Crossing the Canadian Border from Montana at Coutts, Alberta Canada proved to be very uneventful. There was no traffic at noon time and with just a few questions and answers later, the border officer wished us a good trip and bid farewell to us. So much for all the chicken stress. We could have kept the $4 of chicken uncooked in the freezer and left off some of the chicken spaghetti meals without any worries. Oh well, all's well that ends well.
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| More than ready to see this. |
Our first happy face after crossing the border. Made for a very welcoming sight and expectations of good things to come. Thank you Canada, you made us smile too!
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| Happiest barn we have ever seen. |
There are many different things to get used to in Canada. For example, the posted speed limit is in kilometers per hour as opposed to the US standard of miles per hour. The same goes for distances as well. Fuel is sold by the litre (liter) instead of by the gallon. Canadian dollars are different than US dollars. Many things have double labels, one in English and one in French. There are many products in a store you recognize but the brand is something you are not familiar with in America.
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| 110 KM/H equals 68.35 MPH |
We are using the credit card for most purhases because the CC company will automatically convert pricing to US for us and we don't have to deal with getting ripped off by local exchange rates. Fueling is interesting when paying with a credit card. The pump asks you approximately how much Canadian money you wish to pre-approve (four choices are available) on your card. After you have pumped the fuel, the correct amount is actually charged to the card. This was a mental gymnastic exercise for me the first time I encountered it and didn't quite get enough pre-approval to completely fill the rig. Got close but not 100%. Prices are advertised in pennies. So a price of $161.9 is $1.62 per liter Canadian money. Mentally you have to convert liters to gallons and Canadian dollars to US. Not so easy the first time out.
There are some very interesting road signs in Alberta. When approaching a major intersection, you encounter a sign that reads, 'Important Intersection Ahead.' We were taken aback somewhat when we saw a sign that read, 'Texas Gate.' We had no idea what or why that sign was there. Did they really think going past that sign would lead you to Texas? It was only after encountering it in several places that the mystery (to us) was cleared up. It was announcing to the driver what we in Texas refer to as a 'cattle guard' crossing for the roadway.
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| Oh, you mean cattle guard don't you? |
We noticed almost immediately when crossing into Canada some farmers' fields with very pretty yellow flowers. It resembled a bright yellow blanket laid out across the land.
Beverly and I wanted to know what the crop was and what was its purpose or usage besides being very nice to look at so she did a Google search. Come to find out it is a rapeseed plant of the mustard family. Its seeds yield rapeseed oil which is named canola oil after processing. The name Canola is a blending of the two words "Canada" and "ola" which refers to "oil, low acid". Who knew? We learn something everywhere we go.
We are staying at an RV Park just North of Cochrane which is between Calgary and Banff. This makes for a convenient place to move around and explore the area in Banff before joining the RV Tour group in Calgary. We rested on our first day and then took off to see the sights. We stopped at a Visitor Center in Canmore and had a delightful conversation with a gentleman that had worked in Dallas some and knows how to talk to a Texan and understands a Texas accent. Isn't God wonderful?
He showed us some trails to explore (both in the car or walking) plus some good eating places. Since it was raining off and on that day, we chose to go to some of the areas around Canmore and hold off on going to Banff due to visibility issues from the clouds. Our first drive took us down Alberta 42 into a different park area. We found the eatery at the golf course he recommended and chowed down. Such a lovely view to enjoy lunch.
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| Might be hard to make par being distracted by the view! |
Afterward, we continued our trek. As we are driving along, Beverly yells out 'bear'! I immediately made u-turn because she spotted it coming out of the woods as we passed it. This is the first ever bear in the wild we have spotted, so we had to get pics to prove the sighting. Heretofore, we didn't believe there were any bears anywhere and that it was like outer space alien visitation stories, all made up or imagined. This was pretty exciting for our first day out in Canada and really got us pumped up.
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| There he goes back into the woods |
After some more driving and looking around, we decided to call it a day. Returning to the RV Park we settled down for a rest and booked some guided tours of Banff. We decided to do this because this is a three day weekend leading up to Canada Day on Monday. This is their July 4th type celebration and the crowds are supposed to be horrendous. It is difficult to find parking close to the popular areas of the park so we decided to do the tour guide thing. As you can see in the next post, this worked out to be a great decision.
We went to Wal-Mart to replenish our supplies. You have to carry your own bags to use for carrying purchases back home. Canada does not furnish shopping bags. We also found that products are displayed differently than in the U.S. Then we run into signs like the one below. Guess every country and culture has their own eating preferences. See you down the road for more adventures in the next post.
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| Okay then, guess we'll have to sacrifice and eat it anyway! |
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