Mountains a rear view mirror memory

Banff, Alberta
July 10, 20009
Ok..so I lied. Our next posting is not Whitehorse, YT. It is all the way back to Banff, which was not on the agenda, so to speak. We just started to drive out of Whitehorse, a beautiful day, and figured out a new way back down. The route is the “one less travelled”..The Cassiar Hwy(#37). It tracks down from outside Watson Lake, in between the coastal mountains and the Canadian Rockies. It starts on a gravel road that makes you really question the sanity of your decision, when you are responsible for 4 axles and tires in the middle of no where. I was constantly wondering how good my AAAPlus policy was after a set of pot holes. But we did manage them. Ironically, I got a flat tire pulling in to the campground after two days of rough road. It was caused by a screw, not a sharp rock. After all the miles of rocks and I get a flat because man made refuse…a message in there. The road connected with HWY16, came in the “back way”, West side, of Jasper. Pouring rain, but still beautiful. We treated our selves to an eat-out..a local sports bar and watched a ball game on the big screen..wow. Haven’t seen TV since May1 ! We then cruised down the Ice Field Parkway to Banff. Rain lifted…drop dead beautiful. I am sure we came this way, as opposed to cutting quicly to Edmonton, as we really hate to leave the mountains. This will be our last mountain fix, before they are only rear view mirror memories.
We started taking pictures of signs with wild life warnings..look out for moose /caribou.bear/,etc. We have seen so few mammals, our best documentation is the signs warning us. What’s that all about?
Since visiting Banff back in May, I have put 7500 miles on the rig. Overall, we have driven about 10,500 miles so far. A bit of road time. The dogs won’t know what to do with themselves with more space (nor us). Mickie is still not weight bearing, but seems to have less pain. Gretta loves to point the ground squirrels out side the trailer here. Marcia and are going hiking after our breakfast.
July 13, 2009
Ok, I really lied, about posting (mabe fish sizes too). It has been so hard to find a place to up-load a posting. Most places we started to go had no signals of any king. Actually a good thing, from a “quiet” perspective. We had gotten into the habit of “dry-camping”, choosing spots with no services, but great location. Low to no cost, but also no signal. Anyway…we are not in the mountains anymore. We drove out of the Rockies, heading east, decided to head for cheaper gas ($1.25/G less), cell phone signal, internet signals…you got back to the US. Yesterday we came through “North Portal” , North Dakota and then to Minot, ND (where we are right now….really). I was here at the strat of this trip on my way west. So my “loop” back to here(Minot,ND) has been 9359 miles. The forcast is for rain and severe T storms, so we will take our time going east. We want to catch a reunion in Marcia’s home town, Cornucopia, Wisconsin, so that will be our last “goal” before home.
The pictures are of a hike in Banff, and the beautiful prairies.