Final Thoughts

We had a great time! As a wrap-up, I have some lists to share. We have some favorite goofy moments, too, which are caught on camera . . .

Mike and Si thought it was funny that I wanted to show off my library tshirts at all of our cool destinations.


Us in the Canadian Badlands.

Random tidbits:

• We saw license plates from every US state except Hawaii and Delaware. Hawaii is understandable, but where are all the travelers from Delaware???
• We saw license plates from 8 Canadian provinces, Mexico and one that said "Intl Consul".
• We only listened to 4 1/2 books on CD. One was very long: Neil Gaiman's American Gods. The others were all fairly short mysteries: Burgler in the Library, Burglar on the Prowl, Champagne for One and Black Mountain.
• We seemed to spend just as much or more time talking to each other in the car than we did listening to books. I was surprised by that, but it was wonderful!
• Our vow to stay away from national chain restaurants as much as possible resulted in spending more money on food that we'd have liked. Local eateries are much more expensive than fast food!
• We saw 29 cool mammals in the wild, including a wolf, grizzly bears, a black bear and 3 different kinds of ground squirrels!
• We saw 169 bird species which included 40 new life birds for Mike - wow!
  

Hotel Lineup (in chronological order, rated * - *****):

• Super 8 a little N. or Madison, Wisconsin - *** : clean and comfy, but nothing spectacular
• Motel 6, Bismarck, ND - * : it was very small and crowded, barely clean, threadbare towels
• Parke Lodge, Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan - *** 1/2 : seemed clean, but it was like the place had been abandoned in the 80's and just recently purchased and repainted. Threadbare towels again, but the cute ground squirrels and the beautiful sunset made up some ground here.
• Travelodge, Drumheller, Alberta - **** 1/2: very large room, very clean, lush towels, very kind people running the place. Would have gotten 5 *'s if there had been a pool!
• Driftwood, Banff, Alberta - ***1/2: very very comfortable beds, charming, almost rustic lodge-type feel to the place. Could use some work on the lobby of the building, but the reception at the Ptarmigan where you check in was beautiful. Great service here, but lousy parking area.
• Bear Mountain Hotel, Waterton, Alberta - ****1/2: this high rating even comes w/o them having cable tv! The beds were comfy, we had 2 smallish rooms so we were able to have some privacy, the bathroom was lovely, if small, and the people running the place were really sweet! They have a picnic area set up in their parking lot with a gas grill and picnic table, and they graciously allowed us to use it even after we'd checked out. This place reminded us a lot of the cabin by Lake Erie we've visted (wood panel walls, etc), except built for the mountains instead.

• Dancing Bears Inn, East Glacier Park, Montana - ****: kind people, decent room, wood paneling again, and a cat that helps to welcome you! This was the first "breakfast included" place we saw that had some kind of protein option, but as it was only microwavable frozen things it doesn't get the 5th *. Nice folks and great town. The water wasn't potable when we were there - hope it improves for them soon!
• Rodeway, Sundance, Wyoming - *: this is the little hotel woman who tried. Seems like one person was running the whole operation (of course, it was Sunday night and apparently nothing happens on Sunday nights). The room was freezing cold and never really warmed up to our needs. The pool was an outside walk away, but pleasant and clean enough. The breakfast was 3 kinds of cold cereals and some apples. Totally LAME!
• Super 8, Rapid City, South Dakota - ***: this was simply an ok place. The room was clean and adequate. The breakfast area was all tall tables with barstool-type chairs (I felt really bad for the man who came in a wheelchair), but at least there were a few selections, albeit all cold.

• Super 8, Sioux Falls, South Dakota - ***: this was a great breakfast, but it felt like the whole place was a little grungy. Like maybe last week it was full of smokers and never really cleaned well or something?
• Scott and Tony's, Oak Park, Illinois - *******: Charming home, comfortable hospitality, excellent company, entertaining conversations, delicious food, even lights-out adventure!

