Just Chillin' in Cochrane, AB

We had fun with John and Pam today seeing the shops in Cochrane before stopping for lunch, in of all places, the "Texas Gate Grill."  While the girls were in a yarn shop Richard took the opportunity to do a little horseback riding. Friend Christine Oliver said, "You have great posture, which is important when you're riding a fake horse."

Bean misses his dog bed. So at night we put an old comforter in the trailer couch and let him sleep on it.  He is apparently pretty relaxed there, which is good.

How funny, we'd seek Texas in Alberta.

John and Pam took a walk along the Bow River.

Meet Up With John and Pam

Today John and Pam Taylor completed the first leg of their journey to Alaska by driving from Lexington, Kentucky to Calgary in about a week.  They are pulling a 29 foot Jayco trailer, compared to the 21 footer Mary and I are pulling.  The fun begins.

It was 87 degrees in the shade. I am not kidding.

They don't call it Bow River's Edge RV Park for nothing.  The water is so clean, I gave Bean a bath by having him go for a swim, then soaping him up, then having him swim again until the soap was off.  I asked some locals if this would be okay:  "Hey, you're in Canada, eh?" Pam and John followed suit and gave Dory a bath the same way when they arrived. 

Unbeknownst to us, MacKay's Ice Cream shop is something of a Canadian institution. On Saturday Mary and I drove by. When we saw 50 people in line (no kidding) I thought they must be giving it out for free. We checked it out on Monday. It was not free.  $13 for 3 scoops and waffle cones, but it is very good. People drive from Calgary just to visit the shop:  25 miles or so. 

 http://www.mackaysicecream.com/

3,000 miles behind us. 10,000 to go.

We have actually driven over 3,500 miles, but I am guessing 500 of that is within the places we stop.  Bagged new life bird Le Conte's Sparrow yesterday.

Canada or Bust, 4 June 2016

Saturday the 4th.  We made the drive from Glacier National Park to Cochrane, Alberta. Cochrane is about 25 miles northwest of Calgary.  Good thing too.  Calgary reminds us of a small Denver. It seems to have grown a bunch since we were last here in 2006.  1.2 million people. I wish I had taken some photos.  On Sunday the 5th we met old acquaintances Phil Waldenberger and Christine Oliver.  They live in Calgary where Phil is the Canadian representative to Santana Tandem Cycles.  Phil and Christine joined us in a 30 mile ride out west of Calgary in beautiful rolling hills. Sunday traffic wasn't too bad.  Phil and Christine know John and Pam as well, so we will meet them again for dinner back in Calgary on Tuesday evening.  

Saying Goodbye to Glacier National Park

Our short visit to Glacier National Park was a tiny taste that has us wanting more.  We need to come back for a couple of weeks when The Road to the Sun is open and we can better experience all this amazing place has to offer.  If you have not been to Glacier, figure out a way to make a visit at some point.

Mary and Bean. This shot was taken from Apgar Village on the south end of Lake McDonald.  It's like a place from a spectacular movie set.

Harlequin Duck, Glacier National Park.

The Harlequin Duck is a sea duck about the same size as the much more common Wood Duck seen over most of the US.  It spends its non-breeding time on rocks in heavy surf on the coast of NW North America.  It breeds inland along fast-moving streams in the Pacific northwest all the way to northern Alaska. Thanks to Mary, whose eagle eyes (bird pun here) from the tandem at 30MPH saw this pair on a rock in the McDonald Creek, I got a new life bird. Oh yeah. I highly recommend the LUMIX DMC FX-70. It's pretty hard to hold still at 1200 zoom, but takes amazing photos. 

Glacier National Park, Montana

We were surprised to find that Kalispell, MT was so large.  I am not sure what we were thinking.  It has a Costco gas station, so that pretty much covers everything a human might need. We had the tires rotated and re-balanced at Discount Tire. Then, after having a windshield star crack fixed in Colorado Springs 10 days prior, we took another rock outside Kalispell.  This one is unfixable.  It's a replacement windshield already. Safelite call it equal to OEM, but I think it's not.  

Glacier National Park is a wonder. There are not really good words in the language to describe the feeling of awe you get around every corner.  We arrived on June 1st to blue skies and figured, based on the forecast, we'd have great weather today (the 2d).  You can't trust the weatherman. It was cold and rainy most of the day.  But we made the best of it.  

In the morning we were hopeful it would not rain.  We headed out on the Going to the Sun Road which is the E-W passage across Glacier. It's still snowbound at Logan Pass on top, but 14 miles on the west side of the pass are open only to cyclists and hikers.  This will persist until they get the rest of the snow plowed. It was magical to ride this road with no other humans in sight. But it was a little disconcerting to pass bear scat more than a dozen times in the 6 miles we went uphill.  One pile was steaming. 

On recommendations from brother Mark and sister-in-law Sherri, we drove 25 miles north of the park entrance along spectacular scenery and some muddy dirt roads to land at Polebridge, MT.  The cinnamon rolls are excellent.  Early dinner. 

Then we drove 8 miles on a Jeep trail to Bowman Lake just in time to see some kayaks take off