July 1st to 6th - Wetaskiwin to Banff

July 1st - Tues - Wetaskiwin- HAPPY CANADA DAY
We had a long drive today - 36 miles! We took our time packing up and got to the Prairie Breeze RV park about 10:45. Set up, made breakfast/lunch and went across the road to the Reynolds Alberta Museum which is why we stopped here.
It is a wonderful collection of vintage cars and farm equipment. Right now they also have a collection of Model T’s on display. It is a great place to visit - highly recommended to anyone traveling nearby. There is also an airplane museum and aviation hall of fame building but it was not nearly as interesting to us even though it was very well done too.
We drove into town for a couple of items and then came back, relaxed and walked around the park before dinner. I was hoping to see some fireworks for the 1st and sure enough, just after 11 when it was barely getting dark, we stepped outside and watched the fireworks put on by the museum. Quite a respectable display.
Terry spoke with his Mom who is still in the nursing home. She is doing very well and can walk a bit with a walker. She sounded great on the phone so we were really encouraged by her progress.

July 2nd - Wed - to Rocky Mountain House
Left reasonably early this morning and stopped at Em-Te Town on the way to Rocky Mountain House. It was a 10 mile drive on a dusty gravel road to a strange, empty, “old West” town in the middle of nowhere. Sometime in the 1950’s, a guy decided it would be fun to build a town. Other people kicked in with labor, material and artifacts and the “town” was built. There was no literature available but a worker gave us this short version of the history of the town. There is a saloon and restaurant but they did not appear to be open for business when we were there.
We got an RV site and got set up in time for a late lunch. The RV park has two areas - one with the office and full service sites and the other down the road - all grass with trees around. The sites are power/water or unserviced. We are in the grass area which is joined to the other by the main road and a narrow, windy road along the North Saskatchewan River.
We rode our bikes to the other area to check out the laundry room. It was empty so we came back to round up the laundry and drove back. There are only 3 washers and we had 5 loads so it took us the rest of the afternoon to get it done. Also defrosted the freezer - another overdue job done.
Terry wandered down and chatted with a young couple in a 2008 Challenger. We are in a spot that is shaded in the afternoon so we sat out & enjoyed a fire.

July 3rd - Thurs - Rocky Mountain House
We started with a visit to the info center/museum this morning. Then checked out the town and made the inevitable stop at the grocery store. A wander around Canadian Tire netted us a mop/squeegee with an extension handle. Back to the rig to drop off perishables and have lunch. Terry took advantage of the nice weather and the new mop to clean the dust off the back and driver’s side of the 5th wheel.
Then we were off to explore more of the area. Drove to Twin Lakes and Crimson Lake - both with campgrounds. Twin Lakes has fishing and Crimson Lake is very shallow by the shore with a large beach area. Lots of families there cooling off in the water.
We drove into a nearby golf course and decided that it might be too challenging to be fun - lots of water & hills. We returned to town via a different road and had to stop at another grocery store for a couple of items that the first one did not have.
After dinner we rode our bikes to the office where Terry got an ice cream bar. On the way back, we stopped to talk to the couple in the other Challenger. Viewed their rig and then they came to see ours. They have a second bedroom and bathroom as they have a daughter. Makes the living area small but it is really nice not to have to pull out a hide-a-bed all the time.

July 4th - Fri - Rocky Mountain House
There was a lot of lightning and thunder last night but most of it quite a ways away so you could just see the sky light up. It was clear again this morning.
We went to the Rocky Mountain House National Historic Site today. We had purchased an annual national park pass when we went through Jasper but the lady did not tell us that you could get a discounted annual pass for national historic sites if you purchased both at the same time. So we took our park pass in to the historic site and they let us buy the annual historic site pass at the discounted rate.
We walked along some trails and spoke with an employee about the history of the site and area. David Thompson was a prolific map maker and was based in this area for a while at one of the last large trading forts of the Hudson Bay Company after it merged with the Northwest Company. We were lucky enough to be there for a very cute & informative puppet show about David Thompson.
We picked up makings for hamburgers for a late lunch and then just relaxed with a fire. The wind came up so it was a good thing that we had run out of firewood.
The RV park really started filling up this evening. We are heading towards Banff tomorrow so I hope we don’t have a problem finding a spot to stay.

July 5th - Sat - to Banff
We drove into town to dump our holding tanks this morning. The RV park had a dump but it was pretty tight getting in & out. We took a drive into Nordegg but decided not to do any exploring there. Might have played golf but we wanted to carry on and get an RV site.
We decided as we were driving to go to Banff and I saw some campgrounds that were NE of Banff so I thought we would go past them on the highway. Not so! We drove blindly into Banff and then I remembered & uncovered a national park brochure with a map of the town. Just in time as we were heading up a narrow mountain road and I was able to see that it was OK and we would end up at the campground. I don’t know how we get into these places, and more to the point, how we get out!
The campground is strangely laid out because it is on a hillside - as is most everything here. You pull up straight along both sides of wide roads that have electric posts and picnic tables in gravel sites. They put us on an end site as we are so long but we couldn’t stay further back as with this configuration the electric hookup is on the wrong side and our cord would not reach. There is no one in front of us so we are OK for now.
We drove into town, finally found a parking spot and went browsing. Banff is much bigger than I remembered and is filled with tourists. The main street is under construction to add to the congestion. We went to a spot where a trail leads to some hoodoos but since we could see them from the parking area, we chose not to take a walk.
By the way, there are a couple of other routes to the campground that do not include the mountain road.

July 6th - Sun - Banff
We watched the Calgary stampede on TV until late last night so we were lazy this morning. Finally got going and headed to the Cave & Basin National Historic Site. It is on the location of the first hot springs discovered in this area. The hot springs and the subsequent legal wrangling led to the formation of a national park here and elsewhere in Canada. Got back to the truck just as some rain started.
Checked out the Banff Springs Hotel, Bow Falls and finally were able to find a parking spot at a lookout where we could get a good picture of the Banff Springs Hotel. We returned to town for lunch and some more shopping. The rain did not last long so it was nice wandering in town.
I spent a couple of hours putting captions on pictures in preparation for putting them on the internet - hopefully sometime soon since I am a little behind. Caught up the blog also so I am ready to post it as well.