Day 76 Sunday June 17, 2018 Out of the Rocky Mountains to the Plains of Calgary Alberta.

What a change!  From the ever present mountains and changing weather, form the forest  that surrounded us at every turn and moment, from the cool temperatures in the morning and only slightly warmer in the day, to a relatively flat land, devoid of mountains, forest, and those cool temperatures.  When we arrived in Calgary, it was a wonderful 65 F , and that was in contrast to the lowest temps on the trip since Illinois some 74 days ago. It was 39 degrees Fahrenheit this morning at Tunnel Mountain Trailer Court. There WAS fresh snow in the mountains this morning! Our temp was 39.

 Unfortunately, I cannot download the photos at this time as the internet does not have the speed/power.  Check back in a few days for the update.

Canmore area.

More Canmore

One more of Canmore.

The days short run of 75 miles took us through Canmore Alberta, which you may have seen on TV if you were around for the 1988 Winter Olympics. All of the venues that were used then still stand and there are even more. Calgary is the home of the National Hockey League team the Calgary Flames and it fits in with the many venues of winter sports from curling to downhill skiing that are present in Canmore.

The city of Canmore sets in a beautiful valley, much like some of the ones in Utah that I have seen. Canmore is a town of 13,000 permanent population, but imagine having 65 hotels and all of them practically filled in the winter. That would certainly employ  many people keeping those winter sports enthusiast fed and entertained.

Along the bike paths in Calgary there were hundreds of bikers today .I would have to say they were really using the facilities that Alberta has provided. All along highway #1 (main thoroughfare) there were people out and enjoying the sun and warm day.  Happy Father’s Day to all the Dads.

An fascinating item for those who might be interested in logistics on a Father’s day. When driving to Calgary from Banff, (east) the closer we were to Calgary the more we noticed the heavy traffic going west on Route 1. Could those people be going vacation at this time? There was (and we counted) three times more traffic moving west than traffic moving east. If anyone can figure the reason I would be interested in what you find. It was about Sunday noon.

There hge is!

Site at Calgary

The bird pond behind the trailer.

Tomorrow we have to take the trailer in to Calgary for a brake adjustment that is needed. The route to the shop is quite direct and should be quite free of stops and starts. Where we are located now in the Park is about 2 miles outside the city limits in the NE quadrant of the suburbs. It is a a quiet park except the wind is in the south so the QE 1 traffic noise is a bit overpowering. We are however situated next to a large pond of some 15-20 acres (7 hectares?).  That pond was a magnet for us as soon as we discovered that to was filled with nesting birds of mainly waterfowl.  By the middle of the afternoons we had counted at east 27 birds, most of them in that pond.  Some surprises ,too.

There were: RED HEAD DUCKS, PHALAROPES, SHOVELERS, BLUE WINGED TEAL., SOLITARY SANDPIPERS,  RED EARED GREBES, families of  MALLARDS, GADWALLS, and a DUSKY TERN, A FRANKLIN’S GULL,  and a GRAY JAY (Ruth has yet to see one) and a few others.
That is a very good list of birds that really surprised us, We were told there is  is a horse farm and that there are  have rodeos here during the year. Haven’t seen a horse yet, but then I haven’t walked round the whole park either.

So a rather short day (figuratively, as the days now are very long at this latitude. Sunrise will be at 4:04 AM  tomorrow morning.) , but if we get some internet that has more speed I will be able to download some photos for the blog.  Perhaps in town tomorrow?