Day 2 - Lethbridge to West Yellowstone

We started out the day sore and achy, my shoulders were sore and Tim kinked his neck from the flat pillows in the hotel room. Ibuprofin later, we hit the showers. Riddle me this Batman... why are hotel towels smaller than average towels?? A face cloth is normal, the hand towel is 2x a facecloth and the "bath" towel won't wrap around the waist of a small child. It's like towelling off with a non-absorbent chamois! Crazy!!

Anyhow, we made our way down to breakfast. It was a choice of coffee or tea, Coffee Mate (r), orange or apple juice, either white or brown toast, toaster waffle (the toasters looked sketchy at best, one was broken) with a choice of peanut butter, jam, honey or syrup. There were also apples available... they too looked past their prime. The coffee was passable and I had a piece of toast with peanut butter on it. I scavenged cereal milk for my coffee and that was breakfast. Luckily we still had fruit in the cooler that had to be eaten... That is what kept me from chewing on someone elses hiney is all I could think.

We had to wait a bit for the parking lot to open up, last night Tim thought it would be okay to pull through  (and he confirmed that it should be okay with the person at the front desk) but they had quite a few guests so we were blocked in on all sides. We loaded up and by the time we had checked out, we were able to maneover out of the parking lot and head for ... wait for it... Shoppers Drug Mart! Tim forgot his most important OTC medicine and Connor forgot his orthodontic floss. We then fuelled up and headed for the border.

Coutts Crossing was interesting. There were about 6 vehicles in front of us and the freighters were to the right of us. It was interesting to see the big trucks go through a special building where I imagine they x-ray them for contraban. It took a while for our line to progress and when we finally pulled forward to present our passports, there were about 8 cameras taking various images of our rig... I imagine x-ray, ultraviolet, heat scan, radiation to name a few. We were asked a number of questions by a very serious officer... like the license plate of our vehicle (ours are sequential, we just don't know which vehicle has which plate --LOL!) and if we were carrying any fruit and veg with us. We told the very serious officer what we did have and he let us through. I still wish he was a little more fun and I could tell him I was a mad cow...

Continuing on our journey, our next "stop" was for gas at Sheridan... quick potty break and back on the road. Gas seems to be a little bit less expensive here. We then continued on to Great Falls, intending to stop for lunch but it was not to be, there was nothing we saw that appealed to us so we pushed on to Helena, Montana's State Capital.

We decided to have a late lunch/early supper (is that a lupper?) at Applebee's. Tim and I both had Parmesan Shrimp Sirloin (yes I know, calories galore but this is my vacation people!!) and Connor had chicken fingers... not very adventurous that one. We then picked up our remaining groceries at the Helena Albertsons (we had an awesome cashier... super sweet, hooked us up with a discount and everything!) We topped up our gas again and went back out to the highway.

Then another 3 hours still to West Yellowstone... it seemed like the driving today would not end!! I must say though, the route we took was not the Interstate but a 2 lane highway that wound through some pretty spectacular scenery. We arrived in West Yellowstone at about 7 p.m. and the race was on to get the trailer up before sundown!!!

The only mishap that occured is when Connor was replacing the chock under the wheel, the door wasn't latched properly and fell on his back, scared him more than anything although he gave an almighty holler and I sent him to the truck to cry it out if needed. He's pretty tough so he got the first aid kit, I peroxided and he bandaged the scrape on his knee and he is as good as new. We are now all set up in our site... it is dark so I can't take pictures but we have stuff jammed and crammed and still have room to sleep. The bathrooms here have codes to get in (weird) but the campsite itself is not fenced or gated (so I guess it keeps the non-guests out). The campsite is all gravel, we have a concrete pad to step out on to and we are right across from the bathrooms. Pretty sweet deal. There is only one shower though, and two stalls in the ladies loo... Tim wasn't impressed with the mens either but beggars can't be choosy and our hosts here are awesome as far as I can tell. We are pretty self sufficient for the most part so I don't see there being any huge issues. We'll see.

The only other concern that makes my fella cranky is he enrolled with a U.S. phone and data plan with Telus and they keep sending him messages that he has exceeded... so tomorrow he will give them a dingle to give them a tushie reaming. Grrr.... Hope all is well with my followers.

2011 Vacation Day 1

Finally, all the preparations and details are finished and we hit the road this morning!!!

We made a brief last minute pickup at the Shoppers Drug Mart in Devon and snapped this beauty of our unit... Tim needed his "special" toothpaste... sigh.

Anyhow, it was 9 a.m. when we finally got away, first stop at McD's in Nisku for breakfast (the most important meal of the day!!) Large coffees in hand (none for Connor) we hit the happy trail... next stop, lunch in Calgary.

We decided to go to Deerfoot Meadows, you know, where the Ikea is on Deerfoot Trail to get lunch... this is where the fun began. I thought we were looking for gas and Tim thought I was navigating for food... needless to say, voices were raised but we finally got turned around and hit Subway for lunch. Tim then got smart after his nutrition break and we found an Esso to use our fuel gift cards at (yay loyalty points... free gas!!) Fuel is more expensive in Calgary, that much is apparent. We found our way back to the Deerfoot and out of Calgary and proceeded south towards Lethbridge.

Not overly much in the way of construction on the roads so far, the truck is handling the trailer just fine but Connor was driving us crazy asking how to make sunscreen for the game he was playing on his iPod, Pocket God... quel nutbar! He is looking over my shoulder now wanting to get at the laptop to find a game to play. Hmm...

So our GPS got us to the HoJo no problem. An older motel but it is free (yay loyalty program) so as long as it is clean, I don't care for one night. There is a Mexican restaurant next door that I may investigate for supper... unless I am miraculously contacted by family or friends in this neck of the woods via Facebook or something... Tomorrow is the big border crossing, quickie shopping trip in Helena and on to West Yellowstone. Until then, CIAO!