We drove the infamous Canada highway 1 from Vancouver to Lacombe (a small town north of Calgary) for our next “scheduled stop”. Lacombe is home to CUC (Canadian University College) and our niece Myla. So we have a number of friends in the area and enjoyed seeing everyone while there for the weekend. 
Revelstoke British Columbia – The drive took two days so we pulled into a KOA campground Thursday evening in Revelstoke. Never mind the weird name, this place is beautiful! I have always been awed by the Rockies but when you see the Canadian Rockies you begin to realize that the US may not be the only place with purple mountain majesty. These mountains are like the Colorado Rockies on steroids. It probably didn’t hurt that we just happened to go through the area on beautiful hot sunny day.
Banff and Lake Louise – We didn’t spend much time here although it deserved much more attention. We were anxious to see our niece and friends so we only stopped for a few pictures
and fuel. That’s when I almost got into real trouble. (see road revelation 5). As the amount of miles to empty approached less than 20, we began to panic. I could not find a gas station with Diesel. We came up on the Banff exit and I decided I had to try there. We have been to Banff before and I should have known better but when you are in a panic mode well I guess the thought process starts to slip a bit. Banff is a small ski town with small confusing streets. So here we are with our big rig cruising the town looking for diesel. When I finally saw a diesel pump at a station I just told Mellie “we’re going in!” She kinda groaned “Noooo” but it was too late. I didn’t hit anything. It was just that once at 
the pump I could easily see that there was no way to drive on through. Oh well, I filled up and then told Mellie to stand in the street to stop the traffic as I backed out of the station. What a trooper! Everyone was polite and did not get mad but we decided to leave town immediately anyway.
Revelstoke British Columbia – The drive took two days so we pulled into a KOA campground Thursday evening in Revelstoke. Never mind the weird name, this place is beautiful! I have always been awed by the Rockies but when you see the Canadian Rockies you begin to realize that the US may not be the only place with purple mountain majesty. These mountains are like the Colorado Rockies on steroids. It probably didn’t hurt that we just happened to go through the area on beautiful hot sunny day.
Banff and Lake Louise – We didn’t spend much time here although it deserved much more attention. We were anxious to see our niece and friends so we only stopped for a few pictures
and fuel. That’s when I almost got into real trouble. (see road revelation 5). As the amount of miles to empty approached less than 20, we began to panic. I could not find a gas station with Diesel. We came up on the Banff exit and I decided I had to try there. We have been to Banff before and I should have known better but when you are in a panic mode well I guess the thought process starts to slip a bit. Banff is a small ski town with small confusing streets. So here we are with our big rig cruising the town looking for diesel. When I finally saw a diesel pump at a station I just told Mellie “we’re going in!” She kinda groaned “Noooo” but it was too late. I didn’t hit anything. It was just that once at 
the pump I could easily see that there was no way to drive on through. Oh well, I filled up and then told Mellie to stand in the street to stop the traffic as I backed out of the station. What a trooper! Everyone was polite and did not get mad but we decided to leave town immediately anyway. Note the clouds look much worse that it was, we only got a small amount of rain.
Road Revelation #5 – Don’t pass up the opportunity to top off your tank. When we were at around a half tank I passed several excellent truck stops. It would have been easy to slip in, top off and be on our way but no I wanted to go further on before bothering. I didn’t realize what real “bother” lay ahead.
Road Revelation #5 – Don’t pass up the opportunity to top off your tank. When we were at around a half tank I passed several excellent truck stops. It would have been easy to slip in, top off and be on our way but no I wanted to go further on before bothering. I didn’t realize what real “bother” lay ahead.
3 comments:
ha! ha! that running out of gas story is even more fun with auntie mellie's actions! :) thanks for having the yummie BBQ while in our charming town of Lacombe! :) happy tripping! :)
Hi! you also have a nephew in Lacombe. . .ha ha ha. Your Canadian trip - although very short - makes me like to go on a leisurely drive across the Canadian Rockies. There are always beautiful scenes to take pictures of.
i miss you guys! ^_^ ~la
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