We're Home!

We left Cheyenne early on Tuesday morning (Aug 9th) but started experiencing some electrical problems so we stopped near Denver and John crawled under the RV trying to, unsuccessfully, find the problem. The power kept going off and on in the coach but not in anyway that he could identify as the problem area. So we drove on.

We stopped for the night about three hours outside of Oklahoma City somewhere in Texas. We ran the generator all night so we could use the air conditioner - the first time it was used this whole trip. Wednesday morning we got going around 8 and about an hour later we pulled over for a short potty break and that is when we smelled something burning! John frantically went around unhooking all the batteries while I followed with the fire extinguisher! No smoke or flames, just a smell of melting plastic. After more crawling around under the coach, John found melted insulation on the wires from the generator to the inside of the coach. He determined that the inverter was shorting out so he bypassed that and we drove on into Norman, Oklahoma. About every half hour I made a sniffing tour of the RV.

We were able to plug into electricity at the campground and turn on the A/C without any problems. Eventually we'll have to get all the wiring replaced.

We had a nice visit with our grandsons (and their parents), we flew to FL for the wedding with lots of flight delays and we got back to Norman on Sunday night Aug. 14. Monday morning we got the call that our daughter-in-law was in labor and our third grandson was born on August 15 at 12:23 PM!

We got home on Tuesday, Aug. 16 and raced to the hospital to hold our new grandson. Liam Harry Lindstrom was ten days early but weighed in at 5 lb. 14 oz. and 19 inches long. What a great way to end our Alaskan Adventure!

We were gone 12 weeks and put 9,870 miles on the RV.

Heading Homeward

We are currently in Cheyenne, WY with a destination of Norman OK to see the grandsons, fly to FL for a wedding, back to see the grandsons and then home!

We left Banff on Sunday morning and drove all the way to Billings, MT, arriving around 9 PM and staying in the Cabela's parking lot. We stopped early in Cheyenne on Monday so that I could get some laundry done and we both used the wi-fi to get caught up. Tuesday and Wednesday will be spent driving, trying to avoid the heat as long as possible.

Banff

The mountain next to our campground is called Castle Mountain because it looks like a huge castle but it is more of a long ridge.

Because of the crowds we visited the Upper Hot Springs first but decided against trying them since we had a lot to see and do today. Once we found a place to park and get on the bikes we traveled along Bow River to the Bow Falls. Not as spectacular as the Athabasca Falls but neat none the less.

On up the hill we came to the Fairmont Banff Springs Hotel and biked the road that circles the golf course. We enjoyed looking at the different holes on the course as I wished we could play a round, then rode back into the woods toward Spray River then looped back out by the golf course. We spotted a wolf, we think, crossing the road in front of us.

Back into Banff and across the river, there was a trail that was supposed to be easy that went around Tunnel Mountain to a viewpoint of the Hoodoo Rocks. But we took a wrong turn somewhere along the trail and ended up on the difficult trail. Even though the trail was only about three miles long, it took us over an hour to travel and we walked the bikes up and down some really steep, rugged and narrow terrain for at least two miles of the three. I was pooped by the time we got to the top so we cruised back down on the road into Banff without seeing the rock formation. In all we rode 17 miles So after lunch we drove the car up the mountain to see the Hoodoos. Was it worth all that effort? Not for me!! But the view at the top was pretty. We have put over 150 miles on the bikes this trip.

Tomorrow we start our homeward trek!! Yeah!!!

Lake Louise

The morning dawned cool but promised to warm up a lot. Yesterday it got up to 75!

We loaded the bikes onto the Jeep and drove up to the town of Lake Louise and then on up to Moraine Lake. This beautiful aquamarine blue lake- 'the jewel of the Rockies' -- is surrounded by 10 peaks on a sawtooth ridge. It was pretty awesome to look up and see all those spires. This view used to be on the Canadian $20 bill. We took a short walk along the lake to a small but noisy cascade at the far end of the lake and enjoyed the quite solitude of the forest except for the noise of all the other hikers. This is a very popular spot to visit. All the signs say "Limited Parking 10 AM to 4 PM". We arrived at 9:30 AM with only about a dozen spots open.

