Dec 31 - out with the old, ring in the new

We parted company with David, Kim and Megan a little after 9am, finished up a load of laundry at the hotel and our packing and headed out. Contrary to the original plan, we headed in different directions. David had decided to return to Edmonton rather than Calgary via Banff, which turned out to be a good thing. The driving down the icefields parkway was ok at moderate speeds but would be treacherous for anyone on a schedule. The road was generally ice-covered with a dusting of snow -- they avoid the use of salt in National Parks.

Before leaving Jasper we stopped at a gas station / convenience store to ready the car and ourselves for the trip. We also stopped at the Jasper National Park office and upgraded our 4 day park pass for a season pass. Considering that we had another 9 nights in national parks and the season pass breaks even after 6 nights, it was a no-brainer. We're now set until the end of January 2010 ... perhaps we'll come back next year !

So ... off we went. Why did we gas up ? Well, because the next gas station is 230 kms from Jasper. There is only one service station in between and it's closed for the winter. Everything is closed. Heading our way we saw 1 bus and 2 cars. We were not traveling fast, so I pulled over and let them by. Heading the other way we saw more cars, but the road was not busy. It would not be a good place to be stranded but there would be a car along every few minutes as we got closer to Lake Louise.

The drive is spectacular. Even though most of the peaks were shrouded in the light snow that was falling, we could see them. It was not conducive to picture-taking though. The only time we saw the sun was at the Columbia Icefields -- the Icefields Centre itself was closed, but that's about the highest elevation on the drive -- 6950 -- and the sun peaked through. I stopped to take a couple of pictures and there were immediately two ravens on the ground by the car looking for any handouts, tourist garbage ... they are trained well. Abby barked at the ravens but we didn't let her out of the car. They ignored me when I got out to take pictures, clearly used to tourists, even though they were only 6-10 feet away from me.

As I stood there two slowplows came along but they were good enough to raise their plow so that I wasn't covered in snow. I waved; they waved back. We might as well be friendly -- it's not exactly wall-to-wall people out there !

Being a national park -- first Jasper and then Banff, there were many indicators for trails, laybys with outhouses etc. We probably saw a couple of dozen cars parked by the side of the road with cross-country ski tracks leading away from the cars. Solitude is an understatement.

We definitely want to come back during another season of the year. Personally I think that Spring would be best, with the most snow still on the mountains and before the RV season gets fully underway. Perhaps a clockwise drive from Florida west across Texas and into California, north up to Canada and then across Canada is in our future, we'll see. It's not just me either -- Sandy would be happy to make a return trip.

We got to our hotel in Banff, close to the base of Mt. Norquay, the ski area, and upped the ante as far as dog-friendly goes. In Russell Manitoba we got a little welcome bag for Abby with treats; here there is actually a pet bed and dishes. We put down Abby's blanket but she went for the pet bed. She's too smart for us. I put the blanket on the bed and she was content.

We had made reservations at the restaurant here at the hotel. We didn't need a designated driver after the meal and a bottle of wine but Sandy did walk by our room ... I said "see you later" ... she laughed. The meal was wonderful. We had a choice of a 5pm or 8pm sitting and had chosen the 8pm. 5pm is too early to eat on New Years Eve. The meal itself was a fixed-price, multi course meal. I can't remember all the choices for the courses, but we both had the green salad starter and the fois gras terrine; Sandy had the Beef Wellington, which just melted in your mouth; I had the cod. It's the first fish that I've had since leaving the cottage. That must be a modern-time record for me. Perhaps I'm clearing some of the mercury out of my system !

Between courses was listed champagne and sorbet as a palate cleanser. What would you expect ? Well, I expected champagne and sorbet. Instead they service a glass of champagne with the ball of sorbet floating -- very interesting ! The glasses and champagne were clearly chilled almost to freezing and the sorbet must have been rock hard because it didn't turn to slush. It gave a hint of tangerine to the champagne ... a very interesting touch.

For desert there was a buffet and there were a number of choices ... I had the chocolate mousse as well as the chocolate bar which was dense, like eating a semi-soft dark chocolate bar ... whoo hooo. We declined the coffee.

Back in the room a little after 9:30 we caught the ball dropping at 10pm -- midnight in NYC of course. Sandy was annoyed because I was flossing my teeth as the ball dropped ... after all, I reasoned, it was only 10pm, it wasn't really New Years here, any more than it was New Years at 5pm when Big Ben struck midnight in London England .... what's the fuss about ? She got over it but I didn't get a New Year's kiss ... but it wasn't New Years was it ?

Our original plan had been to go into Banff and do a little shopping when we arrived but that fell by the wayside because it was so cold. It's going to be warmer today, but I have no idea how much will be open on New Years day. Before we left Loring we'd thought that we might ski today, but quite frankly it seems like a lot of trouble to unpack everything and then pack it again for tomorrow's trip. We have seven more days of skiing ahead of us ... we'll skip today and take it easy.

On the drive here, once we were off of the icefields parkway our route takes us on the Trans Canada highway to Banff. It was bare on the right hand lane and partly snow covered in the passing lane. The bare lane was just as slippery as the icefields parkway, so it too was slow going. I touched the brakes to check ... and the anti-lock mechanism immediately took over ... yup, just as slippery as it seemed. When watching TV later on a Calgary station, they were showing accidents and snow hitting Calgary ... David and Kim made the right choice in going back home. It wasn't 100% unanimous at the time -- ha -- but Kim felt a lot better about it once she heard how long it took us to get to Banff. It wasn't a day for being on a schedule.

Our drive tomorrow is a little longer than yesterday's, roughly 400km vs 300km. Hopefully the driving will be better, but again we won't be in any particular hurry.

Happy New Year to all ...

Onward !