A Day in Banff

Dave and I took a short trip to Banff yesterday and came back today! I think we drove something like 950 km in two days...so the bum is feeling rather sore. Yesterday was beautiful and we had gorgeous weather, we took the QEII until the Bowden exit onto the 2A, then took the 27 from Olds over to the Cowboy trail (highway 22) which we followed to Cochrane, and then took highway 1A toward Banff. I don't know if any of you have taken the 1A but it is AWESOME! At one point we turned a corner to be greeted by an amazing turquoise blue Bow River with sailboats and kayaks galore! I could have never expected anything like that so close to home. The whole trip there was amazing, beautiful views, great weather and great tunes. We took the trip as a "Test Run" for the Seattle trip, to make sure the gear all fit and worked and that there wasn't too much weight etc.

Speaking of "working"... on our way out we went to Red Deer and stopped for breakfast and tried the spare keys in the luggage...which promptly decided to snap off right in the lock. Good times. The locksmith wanted to charge us $55 to come out and get the key out..so we opted for duct tape and waiting until we got home! Thank goodness for duct tape. (See photo!)

Our next stop was in Cochrane for Mckay's Ice Cream, which is also amazing and they have the best flavours ever. It was a return visit for us so this time I had Nanaimo Bar and Dave had Banana. Kinda expensive though...oh well, it is a once in a blue moon kinda thing.

Once we got to Banff we checked in at our hotel, then walked downtown for dinner and shopping and such, then back to our hotel where we decided to go for a short tour up Tunnel Mountain (anticlimactic let me tell you) and then to the hot springs. At the hot springs we saw some tourists and as they were paying one of them let go of his 3 year old daughter as she was sitting on his shoulders. She fell to the ground right on her head. It was awful. However, once talking to the first aid people they took her to the hospital, the staff said she was ok from the tests they did so hopefully they are right. The actual hot springs were nice though and right what the doctor ordered for our bums!!

Today started off with a bang, as there was very little hot water (apparently someone was filling the hot tub at the same time) so we got some money back on our hotel stay. The weather was looking a little sketchy but in the end it was a fairly nice ride to Calgary where we stopped to visit Dave's Uncle Bill at the Crossroads farmer's market and flea market. He is awesome to visit and is so nice, we go visit every time we go to Calgary. We left just in time (or so we thought) to stay ahead of the rain. Guess what?! The sky started getting nice and dark fairly quickly and we decided to stop around Olds to get the rain gear on...considering it was thundering and lightning all around us it was probably a safe decision. (PS Gas there was a ridiculous $1.50 probably because it was a middle of nowhere type place). Oh and it only took me 20 or so minutes to get it all together... I'm going to have to work on that.... It soon started raining, pouring, lightning...you know... so we became very cold very quickly! However, thanks to our fantastic rain gear we were not wet at all. We drove for 232 km like that...it stopped raining when we got into Edmonton. Of Course.

In the end, we were warm and breezy and then cold and uncomfortable so it was a "great" weekend to test everything out. We will be getting me an electric vest for such rainy days so that we can both wear one on rainy days on our trip (we forgot Dave's this time). I also need better shoes, Dave needs a squeegee for his face shield when it rains, and we have to decide whether or not we will actually be camping on our way to Seattle. Everything fits on the bike that we need, however, the reality of wanting to set up a tent in the rain, while wearing fully soaked rain gear, and remaining cold and not having a chance for our gear to dry out, while the rest of our gear gets soaked as well...not so much. It is a totally different story from car camping because there is no where to dry out or even wait out the rain if necessary. We may have to wait for the forecast to decide that but we don't want to wait too long either. If it rains for two or more days in a row it will be the most uncomfortable and unpleasant ride of our lives. We will see! Good weekend when all was said and done though!

First things first, now that we are home ...get half a key out of the trunk lock...hmm anyone have a super powered magnet?!