We then drove down to the train depot and got on the bikes to ride up, and I do mean UP, 5 km to the actual Lake Louise. It was on an old tramway trail that was used back in the day of mules and wagons. The lake is fed by the glacier on Mount Victoria (over 10,000 ft). We ate our lunch while admiring the scenery and watching the mobs of people walk by. We then toured the fantastic and elegant Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise. Of course, the ride down was easy.

After naps and showers we headed into Banff for wi-fi and a fancy french dinner.

Icefields Parkway

From Jasper in the Jasper National Park to the town of Banff thru Lake Louise inside Banff National Park runs the Icefields Parkway. This road runs down the spine of the Canadian Rocky Mountain chain. There are icefields all along the west side of the range. The largest icefield is the Columbia Icefield at over 241 square kilometers in area. Although none of the icefields were totally visible, we could glimpse parts of them peaking between far off mountains and ridges.

And speaking of mountains, there were a lot of them to see as we drove past. Most were over 9,000 feet in elevation. The tops of the mountains and ridges were mostly snow covered. Some snow fields looked like someone with a knife had sliced off a large chunk leaving a straight line of snow and ice. Along the foot of the mountains glaciers melted into numerous lakes and rivers giving them their brilliant blue or aquamarine color. Waterfalls were abundant, stark rock walls hovered over our heads, lush green forests covered the foot hills, and cars lined the highway. It is a vacation destination in Canada.

The pictures show the Stutfield Glacier, Sunwapta Canyon with Mount Kitchener, Athabasca Glacier, and North Saskatchewan River with Cirrus Mountain.

As we drove in to Banff from our campground we came across two elk. I rushed the pictures so it isn't very good. We also spotted an eagle on her nest atop a bridge.

Jasper National Park, Alberta

Yesterday was another long travel day with not much to see or tourist stops to make. Except about 50 miles west of Jasper in British Columbia is Mount Robson. We had been seeing mountain peak for awhile but when we rounded the corner and headed east there was Mount Robson looming over us. It was just breathtakingly beautiful! Sheer rock walls covered with snow standing almost 13,000 feet high and framed by closer mountains, it just begged to be photographed!

As we approached Jasper National Park in Alberta, the traffic picked up as this is a huge tourist destination for Canada. Jasper National Park abuts Banff National Park to the south and is within a days drive of five other national parks and several provincial parks. On top of that, the highway we were traveling on is a major east/west corridor thru the mountains. That said, Jasper was very busy and we haven't seen that many cars for weeks!

Just a short drive south of Jasper was one of many campgrounds in the park that we stopped in. It felt so good to get out of the car, build a fire, take a walk along the river and put our feet up for the night.

Today we got a late start to hike one of many trails in the Jasper area. The hike took us over a steep, rocky moraine then into the upper-subalpine forest and up into the alpine meadow. We walked about 4 miles with an elevation gain of about 1500 ft. that took us about four hours including a stop for lunch and a nap. The wild flowers were so pretty -- Indian Paintbrush, white and pink heather, daisies, lupine, goldenrod, yarrow, fireweed and many more I could not identify.

Always in view was the Cavell Mountain and Glacier. As glaciers go, this was not a huge one. As we walked we could hear cracks and thunder of the glacier breaking up and some pieces going into the Cavell Pond at the base of the mountain. We did not get to see any break off. We did see marmots, chipmunks and pikas. We were told there was a caribou up near the top of our trail but we were tired and ready to head down.

Before we went back to the RV, we stopped to see the Athbasca Falls. I'll let the pictures tell that story! They were awesome!

Travel West and South

Today was a travel day. We drove about 10 hours from Stewart to Prince George, BC. In the first two hours on the road we spotted one deer and 4 black bears. Then later in the evening we spotted one more black bear. The drive was uneventful but we saw some beautiful scenery as the clouds lifted and the sun shone down. The landscape changed from mountains to rolling hills and meadows. We did stop a few times to stretch our legs and look at visitor centers, farmers market, and an historic old town.

The night was spent in a Walmart parking lot.