road we would be on. Everyone was right! It started out deceivingly mild, and I rolled along at the 90 kph speed limit for a while, but then the frost heaves, pot holes, and unbelievably rough road began. I have drive roads as bad as this, but never for as long. The bad part was perhaps 100 miles, and it was truly awful. Most of it I drove at 50 kph (35 mph), but I routinely dropped down to 20 kph. It was a long, long day. We took very few pictures since we were just concentrating on the road surface, trying to anticipate the next nastiness. As we got to the US border the road temporarily got better, but it didn’t last!

The US border patrol confiscated my eggs, but I wasn’t surprised. It was a brief stop. We took a picture at the “Welcome to Alaska” sign, but I can’t find it! Just as well because the welcome was the worst road yet! The US, in their infinite wisdom, used asphalt for the road after the border station, and it was the wrong choice for permafrost. The tar and rock used in Canada was much easier to repair, but the asphalt was pot holed the worst I have ever seen, and I have driven on I-40 west of Flagstaff, my precious bad example. The permafrost made massive ripples that went on for hundreds of feet, and the frost heaves were huge!I ended up traveling a lot of it at 15 mph! Ugh. When we got to Tok, I basically collapsed. It took a total of 7 hours to drive the 225 miles from Destruction Bay to Tok. Hardest driving I have ever done.

After Tok, we enjoyed continuing to drive , now mostly along the Tanana River. This river is HUGE, and it flows through a very large valley in numerous braids. The river is a major resting spot for migratory birds, and much of the area is protected in the Tetlin National Wildlife Preserve.

There is an awful lot of water heading to the Bearing Sea.

Delta Junction is the official end of the Alaska Highway, so we got the mandatory picture.

We continue following the Tanana until we got to the Fairbanks suburb we are staying in – North Pole, AK. The ride was much easier, though there were still occasional frost heaves especially along the musket areas. I also finally got a good picture of the skinny trees that were so common. I am pretty sure they are a variety of hemlock., but feel free to correct me! They get quite tall, but the limbs are very short.

The land of skinny trees. Blow up the picture to see many more across the pond.

We are now in a really nice campground in North Pole, AK, Riverview RV Park. It is north of town in a quiet area. There are all kinds of things on the schedule here, so expect a lot of pictures coming up.

Whitehorse

We stayed at another tight campground in Whitehorse – Pioneer RV park. Not only were the sites narrow enough that we couldn’t open one of our slides, but the power was flaky. Thank goodness we didn’t need much AC! If I stayed again, I would just use one of their dry camping spots which were more spacious. Whitehorse itself is a nice town though. It is the majority of the entire Yukon Territory population, so it has lots of restaurants and shopping.

Our first group activity on arrival on Tuesday, 26 July, was a dinner out on by the caravan staff. The RV park had a nice meeting room for such activities. It was a break from cooking. The next day we started early with an entire set of museums beginning with the S. S. Klondike National Historic Site. I have mentioned how a group does have some advantages, and this was one of them. The ship is undergoing renovations, and most people can only see it from shore. We got a ranger-led tour of at least the outside of the boat in an otherwise restricted area. Fabulous old boat, the last of the really big Yukon River boats that opened up the territory.

We then continued to the MacBride Museum with some really nicely done exhibits about the local history including mining and fur trapping. There was a nice Robert Service area too, the famous Yukon poet. They even had Sam Magee’s cabin, though we discovered the real Sam Magee wasn’t from Tennessee and wasn’t cremated “on the marge of the Lake Labarge”. Instead he was a local figure active in mining and early Yukon/Whitehorse history. If you don’t get the quote, go read Service’s poem “The Cremation of Sam Magee.” We then went to the Yukon Transportation Museum and the Beringia Museum. Beer Gia is the name for the non-glaciated area that included parts of the Yukon during the last Ice Age. It included the land bridge from Asia, and was a refuge for the mega fauna of the age.

“The little engine that did.” Cute little narrow gauge mining engine.

For dinner, we ate at the famous Klondike Rib and Salmon restaurant. It deserves it’s reputation. I had the salmon and Kevin had ribs, and both were fabulous. The roasted vegetables were particularly tasty!

After dinner we were beat, so it was early to bed. The next day was a free day – unplanned by the caravan. That meant we were able to take a very lazy start to the day. I went to Bear Paw Quilts – “Compassionate Care for the Quilting Addicted.” They had a large number of north country fabrics including some fabulous batiks; I bought 3 one meter lengths!

