Imperial measure or metric

In the mid 1970's both the U.S and Canada made a move to a metric system of measuring and away from the imperial system.  Imperial used feet, yards and miles as well as pints and gallons.  Metric uses meters, kilometers, milliliters and liters.  The U. S never made the move but Canada did...sort of!  As we traveled across Canada we found distances measured in kilometers and driving speed signs in kilometers per hour.  We expected that.  In fact we posted several conversion charts in Harvey.  But golf courses are still measured in yards.  If you stop at a brewery or restaurant the beer is measured in ounces or pints, not milliliters.  Canadian football fields are measured in yards.  When buying gasoline the fuel is measured by the liter.  When calling an RV park and asking for a reservation they want to know how long your RV is in feet.

It does seem that those folks of our generation are still using the imperial system.  The generation behind them seem to use imperial but can quickly move to metric.  While the younger generation seems to be totally metric and if you say something is 10 miles away they have no idea how far that is.  My guess is in another generation the imperial system will be forgotten...except for football golf and beer, eh!

An odd day

We spent 1 night at a park and recreation area near Maidstone, Saskatchewan.  Had we known the park was so cool we would have planned another day.  We got up early and played 9 holes of golf before we hit the road.  On the way we knew we needed gasoline and there was a town called North Battleford that for some reason had gas much cheaper than anywhere else.  We had enough gas to get there so the plan was to stop and fuel up both Harvey and the car.

We drove by 2 stations with great prices but no way for us to get in and out.  We finally found one we thought would work if we disconnected the car.  We disconnected on the side of the road in front of the station.  Because the lanes were tight and other cars we had to back in to the pump.  That was fun.  264 liters or 71 gallons later(Harvey only hold 80) We were full.  We pulled the car and Harvey around back and re-hooked up.  The entire process took about and hour but we figured we saved about $16 US.

We headed east on Canada 16 toward Saskatoon.  We got to our camp ground and realized it was a run down hotel with even more run down RV parking out back.  We could tell by the shape of the building by the campground that at one time this was a KOA.  KOA are exceptionally nice but this one was no longer a KOA and no longer nice.

We had to go into the hotel lobby to check in.  The first thing the lady told was we could stay in the campground, but if it rained the place became very muddy and we might have trouble getting out.  But we could stay in a site out front if we wanted.  We said out front sounded better.  We disconnected the car and tried to maneuver Harvey into place.  The site was too short to back in so we tried to parallel park.  That might have worked except for all the tree branches hitting the roof.  So we looked out back to see if that would work.  There was no way we were getting Harvey into any of those spots nor did we want to spend the night there.  We got a refund but lost about 45 minutes.  We called another campground and they could get us in.  It took about 30 minutes to get there and we did not hook the car up.  We just drove separately.  The second place worked great.

So we decide with only 1 night in Saskatoon we should jump in the car and drive around.  So we saw parts of the city.  We sought out Saskatoon Brewery for some samples and dinner.  As usual at a brewery we sat at the bar so we could engage the bartender in conversation about the brewery.  I asked about a flight.  For those who don't know, a flight is a sampling of several of the breweries beers.  They usually have 4 to 6 small tasters for a nominal fee.  The bar tender said they did not do flights but the tasting room did.  He'd check to see if they were open.  He came back and said sure we could go back.  To get to the tasting room from the restaurant I had to go thru the men's room and out the back door.  Diana did the same thru the women's room.  This lead us into a very nice tasting room and brewery.  Very odd!  Anyway, we sat at the bar and the server/bartender came over and I asked for a flight.  She gave me a blank look and said "a what"?  I said a flight, a sample of several beers.  She had no idea what I was talking about.  I explained it again and she said she would have to talk to her manager.  A few minutes later she came back, gave us a sample of 5 beers and said there was no charge.  Again, very odd.

So this entry ended up being odd and a lot longer than I thought it would be...just like our day!

Elk Island NP, Edmonton, AB

A short distance east of Edmonton is Elk Island National Park.

It is a very nice park that acts as a refuge for Elk, Plain bison and Wood bison.  We had never heard of a Wood bison.  They are larger than their cousin Plain bison and tend to hand out in the woods.  The two species are kept separated because the park service is trying to keep the Wood bison line pure.

Even though it is called Elk Island NP we saw no elk that day.  We did see several plain bison.

This one walked about 15 feet from the car.  I was standing with my head out the sunroof while Diana leaned out the window for some pics.

Lacombe, AB

Lacombe was an add on stop.  It is between Calgary and Edmonton.  We have some friends from Apache Wells that live in Lacombe so we spent 2 nights in an RV park and got together with Ian and Natalie.

