Into Canada

Leslie Wednesday, May 14, 2008

After a very windy night we started out early for the Canadian border. We had determined that our on-board water pump was refusing to prime, meaning that we would not have water unless we are hooked up to a faucet. That situation is unacceptable because we expect that we will camp places that do not have hook ups. Robert made a quick call to the manufacturer of our rig, the representative, whose name unbelievably is "RV" said that we should have the water pump replaced and send them the bill for reimbursement. We wanted to get across the border before we called a Canadian RV dealer because one never knows how long it will take to cross.
We’ve heard of other people traveling by RV who have had their entire rig searched for contraband. (The most common contraband for RV’rs is forbidden meat or vegetables, firearms or pepper spray.) The restrictions change constantly, depending on the currently feared disease. From my research on -line last night, it appeared that we could bring up to 20 kg of meat per person. Our small freezer(on top of the refrigerator) is full but we certainly don’t have that much meat. We had decided that I would drive through customs because it can be difficult to hear the questions from the officer since we can’t pull up close to the booth. (The rig is 8 ft. 4 inches wide so it sticks out from the sides of the truck.---- the driver has to take everything WIDE)

There was no line at Canadian Customs and we cleared in a matter of minutes. The officer didn’t ask about the cats, who of course we howling loudly in the back seat. We were asked the ususal questions about firearms and cash in excess of $10k (no of course not), purpose of our visit to Canada, and when we’d be leaving. We did notice very long lines of mostly trucks waiting to cross into the US side.

This coming Monday is Victoria Day in Canada. Victoria Day is the beginning of the summer season so the RV dealer service departments are very busy. A local dealer kindly fit us in since we are traveling from out of town. They were able to do a temporary fix on the water pump and suggested where we should have it replaced further west (and after the holiday).
I ended up driving all day today. Here’s proof.

http://CarpediemAdventures.smugmug.com/photos/295756178_587t4-M.jpg

What the picture doesn’t show is that I drove through several construction zones (single lanes of cones) and even more impressively drove through the city of Calgary during the afternoon rush hour. That was a stressful challenge. I have now even backed up the trailer once.
The road west of Calgary heads toward the Canadian Rockies. We’re now really on our trip. The next two pictures were taken through the windshield.

http://CarpediemAdventures.smugmug.com/photos/295755603_iKRmQ-M.jpg

http://CarpediemAdventures.smugmug.com/photos/295756327_XMi49-M.jpg


We ended up the day at a pricy RV park in Canmore, the closest town to Banff. The view is spectacular. We have a back-in campsite backing to a bubbling stream. Our site is at the left of this picture.

http://CarpediemAdventures.smugmug.com/photos/295755190_pvfex-M.jpg


until next time,