Oh Canada

On Thursday morning we left Yellowstone National Park and headed north into Montana.  We were bound for Conestoga Campground in White Sulphur Springs MT, only about 130 miles away.  We would like to have gone further this day, but this was a fairly necessary stop.  There were no dump facilities at Mammoth CG, and we had not dumped our waste tanks or taken on fresh water since we left home two weeks ago.  We also needed to do some laundry and take some time to make some plans.  We still had not determined our route across Canada and into Alaska. Being flexible is good, but sooner or later you need to decide where the heck you are going!  

Conestoga Campground was very nice.  It had long pull-through sites with 50A electrical service and full hook ups, meaning water and sewer.  It was on the edge of town, two blocks from main street (it's a small town), but also on the edge of the cattle district.  Our hosts were super folks.  Conestoga Campground is a Passport America park, meaning we score half price camping. Cool!

Dorcas and I discussed our options for getting to Alaska.  We had once considered taking the Alaska Marine Highway up the inside passage, but had resisted that plan because we knew it would be very expensive.  However, on this day we were feeling extravagant.  Dorcas went on the web, researched some routes, estimated the fares for our coach, car w/canoe, passengers and the pup, and we made a plan.  We would sail from Prince Rupert, BC and de-boat at Ketchikan AK, Juneau AK and Petersburg AK, for 1-3 nights at each stop.  We would then end our cruise at Haines AK.  We could not make our reservations online, due to the complexity of our caravan, so Dorcas made the call and booked our passage on the phone.  I won't say what the cost of this excursion is, but it is cheaper than the comparable cruise .... maybe.

We also made plans to cross the border.  We inventoried all our meats, produce, alcoholic beverages and other items of concern.  We got all our papers together, including passports, vehicle registrations, insurance documents and puppy papers. The idea of crossing the border had been really terrorizing Dorcas for months, and we were both anxious to get it behind us.  We called Verizon and switched our cell plan to a Nationwide Plus Canada plan.  It's only about $30 extra per month, and we can switch back and forth to our original US plan at will and the charges are prorated.  Unfortunately, Verizon could not offer a reasonable plan for our internet air card.  This means that while traveling in Canada we would be dependent on public wi-fi resources.  Bummer.  Faithful readers will know that I am sometimes a bit slow posting to this blog; my posting rate may be "glacial" for the next few weeks.

Thursday night it rained at White Sulphur Springs.  We learned that it had snowed on the pass northward to Great Falls.  Our campground hosts helped us check the road conditions over the pass, and we found reports of only some soft slush, so we took off.  We safely cleared the pass and rolled into Great Falls where we bought groceries and topped off our fuel and headed north for Canada.

We arrived at the border at Sweetgrass MT on I-15 about 6:00 PM, and there was not another vehicle in
sight.  There was only one lane open; I pulled up and shut down the engine.  The Canadian border agent asked for our passports, asked a few obvious questions, including those about weapons and ammunition.  She asked if we had any alcoholic beverages, and we showed her our list, which indicated about 4 times the amount of beer and liquor we could legally carry across the border without paying duties.  She handed our papers back to us and told us to have a nice trip.  No questions about a pet or pet food, plants, or meats. No mention of paying duties on our excess liquor.  It took all of two minutes!  We never left our seats and she never left her booth.  All that worry for nothing.  Well, at least until next time.

We had no planned destination for that evening, so Dorcas spotted us a Walmart Supercentre in Okotoks AB about 20 miles south of Calgary.  We arrived about 11:30 PM and the store had closed, but Dorcas found an employee walking to her car and asked if it was alright to park overnight.  She said it was OK, but to park on the right side of the lot, because workers were sweeping the parking lot that night.  Sure enough there was a large street sweeper and several guys with backpack blowers patrolling the lot.  No sooner had I parked on the right side of the lot when a guy with a blower asked us to move to the left side of the parking lot, where they had already cleaned.  Fine.  I moved and parked on the left side of the lot and the guy driving the sweeper said not to park there, because he hadn't cleaned there yet.  Fine.  We finally got parked in a mutally agreeable spot about midnight, but slept poorly.  The sweeper and the blowers went on all night.  Welcome to Canada.