Anyways, on Friday, after work, we did the last-minute packing, and Mom D. drove us to the airport. The KW airport is so small, and so very casual, although we still had to eat supper before going through security since we couldn't take water bottles through. The flight to Calgary was uneventful, and upon arriving we collected our suitcases. Determining how to get to our hotel was a bit more challenging. Since we weren't picking up the RV until Saturday morning, we had booked a room in a hotel that offered a free airport shuttle. The shuttle turned out to be a standard taxi, which the hotel paid for.
Our hotel room was on the top floor of the building, so it offered a nice view of the the Calgary downtown skyline.
On Saturday morning, we were up very early (there is a 2 hour time difference), so we headed across the street to Denny's for breakfast. Then we had a few hours before it was time to pick up our RV, so we decided to take the bus downtown. We had already planned to take the bus from our hotel to the RV place, so we just added a little detour. Rob wanted to see the Saddledome, home of the Calgary Flames.
We spent a bit more time seeing downtown Calgary, and then took the bus back to the RV place. This involved a transfer, where we had to wait for quite a while, and not knowing what time the bus would actually come made us wonder if it would come at all. Eventually it did, and we found Cruise Canada without too much trouble.
The first thing we did there was watch a video on how to use and care for the RV. Since it has its own plumbing system, the video was mostly about how to fill and drain the various tanks. Not long after that we were on our way! Our first stop was back to the hotel to pick up our suitcases - we didn't think it would work too well to lug 4 large, extremely full suitcases around town and on a bus. Then to the nearest grocery store to stock up on food. We prepared and ate nearly all our meals in the RV.
Our plan was to stay near Calgary until Monday, so we could attend church in the city. We ended up sleeping in McLean Lake Provincial Park, which was about 30 minutes southwest of Calgary. This turned out to be one of the nicest parks we stayed in. This park had showers, so we set out to find them. I wasn't too keen on using the shower in the RV, and especially not for the first time on a Sunday morning. We learned they were at the park store, and tokens were required. So I purchased some tokens, and we went back to our campsite. Sunday morning we awoke with our morning all planned out - times for showers, breakfast, etc. As we progress through this schedule, I suddenly realized that church was at 9:30am, not 10:00am. So, we raced over to the store so I could shower (we had to drive there, it was too far to walk), only to discover they were locked and wouldn't open again until 10:00! So, we raced back to our campsite so that I could shower - in the RV (it wasn't so bad, actually), and then raced off to church as soon as possible. We did make it in time, but just barely! We attended the Calgary URC for the morning service.
We decided to attend Calgary FRC for their afternoon service, so we found a park to have lunch, and then headed off to the FRC church. This took some doing to find. In Calgary, most streets are named with numbers. For example, 6th street runs North-South and 6th Ave runs East-West. The city is divided into 4 quadrants as well - NW, SW, NE, SE. Before leaving, I had looked up the church's location online and had a general idea where it was. However, it wasn't until we were trying to find the church that we realized that a street could end, and then pick up a few blocks later with the same name (number)! There were at least 3 "pieces" of 6th street in the area of Calgary where I thought the church to be. Thankfully, we did find the correct section, and were in plenty of time for church.
Following the service, we were invited to Ray & Kathy's, former Ontario-ians, where we had an enjoyable evening with them and their son Chris.
We also enjoyed a fabulous steak dinner, which Chris barbequed to perfection - just look at the size of Rob's steak!! Thank you, Ray, Kathy & Chris for the mighty-fine meal and fellowship.
On Monday morning, our first order of the day was to find gas. We had picked up the RV with
about 1/2 a tank, and had actually done a lot of driving on Sunday, so we were running on fumes. Thankfully there was a gas station in Bragg Creek, the nearest town to the campground. Gas prices in Calgary at the time were about the same as what we had left in Ontario - $1.299/litre. We knew also this RV would have a large gas tank, and less-than-goodmileage. However, we were a little unprepared for the jaw-dropping $179.91 it took to fill the tank! We never spent that much on a single fill-up again though.
Our original plan was to drive across southern BC and spend a day or two on Vancouver Island. With this goal in mind, we headed west on Monday morning.
Our first view of the mountains!
We drove through a few mountain passes - lots of curves, and climbing up, only to go all the way back down. Along the way, we came to Sparwood, B.C, home of the world's largest truck. Originally used in mining, it now lives at a Visitor Information Centre.
By evening of Monday the 12th, we had driven about halfway across BC - Canada is a big country! We had seen a lot of run-down areas. Our driving had mostly been through rural areas, and many, even most homes, were mobile homes. We also saw our first black bear!
That night, we stayed in a small RV park in Rock Creek. It was not busy at all, so the site was then quite nice as we were far away from others and there were a number of trees around. This park also had the nicest showers (free showers too) of all the parks we stayed at! :)
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