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After a busy morning making sure that all my work was finished I left at lunchtime to prepare for my three week break. Three weeks. Could I last three weeks away from work and my home computer? Damned right I could!
After a haircut and a final check of the holiday essentials I strolled down to the railway station to catch the train to Glasgow. I was meeting brother Bob on the train, however I was not prepared for the "on-board entertainment" supplied by the drunks on the train, but they were in tune and the repertoire was varied and clean, so no real complaints there! We had a lovely lamb tikka meal and a couple of pints at the Glasgow Travel Inn before settling down for the night.
We were up early and walked to the airport, where we checked in at 08:15. This was where we had our first hiccup of the holiday when the Canada 3000 woman sent us in the wrong direction! Once we got corrected we settled in the lounge area, had a full (excellent) breakfast and bought a novel each for the flight. I went for Eden by Ben Elton.
The flight left on time, brother Bob got sat next to the obligatory "weird passenger". Funny, I'm usually the weird one... The in-flight meals and films were OK and I read most of the book, too. We stopped off at Keflavik, Iceland and arrived at Calgary mid-afternoon. After checking in at the Airport Travelodge we went for a wander to Sunnyridge Mall and were amused at the fact that there were no pavements (sidewalks) to walk on! There were still large expanses of grass which were infested with ground squirrels. We then settled down for an early night and a thunder storm started! Very impressive lightning :)
The time difference shook us from our slumber at 02:00 for Bob and 04:00 for me. We read our "flying novels" until breakfast time and then went to the Calgary Heritage Park. The park was really interesting (no, honest) and was a good easy start to the holiday. We then headed off to Fort Calgary, only to discover that it hadn't been finished yet - after 200 years. I've known some builders like that.....
After a bracing walk we arrived at the Eau Claire Centre where we had Subs for lunch. This was a nice mall with some interesting shops and a cinema. We then caught a tram and bus out to the airport to sort out a hire car for Tuesday but discovered en route that there wasn't another bus back for 5 hours! We aborted! We got back to the hotel at 18:00 and read, had supper, made plans and then crashed out.
Airport - tried different cars until I found one I could drive - a Plymouth Voyager MPV! C-Train to the Zoo. Walked to the Eau Claire centre through all the walkways and watched The Lost World - Jurassic Park. Back to hotel for supper and sort out for Tuesday.
Breakfast, hotel transport to the airport to pick up the car. I drove to the hotel, we loaded up, checked out and headed out of town. To Banff via Bow Valley, then Kananaskis Village. Brief stop at Canmore. $60 fee to enter the National Parks. We arrived at Banff at 15:00, On our way back to the hotel we saw a Hummer being used for off-road tours. We went to Earls for dinner that night and were served by "Ginger Meghan", who won our vote for "best waitress" on the whole holiday. Unfortunately my Black Bean Soup wasn't on the menu so I had Cajun Blackened Chicken which was superb. Bob had Chicken Salad.
Breakfast at Melissa's. Raining most of the day, so we used the van. Cascade Mountain, Ghost mining town. Lake Minnewanka, over the dam. Subs for lunch at the lakeside. Around town, to Springs and the Banff Hotel. Golf course for Elk, falls. Hotel to park car then to Wild Bill's for drinks - sat in the bar for 2 hours! There was a band practising and we were writing out all our postcards. Shops. Went back to Wild Bill's for dinner at 19:00 - we got more than we bargained for! The Tumbleweed was enough for four - chicken wings, onion rings, pork pieces, tacos, dips etc. The waitress was little miss gushy :)
Cloudy and rainy :( Pack, checkout, supermarket - free coffee and £1.15 for the muffins for breakfast. Leave Banff and drive leisurely taking the old highway to Lake Louise. 10:30 at Lake Louise - it was still frozen over. Walked on the ice at the lake side, phoned mum from the hotel. 11:00 Moraine Lake, also frozen over. Lunch at picnic site near Lake Louise. Drive over Kicking Horse Pass to Golden Sights. The Spiral Railway tunnels at the Big Hill. tried to drive up to the falls but they were closed due to water danger ?!
Back over the pass to Lake Louise and then continued up to the Icefield Park via Bow River, Lake and Mountain. We stayed the night at The Crossing Motel at Saskatchewan. Good cabins, and a good bar and self-service restaurant. Drank and played cards in the bar.
