O' Canada

Camping under Calgary Olympics ski lift [background]

Our Trek so far

Our travel since last post

Date: 5/16/2013                                                Time Zone: MDT

Location: Calgary, Alberta, Canada                                               

Travel leg of journey: 8                        Day of journey: 10

Miles traveled today:            339                        Miles traveled since departure: 2921

Percentage of travel completed: 26.6%

U.S. states visited today: MT, Alberta

Critters observed today: eagle, Royal Canadian Police mounts [horses]

Today was an uneventful drive along interstate type roads. The border crossing was time consuming but not a problem. Calgary is a big city of nearly a million inhabitants, but thankfully we skirted most of it. We stayed at Calgary West RV Park, almost at the landing zone of the ski jump for the winter Olympics of a few years back [see photo].

Driving north in MT with the Rockies off to our west side, we encountered an interesting energy resource dichotomy. On the east side of the road appeared many oil wells, the first we had seen in a few hundred miles. All were new, bright and shiny, just pumping away. They are all sucking on the huge subterranean oil deposit known as the Bakken oil field. This oil field find has caused the eruption of thousands of new oil and gas wells across northern MT and ND in the past few years.

And on the west side of the road, there were no wells at all. Instead, on top of a large butte were perhaps 30 large electricity-generating windmills whirling slowly in the fresh breeze. This wind farm consists of windmills all manufactured in China, and paid for with money borrowed from, you guessed it, China. And this wind farm is just one of dozens that we have seen in the many states that we have crossed on this trip. Indeed, they are found all across our country, particularly in TX.

So here before us in front of our massive windscreen, we find a truly unique energy and technology struggle, one to surely cause one to pause and consider. At least I did. Still am.

We had a woman come to our rig who has a daughter that lives in Rodanthe on the Outer Banks. She saw our license plate and just wanted to come over and chat. She was very nice.

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Date: 5/17/2013                                                Time Zone: MDT

Location: Whitecourt AB                                               

Travel leg of journey: 9                        Day of journey: 11

Miles traveled today:            292                        Miles traveled since departure: 3213

Percentage of travel completed: 29.2%

U.S. states visited today: Alberta Canada

Critters observed today: none, disappointing

Not much of a ride today. Mostly farmland, but we did pass through a huge area of surface mining for coal. Giant tracked cranes are moving slowly across the land with only the top portion of their booms visible. They gnaw at the earth overburden and toss it aside, then sink their steel teeth into the mother lode and scoop the coal onto conveyor belts that follow the cranes. The conveyors feed the black gold directly to the power plant that is just a few hundred feet away. And less than two miles away in the distance there is another power plant no doubt being fed by its own traveling cranes and conveyor belts. A novel idea for sure, but not one to bond fondly to the hearts of the tree huggers.

The RV park at Whitecourt is one of the best that we have encountered, except for poor wifi. The people of Alberta are very friendly and nice.

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Date:            5/18/2013                                    Time Zone: PDT

Location: Dawson Creek, British Columbia, Canada                                               

Travel leg of journey: 10                        Day of journey: 12

Miles traveled today:            287                        Miles traveled since departure: 3500

Percentage of travel completed: 31.8

U.S. states visited today: Alberta, British Columbia

Critters observed today: none, amazing

Another ho hum ride today on interstate type highways. The lack of wildlife so far is disappointing. We see plenty of signs warning of moose crossings, but apparently the moose can’t read. Dawson Creek is disappointing also. I had expected a quaint village type atmosphere, but instead found a typical small town setting similar to many in the U.S., complete with fast food restaurants, gas stations, mobile phone stores and bars. We have encountered surprisingly few churches in Canada so far.

We plan to stay 2 nights here for additional R&R. Maggie is feeling the stress of travel even more than us.

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