After having lunch and a nap, both important tasks, we decided to do some last minute sightseeing. Miles Canyon is one of the places that complicated river travel in the Yukon. The river is squeezed into a volcanic canyon with shear rock walls. It generally required an overland by-pass. While my picture lacks scale, the walls are 10-15’ above the water now, and in historic times before the dam was built in Whitehorse the river was 20+ foot below the top of the walls. It was a beautiful place.

The dam in Whitehorse was a serious obstacle to the very important salmon fishery, so a fish ladder was built. These aren’t that unusual these days, but it was the first one I had seen in person. Sadly the salmon weren’t running. I bet it was be fascinating to see the climbing the ladder!

There is also a boat lock next to the dam on the short opposite the fish ladder. It is under reconstruction though and not in use.

The river itself is sometimes wide and braided, and sometimes fast and wild. The volume of water is huge, and it moves quickly. It is easy to see how challenging it was for the early riverboats to traverse it.

We spent 3 nights in Whitehorse, and there was definitely more to see. It would be a nice place to come back to. We had to do a lot of housekeeping tasks like laundry and shopping which cut down our time in the community.

Today, Friday 29 July we took off for Destruction Bay and Destruction Bay RV Park. We had been told the road was bad, but it wasn’t bad at all! A few frost heaves and a fairly long gravel area with a pilot car, but it wasn’t a challenge. Tomorrow we go to Tok, AK, and supposedly that road is awful! We will report our experiences on that in a day or two. We change time zones again, but I am hoping my AT&T and Verizon hotspots start working again! Being with very limited service is tough for putting pictures up which is why there are so few.

Jasper area

After our boondock parking at the Columbia Icefields, we went to a very nice KOA outside of Hinton, AB and just north of Jasper National Park. We spent some time in the town of Jasper, and I like it much more than I did Banff. Fewer people, interesting atmosphere, and really good food!

We enjoyed the architecture of the town – very British with additions of more modern style. Here are a few.

Provincial government building with modern addition

We ate lunch at a fabulous downtown upscale restaurant called “The Raven.” I had macaroni and cheese with onions and ham, and it was the best I have ever had. Note to self: grilled onions add a wonderful sweetness to Mac and cheese! Kevin had breaded tenderloins that were gluten free. The breading was made from seeds, and it was very good also.

And then we went back to Jasper, almost to the Icefields, to see the things you just can’t see from a motorhome.

And braided rivers below the glaciers and snowpack

This one captures so many things about Jasper National Park

And this was one of my favorite waterfalls. Note the guy in red, center left.

See the braided river with the purple flowers along the shore

We took the following pictures on the way back to Hinton. Still in JNP.

All that melting ice and snow flow into rivers that widen into lakes

We left the Hinton KOA today for an almost 300 mile trip to Dawson Creek, mile 0 of the Alcan Highway. It was an easier drive than our wagon master said it would be, at least for us. We are used to smaller state highways and a bit rougher roads than those who stay primarily in resorts. We transitioned from the Rocky Mountains to foothills to the Alberta plains. The foothills are heavily forested, and logging is the major industry. As we moved to the plains, oil and gas became the largest industry, though we still saw quite a few logging trucks and huge piles of logs in various locations. We crossed into British Columbia just before we reached Dawson Creek, so I haven’t formed any impressions yet.

We did see our very first grizzly bear, or at least Kevin did. We had stopped at a roadside pullout to take a break, and this big boy was grazing in the ditch next to the roadside. As we pulled up, he started moving away, but Kevin got enough of a picture of him to see it was a grizzly. I always prefer a nice long distance between me and grizzlies!

We are here in Dawson Creek two nights, then we have three travel days in a row.

Banff

We got back to the motorhome a bit after 12:30, and we were both asleep before 1:00 am. The problem was we had a bus trip Thursday morning to Banff at 8:00 am! After 5 hours sleep, we got up, drank our coffee, groggily took showers, and generally got ready for the day. I was still feeling quite poorly, and my Achilles’ tendon was killing me! I took all my meds, and tried to bluff my way through, but I wasn’t very successful. We will have to come back when we are on our own.

