Wed, August 31, 2011

Well, we are home!!! Time to get our land legs working again. After all the eating and sitting, we have some work to do!!! ;-(

It was a good day today. Our 'new bus' arrived yesterday morning so the past two days of travel have been very pleasant on the bus for everyone temperature wise. Once our driver figured out the clutch system which left us stopped dead in traffic in Regina yesterday morning, we felt confident we had our problems licked....LOL

Yesterday  being at the Saskatchewan capital was enlightening learning how they argue and vote -just like the British- and what their feelings are for the Queen and the British gov't.  We got to sit in the gallery over the legislature seats but they were not in session at the time. We met the leader of the minority New Democratic Party. One of our ladies fell while coming down one of the many stair cases we walked but fortunately, she only scraped her ankle. We had our group picture taken there on the teps of the capital.

Our stop at the Club Regent Casino Hotel last night was a learning experience for us. We have never been to a casino to gamble so walked around trying to figure out what the attraction is for so many people. We decided if we were to play we wouldn't even have a clue as to whether we won or lost playing those machines. There were some from the bus who did play. The casino had a deal where you could sign up for $10 worth of 'free' money to play with but you had to put for $5 of your own money first for the free money card to be activated. Casinos are not out to lose any money. We were astonished at how much money passed hands as we stood and watched.  We had a buffet supper there last night and then a buffet breakfast there this morning before we left for Minnesota.

We stopped at the duty free shop right before we hit the MN/Canadian border and did some shopping. We were detained at the border for about 45 minutes. We were all asked to get off the bus. We each went forward singly to talk with a Canadian Border Patrol person, presented our passport and then excused. Some one went through the bus also while we were all inside. We witnessed a young couple with a small child go through the process of signing up for a green card.

There were several opportunities as we traveled to talk with people from other countries. We visited with a young mother with three children from Hungary on the train. She was a little taken aback when the Canadian Border Patrol boarded the train at one point and asked us each some questions. Bill asked this  spanish speaker officer if they actually ever found anyone sneaking into the country this way by train. He said he had found 162 already this year.

 We enjoyed visiting with a couple and their two teen agers tourning Canada from Germany as we walked around Lake Louise.  There was another fellow from Hungary we had a chat with as well.

For lunch today we stopped at the Golden Coral in Fargo just as we did on our first day going to Minot.
We watched the movie "Overboard". We listened to a little of the Twins/White Sox game and then finally more polka music. The Wendinger Travel company owner also has a polka band and has many CDs for sale so during the course of the trip, we listened to a lot of polka music.

We arrived back to Burnsville Center around 7:30, Sarah and the girls picked us up when Sam's football game was over and took us back to their  place where we got our car. We stopped for supper on the way home and got home around 10 pm.

Final mileage tabulation for Bill and me the past nine days is 4,761! We visited two states: ND and MT; five Canadian Provinces: Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta and British Columbia. We enjoyed the beautiful scenery of  Glacier National Park, Kootenay National Park, Banff National Pari and Jasper National Park. We thought about our most impressive moments on the trip and we both decided it was visiting the Columbian Icefield and seeing the glaciers.  There are 25 glaciers left in this area and by 2020, if the conditions stay the same, the rest will be gone by 2020.

Driving the Going to the Sun Road and crossing Logan's Pass was a close second.  The fact that roads were built just for tourists to see this mountain beauty is quite impressive. They were working on repairs to this road as we traveled the windy curves...

Thanks for reading along each day of our travels. Thanks to those of you who responded with comments. I have to 278 pics  and several short movies to sort through and will publish an album on iPhoto when I finish that.