Working our way home from Moab

  OK, so we left Moab, and went to Salt Lake along with several other Moab attendees, and Linda & Dean who were intending to meander on to Alaska.  We had a few mini rallies, and thanks to Kodiac, we even made one official.  Well, on our third supper together, Donna finally remembered to bring along the camera, and you will see we caught it in a picture.
  We left SLC for Yellowstone, and met Pancake Bill and Jolene, no food but enjoyable few minutes with framily who Donna and I had never met, even though we winter in the Tampa Bay area, where they spent many years.
  As with all of the previously visited National Parks, Yellowstone was delightful, we not only got to see the geysers and hot springs, we also saw and took pics lots of bison, grizzly bears, Elk and moose (yes Marsha, we have pictures of moose The Grand Tetons).  We even got caught up in a stampede of bison.
  Then as we arose to pack up, there was all this white stuff on the coach and car, picture attached.  I know we were in the mountains, but the couple of days before it was in the 80's, and this is supposed to be in the warmer US.  Seemed like the little bird and his friends were having a ball in the fir tree next to the coach, but we hadn't seen that breed and will have to look up what type he was.
  Donna and I are really of the opinion that much like the Sasquatch (Bigfoot), there rumours of bighorns are much exaggerated.  We kept looking all the way up, but all we saw were signs telling us not to disturb them, well that would have been hard as they were never there to be found.
  So far since crossing the border, we done the dinosaur museum in Drumheller, which was another mind blowing experience, there are several new exhibits from the Badlands that are all around southern Alberta.  We're now hunkered down in Calgary, and we had our first rainy day since leaving Florida.  However, it appears there will be a few more to come before the sun comes out.  We head for Banff and Jasper National Parks next week.

Ed

PS: Can't post all the pics with the Park wifi, will do it in 2 posts

more pics

Western Tanager

Love the pics. Especially that little bitty skiff of snow.

Good pics!  Glad someone made it an official minirally.  The Western Tanager (I'll take Wendy's word for it) sure is a pretty little thing.  We've encountered buffalo on the road but not a whole herd like that!  Glad none took a dislike to you because I bet they could toss your car around pretty good!  I can see the headlines now "Buffalo 3, Humans 0".  :
 
ArdraF

      Oops, since we didn't take pics, it wasn't official, but we did drop by to visit Chip and Bunky (Falconhunter) for a "pop".  They were in Island Park, ID as well, about 5 miles from where we were set up.
      Wendy, any of the white stuff, is TOO MUCH.
      FWIW, when crossing the border, they did ask if we had any meat on board, when I said yes, all she asked was if was for consumption in the fridge/freezer.  I said yes, and she said have a good day.  She asked about weapons, liquor, tobacco and the amount of money we were carrying.(over $10,000).

Ed

You had over $10,000 ?? or she asked if you had over $10,000?

    US border ask every time we cross, but this is the first time we were ever asked by Canadian border guards.  You've seen us and our coach, we would carry 10,000 pennies, let alone dollars.

Ed

    We're set up in Edmonton, AB having come up the river canyons through Banff and Jasper National Parks.  While the Grand Tetons were nice, these mountains on both sides of the road, hundreds of glaciers all around, spectacular lakes, rivers and water falls, and wild animals everywhere, I'd say these National Parks were spectacular.  Yes folks, we even saw BIGHORNS, all it took was crossing back into Canada, we even saw a jet black wolf along the roadside, white grizzlies, black bears, moose, deer, elk and caribou.  All we missed were mountain goats   
    We're spending a couple of days here in Edmonton, then we start a quicker run to Ottawa to see grandkids.

Ed

    Here is a pic of Lake Louise, and one of Maligne Canyon, about half way down.

Ed

Beautiful. The Canadian Rockies is on my bucket list.

Wendy

The first time we saw the Canadian Rockies we described them this way:  picture every single beautiful mountain you've ever seen or read about, then line them all up in a row and enjoy!

