Jan 8 - so far so good ...

I really shouldn't say anything. I'm not sure how many hours / miles I'd have to drive to convince myself that the issue with the fan clutch was a fluke, but I'm not convinced yet.

It was a very uneventful drive. The roads were good and the car behaved. We left around 9:30, stopped in Revelstoke at the grocery store and downtown, stopped at Lake Louise to use the facilities, stopped in Banff so that Sandy could shop and then got to our place in Canmore.

The sun poked through once but otherwise it was cloudy until we got to Banff. After that we were in the sun. The clouds were high though and didn't spoil our view of the mountains. I cannot imagine ever getting tired of the scenery.

I did some catching up. George Cederholm, who is in Panama City FL, pausing on his way home to Phoenix -- we talked about fan clutches and such until we got cut off as I drove into Kicking Horse Pass. Doris and Wayne Guymon were on my hit list as well -- I'd tried to get hold of them as we were traveling east but found that their telephone line was always busy. Well, it seems that was because it was out of order for a week. Doris is doing well, about to enter her second round of chemo for breast cancer, in good spirits and determined to beat it. Wayne says that she's low on energy, understandably, and we also talked about his new blog -- wyneden.blogspot.com. Last but not least -- actually I'm not even sure that it was last -- I talked to Arlene. The kids are back in school, her normal hectic life continues. We commiserated about car problems; it sounds like she has many.

Our room here at the Rundle Mountain Lodge is as basic as it gets. A tiny room with a tiny table and a tiny bathroom, it's very woody but clean. It's all we need for a 12 hours stay. After checking in, the three of us (Abby included) went into town and were surprised that there is a real town. I'm not sure about the population of Canmore, but there sure is money. With lots of restaurants, shopping and a mountain view every way you look, I can see why it does well. Since you cannot buy property in Banff National Park, just down the road, people from Calgary, no doubt, have a condo/house here as a jumping off point for winter and summer sports. Cottage country with mountains instead of lakes, it's closer to Calgary -- an hour from the city center -- than Toronto is to Muskoka.

We browsed through some stores and then went back to the lodge, relaxed a bit and then went back for dinner. There were two possibilities on our list and after checking the menu of the first -- The Wood -- we sat down for dinner. Well, this meal turned out to be one of the highlights of our trip. Sandy had chicken with veggies, roast potatoes and portabella mushrooms; I had (forget the name) a pasta. My pasta was three rolled up two inch wide flat noodles (don't know what they're called) -- almost like a wrap -- with cheese and cappicolla, a pesto and shaved parmesan on top. Sandy didn't think that I'd like it, that it would be too cheesy, but actually it wasn't. There were three dominant flavors competing but none winning out -- the cappicolla, the cheese and the tomato sauce that the things stood in.

Ok, my meal description lacks precision. Here are the details on the meal from the restaurant's website -- Oven Baked Roselinne Oven baked pasta stuffed with Cappicolla and Provolone, Promodro sauce; Portabella Mushroom Chicken Breast of chicken, sautéed portabella mushrooms, garlic herb cream sauce. I hope that helps ! I'm better at describing ski conditions or a bike ride.

Back in the room we both fell asleep watching a movie. It's 5:45 local time now. I expect that Sandy will start moving shortly.

So ... we now have 4 hours out of our 12 hour drive from Revelstoke to Saskatoon under our belt. So far so good. Knock on wood. I have appointments at BMW dealerships in both Calgary and Saskatoon to repair the fan clutch. Today I hope to cancel the Calgary one; I'll decide later about Saskatoon.

It's time to make coffee and check the temperature and road conditions.

Onward ...