Top Meals We Enjoyed (random order):

• Last Chance Saloon, outside Drumheller, Alberta - we loved the atmosphere, the history of the place (old mining ghost town trying to spark a renaissance or something), and the guys loved their grill-your-own steaks!
• Grand Hotel in Big Timber, Montana, near the Natural Bridge State Park - we were extraordinarily surprised to find this gem of a gourmet place in what seemed to us to be the middle of nowhere! Buffalo steaks, Elk relleno, molten chocolate cake - all delicious!
• Delaney's Family Restaurant in Oglesby, Illinois - delicious food, homey diner atmosphere, prices weren't astronomical

AC/DC Ground sloth in Drumheller - too funny!

• Kroll's in Bismarck, North Dakota - We'd planned to have breakfasts and lunches out of our cooler as much as possible, but we couldn't resist the command on the sign "sit down and eat"! We had to, and we were glad we did! Delicious German-centric yummies!
• Luna's in East Glacier Park, Montana - this made the list primarily because of the amazing red potato chips! Deep fried and flavorful!
• Gepetto's Pizza, which Tony ordered when the electricity was out Friday. Wow - I think their Chicken Artichoke pizza may be the best pizza I've ever had in my life! My mouth is still watering thinking about it!

Man feeding birds on the mountain top in Banff.

Best People Encounters:

• Edwin Smalllegs - Blackfeet Indian volunteer at Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump. He was friendly, interesting, and talked with us about his heritage as well as his anticipation of watching the NHL finals that night on his large-screen tv. He is a memorable fellow.
• People Mike and Si ran into at Many Glaciers. Mike and Si set up the telescope and were also sharing binoculars with a family (to see the Mountain Goats) and an English man (to see the Grizzlies), and all were thrilled.

Spoon shop in East Glacier, Montana.

• We pulled off the road often to take pictures, as you can imagine, and one time, on a very curvy mountain road, a man and woman in a pickup came up beside us and stopped to make sure we were ok - isn't that nice?
• The staff as so many of the places we visted, but especially Luna's restaurant.
• The top of the gondola ride at Banff, there was a Slavic man who was feeding birds from his hand. He was so joyful and excited about it!
• There was a group of young German women who were also at the top of that gondola ride, and were taking pictures. They wanted pictures taken when they were jumping so that it looked like they were in mid-air over the vast expanse of nothingness off the mountain. Mike helped them and was even able to get one of all three of them leaping into the air.

In case you were wondering, these statues are not anatomically correct.

• Waitress in Ptarmigan restaurant in Waterton. It was fun talking to her and hearing about how she will get bored in England and get a work visa to visit and work in another place for a while. We also laughed with her about how boring Saskatchewan is.
• Swiss guy at the hoodoos near Drumheller and the fun he had posing for pictures Mike took of him with his camera.
  
• Family we met in Moose Jaw who were driving across the continent from New Brunswick to Vancouver to see their children and grandchildren.

Trying to catch that buffalo.

• Yarn shop owners, both in Canmore and in Forest Park. Wonderful women and such fun to talk to! Oh, actually, the woman I spoke with in Forest Park wasn't the owner. I think her name was Kelly, and she was a true kindred spirit!
• Scott - my bestest friend.
• Tony - my best friend's partner, and I'm glad they have one another. Both great guys.
• Ken - nice to see friends, isn't it? It was good to talk to him again, as I haven't seen him online in a long time (my fault, not his).

Surprises along the way:

• free hamburgers were being served up at the tourism information center as we entered Alberta - very nice, eh?
• finding affordable lodging with loads of character in the Rockies - we expected these places to have higher prices!
• seeing a wolf in the wild (Mike and Si saw it - I was too far away)
• Gepetto's pizza - yummers!
• seeing snow storms up in the mountains in the middle of June
• a roadside rest in Wisconsin that had a scenic overlook (along a short trail) that turned out to be really beautiful
• the Royal Tyrell not disappointing us, even after all the expectation over years
• Museum of the Rockies being so much fun (and it was an afterthought stop, too!)
• finding everything closed on Sunday nights - guess we've gotten both spoiled and jaded in the city
• the Subway in Sundance, WY having a giftshop like it was a Cracker Barrel or something
• seeing people smoke inside restaurants (again, we've gotten spoiled)
• casinos at every gas station (ick)
• poor signage in Canada - how do they expect people to find stuff?
• recognizing the scenery and holes on the Banff golf course from having played the course on Grandpa Jim's computer game (it was beautiful and funny)
• finding that we'd often enjoy talking to one another more than listening to books
• higher speed limits! (75 MPH, 110 KPH!)

