May 31 – Made it to Banff

After 5 very long days of driving we ae finally here a the campground in Banff. Google maps and my Garmin GPS both said each days drive should be about 6 hours. BUT that assumes that you can do the speed limit. In Ontario with all the hills that is not possible in the RV. Once on the flat of the prairies I hoped it would be better but I forgot about the wind. So each days drive turned into around 8 hours. I was pretty wiped out at the end of each day.

On Day 1 the weather was great for our drive around Lake Superior. We got some great views. Every other time we have done this route it was either cloudy or rainy or dark.

Day 2 took us to Aaron Provincial Park near Dryden. It was a day of on and off rain. The park was a bit of a tight squeeze for our large rig but we managed to fit into a nice spot.

In a real “It’s a small world” moment, as I was getting gas in Dryden the next morning, I saw the guy in the next lane had a trailer and asked him where he was headed. He said Blind River. When told him where our cottage was we got more details. We spends winters in Saskatchewan and summers at a place on the water just up the main highway from us. We have gone by his place in our boat many times. His son in law also has a place that we can see from our cottage. Even better he and his wife frequently walk the road by our cottage and have talked to my cousin.

On day 3, once we finally got out of Ontario I was really looking forward to the flat roads and cruise control. But as I said the winds were brutal. When I stopped for gas it was hard to stand up. They weren’t directly head on but enough hat it really slowed us down and bounced us around.

After 2 quiet Walmart nights we tried to get up early to get some time on the road before the winds got really bad in the afternoon. It sort of worked for a few hours but the other 6 hours were still a struggle.

Then just after a tense drive through Calgary the mountains came into view.

We are now parked at the Tunnel Mountain Trailer Park near Banff. This campground only allows hard sided RVs. If you have a tent or soft sided trailer you must stay in another campground that is fenced off to protect you from the bears.

This is a huge place. It is on the side of a hill with 6 tiered rows of about 50 campsites.

There are a lot of trees but Jennie lucked out again as the site I picked (one of the few left) is open enough for her satellite TV to work. We also have a somewhat obstructed view of the amazing mountain next to us.

We walked down to get a better view.

And looking back up the other side of the campground.

Even this early in June just about all the sites are taken.

It’s going to a cold night with a predicted low of zero.

We’ll probably do something easy tomorrow to get us back into the swing of things.