What a breathtaking ride today. Banff and Jasper National parks were wonderful! Every corner I came around presented me with another amazing vista that I had to stop and take a picture of. It was truly beyond words. These pictures do not do it justice.
Last night I actually treated myself to a real room and bed. I paid $25 Canadian for a hostel in Canmore. I wanted to make sure I was up on time and had a good cell connection for the radio interview this morning (which went well by the way, if you have it on tape I would love to hear it). I had a real hot bath and washed my laundry. I did find one bit of gear I was lacking however. I am carrying such a limited amount of cloths that I did not have anything to wear while I was washing. I ended up washing my bicycle shorts in the bath with me and drying them off as best as possible so I could wear them while I did the laundry. It was a hostel so everyone was wearing weird cloths. So I was going to stop at a thrift store or something to buy a pair of cheap shorts. Well I guess good Karma once again prevails and guess what I found lying on the side of the road?
They are not my color but they fit and will get the job done next time I need to do the laundry.
Definitely getting colder. Had a fair bit of rain today and got way too much use out of my electric vest. In fact I got so much use out of it I sucked my battery down to zero. When I got to Jasper I was stranded with no juice. Luckily there was a hill nearby and I was able to push start it down the hill. Felt like a dork though. Everyone pointing and laughing! Silly American.
So Canadian National Parks and US National parks are much the same but differ in many ways. First off it was only $9.80 Canadian to get in so that is less than half. I guess they don’t teach the deer not to crap in campsites. Second and probably most impressive for me is there are way fewer people. Still more than just out on the regular road but way fewer and thus easier to navigate around. There are still the luxury mobile mini mansions that take up way to much space but there are just fewer of them. The other odd thing is there are way more Japanese tourists than there were at Yellowstone. Lake Louise was packed with them. They must have just unloaded a bus! I took the mandatory pictures at Lake Louise and got my cold butt outta there fast. Tourists make me jumpy. Especially when I am one. Yikes!
Oh and just so you know. In Canadian National parks Elk on the side of the road also means mandatory driving rules and protocol are no longer valid and stopping swerving and other irresponsible driver behavior are standard.
Different large grazing mammal, same idiots behind the wheel. Now ya know.
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