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June 28, 2008
A real easy start to the fourth week. We drove to Helena, MT and are holed up at a Wal*Mart parking lot (175.9 miles today). We went to supper at Applebees. Then came back and bought some much needed supplies. No pictures today, you all have seen a Wal*Mart parking lot. We did see several antelope off in the fields but we have seen so many antelope, buffalo and elk up close that we didn’t even get excited. We still hope to see a bear, a moose and some sheep close enough to get some good pictures.
We put 47 gallons of gas in the coach today at $4.199 per gallon. For you number crunchers, we are 2,331 miles from home. Just 10,000 plus miles to go. We have put $1,480.57 worth of gas in the coach so far. And we have taken about a gazillion digital pictures. Glad we don’t have to pay to have them developed
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June 29, 2008
Another easy day, we are loafing towards Calgary. Tonight we are in the Lewis and Clark Campground in Shelby MT (180 miles today). We stopped in Great Falls to top off with gas and propane before heading to Canada. We added 30 gallons at $4.059. Kay got her hair cut at Wal*Mart so she is all beautiful again.
We are trying to drink up all the booze before we cross into Canada tomorrow, soo pleeze excuze eny posssibly typing errrors by yur web eddittor.
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June 30, 2008
Tomorrow is Canada Day in Canada so we decided to avoid the crowded campgrounds and stay in Shelby one more day to visit Glacier National Park. We made a wise decision. The park was beautiful.
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There are only 26 glaciers left of the estimated 150 in 1850. They are projecting that by 2030 there may be none left due to the rising temperatures.
In the middle of the park there is a hotel called the Many Glaciers Inn. It was built around 1912 on a lake. The lobby has huge tree trunks supporting the upper floors and the roof. The views from the deck were unbelievable.
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Then, on our way back, we saw our first moose. She was a young cow standing in a stream. She would submerge her head almost to her eyeballs to eat the vegetation growing on the stream bed. When she ran out of breath she would lift her head and we could see the water drip off her snout. Several cars stopped and people were at the side of the road taking pictures. She was only about 50 to 60 yards away.
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We also saw a coyote that we could not photograph. Kay claimed to have seen a bear run across the road in front of us but no one else saw it. There was no “lemonade” involved so we have to believe her.
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July 1, 2008
We are in Calgary, AB. We crossed the border with no complications. It took 35 minutes and about 30 of those were spent waiting in line. We bought our first gas in Canada. WOW! After converting liters to gallons, and accounting for the currency conversion, we paid $5.064 per gallon for 47 gallons at the Calgary Flying J. Diesel was a bit cheaper at $5.041 per gallon. We went out to dinner at a place called Montana’s. It was very good.
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July 2, 2008
Elaine and Bart drove into Calgary today to learn the intricacies of the C-Train. That is the Calgary train system we will use to get to the stampede. Thanks to Elaine’s quilt store directory, they also went to several quilt and fabric stores.
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Kay and Bill found a Wal*Mart and a Newmar dealer where Bill got parts to repair the leaking toilet in their coach. Bart was real sorry he missed the “toilet seminar”. :-)
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July 3, 2008
We all took the train into Calgary to make sure we knew where we were going. Ended up at the stampede grounds and got a free sneak preview of the place. We saw lots of animals; horses, cows, sheep and miniature donkeys. We also saw the Budweiser Clydesdales as well as the Budweiser wagon and their Dalmation resting up for tomorrow.
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And Melissa, did we ever see two rides for you. The first threw people in a steel ball cage way up in the air and let them free fall back down and bounce on the cables.
The second spun you around at the end of two real l-o-n-g arms, forward and backward.
Granddad almost got sick just watching.
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Then came the real parade. Two plus hours long. It had horses, floats, horse drawn wagons, fire trucks, horses, clowns, horses, old cars, horses, bands, horses, military units, horses and more horses. We never saw so many horses. And every half hour or so, three street sweeper trucks came through to clean up the . . . uh . . . horse droppings.
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July 5, 2008
They have a catch phrase up here for the Stampede, it is “Yahoo”. Well today was rodeo day for us and all we can say is “YAHOO!!!!”. What a show, three hours of nonstop action. It started with bareback riding, calf roping and steer wrestling events.
Then came saddle bronc riding and ladies barrel racing, and finally Elaine’s favorite, bull riding. In between they had an Indian hoop dancer and of course rodeo clowns.
We were seated right across from the chutes so all the action came right at us. The only problem was that everything was so fast, it was hard to get good pictures.
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