Calgary Trip: July 26 – Aug 1, 2017

I haven’t written in a long time, and make no effort here to catch up. Our latest trip was, however, interesting enough to write about.

Mom flew up on Monday, July 24, so we could all go up to Calgary to visit her sister, my Aunt Norma, and as many cousins as we could round up. Every step of the way was “eventful”. Except for the time spent with Mom and the lovely visits with relatives, I never want a trip like this again! The lowlights of the trip included: the motorhome engine overheated (over and over); Paul ended up in the emergency room; Hannah almost escaped; the rearview mirror smashed; and the drinking water hose burst. A memorable trip for sure!

 

Tuesday, 7/25

To treat ourselves for this trip, I had made an appointment for the cats to have their nails cut, at 9:30 this morning. The cats were a little on edge, because Mom was here, the motorhome was out front, and because of my behavior getting cages ready for the trip to the vet. Both cats were out and about, but at the last minute, Hannah disappeared. It seemed we looked for her for at least a half-hour, and in the end I had to take Sydney alone to their appointment. If I caught Hannah, I was to bring her in, and the vet techs would fit her in.

Among other potential hiding places, Paul chased through the pine trees searching for Hannah. In the process, he was poked in the arm by what he thought was a pine needle.

We continued getting ready for the trip, because we were to leave the next morning. At about 2pm I headed out to the shop for something, and there was Hannah. She had purposely not answered when both Paul and I had called for her in there earlier. I was sorry to make a second trip with a howling cat in the back seat, but at least I would have a couple of weeks of no cat scratches or snagged pants.

 

Wednesday, 7/26

We rounded up the cats by 9 this morning. Sydney was easy to find, having been under the covers in the guest room for a while. Hannah was where I hoped she would be, under the tarp covering the lawnmower. She teased Paul for a bit, but then let him pick her up.

This is Row by Row season, where quilters “On the Go” collect free patterns from quilt shops, construct a quilt, and win prizes. I had a list of places to stop on the way to Calgary, and I hit most of them. [After a while I started skipping shops on my list, based on time limitations and the look of the row.] First stop was Crazy Quilter in a converted church in Lind. They also have a retreat center, and two tortoises roam an enclosure across the drive. Next was The Quilting Bee in east Spokane, which was a large, clean, airy space. The local guild will be shopping there during a bus trip to the Spokane quilt show. The last stop for the day was Bear Paw Quilts in Coeur d’Alene. I had a LOT of trouble finding this one. The address is Kathleen Ave, but it sits back ½ mile down a long driveway that leads to Lowe’s. The only nearby parking spacious enough for the rig was in a business park, so I ended up walking over a mile each direction, and it was 95 or 100 degrees out.

I’m in no hurry to collect patterns (haven’t even hit the Tri-Cities shops yet), and certainly not to produce a quilt from said patterns. I won the prize at Quiltmania last year, but leave it to others this year. I have several other quilts with deadlines to work on now. But I do love to check out quilt shops I haven’t seen before, and the patterns are free.

Because of the heat of the day and the increasing elevation, the motorhome engine began overheating, on Day 1! [It had overheated on our previous trip; the local RV repair shop had replaced the fan clutch to the radiator, thinking that would do the trick. It didn’t.] To reduce engine load, Paul cut the air conditioning to the cab. And when we’re low on fuel, which we were, the generator in the rear cuts out – so there was no air conditioning in the coach, either. Cats and all passengers suffered together, at about 90 degrees throughout.

Just 30 miles short of St. Regis, MT, our destination for the night, just after we pulled into a turnout, the radiator blew out. Steam blew all over the place, and all the water from the radiator ended up on the ground. Paul poured all of our cold drinking water and then some into the radiator. We disconnected the car; I drove with Mom into St. Regis and got us a camp spot. Paul arrived within just a half hour, having cooled down the engine and found gas.

