This is being posted after a delay because as I write I am sitting in the Canadian National Parks forest outside of Jasper and there is no internet available and I dare not use my phone as data roaming charges are $2.00 per megabyte! 

The last full posting had us flying to Rochester to celebrate my mother’s birthday, get in some doctor appointments and see some friends before resuming our trip.  Mom was non responsive on her birthday, the 10th and began to slip away shortly thereafter, well she had been declining rapidly since the previous Saturday, but she had rallied so many times in the past that I figured she would again.  Not to belabor the point, she died two days after her birthday and we buried her on Friday and sat Shiva (check out the Jewish way of death) through Tuesday and flew back to Calgary on Friday the 20th. 

The Hoggs pulled Gee 2 out of storage for us and set it up on the site next to them before coming to the airport to pick us up at 9:40 PM.  Don’t talk to me about small planes, they are great for an hour flight, but 4 hours in a CRJ is cruel and unusual punishment.  The Hoggs Malibu felt more spacious than the plane for the long drive back to Okotoks.  After spending delightful time with them they saw us off Tuesday morning, we drove through some traffic to TransCanada Highway 1 which leads to Banff and onward to lake Louise where we picked up The Ice Field Parkway to Jasper.  Although we made several stops along the way none of them were in Banff or Lake Louise.  We did not need another tourist shopping experience (Banff) and we had spent a lot of time In Lake Louise some years ago.  We did stop at the Ice Field Center and ooh and ah at the Toe of Athabasca Glacier and we certainly made any number of brief stops to ooh and ah and OMG over the Canadian Rockies as they were exposed and hidden by the ever changing clouds.

We finally made it in to Whistlers Campground just outside of Jasper where we had stopped all those years ago in the rented Class C motorhome that was our gateway drug to our present addiction.  It was late and we figured we could find decent food in Jasper so we set up and drove the mile and a half (~3 kilometers) into town where the Brew Pub turned out to be noisy with a mediocre menu.  Next stop Kimchi Korean where we had a wonderful meal.  Carol had a vegetarian version of my dish and we are both happy.  Back to Gee 2 for tea and sleep.

Two days later: We drove up to Mile 0 of the Alaska Highway and celebrated by paying for camping at Mile 0 Campground after the previous night at Wal-Mart in Grande Prairie.  We are ready to jump off and don’t know when I will have the next opportunity to post.