Margi

    Wendy, what amazed me was that even though we drove up from Banff, through Jasper, it really is a series of river canyons, with only one long climb, which is north of Lake Louise, just prior to reaching the Columbian Ice Fields. It wasn't marked, but I'd say it never exceeded a 6% grade, and only was about 4 or 5 miles long.  We took it at 20,000 RPM in 3rd gear, it was a breeze.  I'd say there were a couple of hills that were worse, if we were heading south from Jasper to the Ice Fields.
  We have several hundred pictures of mountains, as there was just another as/more beautiful than the last every time you looked up.  When we get to the kids and I have decent wifi, I may try to post some.
  Tom Seiler, we took pictures of Harlequin ducks while we were in the Yellowstone, and a Clark Nutcracker on the rocks along Lake Louise, but didn't get any at Maligne Lake, although there were lots of signs telling people to stay away from their nesting sites.  I'll try to post.

Ed

    Well, it happened again, only this time we were driving at highway speed.  We finished with Alberta, then crossed through Saskatchewan, and were heading to Winnipeg Manitoba to spend a few days.  It was a cloudy day, with drizzle earlier so we didn't do much sightseeing.  About 60 miles or so west of Winnipeg, on a straight level piece of 4 lane divided highway, I see in my mirror that we are going to get hit.  A van tags the same back left corner of the Jeep, then swerves out and come back at the back corner of the coach.  They stop, but as soon as they see there was no one hurt, they hop in their van and adios.  The RCMP advised us that the plate did not match the vehicle, so it is likely stolen.
    The funny part, was that after some fairly decent driving to keep from losing control and rolling in the median, when she got out of the driver's door, he followed her out the same door, pulling up his pants and underwear.  So, we can make assumptions as to why she got distracted at drove into a motorhome and toad on the open highway, in broad daylight.
    Our insurance says that since it it a "hit & run", they waive the deductibles, so it goes, but it is just a pain.  Then today, we spent a lot of time at the police detachment with a follow up to the phone report and getting the insurance advised, so we were planning on a short drive.  We picked a PA park about 300 miles awa, but as we got near, the radio was advising tornado warnings, so we kept driving another 300 miles to get well past.  I guess they had several touch down on the week end.
Ed

Well, that sucks. Guess there are some things you just shouldn't do whilst driving. Glad you guys are ok.

Gesh!  What a mess.  Apparently you are able to drive the coach and the jeep?

Marsha~

Ed:

Sorry your pleasant day turned into a bummer! Hope the fixin is quick and easy.

I'm very sorry to hear of your latest batch of bad luck.  And that Jeep was  just starting to  look good again.  But I gotta tell you, I was more than a bit  amused by your description of the of the cause.  Sad but it did put a little smile on my face.  Only you guys can make lemonade out of lemons.

May the fix be quick and hassel free.

  Betty, I picked up the clips, but when I looked at replacing the parts, I  decided it was more complicated than originally thought, so we had taken the Jeep into a body shop in SLC and it was fully fixed, other than a couple of minor scratches on the plastic cowlings, or Arizona Pinstripes as Terry would say.  So, it made it doubly annoying that it occurred.  I glad you thought that it was amusing, we didn't   We particularly didn't think it was amusing that they wouldn't provided information and took off, although that may have been a blessing in disguise, as our insurance waived the deductibles for hit and run.
  The other annoying part is that it has put a dark cloud over the trip, and now we are heading straight to Ottawa, stoping for fuel, food, and sleep, but at a much slower pace, until we can get fully checked out.
  On the up side, while driving into the dusk Sunday evening, the moose had started to come out.  We saw two huge, I'd estimate 2,000 lbs or more, cow moose grazing along the side of the road.  They are so ugly that they are beautiful.

Ed

Hfx_Cdn said:

    US border ask every time we cross, but this is the first time we were ever asked by Canadian border guards.  You've seen us and our coach, we would carry 10,000 pennies, let alone dollars.

Ed

Click to expand...

10,000 pennies would weigh 55 lb, not likely.  LOL.  They are getting lighter with inflation though.