Baniff Prov. Park, Alberta 2013 and a Side Dish of Equipment Failure

 

We traveled only about 150 miles on Monday from Calgary to Baniff, Alberta.  Not and easy run as we closed camp and drove in heavy rain most of the way.  It was rewarding as we let the plains and entered The Canadian Mountains.  Note;  Alberta has twice the land mass of Texas!  We are following the Trans Canadian Highway (Rt #1) as it threads it’s way west thru the mountains.

We are camped in Tunnel Mountain Provincial Park, which you can see on the map is in Baniff National Park.  $8 is very reasonable fee for sites with electric and  flat paved roads.

We are here for 2 day R&R after the hectic schedule in Calgary. 

Stu is our “Tail Gunner”.  As such he is responsible that we don’t get lost and if we have problems he will see to it that we are not in anger or abandoned.  Each road day he wakes us up, thumping on our tyres to assure they are not soft.  He usually has a coffee pop out and is the last of our group to get on the road.  Here he is shown rewiring this fellows towed car. Note the map of this retired Air Force Lt. Col. has traveled!  We had dinner with Stu ( & wife Sue) and our Leader Jim (& wife Cherril) at The Spaghetti Factory last evening.  Great company and Chicken Parm.

 God Bless Sue for 6:45 Coffee duty.

Map of memories on Stu’s Motor Coach.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I’ll leave you with these pictures, this is what Stowe, VT will look like when it grows up!

Postscript:  On preparing to leave on Wednesday morning my ‘landing gear fails’.  The gear box is FUBAR {Fouled Up Beyond Repair} the repair is to replace the entire assembly with a new unit that has about 25% more capacity.  The band-aid is to use my 12ton hydraulic jack to lift the camper off the truck as required.  Our Tail gunner Stu will try to spot me level when we park.  Ugh!  This will be a pain-in-but for about 2 weeks.

We have no phone or i-net.  Tomorrow we are going to The Ice Field where we will take a ride on an Ice Buggy to tour the glaciers there.  On Thursday we will be in Jasper, Alberta where I will use the library’s i-net to source parts and have then shipped to Fairbanks Alaska.