Paul was so focused on the radiator that he had a tendency to not close the rig door all the way while running around adding water. After I drove off, he failed to close the door yet again: Hannah was out and heading for the woods, and Sydney was standing in the doorway ready to make her own getaway when Paul saw them. Fortunately a harsh word to Hannah was all it took to get her back in the motorhome, or she would have been gone!

Later in St. Regis, we all ate dinner down the street at Jasper’s Café. There didn’t appear to be air conditioning in there, either. During dinner I noticed how bad Paul’s arm looked: as swollen and red as could be from the wrist to the elbow.

So after dinner Paul and I headed 15 miles to the town of Superior, where there’s a 24-hour ER at the hospital. I learned a new word that night: envenomation. It turns out the poke in the arm was a wasp sting! Paul was given the first few days’ worth of antibiotics, and a prescription for 3 more days’ worth. That romp in the pines Tuesday wasn’t worth it at all: he got a wasp sting, plus Hannah hadn’t even been in there!

 

Thursday, 7/27

Thursday morning I made reservations at Kalispell. It turns out to be a busy time of year around here. Even with reservations, I ended up with a back-in again.

Because of yesterday’s overheating, I drove the car with Mom all the way to Kalispell. She and I were having lunch at Burger King when I heard from Paul. He had arrived at the RV park in Kalispell, having been given a circuitous route through much construction by his new navigator. I bought him a burger, and then had a great deal of trouble finding the campground myself: the street on which it is located is a private street, and I got confused as to which highway it was near. After Paul got his (now cold) lunch, Mom and I went out to four quilt shops in Kalispell and Whitefish, and filled Paul’s antibiotic prescription on the way.

I really love Judy Niemeyer’s quilt patterns, and she had her start at Quilt Gallery in Kalispell, so that was my first stop. Then at Glacier Quilts there were even more of Judy’s patterns. But I decided, as beautiful as they are, the patterns aren’t worth $79 each to me, because I might not ever make another in my lifetime. Next we headed on to Whitefish Quilts in old downtown Whitefish. Downtown is crowded and touristy, and I had some trouble getting out of there (the navigator wanted me to make left turns where they weren’t legal), but I was finally on my way out to Quilt Kits to Go. The owner there was quite chatty, and didn’t seem to want us to leave. It was at this last stop that the owner mentioned there were length restrictions going through Glacier National Park into Canada. How unprepared we were for so many things!

Mom and I had a swim before dinner, the only one of the trip.

 

Friday, 7/28

Thursday evening we had good enough Wi-Fi service to discover that there was a length limit of 21 feet for the route that Paul had chosen for us. So the new plan was to tow the car to West Glacier, where Mom and I would drive through the National Park and Paul would continue around it in the rig, meeting up in Cardston, Alberta. West Glacier was so small that we missed the turn; Paul pulled into a turnout about 3 miles farther on. He then continued with the motorhome; Mom and I went back, entered the Park, and took the scenic Going-to-the-Sun Road.

Paul owns three (count ‘em 3) Golden Age Passports, because he kept losing them. All three are in a pocket of a binder we keep in the rig. I have applied for my own Lifetime Senior Pass, which was $10, but will soon be going up to $80! I failed to print a copy of my application, because I thought we would be towing the car, and using one of Paul’s Passports. Mom also has a Golden Age Passport, which she conveniently left at our house. So when Mom and I drove up to the park entrance, we had to buy yet another pass to get through! Mom was first out with her wallet and ID, so she’s now the proud owner of another pass. Unprepared!

The Going-to-the-Sun Road was stunningly beautiful. I was terrified at times, however, and wasn’t always completely on my own side of the road. But I tried not to think about how high or narrow the road was, and to concentrate on the views. I pulled out often to see the view or to let cars pass. We tried to stop at the Logan Pass Visitor Center, but the lot was already full, with dozens more cars piling in by the minute. So we headed on down the east side, and stopped at the Saint Mary Visitor Center for my National Park Passport stamp. I couldn’t find the passport in the glove box. Unprepared! Fortunately, in the Visitor Center I found out I wasn’t the only one unprepared. There was scratch paper near the stamp, so I could paste it into the passport when I found it.

