Now, I'm no Gordon Lightfoot (though I can play a killer version of "The Wreck of
the Edmund Fitzgerald" using only a mouth harp and my big toe), but I can certainly see
what that golden-toned crooner sees in this fair Alberta Province. From Lake Louise to the
Columbia Icefields, all the way down to Banff itself, Alberta seems to have it all. It even has
Mountain Standard Time!
We pulled out of the Prestige Inn parking lot early -- the ambience was lacking, there was no continental breakfast, and we were ready to head for the Rockies, anyway. Thanks to our patented Sid and Kristanne "Drive All The Time -- Never Stop" approach to tourism, we only had to drive a short couple miles before blazing into the Lake Louise parking lot, ready for unrelenting tourist activity. We were not disappointed. Shortly after our arrival, waves of tourists departing their giant buses bore us aloft, depositing us unbidden on the steps of the Lake Louise hotel. It was big. It was neat. I bought a Cuban cigar, we hiked around the lake, and then we were gone.
Never leave the van, man.
We powered on, Otto steering a noble course through sheets of accursed rain, one mission between
us -- get to Banff. Get to Banff. Get to Banff. Narrowly averting errant elk, we did just that,
planting our symbolic flag of three empty diet coke cans in the recycling bin
in the town square. We had arrived. We had arrived in Banff and it was good.
Of course, having arrived in Banff, we naturally had to tell y'all about every last detail of
the night before. So, after a quick lunch, we hied off to a cafe and produced this
feature for you. We stop at nothing to bring quality travelogue service to you,
the Future Extreme Telecommuters of Tomorrow.
Not even surly businessmen get in our way. We smite them with the Fist of Good Faith and kick them with the Leg of Hearty Smiles. Then, when they're not looking, we confuse them with the Quivering Nostrils of Mixed Metaphors. It's not pretty, but sometimes it has to be done.
Case in point -- after finishing up the page, we wanted to FTP the whole shebang on back to our web server. Since we've been experiencing some technical difficulties with the Acoustic Koupler (suffice it to say that we may be revamping the rosy description it currently enjoys), we decided to go rent an internet workstation for the few minutes it would take to transfer our files. We arrived at 4:45 to rent the workstation. The owner informed us that if we hadn't finished our transfer by 5:00, he was booting us off. A bit taken aback we informed him that, indeed, we could do the needful. Just give us a computer and get yourself to a nunnery, surly-boy. Or do something Shakespearean anyway -- compose a sonnet, I don't know.
We were a mite irritated. There you see me, being a mite irritated in this
fellow's place of business. In any case, we finished the transfer two minutes over our
allotted time, and, though he gave it serious thought, he decided not to charge
us for the fractional two minutes over his standard $4CND\15 minutes rate. What
a pal.
All's well that ends well. The site was up, and we headed off for our first shower of the trip. This was a good idea, since you could pretty much grease a Chevy Nova big block with my noggin at this point. Anyway, here is your scenic pic for the day. It's looking up the Bow River Valley from the Banff Hotel -- purty, huh?
Total Miles for 6\4 = 109