Friday, May 16, 2014

Hide the liquor honey, the Border Patrol’s coming

Casino Lethbridge, May 15 & 16, 2014 – Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada

One last trip into Walmart to pick up a few items we’re convinced will either be unavailable or incredibly expensive in Canada and Alaska. Paper goods and adult beverage fixings are expensive up north, and favorite brands simply don’t exist. So this is our last chance to fill every available space in Big Guy with items we know will be hard to find. Of course it may be interesting trying to explain to the border patrol why you need a 10 packs of paper plates and 10 quarts of apple juice and what’s with all the water bottles? Ah, but there is a method to all this madness.

We didn’t really have all that much, but we have pretty much filled up all the storage space in Big Guy. I gave EJ some wine to throw away so we’d be under the legal limit, but I don’t recall seeing it make it to the litter bin. We consume or get rid of any fruits or vegetables that we suspect would be confiscated like potatoes and citrus fruit. Then we read that ‘sub-tropical fruits are OK. What’s a sub-tropical fruit you ask? Any fruit that won’t survive in freezing weather. Ah, so we guess those oranges are OK after all.

On the road, we make one more stop to fill up with cheap US diesel. Well, cheap is relative. It was $3.99 a gallon. There are some long up hill pulls on this road.

HILLY

We arrive at the US/Canada border in Sweetgrass, MT.

Canada border crossing

We had a cute young lass as our border agent and she asked the usual questions about firewood, where are you going, how long will you be in Canada, and how much liquor did we have. I was wondering what would happen when I told them we were at the wine limit (which is your total liquor allotment) and that we had several partial bottles of alcohol. Didn’t faze our border agent a bit.  She was more interested in why we weren’t carrying any weapons. Weren’t we afraid of bears? Where was our bear spray? (Which is illegal by the way). Weren’t we concerned about traveling alone? Where was our protection? Finally satisfied with our answers, she let us pass through into Canada.

Alberta Welcome

Once across the border our first stop was the visitor center to stock up on brochures and travel guides.  I guess we are pushing the season somewhat as the visitor center doesn’t officially open until tomorrow. But, lucky us, they were having training sessions and let us in to forage and gather. They also had a dump station which we took advantage of.

And there was the Albertosaurus we wanted to check out. Just like a Tyrannosaurus, only it grew up in Alberta. This one is named Tyrone.

Albertosaurus

We had read that Casino Lethbridge in Lethbridge, appropriately enough, had a parking area set aside for RVs only and that overnight stays were OK. This was our destination.

We arrive and find our spot right away. Notice it’s close to the front door.

Big Guy at Casino Lethbridge

There is a saying that a true RVer drives a million dollar motorhome looking for a free place to camp. I think this fits. That’s a Prevost motorcoach in the background and the H3 was their tow car.

mILLION DOLLAR COACH LOOKING FOR A FREE PLACE TO PARK

During our two night stay here EJ found out that so far Canadian slot machines aren’t nearly as loose as those in the USA and they don’t give you any freebies.

First order of business is to see if the bank has any Canadian money they want to give away. We didn’t have any luck with that, but we found a bank that was willing to do a trade. We gave them good old American paper money and they gave us back this plastic stuff. You can even see right through it! Turns out, all of the Canadians we’ve asked about it don’t like it either.

Canada funny money

Then we took off to explore the downtown area. We start with Galt Gardens. Nice except there aren’t any gardens. Too early in the season. We see some Park Security guards and ask them where the Galt Museum is. They point and tell us to walk down this road until we see the Tim Hortons (think upscale Dunkin Donuts) and the museum will be right behind it.

Well, we walked and we walked and found this. According to the signs, this is the world’s longest and tallest railroad trestle bridge.

Lethbridge railroad bridge

Since we had run out of street, we decided to turn around and head back. Walking through the downtown area we spot this interesting object. That’s Wranglin’ Willie on top.

Wranglin Willie

Done with downtown, we search for the elusive Galt Museum and find more artwork.

Big train wheel

We never did go through the Galt Museum, but EJ did go over their gift shop with a fine tooth comb.

We explored a park under the trestle bridge and learned about how those pesky Americans kept causing trouble by importing liquor to  the locals. A fort had to be built to house the soldiers charged with keeping those folks in check that liked to get likkered up and have a whooping good time. The name of the fort? Fort Whoop-up!

Fort Whoop-up

The view from down under gave us a whole different perspective of the bridge. And along the beach we saw this discarded cigarette package. We guessed this is comparable to our surgeon generals warning but it should be a lot more effective. Just plain gross!

P1020240Cigarrette Package

We heartily endorse repurposing old buildings and wish more towns would encourage it. This, however, is probably the best we’ve ever seen. It’s an old water tower that has been turned into a restaurant with a great view of the city.

UFO Water Tower

See you down the road.

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