Road Trip - Luxeries and disappointment

Calgary was shut...the end!

a. early morning mist

Oh sorry....you will all complain if just wrote that...wouldn't you!?

Okay...the day was actually quite cool....juts had a little disappointing end to it!

We left Golden and drove through various national parks...to Lake Louise. The drive was pretty...lots of trees and all! The Lake itself was amazing...the colour is like nothing you have ever seen before a deep duck egg blue/green! Apparantly something to do with rock flour? It is fed by several huge glaciers...and was so pretty that they had built a ridiculously big hotel right on the edge for all the rich folks to admire the view for a ridiculous amount of money!

Then drove on out of the national parks and into Alberta. Drove along the bow Valley parkway on the way....very pretty tree-lined road where we saw several big horn sheep...Neil even tried out his auto-pilot...which i think is really freaky...thats cruise control in case you are confused! We stopped for a picnic, but the gas ran out, so we had luke warm coffee and moved on! Stopped in Banff for lunch, beautiful place, typical ski resort...very touristy...the sort of place if you had money it would be an amazing place to stay for a while...Neil wants to go skiiing so who know!!?? Ate chinese...yes in a foodcourt...where else...then on the road again.

b. mountains

The scenery changed dramatically after that...it became flat and farmed...the start of the prairies. It was nice to see smoething different after all those damn trees! Rolling countryside...cute farms...and very dry yellow land. Was a good road too...watched the mountains disappear into the distance...then we arrived in Calgary!

Now i thought Calgary would be cool...but no...wll i guess in a retro kinda way it was...a 1988 retro way! On the way in we spotted the old winter olympic stadium, so went to check it out...afterall this was the only thing i knew about Calgary...it was the home of the winter olympics in 1988 and the setting of the Cool Runnings movie! It was cool. The stadium including the ski jumps and bob sleigh track were still standing proud and dominant on the hillside. Rick are you jealous i saw the track where the jamicans rode their bobsled!!!!!!!!! they still use the place...mailnly as a bike track but they still train there...not sure for how much longer as im sure they will be a slightl;y more modern track just up the road in Vancouver...if they get round to building it that is!

c. guess where we are?

So the olympic stadium was cool (even had my photo taken on the winners podium!) but unfortunately the city was not. It seems it was stuck in a 1988 timewarp...nothing had changed since then....im sure it would have been cool in the 80's but in 2006???? They seem to be clinging to their past...god knows what they will do come 2010! Anyway hit Calgary at rush hour...not the best idea, and after sitting in the traffic for ages, decided to take time out and have a coffee. Still had no idea where we were gonna eat or sleep that night! Finally made it into the centre...checked out a hotel...but at $100 a night and with a scary bloke on reception...decided not to bother. Wandered round the town...in the pouring rain...looking everywhere that was shut! There didn't seem to be anywhere open at all...and unless we missed the place...there didn't seem to be anyway decent even if it was open! Decided our only option was to head back out to the main road...where we could hopefully find a motel! Found a couple of places...all of which looked a little dodgy...and again stuck in 1988...until the last place..which seemed okay. Got ourslelves a room at an extortionate $80...and went to stuff our faces at KFC with chicken. Couldn't decide what to eat...everything was in huge quatities...as is the norm out here! I mean who wants 10 pieces of chicken!? In the end had to get a custom order of 6 pieces of chicken...and chicken fries...they are yummy by the way. Then back to the motel where we drank beer and watched TV...the simpsons and various dodgy house programmes....just like home!! Had the luxury of a nice private shower and a big queen size bed!!

d. amy at Lake Lousie

e. pretty lake Louise

f. what a cool place to stay

g. Horses

h. river and island

h. rocky mountains

i. big horn sheep

j. more mountains

k. Banff

l. a mountie

m. where've the mountains gone?

n. Cool runnings

o. 1988 Olympic Venue

p. Amy won - yeah right!

q. Calgary Tower

r. Closed!!!!!