FRIDAY,
JULY 4:
Got off
to a little later start than we’d anticipated, but no big deal. Instead of taking time to prepare breakfast
(and we were sick of granola bars!), we ate at the historic St. Mary’s Lodge,
right down the road from our campground.
Has an interesting history, including a story back in the 1950’s when a
little known Hollywood actor came to this area to make a movie set in the
Montana mountains. In his off-time, he asked the Lodge’s owners’ teenaged
son to show him some of the best fishing holes around. Well, as the story goes, the lad’s mother
soon put a halt to this, because he was neglecting his chores around the lodge
(cleaning the guest rooms, changing linens, etc.). She told him that he couldn’t go gallivanting
off with his new-found friend until he’d finished his hotel chores. So the actor dove in to help do the chores so
that they could take off fishing as quickly as possible. The actor’s name? Ronald Reagan. True story.
So we
left Glacier. We loved our time
here. Our visit didn’t start off so
well, with the inclement weather. But
the last few days more than made up for it – were fantastic. As far as our campground went, it was just
adequate. Not much character – the RV
sites were jammed in tightly. Their
infrastructure was inadequate to support all of the RV’ers and cabin guests –
way too few laundry facilities, etc. And
as far as their advertised WiFi Hot Spot goes: I have to say, that in all of our travels,
including tiny towns in Alaska, this place had the worst WiFi ever. But
hey, it was all about Location, Location, Location! And they have that hands down!
Glacier
Nat’l Park shares a border with Canada’s Waterton Nat’l Park. It’s known as an International Peace
Park. The one and only? Not sure.
So we took a side road into Waterton and crossed the border there, instead
of on the highway. A very easy, friendly
crossing.
We wasted an hour or more driving around
Waterton . . . nothing terribly unique to see there after our U.S. park, although this view of Prince of Wales Hotel was nice.
. And I still
intensely dislike the Canadian way of allowing a town in the middle of a National
Park, complete with homes, businesses, shops of all kinds, etc. Not only does it spoil the natural beauty of
the location, but it makes it terrible to try to get around if you’re pulling a
36-ft trailer!
On our
way out of Waterton, I thought I saw on a map that there was an overlook just
off the highway. So we turned down the
road. Well, there was no overlook – just
a nice picnic area. About 6 picnic tables were spread out in the area, betwixt
and between the narrow, gravel roads.
Once we got down there, we had a few moments of horror, thinking that we
were stuck there – no way to be able to make the short turns to get out, and
backing up was out of the question. We
envisioned another Colorado incident like 2 years ago. If that had happened, I think we would have
turned around and come home! But Bill
got out and walked his way around the loop and estimated that we could make it,
if we went veeeery slowly. Were we ever
glad to be back on the highway!!
So then
onto Mt. Kidd. This is a campground in an
area called Kananaskis Country. It’s
comprised of several Provincial Parks (akin to our State Parks). Rob & Karen, the new friends whom we met
at the beginning of our Alaskan trip last year, told us about this place. It’s their favorite local place to go in the
mountains. They much prefer it to
Banff, because of the lack of
commercialization. They told us it’s
great for kayaking and bicycling. It’s extremely popular because it’s the only
campground in this area with full hook-up’s.
Rob said that as soon as they open for reservations (90 days ahead),
they get fully booked immediately. I
heeded his advice, and the day (the hour, actually) that they were accepting
reservations 90 days out, I acted. And
somehow, Rob & Karen got lucky too; they’re planning to join us during our
stay here. We’ll be here for 5 nites.
We
arrived around 6:00 and got set up. Bill
almost had the same issue with the hitch as he had when we arrived at our
campground in Glacier. But he tried a trick someone back there suggested (a
woman, actually) – to back up the truck just an inch or two up against a couple
of wood chocks to hold it steady, so that the pressure is relieved from the
ball of the hitch. Ta dah – worked like
a charm!
After that, got set up easily. This is a fantastic campground!! We see now exactly what Rob was talking
about. The sites are very large &
spacious, and very private.
You hardly
feel like you have neighbors. We set up
the grill and grilled pork steaks. Then
ate outside, as the air felt absolutely
perfect. First time conditions have been right to eat dinner outside – yea!
Then we both walked Pappy around a little. Lots & lots of families with young
children here – kids riding bikes everywhere, others out on the large grassy
knoll playing ball or tag or just running around. There’s a tennis court here, as well as a
volleyball court. We’ll do some more
exploring around the campground tomorrow.
Oh –
another wonderful thing about this campground – at least our site. We get great
WiFi! At our site! We were told at the desk when we checked in
that there was no WiFi at the sites, only at the central office/lounge
area. I groaned. But when we were getting set up, I just took
a look what connections were available, just out of curiosity. The Mt. Kidd connection was there, so I
clicked on just to see if I’d get anything.
And, miracle of miracles – our home page came up quickly. So I just began seeing what I could get – and
virtually everything! Not sure why –
because we’re so close to the office??
I felt like I’d won the lottery – I can get caught up on posting the
Blog, plus banking, e-mail . . . right in the RV. Amazing what we begin to depend on and feel
terribly deprived when we don’t have it!
No
fireworks for us tonight . . . we’re in Canada, eh.
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