First impressions of Banff is that it is really, really crowded in the middle of July! We did a classic bus tour with “stop at major tourist place, snap a few pictures, get back on the bus, and go to the next picture spot” type of trip. Not my normal style, but Banff was truly amazingly gorgeous.

We started with another fabulous buffet lunch at the Gondola ride. They were having issues with their credit card reader, so I am really glad we picked up some Canadian cash to buy post cards. Based on the lines and distances involved plus my issue with heights, we didn’t do the gondola ride itself.

Our next stop was Lake Louise. What more can be said about this incredible place?

The lake is fed by the glacier in the middle

I have no idea what the Voyageur canoes rented for!

Then it was on to Lake Moraine.

The bus then dropped us off downtown Banff. I was feeling even worse by now, and my foot was killing me. I just found a shady spot and just sat for the 3 hours we had in town. Banff is just a huge, upscale tourist town. It reminded me of Aspen more than anything else. Lots and lots of people, tshirt shops, upscale tourist clothing shops, and lots of candy shops. One of the classic Banff foods is a Beavertail – a piece of fry bread drizzled with some chocolate. I love fry bread, but the line was almost a block long! Kevin did buy some chocolate truffles that were fabulous and a sack of frozen peas for me to use as an ice pack! Finally we were on our way back to the campground, and we got home around 7:30.

The next day we traveled to Rocky Mountain House. More on that later.

Calgary Stampede

Our tour had 2 days of tickets to the Calgary Stampede. We started on Tuesday morning with a bus ride downtown for breakfast in Rope Square. It is a tradition that “Traveler”pancakes be served during Stampede. A Traveler is a pancake that has bacon and syrup added as it cooks. It is then served in a simple napkin that serves the role of plate, cutlery, and finger cleaner! It was fun.

Gorgeous flower pots were hanging all around the square.

Red flowers show while the old time wagons, all original from many years ago, lined up for a display.

They even had music! How can a band perform at 8:30 am?

After breakfast our bus picked us up to visit the Calgary Tower. My height phobia just wasn’t going for that, so we just met the rest of the crowd after they went up. I did get an interesting picture of the contrast in Calgary architecture! This is a old bank building juxtaposed with a very modern apartment/office building. And yes, the new building really does look that angled! As the floors go up, the width of the building decreases and the window angles change.

We got to the Stampede in time for lunch before the rodeo, but it was miserably hot.We also had to walk well over a mile to get to the Grandstand, and my Achilles’ tendon and my scoliosis were both having a fit by the time we made it. To call the Stampede “just a fancy rodeo” does it a HUGE injustice. It is more like a major state fair with all kinds of vendors and a big Midway. They have all kinds of other activities too like Indigenous dancers and a pow wow, dog agility type displays, etc. However I was far too miserable, sore, and HOT to enjoy any of it. Our seats were good ones, close to the center and not high, but we were in full sun on a 90+ day. I gave up and found a shady spot to stay in. Sadly, even though the rodeo performers were top of their game, I am just not that fond of rodeo! I did like the entry though.

We got home, and I took some meds. I gradually began to feel a bit better, but Kevin had to work to convince me to go back on Wednesday. We did by-pass the main rodeo itself, but we took in the dinner, chuck wagon races, pony relays, and the evening Extravaganza and fireworks.

One thing I will say about Adventure Caravans is they get some outstanding buffets! We at at the grandstand, and this time the bus driver parked close instead of at the other side of the grounds! I would not have gone otherwise. It definitely was worth it, even in some pain. Note some of the pictures are taken in the evening, and the only way I could do it was to take a picture of the display screen.

And we’re off. They have to circle the barrels then go around the track.

Down the stretch. There are riders involved too.

Between heats they had other activities while they reset the track.

Some fabulous dancers were there including this hoop dancer.

Finally it was time for the evening show. They bring in the entire set behind a huge tracked Case tractor. The wings with the screen expand. There are other screens on the far sides too.

After an opening ceremony (I am learning the words to “O Canada!”), a couple of country western groups played. Then they transitioned to a large number of dancers, some as young as 8-9.

There were drones taking pictures and they were projected on the big screens. I particularly like this backlit skyline showing a lot of the Stampede grounds lit up.

Drones caught this picture of the Stampede grounds and the Calgary skyline

Prior to full darkness they had some other acts. I particularly like the rope tricks.

Yes, he really was on the ground with the burning rope above him

And then there were more dance groups trying to steal our attention but totally losing it to the fireworks! They were truly as spectacular as you can ever imagine. They went on and on.

