Take Off to the Great White North (July 31-August 1)
Only one of us was sad to finish up our tent time at
Yellowstone. Most of us were very much looking forward to sleeping under a roof
again. However, Brian, who had conceded to the cold by wearing a t-shirt, nylon
zip-off pants, and a hat to bed, was really the only one who slept very well.
Most of us had a much better night that last night, but that did not make the
rest of us feel premature nostalgia.
Packing up the tent and gear is always a fun way to start
your day, especially since it generally begins around 6 am when the rest of the
campground is peacefully sleeping. That way the hissing and angry whispers
among family members can really resonate best, making the most of the
situation.
When that fun was over, we packed into the van again and set
off for Calgary, where we would spend the night before moving on to Banff
National Park in Alberta.
The nice part of this was that we took a different route out
of the park, and we got to see some new views. All jokes about camping and cold
aside, Yellowstone really is a wonder. It’s a massive piece of real estate that
encompasses so many different experiences.
Back to the road.
From Canyon Campground in Yellowstone to Calgary is about an
11-hour drive, with a few shorter stops included. Going north through Montana,
we drove through Lewis & Clark National Forest. Yet another lesser-known,
less visited site of amazing beauty. But not much in the way of restaurants. We
thought maybe we would stop somewhere for lunch, maybe halfway through the
forest. A certain portion of our group becomes less tolerant of the sandwich
picnics out of the car as time wears on, so we were looking for a café or
restaurant. The closest we could come was a casino the size of a 7-11 store
with a lunch buffet of sandwiches, chips and condiments spread out on a pool
table. We kept driving.
Also included in the 11-hour drive is a border crossing,
which is just a big question mark. You never know what kind of traffic, or what
kind of border agent you will encounter, or even how trustworthy you yourself
seem on any given day. I was driving, and I’m the first to admit that I get
ridiculously nervous about anything official. For some reason I always feel
like a guilty party, even though I’ve done nothing against the state, the U.S.
or Canada. I am always extra polite and very serious. I handed our passports to
the man with barely shaking hands and answered his questions efficiently and
sincerely. His last question was “are you carrying anything you expect to sell
or give away in Canada?” I shook my head earnestly and said no, just as Brian
piped up from the seat next to me: “Maybe a kid or two.” The agent handed me
our passports and, to my relief, cracked the slightest hint of a smile.
As we drove I couldn’t help but think that Alberta (at least
the stretch we were on) was kind of the Texas of Canada. Oil, ranches, and even
a big banner supporting Ron Paul, with the very Texan sentiment “More Alberta,
Less Ottawa” emblazoned on a sign.
Finally we reached Calgary, where we checked into our hotel. When I was young and my brother and I stayed in hotels with my parents, the first thing we would do was go find the vending machines. The second thing we'd do is see if there was a game room nearby. Third, we'd go beg quarters from my parents for either or both of those things.
My children and their peers do things a bit differently. I noticed this first on the trip I took earlier this summer with four 16-year-old girls. The minute you walk into a new accommodation, the first and foremost thing on each of their minds is to find out what the wifi key is. Then there is furious code entry, and you can tell when the phones or other devices have connected successfully, because every ounce of tension seems to leave the teens' bodies and they can breathe normally again. They may even smile.
After the internet infusion, we walked to a nearby restaurant for a very late and expensive dinner.
The hotel happened to have a pool with a waterslide, and that pool happened to
close at the very time we returned from our late dinner. Happily we really had
no big plans the next day, because we couldn’t get into our condo until 4:00,
so we all slept in a little, ate at the hotel breakfast buffet, and took an
hour to let the swimmers swim. Meanwhile, a few of us were researching what we
could do in Calgary. We could pay a nice sum of money to go up the observatory
tower, but we’ve done that in Toronto and Chicago, and nothing personal
Calgary, but you don’t seem like you will win on that measure.
We had to use pipe with a hook on it to drag keys across the
room to unlock the cell doors. We had to figure out codes and logic puzzles and
math problems to unlock combination locks, open a locked briefcase, break into
lockers to find more clues, etc. It was really fun to work together to do it,
and I cannot wait to set up escape rooms for the church youth group this year!
Eventually we got out with only one clue, putting us into the 15 percent
who actually finish.
With victory in our hearts and slightly emptier wallets, we
stopped at a grocery store and then drove the next hour plus to Canmore, a town
on the outskirts of Banff National Park. Already in Canmore we could see that
Banff was a long series of enormous, plentiful, rock faces and glaciers. Here
we had rented a condo that, though not huge, could sleep all 10 of us in a
somewhat comfortable fashion. Camping is really good for lowering the bar for
what feels luxurious. We went to sleep on real mattresses, and it was good.