Day 10 & 11: Lake Louise & Moraine Lake

This morning day 10, we headed to Lake Louise and Moraine Lake. It is only a 34 mile drive to the Lake Louis overflow parking lot just a few miles south of the Lake exit where we setup camp. Light rain, some sun, but a short drive. After we setup, a young couple from New Zealand drove into the parking lot and their left rear wheel fell off! I went over to see what happened and helped them put the wheel back on. With some clever work with a 4x6 fence post and my cedar blocks we get the car off the ground and the tire back on. One stud is broke off, we found all but one lug nut down the road, and one lug nut was stripped out. I steal a lug nut from the front wheel and get them going with four lug nuts on two wheels. This couple was driving across Canada in car they just purchased 3 weeks earlier. They said they heard a noise.... never thought to check lug nuts. Wish I would have taken some photos, it was comical. Glad they were safe and back on the road. After the wheel off event, we drove to Lake Louise at 6pm and make a short walk to the lake. We snap a few pictures but it is overcast and we hope for some sun tomorrow. We have dinner, call it a night, and watch some Netflix.

The next morning day 11, we sleep in knowing parking will be an issue anytime after 8am. We head for Lake Louise at 12 noon, we get to the parking lot and all full, so we head back down and halfway at the turn off to Lake Moraine we spot a hiking trail parking lot and we snag a sweet park. Since we are over a mile a way uphill to Lake Louise, we decide to pull out the E-Bikes and go to Moraine lake first. The road to Moraine lake starting this year is closed to personal vehicles and you are required to book a shuttle bus due to traffic and parking issues. It was about 8 miles to Lake Moraine and turned out to be a great ride, hike, and photo opportunity. We did the Rockpile trail for some great selfies. On the way back, we take the trail route on the bikes over to Lake Louise and spend a couple hours at the lake and Fairmont hotel. A quick ride back down to the hiking trailhead where we parked and we called it a day with 20 miles of bike and hike.

Miles Driven: 34 / 2005

Day 5: No Borders

 

This morning somehow we slept in until almost 9am! What happen to 6:30am? I guess we acclimated to the new time zone. by 9:45 we were at the counter of the Big Sky Deli & Bakery ordering up some breakfast and baked goods. Got a bunch of yummy stuff for sure. Got some Deli too for the road. It started to rain so I went to get my new rain jacket and WHAT? no jacket? I left my new Cotopaxi rain jacket at home! So another trip in to Great Falls, MT to Scheels to pick up a rain coat as we have been hitting rain daily and expect more. So now we are off to a late start again at 12:30pm. Its 90 miles to the Canada border and we make it with no issues and fly through border customs in less than eight minutes. We then make the 180 mile trek to High River Alberta where we stop for the night at another Harvest Host "High River Brewing Co.". We find a spot in the back, check out the menu, go for a walk, have some dinner, then time to call it a day. 272 miles, 5 hrs behind the wheel, and a bit of rain here and there. Was a good day :)

Miles Driven: 272 / 1822

Day 4: Big Sky Country

Sheridan WY to Vaughn MT, 362 miles of a whole lot of open spaces. We had sun, rain, and wind today. We visited the Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument where Custer made his last stand. We walked the site, and got another sticker for RV. We also made an unplanned stop in Billings MT at Bretz RV & Marine Center to drain our water tank and refill due to some bad smelling water we either put in the tank or from the tank. We rinsed with bleach and repeat and then refilled. All better now, but now 2 hrs behind. We finally make it to Big Sky Deli & Bakery just 10 minutes before closing. Thats ok, they open at 7am with fresh bakery stuff, and breakfast stuff, so we will check out the bakery and deli goods in the morning.

Miles Driven: 362 / 1550

Day 3: What's your WY

We were up at 6:30am Mountain time (7:30am Texas time), and we made coffee, walked the Scheels Parking lot, and then headed over to the Loveland Info Center. The Info Center was not open until 9am and so we headed to the IHOP next door at 8:30. After a nice breakfast we went to check out the Love Lock Art Exhibit at the Info Center. Toured the center, picked up a couple stickers for the RV, then headed north. 12noon!, yes 12 noon, and today was supposed to be a long 500 mile day to Billings MT. NOT!, we stopped a couple times at some nice rest stops. I love the WY rest stops, they all have dump, water, and trash. They are RV friendly! We only made it 377 miles to Sheridan WY and stopped for the night at the Info Center Rest Area. Took a walk, watched the sun set, sipped a glass of wine, it was certainly wine down time in Wyoming.

Miles Driven: 378 / 1188

Day 2: Loveland Colorado

We departed at 10am and headed north on 287 to Dumas, then across the Oklahoma panhandle and into Colorado. Lamar, Limon, Denver, and finally Loveland. We stop at Costco along the way for fuel and a few items but we pretty much stayed on the road all day. We had a lunch stop in Eads Colorado at a roadside park. Mostly sunny today along our 474 mile route and arrived around 7pm at Scheels sporting goods where we parked it for the night.

Miles Driven: 474 / 810

Sheel's Parking Lot

 Day 1: Alaska Bound

Today we started our next great adventure to the last frontier... ALASKA. We spent at least 2 weeks prepping the RV, packing, organizing, washing, maintenance, etc. We upgraded our inflatable raft to an inflatable 2 person kayak. We reorganized our bins, replaced some, and tossed others. Our first day on the road was a modest one, traveling 336 miles from home to the Texas Travel Center in Amarillo. We hit some rain and sunshine along the way but mainly had no issues and all systems were working well. We were quite impressed with the Travel Center, it had a pamphlet and/or magazine for each town in Texas. Mike at the counter was very chatty as we found ourselves staying way to long delaying our departure until 10am. We finish our coffee, walk the grounds, then head back out on the highway towards Colorado.

Miles Driven: 336 / 336

 The Next Great Adventure

We are heading to the Pacific Northwest to sail the San Juan Islands this summer. Our first stop is Pilar New Mexico. Yoli finds her Zen Rock on the River and home is where we park it on the side of the road. All the state campgrounds up the river were closed due to Covid so we went to the end of the road, turned around and found this nice spot above the river and stayed a couple days. It was quite, peaceful, and socially distant.