So that was our vacation! Thanks for reading along! We'd love to hear your comments, too!

I promised you last night that I would get around to sharing yesterday's adventures with you, and I don't want to break my promise! We woke up fairly early yesterday after a great night in the Driftwood Motel in Waterton National Park, Alberta, Canada. See the red awning in the pic? That is the entrance to our hotel. It was clean and very comfortable and one of the most reasonably priced places we've found so far.

Yesterday morning was full of fog and clouds and more rain, but Mike was up before Si and I and went outside to get some pictures. He managed to find this beautiful rainbow, and take a few other amazing shots. Like most of our days in the Rockies, it was very chilly, and it rained on and off all day.

We found a beautiful frozen lake . . . partially frozen, really. It was COLD! up there!

We had a lovely hamburger picnic for Second Breakfast - yum!

Then we drove up and down the mountain roads in the park VERY slowly, looking for wildlife. We spotted this moose right near the road, munching on bushes and leaves. He was big, and he didn't seem to care about the cars going by. Simon even got some movie footage, but we'll wait til we're home for that project. (Oh wait, maybe this was in Glacier and not Waterton)

We didn't have to look far for the Bighorn Sheep, as they were right near in the town in Waterton. They are obviously shedding their winter coats and looking rather bedraggled. I must admit that I was inclined to try to collect some of that wool and get it spun into yarn, but Simon reminded me that those sheep are most likely dangerous, not to mention protected by law, and I don't want to be knitting unlawful scarves and hats!

And speaking of the law . . . . we crossed back into the US around 1:00 or so yesterday afternoon. (I have to say the border gate is a really boring picture!) We had our passports ready for them and so on, and they opened our van and looked into our coolers and asked us questions. They seemed to ask Mike a lot of extra questions, though. Then they asked us to park and asked Mike (only Mike) to come inside. He was apparently going to be undergoing further questioning. According to Mike, there is another person with his exact name who is wanted for murder in Atlanta, GA. When the border guards looked up the file and picture, though, one guy said "Uh, I don't think this is the guy. The guy who's wanted is 6' tall, weighs 122, and is black." One of the other guards said "Well, you've been a better sport about this than most people we bring in for questioning. Thank you for playing!" Mike said it was a little nerve-wracking, but it sure makes for an interesting story! I guess that's what you get when you have such a common name! I figure since we didn't have to give them any money and Mike didn't have to be stripp-searched, it's no harm/no foul.

So we've made it to Glacier National Park. Yesterday and this morning we've been exploring, driving around, looking for wildlife. We did see some Mountain Goats way way up on the mountain through our telescope - that was really cool! It is beautiful here, and we've seen some spectacular waterfalls, but the main road, the Going-to-the-Sun road, is still closed in the middle portion because of weather. Sigh. Mike and Si are still out exploring this afternoon, and I am using this as some quiet time for myself. I do love them, but a.) this altitude is hard for me to deal with and b.) they're wearing me out and c.) we're doing so much chatting in the van I can't get my naps in!

Ok - some quick stats before we sign off. As of 2:00 this afternoon (Mountain Time):

• we'd hit 3005 miles on the trip odometer
• Mike has seen 30 new life birds
• we've seen 22 interesting new mammals
• we haven't had to call home for more money (which is a good thing because honestly, I don't know who we'd call! LOL
• we've seen license places from all US states except for, I think, 4 of them (Hawaii, Delaware, Connecticutt and Vermont are the only ones I can remember)
• we have gotten no traffic violations or any other arrests (although apparently there was a close call at the border! yipes!)
• stuff we've forgotten in hotel rooms: bottle of shampoo (big deal), Simon's retainers (ugh)

More later!

