Day 12 – Banff National Park to Calgary Alberta (103 km)

Our last morning in Banff before we head out of the mountains. We woke up and spent a leisurely morning around the campsite – drinking coffee, nibbling at breakfast and packing up the truck at a relaxed pace. We also took advantage of the park’s excellent facilities to grab a shower, thereby ensuring we didn’t smell like a campfire and three days worth of bug-spray upon out arrival in Calgary. Even Lilo got a bath – she seems to be growing quite fond of her camping bathes!

With Canyonero fully loaded once again, we made a quick trip into town to return the $58 air mattress we’d purchased the night before. While feeling we had no other choice at the time, buyer’s remorse quickly set in and we decided to try ol’ leaky for one more night, thinking that if we could make it through to Calgary there would be many a Canadian Tire with dozens of cheaper options. Happily, ol’ leaky was completely fine – making us think the previous night’s flatness might have been caused by an improperly sealed valve.

With $58 more in my wallet, we treated ourselves to McDonald’s for lunch (traditional Rocky Mountain Fare, for sure), left Banff, and jumped back on TC-1 for the quick trip to Calgary. It was a little sad as the mountains disappeared in the rearview mirror – they were an amazing experience, and something I’m even more motivated now to do again.

On the way into Calgary we passed the Canada Olympic Park - site of the ski jumping and bobsled from the 1988 Olympics. Calagary is obviously still very proud of it's moment in the international spotlight (as they should be), though the city has obviously grown immensely since then.

We arrived in Calgary with an afternoon to kill before meeting Brian later in the day. The first order of business was a bath for Canyonero, to get rid of the thick coating of bug guts that had collected on the front end through 6,000 kilometers of mostly rural driving. After $10 in loonies at the “Calgary Coin-Op Truck and RV Wash” Canyonero sparkled as brightly as she had the first day we got her. Next was lunch and some free-range time for Lilo, for which we happened across a city park called Riley Park. It fit the bill perfectly, with lush grassy fields that were devoid of pinecones, rocks, twigs, and other things Lilo like so much to stick in her mouth.

Finally we headed downtown for some exploring, because that’s what you do upon arriving in a new and unfamiliar city – you head for the tallest buildings. Happily, Calgary has a bit to offer downtown, unlike other western Canadian cities I’ve been to in the past. We spent a few hours exploring Stephen Street (also called 8th Avenue SW) – a pedestrian mall in downtown Calgary much like Sparks Street in Ottawa.

For anyone who’s never been to Calgary, it has a very unusual, very unimaginative street naming system that I’m not even sure I understand yet. My sense is that avenue’s run east-west, and streets run north-south. The streets and avenues are numbered, which I understand is similar to Manhattan, but in Calgary the number start in the centre of the city and increase as you move out. Where things really get confusing is they add a directional identifier after the street name, depending on which quadrant of the city you are in – NE, NW, SE, SW. This means if you’re looking for 6th Avenue and 11th Street, I think there are actually 4 such intersections: 6th and 11th SE, 6th and 11th SW, 6th and 11th NE, and 6th and 11th NW. While I’m sure this makes complete sense after you’ve lived here for a while, it’s very confusing at first – especially in the downtown core.

Finished with exploring downtown, we decided to challenge ourselves by finding Calgary’s international airport only by watching for planes in the sky. This little experiment probably took us longer than it really needed to, but hey we had some time to spare before Brian’s 6:30 flight from Fort McMurray. Once in the area of the airport (Vone eventually cheated and saw a green sign with a little white plane on it) we made a quick stop in the parking lot of the Best Western hotel, to squat on the free wireless internet they offer to guests. We’ve discovered on this trip that this is a great way to get access to the internet while traveling.

Brian’s flight landed on time, and to add to the convenience it arrived at a private hanger on the edge of the airport lands thereby allowing us to avoid the madness of the main terminal. We greeted Brian in the parking lot along with countless wives greeting their husbands, much like meeting sailors returning from sea. Brian is one of the thousands of people making great money working on one of the many oil-sands projects near Fort McMurray, Alberta – 700 miles north of Edmonton. There are over 2,500 people working on his project alone, and the company operates two of these flights between Fort McMurray and Calgary, everyday. And this is no small turbo prop – but rather a full sized 737 that carries hundreds of people who work up north, and return regularly to their homes and families in Calgary.

With Brian safely aboard Canyonero, we headed to his condominium (paid for by the company) downtown. We spent the evening chatting and catching up, doing laundry, drinking cold beer, and eating delicious pizza. Later, Brian and I joined another friend also named Rob for some Golden Tee and draft beer at a little pub around the corner. It was interesting to be in a bar where people could smoke again, after two years of Ontario’s smoke-free bars. I could smell it as soon as we walked in, and it struck me as odd every time smoke wafted over our way. I’m happy to say the smoke wasn’t much of a temptation though, and I remain smoke free after 12 days.

While I love camping, it was great to have modern conveniences again – a couch to sit on, a fridge to keep beer cold, a comfy bed that doesn’t deflate, and a washing machine. And while Vone and I love spending time together, it’s also good to see some other friends, and have other people to chat with.