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Photos are out of order. Sorry! Photobucket sucks!
August 31, 2012 - Breakfast is at 7am at the Lakeside Chophouse again this morning. Bags out at 7am. Bus departs at 8am.We have a full day's drive ahead of us heading North to
Banff. We drove a little tour of Pincher Creek on our way in order to view their many building-side murals. We drove North up the
Cowboy Trail, or 22, to
Hwy. 40 at Longview, then on the
Trans-Canada Hwy. to Banff.
At 10am, we stopped at the
Bar U Ranch Historic Site. We had a guided tour with Cowboy Mike. Mike wore spurs. They jingled as he walked. Mom and I were walking directly behind him and Mom said, He can't sneak up on anyone. Without turning around, Mike replied, You get me mounted and I'm pretty quiet. I heard Mom make a little noise and I could imagine what she was imagining, looking at Mike's butt sticking out of his chaps... I very quietly said, Calm down. We all got pretty quiet then. Mike turned around and looked at us a little red-faced and sheepishly with no further comment. We had a good laugh over that later when we told Judy and Clay about it. Mike gave our group an overview, followed by a
roping demonstration. After the guided tour, we had free time to enter buildings and have a cup of coffee from the cook's campfire and meet the Percherons. We spent the most time in the cookhouse. They had a costumed cook portrayer in there as well as the outdoor cook, a tack man and a wagon driver with Percherons. They were huge. They left hoof prints the size of dinner plates. Here is a tip, coffee boiled over a fire is nasty! It was all very interesting. Judy picked up a
National Geographic Crown of the Continent Map here and after I and others saw it, we emptied out the rack of them. They promptly refilled it! Look for one. The map stops just above Canmore, so it doesn't cover the northern part of this
Caravan Tour of the Canadian Rockies, but it is excellent for the southern part.
At 11:30am, it was time for lunch. They served a $13 cold box lunch that we had an option to pre-order the day before. Amy advised us that it was not mandatory nor obligatory and we could instead take anything we wanted on the bus to have a picnic at the Bar U during the time set aside for lunch. Subway was by Wieners and both were open early this morning before we left. We had protein bars and
Lance Nabs as well as a foot long Italian sub from Subway to share. We had our water and Clay went to a machine inside and bought some sodas. Peanut M&Ms for dessert. We were saving our money for an extra expensive meal tonight in Banff. We have been hearing a lot about how good
Alberta beef is and we have seen miles of cattle ranches, so tonight we plan to find a good steakhouse and give it a try. Comparing these green grazing lands and all the hay baled up for winter feed to the miles and miles of dirt and rocks of West Texas cattle ranches, we have high expectations!
Oh, I forgot to mention that Caravan provided each participant a half-liter bottle of water everyday at their seat on the bus. Clay and I also always carry 2 wide-mouthed reusable bottles in neoprene carriers so that we can have iced water. We did have access to ice and either a bucket in the room, or a refrigerator. So, in addition to the complimentary bottle of water everyday, all the hotels had potable water and ice available.
At 12:15pm, we reloaded the bus and started driving North again towards Banff. We drove through Longview and Amy pointed out the
world famous beef jerky shop there, but that was as close as we got. We looked everywhere for it in stores, but evidently they only sell direct and not through retailers. Too bad! That would have made an interesting stop for us.
We had about a 20-30 minute outhouse potty stop at the
Ptarmigan Trailhead before
Highwood Pass on Hwy. 40. Then, we drove about another 2 hours to Banff. We had an overview drive through town on the way to the
Banff Gondola. As with the Red Jammers yesterday, this was included in our Caravan Tour cost. It was worth about $30 pp. We had over an hour to spend at the top. We boarded at 3:20pm and had to be back at the bus at 5pm. Clay went to walk on the Banff Skywalk alone. We thought that we understood we would all meet back up in the area where we separated before going back down on the Gondola. The 3 of us ladies walked all the way around the observation station at the top, used the restrooms, went through the giftshop, went up to the top observation level and then waited and looked for Clay. Clay evidently did not understand, missed us while we were on top of the observation station and chose not to wait for us. He came back from the Skywalk, walked around the observation station and did not see us, so he rode the Gondola back down alone. He stood at the exit into the gift shop where they were displaying the photos they took at the top. He was upset because we left him again. We did not leave him, again. We were a little upset too that he went down alone. We were a little stressed out as 4:30pm became 4:45pm and we had to go down without him. Oh, well. We all reboarded the bus on time at 5pm. We drove back through Banff to review dining and shopping options and then went to
Mount Royal Hotel, our home for the next 2 nights.
Clay and I were in room 305 which had a view of the parking lot. It was 3 rooms from the end of the building and so also had a 2 to 3am wakeup call from the people leaving the closing bars and
nightclub down that street. It was not great. We were in Banff over Labour Day weekend and there were big crowds. There were evidently a lot of noisy night owls! Mom & Judy were a few doors more central and on the other side of the hall and had a view of Banff's main street. They said they didn't hear any noise at night. We just got another bad draw, I guess. No room refrigerators here either.
After we checked in and received our luggage, we went out to find dinner. We headed for the
Saltlik, which Brian and Amy both said would be their first choice for a special dinner. It was good steak and expensive and I think we all liked our food. Except maybe Clay, his came with some sauce he didn't like. If he had thought about it, he probably could have asked them to leave it off or put it on the side. It was kind of like Ruth's Chris. The steaks came alone. You had to order sides to share. We got garlic buttered broccoli and scalloped potatoes. The mashed potatoes came with lobster in them! It turns out that is the main reason both Brian and Amy would go or refer people to Saltlik! I hate that! I had to pick the chives off the scalloped potatoes after the waiter assured me it was only potatoes, butter, cream and cheese with no weird toppings. Oh, well. We were all too full and none of the desserts tempted us so we only had the one course. We all liked Alberta beef. It is funny how different beef tastes from different places. Clay likes it all. Mom & I liked Argentine beef okay, but not Wagyu for example. Anyway, it was very good, we liked it and it was filling. Mom talked a lot about it afterwards and never got the name right! She called it Split Lick or Slit Lick and then commented that was an awful name for a restaurant! Either would be, but those were not the name! Now, though, you have to wonder about the choice of Saltlik too, don't you?
We took a walk on the way back. I checked the Safeway's Starbucks for souvenir mugs but didn't buy one. It had a picture of Banff from a perspective I had not seen and a bear, which I had not seen. It was better than the generic Canada Starbucks mug I had previously seen, but I didn't get it. Clay bought some Diet Cokes along the way. We looked for Longview beef jerky. Weirdly, we found massive amounts of beef jerky for sale and nearly all from the USA. What is up with that? We also found massive amounts of Slurpee or Icee machines in convenience or mini-mart type places. We had never seen such a large variety of slushies before. What is up with that, too? Some t-shirts got purchased, but mostly we just drifted with the crowds of people out on the streets and browsed.
Cows of Banff, an ice cream shop, was right next door to Mount Royal Hotel and Clay got a cone before we all turned in for the night.
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