I will quote my dear husband, who said this afternoon "Wow, I think this is the best day I've had in my life, since . . . . well . . . since yesterday!" We left Drumheller this morning and drove around Calgary and up into Banff. Banff is one of those rare places on earth were you can literally drive down the road and stick your camera out the window, randomly snapping pictures, and come up with amazing shots.

The weather guys were predicting rain on and off all day today. While there was some rain early in the day, by the time we really reached the mountains the sun was peeking out and we had some lovely views. Seriously beautiful views.

We stopped in Canmore first, on the way to Banff, and found a little yarn shop called Knit and Caboodle. I found a very friendly knitter/owner, and some great yarn! I only bought a few skeins, but it is Alberta-made wool, hand-dyed and everything. Yay! One ironic tidbit is that the owner is heading to Columbus, OH this coming weekend for the big TNNA trade show! How funny is that? She goes to Cbus every year. Of course, she FLIES like a sane person.




So we got to Banff, drove around the town a little, and then headed to the Gondola. This is a suspended cable car that runs up to the peak of Sulphur Mountain. I didn't take a picture on the way because I was doing deep breathing and trying not to yak. LOL The peak, though, was beautiful (of course - I've totally run out of adjectives, haven't I?). I made Si pose with me for a pic.



Mike saw 3 new life birds just on that gondola trip - 2 of them in the same tree at the peak! In the tree he saw Clark's Nutcracker and the Grey Jay, on the way down he found the 3-toed Woodpecker. We also saw some more ground squirrels - a different species than we'd previously seen, and new chipmunks!




After all of that, we drove along the #1 Highway up through the National Park and saw a lot more wildlife. There are a lot of pull-offs for people who want to view nature, and Si and Mike did a bit of extra walking.
Mike was taking many pictures (over 1000 just today!) and Simon was looking for animals.



Si saw a Grizzly Bear, a Brown Bear, they both saw beaver, and a wolf, and all three of us saw Big Horn Sheep, Mule Deer and Elk.

Yesterday we just drove and drove and drove. We took one nice rest stop in Wisconsin at a road side rest with an overlook - pictures will come when Mike loads his pics. We also found a cheese shop. Yum. Last night we stayed in a very dingy motel in Bismark, ND. We had a great breakfast at a local diner there, though, called Krolls. It was very German and very delicious.



Today was a really full day, and in many respects the first day of actual vacationing! After our fantastic diner breakkies we drove North to the Audubon National Wildlife Refuge and did some birding. Mike and Si were in their element!

I was taking notes for them, making sandwiches when I saw they needed them, etc. Mike saw 4 more life birds, and Simon saw many more. It was fun!

Prairie Chickens, Magpies, Bared Sparrows and Hudsonian Godwits are a few of the highlights.







After driving the car tour of the prairie there we backtracked a little bit so we could see the Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center and Fort Mandan. It was great! They have a perfect replica of the fort where Lewis and Clark wintered before embarking on the really new part of their exploration. Very cool! Our guide was very knowledgable, too, which we greatly appreciated. We didn't spend nearly as much time as we could have because this was a side-trip and not one of our state priorities for our trip.


After that we were back to driving and driving.

We passed through Minot, ND, birthplace of my dear friend, Ann W.




And we reached the Canadian border and got to use our Passports! It was a little anti-climatic but fun, nonetheless.

Tonight we are in Moose Jaw. We've treated ourselves to a little nicer hotel so we could soak in a pool and hot tub. We've met people from New Brunswick and chatted with them. We've seen license plates from all but about 6 states, and we've gotten about 6 of the provinces, too. We've seen about 96 bird species as well as antelope, jack rabbits, roe deer and ground squirrels. Tomorrow is our first Dinosaur Day! We're still listening to Gaiman's American Gods. I think we're on about disc 10.