The plan for today was to get up early, swing into Calgary
for an oil change (yes, folks, we’ve already driven 3,000 miles on this trip)
and then make haste to Banff. We woke up and it was still raining a lot, so we
waited about an hour for it to abate a little and then made a mad dash for the
front seats.
The campground where we had stayed, Eagle Lake RV Resort,
was a very nice place to bring a family. It was clean as could be, but pricey
and a little dated. There was a ton of stuff for kids to do, game room, petting
zoo, hayrides, kayak and peddle boat rentals, a bike path, a nature trail, and
more. Kids could even help feed all the animals every morning at 9 AM. There
were three baby sheep that were seriously cute. I think the best part about it
was that it was completely safe. They had a security patrol and there were kids
riding their bikes around and playing by themselves or together. It was just an
idyllic, peaceful place. Bummer that it is so far from home! George and I both
remarked that it would make for a fun Kearchner family get away location.
We had no problem getting into Calgary, but realized that
our car GPS did not have the address for the Subaru dealership in town. So, we
turned on the data for my smart phone, did a quick Google search and then used
the Navigator to get us there in less than 7 minutes. I love technology! We had
turned off all data for both of our phones because while texts are regular
rates, phone calls are $0.69 per minute, data usage was so outrageous we
decided to skip it as much as possible.
We NEVER take our cars to a dealership unless absolutely
necessary simply because they are expensive and we believe there are many
talented mechanics out there who can do the same job or better for less money.
(A shout out here for George’s brother, Seth, and His Place Automotive in
Emmitsburg, MD!) We’ve also never bought a brand-new car, so the car that comes
with a two-year service plan doesn’t exist for us. We had an oil change done
right before we left, but we passed 3,000 miles a few days ago and knew we
needed to get some service. I am sure that our car would probably have been
fine if we missed this oil change, but George and I are big believers that when
you buy something nice, you must take very good care of it because you will not
be lucky enough to get another. For example, we have accumulated an enormous
amount of very nice quality camping gear over the last years from birthdays and
Christmases (thanks, Hauvers and Kearchners!) and sales. We know that if
anything happens to our spotting scope, our GPS or our Burley, we simply will
not be in a position to replace it immediately. So, we are pretty regimented
about our oil changes, tire rotations, etc. George loves his Subaru Forester
and it was a huge decision for us to decide to drive it on this trip because of
the involved wear and tear and risk, and we want it to last a long time.
So, not knowing anyone in town and not trusting online
reviews, we decided it was simple and easy enough to just go to a dealership in
a major city whenever we got to the 3,000 mile mark. We did not make an
appointment (our mistake) but how could we when our plans for Canada were
pretty open? So, we arrived at 10:30 AM and were given an appointment time of 1
PM. Great. We had to figure out how to kill two and a half hours in a foreign
city we knew nothing about because we had not planned to spend a single second
there. Had we been smart, we could have turned our cell phone data on and
Googled something to do or see. Instead, we just started driving. We wandered. Stop
one was a place called Cookies on the Go. It is a restaurant and bakery that
employs the disabled to bake and make gift baskets. All the profits from the
restaurant went directly to the disabled individuals who worked for the
organization. We were glad to support this business, the food was delicious and
this was not bad for a random first stop! Across the street, we noticed a sign
that read “Big Al’s Pet Supercenters”. Hmmm, that could be interesting, so we
were off to stop two. Big Al’s was a sight to see. If you like aquariums and
live anywhere in the Alberta province, this place is worth the trip. It was
easily the finest, cleanest, most well stocked, well displayed, complete
aquarium store we have ever been to. This is saying a lot because we have
chased fish stores everywhere from VA to DC to Baltimore to Lancaster, PA.
Wandering the aisles of tanks got us dreaming again our tank and bigger tanks.
Thank God we are so far from home and have no way to get anything back! No good
cat toys, sorry Maggie and Rose. Their stock was pretty limited. I tried to
talk George into buying me a dwarf rabbit for the trip because I am having
fur-withdrawl. He refused. We spent so much time in Big Al’s that we headed
straight back to the dealership so we could get the Joey unhooked and the car
ready for them for our appointment. I don’t know why we hurried. We were there
at 12:50 PM and they finally took our car into a garage bay sometime after
1:30. We know it takes 15-30 minutes for an oil change, depending on the
worker. We got our car back at 3 PM. Good grief. Don’t even ask how much it
cost us. We will just say it was less than triple digits, but not by much!
We hauled out of there as quick as we could. We did get to
drive through some of downtown and suburban Calgary. The current design trend
seems to be earth tones. Apartments, houses, condos and offices were all
painted navy, black, white, off white, green tones, red rock red, tan, taupe,
brown tones and cream. There was not a yellow house to be found. There were
also a lot of visually interesting bridges, bike paths and lots of grassy areas
that were well manicured.
We drove out of the city and about another hour later we got
to Banff. I have waited all year to get to Banff. The Banff Center sponsors a
film festival each year and the winning films and crowd favorite films tour the
country. The student outdoors club at Mount Saint Mary’s College (in
conjunction with the Trail House outdoor store in Frederick) is one group that
sponsors a viewing. I have gone for the last three years and each time have
left with the sentiment that “I hate my boring vanilla life. I want to go raft
in Africa and climb mountains and build a giant rope swing in Arches National
Park. (Thanks, Mike H., for this clip!)
Completely ridiculous, I know, and the feeling does fade after a few days. It
just gives me an itch for a bigger, broader existence. I have listened to the
speakers talk about Banff for three years and looked at the park’s website
online. And now we are here.
Set amidst the most perfect rugged mountains I could not
have imagined is the park. Running through the center of the park is a four
lane highway. On each side of the road, a six foot high wire fence keeps the
animals from crossing the road; they use overpasses and underpasses made
especially for them. How many animals are there that these fences are actually
needed? I had an inkling when I saw the pulloff for a hiking trail and you have
to unlock a latch, step through a low door and close the door behind you. You
are now on the other side of the fence, in essence, in the cage with the
animals at the zoo. Oh. My. Goodness. What have we gotten ourselves into?
We
both agree that climbing through the fence/ gate is a sobering psychological
reminder that you are now in the backcountry, their world, not ours and to tread
lightly. Imagine our surprise when we pulled up at our campground for the next
two nights to find that the tent area is also fenced because there is a
significant bear passage in the area.
Question one: why did you build a
campground here? Question 2: WHY DID YOU BUILD A CAMPGROUND HERE? As I am
helping unpack the car and reorganize for tomorrow, I notice a warning on the
campground map. There is a grated bridge that cars must pass over to get in and
out of the tent area. I imagined that the grated slats made it impossible for
the animals to use the bridge, but easy for cars. Wrong! There are wires
between the grates that are electrified! Where are we?!?!? You can see the fence and electrified grate on the campground map.
I have decided that if I have to use the potty in the middle
of the night, I will either hold it, or try to hold it and fail, but I am not
getting out of this camper!
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