May 16, 2015. Livingston, MT, to Calgary, AB.

May 16, 2015.  Another day on the road, in the rain, and another 500 miles traveled. Well, another 476 miles traveled, to be exact.  Or, making the metric conversion - as we have to do now that we are in Canada - 766 kilometers.  The weather has been nasty since departing Livingston.  It has rained constantly, sometimes raining so hard that the wipers, at their fastest speed, were unable to clear the windshield fast enough to keep up.  Add to the rain, temperatures in the forties and winds at 25 MPH and you get my characterization of nasty weather.  The wind chill is in the twenties which makes for discomfort in the outdoors.  It also taxes the heat pump in the coach.  But here were are, ten miles west of Calgary, ensconced at Calaway RV Park.  I connected to electricity in about three minutes then rushed back to the coach seeking heat and dry.  The rain turned first to sleet, then snow.  The bicycle seats were photographed from inside T-Harvey.  I didn't want to go back outside.  Brr-rr-rr.

Most of today's pictures are just scenery we encountered on this leg of the trip.  The next-to-last picture is a through-the-windshield-in-the-rain look at the 1988 Winter Olympics site.  We passed through Calgary in the summer of 1988 and saw the site shortly after the Olympic games concluded.

I read somewhere that diesel fuel is about 30% more costly here.  So, I filled the tank about 35 miles south of the Canadian border anticipating the increased cost here.  Nevertheless, a 73.9-liter refill in Calgary cost nearly $76.00.  That's $1.20 a gallon more than in the US.  On top of that, the credit card company sent a fraud alert, by text, asking if it was I who was making purchases in Canada.  Yes, it was me said I.  And, please don't cancel my card.  I have no Canadian money, only US dollars.  After some fast talking I convinced the nice lady on the phone that I really am me.  She made a note on the account that I would be traveling internationally for the next several weeks so other account handlers would know that Canadian purchases were really being made by me.  I hung up the phone hoping that was the last of that.  We will see.

We fell short of our goal today, Banff, Alberta.  Banff is another fifty miles down Highway 1, also called the Trans-Canada Highway because it traverses all ten Canadian provinces .  Malachi was game, but Annie said he should either stop or die.  He chose to stop.  Dying seemed an unacceptable option.

Annie has had enough of these 9-10 hour days sitting in Harvey.  She is worried that Malachi will get another pulmonary embolism and keel over sitting at the wheel.  She makes him exercise every couple of hours.  If we don't stop, she has him bounce his feet while sitting.  He appears to be dancing to some unheard tune.  Malachi can't dance, so the exercise gives the appearance of some poor soul in the midst of  a convulsive spasm.  He jerks, bounces, seizes and jerks again all to the silent sound of some bizarre rhythm.  Elaine Benes would make a compatible dance partner for Malachi.  If he were to do the same thing in public, someone would surely call in an EMT squad.

Poor Malachi.