Somewhere along the Park road I realized that we were meeting Paul in Alberta. Canada. My passport was in the motorhome, because, again, I thought I would be in the motorhome, towing the car. I hoped a Driver’s License would be enough to enter Canada. I tried to call Paul about this from the Visitor Center, but there was, of course, no cell phone service. Unprepared!

Meanwhile Paul got to the border crossing, realized our meet point was in Canada, and that I had no passport, and he decided to turn back. He made a quick U-turn in the no-man’s land between U.S. and Canada Customs buildings, and smashed the right rear-view mirror on the way back into the U.S. After he passed through U.S. Customs, he pulled into the large lot of a café to wait for us. His cell phone wasn’t working, so he asked in the café to use a phone. But since there was no cell service in the Park , a call was useless. He thought if he drove back to Saint Mary that we might have already gone by, so he stayed in the lot. Fortunately I saw him. We all ate lunch at that café, and Mom and I bought chocolate mousse pie for later dessert. [It turned out we didn’t eat the pie until 2 days later, when we found out it was really bad, quite short of chocolate!]

The trip along Going-to-the-Sun Road was supposed to be about 20 minutes shorter than the route Paul took. But with all our dawdling and the traffic, even though Paul went to Canada and back, he still got to the meet point 20 minutes before we did!

The actual border crossing into Canada was uneventful, and I’m glad I had my passport then.

As we entered Canada, the local phone service sent text messages to our phones, welcoming us to the country. And it informed us that text messages would be five times as high as in the States, and phone calls were $1.79 each minute, a whopping eighteen times as high as back home! Not gonna get much use out of the phone up here!

We made a detour just before Calgary so I could get another free Row pattern in Okotoks, at a place with the interesting name of Rumpled Quilt Skins. Unfortunately, it is in the old part of town, the roads are narrow, and parking choices for the rig were few. But we happened on a spot nearly out front, so Mom and I went in. It was part quilt shop, part antique store, with lots of old Singer Featherweights for sale as well.

We made it to the Calgary West Campground by about 3pm. We’re here because it is only about 15 minutes from Aunt Norma. We are unhappy with the place, as we were 5 years ago when we stayed here briefly. There is no Wi-Fi to speak of, unless you happen to have a mobile device and are standing next to the front office. No way am I dragging my desktop and its accoutrements over to the picnic table nearest the office, let alone upstairs to the “Wi-Fi Lounge”!

The car navigator had worked really well until we got into Canada. It did not give me Calgary as a choice of city. And there is literally construction everywhere in Calgary. The current mayor made roads a priority, so there are street corners torn up, new highway interchanges being built… it’s tough for a navigator to keep up!

I had lots of trouble locating Aunt Norma’s “new” place because I didn’t have access to Google Earth or Google Maps. The navigator was little help, because the physical address had been changed since the navigator was updated, and there were new buildings being constructed nearby. And I guessed wrong, so we “landed” in the wrong part of town. When we finally got near Aunt Norma’s, I could see the building but could find no way to get to it! We tried every street for 6 blocks, and finally hit on it – you enter a construction area 6 blocks away, go down a lonnnggg driveway, and finally arrive. It took us about an hour to reach her place that first time.

Anyway, we dropped in on Aunt Norma Friday evening. Apparently she doesn’t hear well enough for us to call and give her a heads up. But she seemed happy to see us all, especially her sister. We set our next visit time with her, and left about 9pm.

Our bedtime is usually around 9:30pm, but we still had to eat dinner. On the way home we found a steakhouse. The food was good, but it was quite the wrong time of day to be having a heavy meal. Soup and salad were too expensive for my taste, and I finally ended up adding a chicken breast to Paul’s meal, and eating his salad as well.

 

Saturday, 7/29

The Saturday morning plan was to meet for breakfast at Bites, an eatery in an office building just east of downtown Calgary, where Blake is manager. We met Gordon at Aunt Norma’s, and followed them to the restaurant. Blake, Bruce, and Booker came also. Before breakfast, I presented a quilt to Aunt Norma. I’d made the quilt about 7 years earlier, but hadn’t given it away. Her expression let me know that I had found the right home for it.

