Good afternoon, Chatterville residents! For those who are interested,
here is a brief synopsis of my weekend in Canada. (Reminds me of that
song, Canadian Sunset by Hugo Winterhaller.)
I left home Thursday night at about 9PM and returned Tuesday morning at
2AM after driving a total of 4100 miles in a little over 4 days. THat
might sound like a vacation of driving and sleeping and nothing else,
but surprisingly, I was able to have a great amount of fun and made
several stops, albeit brief ones. I love to drive, so 12-18 hours or
more in a car at one time is a vacation in itself to me. I drove up I-15
leaving SoCal through southern Nevada where I stopped at 3 casinos and
won a collective total of $35 (adding in the losses). I always stop at
different casinos and buy some $1 slot tokens for my collection. I now
have tokens from over 100 different casinos around the US. I headed
north through Utah, Idaho, and Montana before crossing the boundary
towards Calgary. In Montana, land of no speed limits, I set my cruise
control to 90 MPH through my entire drive. I felt that was a reasonable
and prudent speed for the conditions and my car although I found myself
passing most vehicles which seemed to be travelling between 70 and 80. A
few cars passed me, some as if I was stopped which means they must have
been going about 120+. They obviously do not realize that Montana's law
states "Reasonable and Prudent" and not is not like the German Autobahn!
Upon entering Alberta and after photographing the Alberta welcome sign
as I do for all states and provinces I drive through, I headed north
through Lethbridge and Calgary. The beauty of Canada's highways versus
US's is that they slice right through the cities and towns and you are
forced to drive through the downtown area at low speeds so you can see
Canadiana. On the interstates, you can fly right by a town at 75MPH
without ever seeing old Americana.
I spent about 3 hours in Calgary driving around downtown, viewing
Calgary Tower and briefly seeing the 1988 Olympic Skiing venue. (It
looks as much as it did on TV in '88 sans snow). There was a large flea
market/ antique swap right off the TC Hwy near downtown where I stopped
and found a great deal of license plates to add to my collection-- some
nice Yukon plates with the gold in the pan!! :>
Then it was east on the TC Hwy at 110 Km/h to Banff and on to Vancouver.
Luckily, upon entering Banff, I told the official I intended to just
pass thru to Vancouver. I was then told that due to a mudslide the
previous night, TC Hwy was closed west of Revelstroke, BC. Ack!
I was on a tight schedule and now I had to detour to the 95 south and
then the 3 west along the border, adding about 200 miles to my trip and
I wouldn't get a chance to see Lake Louise. Well, the drive was scenic
anyway and most enjoyable passing through all of those small southern BC
Canadian cities. Because I was in a hurry, I drove a little bit too fast
inbetween the cities and was trapped on RADAR at 109 in a 90 and got my
first ticket in almost 18 months. Considering I drive over 50,000 miles
per year, that's not too bad, but...well I have to pay the Crown $115
for use of the their roads. :>
I arrived in Vancouver late Saturday night without further incident.
Then, Sunday, I spent the entire day with my sweetheart (well I can't
claim her as mine completely...yet) We drove up to Hell's Gate where we
spent a few hours walking across the bridge, watching salmon swim
upstream, had lunch, etc. We had a ball!
Sunday night, I left for home, stopping for rest in SOuthern Washington
before arriving home late Monday night/Tueday AM.
That's it in a nutshell...hope I didn't bore ya'all to death! :>
---
Sent via MailLink, 15-JUL-97, 10:55:40, from:
(DSS)( - Dreamscape - ) - dreamsys.com
     (  Van Nuys, CA  )