 Ian had been on the city council and was a great tour guide.  The town has beautiful murals on many of the building depicting the history of the town.

One day we took a ride to see lots of thing outside of Lacombe but still in central Alberta.  We saw some Hoo Doos.

Walked across a suspension bridge.

and more.  A fun day.

As we traveled north out of Calgary we kept seeing these massive fields of a bright yellow flower.  We had no idea what it was but it was certainly a crop of some sort.  We learned it was canola plants.  Turns out that we saw acre after acre of the crop even as we drove thru the rest of Alberta and into Saskatchewan.

Ian and me checking the crop.

Calgary

Our primary purpose in going to Calgary was to see the Stampede.  However we did take some time to see part of the city.  We went to the top of the Calgary Tower.  It overlooks the city and has a narrative of what you are seeing while you wander around the circular top floor.

Calgary Stampede

The Stampede is billed as "the greatest outdoor show on earth".

The stampede was really great.  We spent one afternoon just enjoying the food and atmosphere.  It reminded us both of the Minnesota State Fair but with less emphasis on agriculture and a lot of focus on a rodeo.  Many of the same food selections...anything you can think of deep fried.

We took another entire day (like 13 hours) and spent time on the stampede grounds doing more eating, shopping and people watching.  We also took in the afternoon rodeo and the evening chuck wagon races and the night show.

The chuck wagon races are great fun.

This year the night show celebrated the 50th anniversary of the Young Canadians entertainment troop. It also celebrated the 1988 Winter Olympics that were held in Calagry. 

Notice the folks suspended from the crane.

Remember 'Eddie the Eagle'?  He was the ski jumper from Great Britain in the Olympics.  He had no chance of winning anything but said he did not want his home land to go unrepresented.  He became a sort of hero.  Anyway, Eddie came down from the crane wearing skies, poles, and dressed for the Olympics.  It was fun.  The show was entertaining and then there were fireworks.

We both totally enjoyed the stampede.

Columbia Ice Fields

Once we and Harvey got settled into Banff we took about a 3 hour drive to the Columbia Ice Fields.  The weather was fabulous that day so we had beautiful scenery the entire trip.

These glaciers, like all others we have seen, are melting.  This one is losing 5-6 miles of ice each year.  It is still magnificent.

We took a trip up to the glacier.  First a 10 minute bus ride then transfer to the ice buggy for 10 more minutes.

It was very large.

and driven by a female college student who was about 5'4

 Some very large tires

From the glacier we went to the glass bottom skywalk.

Spectacular views.

A couple of old goats taking a picture of a couple of old goats.

Kootenay NP BC

From Radium Hot Springs highway 93 runs north thru Kootennay(pronounces kootenee) National Park out of BC and into Alberta.  We took the drive one day.

The next day we got to drive Harvey thru here.

We took a few short hikes along the river.

 This water has carved a very deep crevice in the rock.

And created several water falls

Along the trail we spotted some red chairs.  Beauty, eh??

Columbia Lake

While in Radium Hot Springs the weather was not in our favor.  So one rainy day we decided to take the drive the car to Columbia Lake.  About an hour drive.  Columbia Lake is the head waters of the Columbia River.  Since we have been to the mouth of the Columbia as it pours into the Pacific Ocean we and we traveled along portions of the river this summer we thought it would be cool to see the source.  The drive was beautiful despite the clouds and some rain.

Glacier NP BC

Glacier NP and Mt. Revelstoke NP are separated by about 16 miles.  We stayed at a campground in between so got to see both parks from one starting point.  The Trans Canada Highway runs thru Glacier NP and thru an area called Roger's Pass.

When the Canadian Pacific Rail Road was trying to get to the western shores of BC they had to get thru Rodger's pass.  This area is part of a very steep and difficult terrain of the Selkirk Mountain range.  Many men lost their lives building this rail.  Once complete a major problem was snow avalanches.  These would wipe out large sections of track leaving torn up landscape and piles of debris.  Even today avalanches are a problem.  We were able to see what are called avalanche trails.

These avalanche trails wipe out everything in their path.  Since they happen each year only small plants come back.

The debris piles left are massive.

We hiked along a trail where they had built large towers to support the track and train.  Ultimately this part of the project was abandoned.  But it was a nice hike.

Glacier is a large park, but with access limited to along the Trans Canadian Highway better known as 1.  So for the average tourist a drive thru Roger's pass and a few short hikes from the pull outs along the road covers the park.  There is back country hiking and camping but most tourists don't do that.