I also gave a knitted baby afghan to Blake for his 9-month-old. Blake assured me that Xavier was not too big for it yet, and that they would get plenty of use out of it.

Breakfast was delicious! Though it translates in Canadian to “a Benny with back bacon”, I had a single Eggs Benedict. My side of hash browns is interpreted in Canada as roasted potatoes. After breakfast, Mom went back to Aunt Norma’s with Gordon, for more visiting. Paul and I headed to Along Came Quilting, the only quilt store that I took time to visit in Calgary (of 3), to collect the last (for this trip) of my Row by Row patterns. Then we went to collect Mom, and got home about 3pm. We all spent a quiet afternoon and evening. The pool was way too crowded with screaming children for us to swim.

 

Sunday, 7/30

Sunday breakfast was at Ricky’s near where Gordon lives, where Aunt Norma used to live. Paul had to try three times to fit Aunt Norma’s walker into our tiny trunk, but it did fit. [It would have been a shame if Gordon had to drive all that way, twice, because we couldn’t fit in the walker!] The man the Aunt Norma knows at Ricky’s wasn’t there. But breakfast was tasty, and Gordon was there as well.

Our next visit was for dinner at Aunt Norma’s, just the four of us. Sunday is “formal dinner” night at her place, with white tablecloths. She and Mom had roast beef and Yorkshire pudding; Paul and I had chicken stew. The stew was highly seasoned, with lots of sage. The biscuits were also really good, also with some sort of herb in them. After dinner, Joan and Bruce joined us; we visited out on the patio beyond the dining room. Wildfires near Banff were causing poor air quality. The sky got hazier the longer we visited, and before we left large bits of ash were drifting down on us.

 

Monday, 7/31

We decided to leave Monday morning, one day early: we had seen everyone; we were tired of the RV park; smoke in the air was causing much sniffling and coughing in our RV. On the way we stopped at the Leigh Collieries turnout for sandwiches. Somewhere along the way I placed an expensive cell phone call and made reservations for the night – another back-in. We had some trouble finding the Mt. Baker RV Park in Cranbrook, BC, but eventually got there. I think the streets are not laid out well, and we made a wrong turn early on. Paul not happy here, either: the Wi-Fi is slow, and the shower is push button, with no temperature or volume controls.

That evening, the neighbor pointed out a very large puddle under our rig: our drinking water hose had burst. The pressure at Mt. Baker RV is 135 psi: the rig is protected by a regulator, but the hose was not. I found a Canadian Tire in town, which I thought would be a substitute for an RV store, which would be closed because of the late hour. Paul bought a new hose that turned out to be 2 feet too short. We ate dinner at ABC Restaurant, which was one of the sponsors of the RV park map – it was quite tasty. And we managed to wrangle the pies we wanted for dessert, rather than choose from the meager offerings that came with our senior meals. Great waitress!

Here’s ash on the car in the morning.

The smoke followed us all day, providing this scene as the sun headed down.

We’ve been doing 3- to 4-hour driving days. Now we have a 6-hour drive to home. If I know Paul, we’ll go all the way in tomorrow instead of paying for a back-in near Coeur d’Alene with questionable Wi-Fi and a crowded pool.

 

Tuesday, 8/1

We drove the rest of the way home on Tuesday, cutting the short trip two days shorter. We stopped at the Sprague Lake rest area for lunch. And then, because the rig engine was overheating yet again, I drove the car with Mom the rest of the 100 miles home. Paul was about 5 minutes behind me into the driveway. The cats were glad to be home!

Here’s the “loot” I collected from the quilt shops. Besides all the free patterns, I bought a quilt-related jigsaw puzzle, fabric for four Outreach pillowcases, and a “cool” fan. In one shop, when I was looking for novelties for pillowcases, I found the black-and-whites first, so indulged myself. And I collected a few fabric postcards.