Weather excellent today. Breakfast in the Crossing with Two Liverpudlian Men Cycling. Drive to Icefields, look around the impressive new centre. Drive to Jasper via Sunwapta Pass. Back road from falls - many viewpoints. We went up to the Ski Centre and saw Black or Grizzly bears. Looked at hotels in Jasper, but too expensive so we went on to Hinton. elks with antlers. Same motel as the last holiday, went to Safeways and stocked up. Supper in Alberts. To the same bar as last time, played pool and drank - I whupped Bob !-)
We had a late start this morning with breakfast at the Husky restaurant. First stop was the Jasper Tramway where after riding up we started to walk up the trail. After trying out some of my German on a guy who dropped his hat I discovered he was Dutch! Oops. Continuing to walk up the trail, it started to snow! Well OK, it wasn't that bad, but we took some photos and then rode back down. Driving into Jasper we picked up a couple walking from the Youth Hostel into town to do their laundry. They were British, but I can't remember their names, though he had been in Canada all summer. Next on our itinery was a good wander around all the shops in Jasper, looking for presents. Here I nearly incurred my brother's wrath after I left his camera at the till in one of the shops. Luckily (for me) someone came after us.
We drove out to Maligne Valley for lunch and then had a long drive up to Maligne Lake. Strangely, the lower lake had no visible outlet, with the river bed dry. It seemed to the only outlet on the map, so I can only assume that the water table was below the bed of the river. Weird! At Maligne Gorge there were lots of horned goats. Or was that horny goats? Hard to tell from my hand written notes !-) We then took a circuitous route back to Hinton, including a diversion up the new road to Brullé, which turned out to be a dead end. The road, that is, not Brullé ;)
Back at Hinton, we stopped in at the beer market Kentucky Fried Chicken for our evening sustenance and then retired to our room to play cards and watch the sunset.
Again, Husky won the "where for breakfast" competition and then it was out onto the highway and heading for Mount Robson. We spotted a beaver lodge beside the road and filmed a train on Yellowhead Pass (a long train). After Mount Robson, Valemount and Tête Jaune Cache we spotted a bear and cub outside McBride, where we had lunch. We stopped for the night at the Queensway Court Motel in Prince George. Our room was really nice, but unfortunately the toilet overflowed when I flushed it! They were very good and moved us to a new room, but because they had just taken over the new room hadn't been refurbished yet. We ate in a White Spot burger bar that night and received the first query about the T-shirts that both Bob and I had been wearing on the holiday. I had them printed up for Carlisle United's trip to Wembley in April 1997. The use of a round ball with the word Football had bemused the waitress!
"FM 94 with Bill and Doug" was the cry from our radio as the hosts tried to explain the theory that Pink Floyd had watched the Wizard of Oz a lot. Hmm. On the way out of town we stopped at the Great Canadian Superstore and bought a tray of 12 breakfast muffins and other assorted grocery items and then filled the tank at the petrol station. Here we also got some coffee and had breakfast before heading out on HW97 to Huble Portage, a reconstructed Settlement which is well worth a visit.
It was a scenic drive to Mackenzie via Summit Lake, Davie Lake, Kerry Lake and McLeod Lake. McLeod Lake in particular had great overnight camping and the picnic areas all had BBQ pits and logs. We arrived at Mackenzie early and checked in to the Williston Lake Lodge. Now this was a great room with all amenities and a lovely balcony. We dumped most of the stuff in the room and then drove out to Bijou Falls, which were in full flow. There were lots of squirrels and Stellar's Bluejays and I got to practice some more German talking to some other tourists. Back at the hotel, supper was a nice piece chicken meal with fries from the local restaurant. Now this was one big meal and we only finished half of the chicken - so we left the rest for lunch the next day.
Well, some of the muffins for breakfast today (and the next 5 days!) and then we pushed on to Chetwynd via Pione Pass. After checking in at the motel we drove up to Tumbler Ridge via Gwillam Lake. The road was very quiet, although we did meet one mad person who drifted over the centre line! At Tumbler Ridge we popped into the Tourist Information Centre and the two ladies on duty advised us that the road to Kinuseo Falls was gravel, but OK for our car. Mind, you they could have warned us about those quarry trucks - big buggers that didn't care where on the road they were driving. The falls were magnificent, but it was a shame that we didn't have time to walk down to the base to see them from below. The view out over the valley was superb. I put my foot down on the way back - good rallying practice! We decided to take the car through the car wash when we got back Tumbler Ridge and then we took the long route back to Chetwynd, spotting another Hummer on the way. We then got a surprise when we discovered we were in a different timezone from yesterday! Arrival time back at the motel was 19:30 and so after a quick shower we went to the Chinese restaurant next door and had a very nice meal.
Dam fine day! Well, we went to see the Peace Canyon and WAC Bennett dams, then onto the Dulveny Provincial Park and took photos of ourselves at the Mile 0 Post of the Alaska Highway. Back at Chetwynd we set our laundry off while we had another Chinese meal and Bob proceeded to decommission the tumble drier! It was a really warm evening and the room was stifling - air conditioning was non-existent :(
After having the last of the muffins for breakfast, this was the long drive up to Fort Nelson. Not much to report, stopped at Mae's Kitchen which was vastly over-rated in the guide book. We met our relative Brian and went for dinner at the new hotel/restaurant in town with his daughter Mel and her friend Kim. Hmm, Mel and Kim.
