The final leg - July 15th through 20th

The night of July 14th, stayed in Boston Bar, 15th in Golden, and in between we drove... Western Canada in the Summer is hot - upper nineties and above in places. It is also heavily blighted by the pine bark beatles which have decimated the pine forests there. Long drives along a picturesque river, with little in between the sparse towns, and two train tracks winding the whole way along. Saw many trains with engines on both ends - push-me-pull-me style. Saw the famous figure 8 rail road tunnel which was interesting as well, which crosses over itself several times to give a less steep ascent up the hill.


The 16th was the day that the trip was all about - we went drove up to Lake Louise and another lake nearby to oggle at the beauty there, then on to Banff for a tour of the town, and a taste of Cow's Ice cream, which the Wiley family thinks is the best Ice Cream ever. That night, skirting Calgary, and stayed in High River area.

The 17th, we headed back across the boarder to the US, and skirted around the South side of Glacier (our RV is too large to fit through the Highway To The Sun), and then entered on the West side of the park, and met up with my brother Mark who had driven there from the cruise to take some time to write. After Delilah took a dip in the lake there, we got together with him, chatted for a while, ate some more ice cream (I've had more ice cream on this trip than I think any other time in my life), and then said good by, and headed out to our KOA just outside of Glacier. Was a nice campground, which would have been nicer if a) it weren't raining, and b) if Delilah hadn't left the water running in the sink in thebathroom, which of course flooded the carpet, and required several hours of lifting the plastic carpet cover, stomping on towels, drying the towels, and starting over. At least Delilah helped with the "Towel Dancing". When we put the towels in the drier, we found that they actually serve a dinner at this KOA - a nice BBQ'd chicken, with corn and beans, which Delilah and I gobbled up. Unfortunately the internet access was blinky, so the game night that I was hoping to play ended abruptly. C'est la vie...

On the 18th we started out to get to some of our other relatives in Idaho, but I didn't realize just how far it was (had originally estimated time on the assumption that we would have driven after seeing Glacier) so ended up being a full day of driving. We made it to about a hundred miles shy of our destination, when I gave up, and we did the Hotel thing for the night.

On the 19th, we drove into Jerome area to meet with Hank, Norma and Claudia (mom's brother and family), and had a nice chat, and lunch there, then hopped back in the RV, and we were off to Beaver, Utah for a late night camping episode (the last night).

Finally, on the 20th after a very long, short night (long on lack of sleep for various reasons, short in actual sleep hours), we got up about 6:30 AM and hit the road with both Delilah and Mom still in bed. Drove through Vegas, and stopped at The Mad Greek in Baker for a good lunch (some of the best road food that we had on the trip - they had Shwarma which is a favorite of mine). Turns out that "Bun Boy" is no longer, bought out by "Bob's Big Boy" which oddly, I had thought went away years ago, but appears to be making a revival. They still have the Bun Boy Hotel and teh Worlds Tallest Thermometer there. Driving on, through traffic in LA, and got in to Escondido to drop off the parents about 5:30. Called Kim on the way out of town about stopping off to pick up the keys, and she invited Delilah and I for dinner at their place which was fun. Then finally, home. Home.

Home. The house was empty, since Barbara was at a Bachelorette party for the night, and was funny sleeping alone, after having slept with Delilah or Barbara next to me for so long. In the morning, D and I cleaned up the RV some, started the "decompression" laundry, food removal, etc, did a Costco run, etc, trying to get back in to a "semi-normal" lifestyle again. I will start back to work on Monday.

So the total trip - 17,478 miles, almost 4 months, 3 tires, 5 provinces, 45 states. Cat survived, Delilah loved it, Barbara actually is traveled out, and I am satisfied and joyful to have had this possibility realized.

So, anyone want to buy an RV? :)