Screenshot of things my camera couldn’t catch

When everything was over, it was 11:30 and I was dead on my feet. The bus picked us up and brought us back to the campground around 12:30.

Before I leave the Stampede, a few summary notes about Calgary. It is a very urban city with thousands of apartments and offices in massive towers everywhere you look. I always judge how urban a community is by the size of the parking spots at a store, and the ones in Calgary would have trouble with big SUVs let alone pickups! Traffic isn’t too bad (for a big city), and there are buses and light rail all over the place. It is an incredibly diverse place too. Bike and pedestrian trails all over, and a lovely river front is maintained nicely. If it wasn’t for the awful winter weather, I could be convinced to live there.

Oh the joys of border COVID testing in Canada

I actually have decent campground WiFi for a bit, so I thought I would summarize our experiences with Canada’s random COVID testing process. I will update this post as we learn more, because it is an evolving saga!

Canada reserves the right to randomly choose border crossing folk for a PCR COVID test. If you are selected you are supposed to take the test within 24 hours of crossing the border. It makes great sense to me. We crossed the border Saturday, and nothing was said about it. Normal, right? Wrong!

On Tuesday, four entire days after we entered Canada, I got an email telling me someone in my party had been selected for the entry test. It didn’t even tell us whether it was Kevin or me. Sigh. And since the process is really much more oriented to air travelers of Canadians returning home, the instructions were pretty meaningless for RVers like us. It took two long phone calls to figure out what we were supposed to do. We needed to provide an address for a kit to be sent via Canada Post, planned for 5-7 days in the future. We are here in Calgary until Friday, then we spend 3 nights at Rocky Mountain House, so I gave them the RMH address. It confused the poor man on the phone so much because it is a very, very, very rural address! (Has anyone else ever seen an “house” number of of 400,009? I added the comma for readability. Yup, that is part of the street address of our campground.)

So I think I have everything settled, though it is still iffy whether we get the test in time. And, of course, the night after RMH is boondocking with no address. Then today (Wednesday) I get a call from Canadian Public Health, automated, informing us (finally) that Kevin was the lucky random testee. Also part of the call was “Did you take the test with it 24 hours?” No. “Why not?” Luckily, “No one told me,” was the second alternative given. The call ended with Kevin being told to call the lab which we did yesterday. Sigh. Oh the trials of international travel in COVID times. Oh, and we have at least 3, maybe 4, people in our tour group of around 40 that have COVID right now!

To be continued …

Alberta Heritage Center, Calgary

I normally wouldn’t post back to back like this, but we are spending the next 2 days at the Calgary Stampedes, and I think that post might be overloaded!

We got into our campground, Calgary West, just after 11:00, and it was a riot trying to get all these big rigs parked in a old, cramped, unlevel campground. It was definitely not designed for 40+’ long RVs with slides on both sides. However it is the only campground in the city limits. After (almost) everyone was parked, we collected for a car pool to the Alberta Heritage Center. I was only lukewarm, and I was, again, thrilled with the venue.

There is a semi-modern section when you arrive, and we started looking at cars from the early 1900s through the 1920s in their automobile exhibit. There were dozens of fancy roadsters.

But I was amazed at the number of fully restored and operational work vehicles.

They even let people get in some of the trucks

I found it interesting that they use period trucks to deliver workers and goods when guests are in the facility.

After we left the automobile area, we visited the main area of the 1910s or so. Lots and lots of buildings plus lots of docents and guest workers in period costume. This is only a small number of the buildings in this section.

The bank had a second floor access to be used to shoot robbers!

We got a coupon for a free ice cream cone as part of our admission.

We only spent time in one other era, the Settlement. This represented the period of fur trading by the Hudson Bay Company.

There was a clerk at the Hudson Bay offices

Shows the tradition from early settlement to more modern times

The facility covers dozens of acres. There is an old-time amusement park, a farm, and so many other beautiful things. We both said we wanted to come back on another trip, but hopefully on a cooler day.

The next two days we will be at the Calgary Stampede. Long days so I don’t expect time to post. We are on another long day the third day sightseeing some of the classic Banff National Park locations on a bus tour. Not the way I would have gone if we did it on our own (we would probably have spent 3 days!), but it will be a sampler. At least I can sleep on the bus on the way back!