Brian was working today, so after we popped into Subway and bought some subs for lunch we drove south to Andy Bailey and had a quick wander. On our way back to the main road I had to do a quick bit of evasive driving to avoid a golden eagle that decided to land on the road in front of me! I swerved just enough to miss it and it stood for a few seconds next to the passenger door before taking off around the back of the car.
We drove north from Fort Nelson and pulled off the Alaska Highway onto one of the abandoned sections for lunch before continuing on through some roadworks. There was a tipper truck which had taken it's name far too seriously! We turned around at Teetering Rocks and spotted a black bear on the way back. Now, I spotted all the mosquitoes around the car and told brother Bob not to open the window. What happened? He opened the window and in seconds the car was full of mosquitoes! When we got back to Fort Nelson we went to one of the sports bars for a meal. We handed out the presents we had brought over which included some Carlisle United home shirts and one of my Demon T-shirts.
We set off north again along the same route in Brian's 4x4 and went off-road up to a microwave mast for lunch. What a view! We checked in at Muncho Lake lodge and then went on to the Hot Springs for a lazy afternoon in the water. WOW! It was great just lounging in the water. We had dinner back at the lodge and then spent the evening drinking and playing cards. Hey, a holiday is about relaxation! The only thing was that being so far north it hardly got dark and we didn't notice that it was gone 23:00!
We were up late at 09:40 and had a wonderful hotcakes breakfast at the lodge before making a leisurely return to Fort Nelson with lunch at Teetering Rocks again. Dinner that night was supposed to be a BBQ, but the weather had other ideas and the ensuing downpour meant steaks inside. Brian is an ambulanceman in his own time and was called out to an RTA so we settled down to watch "The truth about cats and dogs". Later we went and bought some subs and took them to the ambulance station for the crews.
We left Fort Nelson early after buying some more subs for lunch. It was a wildlife active sort of a drive south with bear, wolf and moose on the spot-list. We had lunch at a rest stop south of Wonowon and diverted onto the old highway to look at the curved bridge. we were staying at the Canadian Motor Inn at Grande Prairie and it was very comfortable. After checking in we went to the graveyard to find the grave of one of our relatives, and then onto CostCo to buy some gifts to take back to the UK. We then went back to the Inn for a quick bath before going to get supper at a KFC - unfortunately it was 22:00 and we had to wait while they cooked some chicken for us!
After a quick fill-up at the Husky (both food and fuel) we headed out towards Edmonton on the long straight roads of Alberta. We had the cold leftovers from the KFC the night before for lunch and checked in at the hotel at Edmonton at about 13:30 and then went to The Mall to buy the last of our presents. We ended up watching The Saint for only $1.50 each and then had a Chinese meal for tea for only $3.75 before going back to the hotel at 20.30.
Rain!! Damn, a quick change of plan meant that we decided to do indoor stuff today. Museum (Genghis Khan exhibit et al), Space Centre (general, MacDonald's for lunch, UFOs and Cosmic Voyage) and then some shopping at the Real Canadian Superstore to last us for our remaining days in Canada. Then we hit The Mall again and had another Chinese meal before going to see Con Air. Back at the hotel we watched Ellen, Drew and Mr Bean and played cards while having muffins and coffee. How civilized!
Muffins and coffee for breakfast and then it was the long drive to Calgary with a couple of stops on the way. When we got there we checked into the Travelodge and dumped all the stuff and then drove south down to Head Smashed In. When we got back we were going to eat at the Earl's restaurant near the hotel, but it very busy and so we ate at the hotel restaurant.
Up early, packed all the bags, had breakfast in the restaurant and then loaded the car and did a quick tour around the north of Calgary and I ran over a couple of ground squirrels which made a interesting squelch-thump noise. Then we checked in at the airport, left the car and awaited our flight. Now, I had bought another book at the Edmonton Mall for the flight back, "Invasion" by Roger Cook. Unfortunately there was a slight delay with our flight and so I had actually almost finished the book before we even got on the plane! How long a delay? 12 hours and 20 minutes! Still, they were quite good about it and we got a free meal and they gave us a room at the airport motel for a few hours.
Because of the delay, we were now going to miss our train from Glasgow to Carlisle. We got free use of a telephone and so I worked through all my mates until I found one who was in and willing to collect us from Glasgow. We had already checked in, so we didn't have our luggage, but luckily we had a change of clothing in our carry on luggage. The down side was that we both had black tracksuit bottoms on and the T-shirts were a present from Brian and we both had the same one, so when we went back to the departure lounge we looked like Danny DeVito and Arnold Schwarzenegger in Twins!
Still, all in all it was a good trip and I can't wait to go again!
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