Car troubles in Cowboy Country and Bear Baiting through the Rockies...

Oh, I am sooo pleased that we're actually still alive! It's been an adventurous week or so...some brought on it by ourselves, other bits by nature!!

From Vegas we flew to Calgary where we were staying with Nelly & Mhairi (Nelly worked with me in Waxys for those unfortunate enough not to know him!!) and now is back in Calgary. They had kindly offered to put us up..and I think by the end of our stay were beginning to wonder if we would ever leave! Well, they did give us our own rooms..crazy fools!!

Calgary was pretty chilled at the start, both of us were exhausted from our endeavours in Vegas, so just kicked about, got introduced to the "gentleman's" sport that is (ice) hockey..(to start a fight you have to drop your glove, if both do then it's good to go, until the 1st guy gets knocked to the ice...and THEN the referee breaks it up...bizarre!!) Through the week Nelly also talked us through (american) football and baseball. Still don't really understand either!!

We went up to Lake Louise and Banff at the weekend, so gorgeous and ski resorty, but no snow yet. Still absolutely freezing though, and obviously neither Linz or I have a coat...ah well!! We also went to Nelly's folks for dinner on Sunday, at this stage I was preparing never to leave Calgary!!

Well, a trip to a city isn't complete unless you go up a high building, and on Monday off we trotted to Calgary Tower. Obligatory posing on glass floor was done. That night we had arranged to meet a friend of a friend for a few drinks in Calgary. This would involve us navigating through the city, at night on public transport. You would have thought both being self sufficient adults, this wouldn't be a problem. You would have thought wrong!! Ended up lost over a bridge too far and wandering the streets while the local homeless people shouted at us before we found a taxi!! The pub was full of ex pats, so we luckily(?!) got talking to 1 particular charmer from Liverpool who thought I was aussie, Linz was Irish (and refused to listen to us when we tried to correct him.) Again, got lost on the way home - mainly taxi driver's fault this time though!!

We finally decided to leave and roadtrip through the Rockies to Vancouver, so reluctantly said bye to Nelly and Mhairi and off we set. Had a couple of small issues with the car this time...Linz as not 25 yet can't get insured, and coz I'm an eejit and lost the card part of my licence they didn't want to hire to me either. Eventually kicked off enough of a fuss and got the car and off we set..with directions from Nelly. And immediately got lost. Ended up on a construction site / dirt path..hmmm not really the freeway we were looking for. So, u turned and then drove the wrong way down the freeway that was being built. That was fun. Then to top matters off, I noticed that the indicator (or what I thought was the indicator) was on and I couldn't get it off. At this stage we were on the fast lane of a 4 lane freeway. Linz had to open her window and indicate in true cycling proficiency stylee that we were moving across lanes, while I shouted in a somewhat deranged manner that we knew it was broken. When we eventually got across and managed to pull over safely, we worked out that somehow the hazard lights had been knocked on. Yep, again, that was a fun experience...

After that the roadtrip passed without incident, and we arrived safely in Banff. Went up the gondola at Sulphur Mountain, which was awesome, views were amazing, bloody cold though! We went to the Hot Springs at Banff (note - if you are in the area and pushed for time, this can easily be missed!! Unless looking at Japanese tourists in an outdoor swimming pool is your thing..) Stayed in Banff for the night, and then headed to Jasper via the Columbian Ice Fields via the Icefields Parkway - "The Most Spectaular Drive on Earth." And it is absolutely amazing. Cue lots of photos being taken while hanging out the car. The Icefields are a huge glacier, again, neither of us have suitable clothing for this, so compromised by wearing everything we owned and going up to see it, what should be a 20 minute hike we did in under 10. Well, it was cold!! Carried onto Jasper that day and stayed there.

The next day was a drive of epic proportions and police dodging!! Drove from Jasper to Whistler (941 kms fact fans) in 1 day, with Linz at the wheel for 1/2 of it. Obviously these were the only occasions we passed the police. All good though! Phewww!! Whistler was gorgeous and action packed! We hired ATVs and went for a trail on them, and while we were getting organized, a bear and her 2 cubs were seen right beside the ATVs...hmm, the 1 thing you are told to avoid, a bear with cubs, but oh no, off we all went to look at them! ATV'ing was sooo much fun, saw the bobsleigh sites for 2010 Winter Olympics and froze our asses off and looked cool as in sexy waterproofs!

Obviously neither of us have learnt that travelling with a hangover is horrendous and to be avoided at all costs...coz a few quiet drinks on Saturday quickly became very very very messy!! Culminating with me seeing a bear walking down the street and Linz hiding from said bear behind a flimsy set of railings at 5am. Alcohol did not induce either of these sightings!

The drive to Vancouver that morning was truly fabulous!!!

---

---