OHHHHHHHHH CANADA!!!!!!!!

Ok….where were we?????
AAAAAAHHH yes, canoeing….if that is what you call it. We like to call it ‘walking the canoe” [or drowning the canoe or swimming along side the canoe –J]. Not exactly 'canoeing' anyway.......

On to Calgary, Alberta, Canada where we went to the annual Calgary stampede. It was pretty much like a fair with rides and games. We were too late for the chuck wagon races so we just walked around and went to a very lame virtual reality game [5 bucks each, we were robed!! Maybe we should have known being we were the only ones above 5 on the ride –J]. The cool rides were a bit out of our budget so we headed back to the train which took us to our good old Moose parked at a Wal-Mart [God bless Wal-Mart – J].

Banff was beautiful. We stayed at an awesome campground by Lake Louise which reminded us of Yosemite. Lake Louise was beautiful [Special thanks to Teresa Fuchik of MortgageIT for suggesting Lake Louise when I told her we were going through Canada…Thanks Teresa!! -J]. The lake is teal due to the glacier runoff (Glacial sill ). All of the Glacial fed lakes are a beautiful teal and are cold.

(Some pretty flowers with the glacier in the background for my mama)

We took the gondola up the ski lift to see it all from the top of a mountain which was cool…. Of course I got many pictures which my handsome husband is beginning to get used to (key words: ‘beginning to’) [numb to –J]. We spent most of our time at the campground since it was so peaceful and …..since I sliced my leg open. Remember that make shift fence we made for the dogs…well it keeps me in too…I was trying to step over it and didn’t make it…ouch…Dr. Jimmy fixed me right up. He knew I was ok when I started taking pictures of the open wound….hehehe

There are lots of cool lakes and rivers on the way to Jasper which you will see if I can get my computer to upload them. This is why it has been a while since we have updated….technical difficulties.

Jasper was awesome. There were so many glaciers my camera could barely keep up. Then all of a sudden a huge glacier…yea baby that is the one we are going up on. The Athabasca Glacier in the Columbia Ice fields. We took a 6 wheel ice explorer on our adventure up to the glacier. It was an awesome experience and amazing to see how much the glacier has receded since it was first discovered. It was quite chilly up there too, possibly because we were standing on ice as thick as the Empire State building is tall in sandals. Of course we wore sandals…what else would the Tyner’s wear. It was only cold for a few minutes as they only gave us 20 minutes on the glacier probably to keep people from exploring too much. There were a bunch of little streams of glacier water which was delicious and FREEZING!!!! It was almost too good, I don’t think we are used to such pure water. We explored as much as we could in the allotted time and before we knew it our tour guide/driver blew the horn of our ‘ice explorer’ and our adventure was over. (Thanks Papa for making sure we experienced that...It was awesome). I got a great shot of the Athabasca falls (about 45 minute drive from the glacier) with a rainbow….sooooo prettyyyyyyy!!!!

More kool lakes and rivers on our way to our next destination......

We then headed to Maligne Lake AKA Spirit Lake where the famous Spirit Island is. Well they say it is well known…We are not so sure, Jimmy thinks it is their way of getting tourists to go on the boat trip there (we would have gone without the island). The boat trip was awesome and the views were spectacular. The island itself was more of a peninsula with some trees maybe 25 X 10 max. I bet it was a bit more exciting back in the day when lake was fuller. It seems the ‘island’ is a newer attraction, as they used to just take people around the lake, which is the best part of the trip. Now the destination is ….The Island….The view from the island….well not exactly the island because you are not allowed on the island but on the land it is connected to. Anyway the view from there is really remarkable with mountains, trees and glaciers up against the teal water of the lake. Just beautiful!!!! I took quite a few pictures…but I’m sure you knew that. [Yes….Yes they did…-J] I don't think the pictures do it justice...but i took them anyway. This island is a different one which was more photogenic.

Finally on our way back to the main road from Spirit Lake we saw some wildlife….. A whole family or whatever you call it of Big Horned Sheep….Whoa were they big horns…We stopped in the middle of the road to get some close up shots and then we were on our way.

Soooooooo the truth of the matter is we probably bit off a little more than we can chew with this trip. But now there is no turning back. Most days are great but some have been difficult. Luckily Jimmy loves driving this thing because some days have been very looooooongggggggg driving days, like 7-9 hours. It is not too bad if we were staying in a place for a few days but usually we see what there is to see and then head out again. A few days we had to forgo sightseeing and just rest to refill our energy-tanks. We have also been having some trouble with our MOOSE…I know it is not a perfect machine (sorry guys...don't want to let you down, but it is the truth). First of all our generator doesn’t work properly and as you can see from our itinerary we are not at campsites where we can plug in every night. A generator is really important in a Wal-Mart parking lot or on the side of the road. We have learned to run as little as possible in times like these. The problem is the further east we go the hotter it gets and more mosquitoes we encounter [I loathe mosquitoes!! –J], therefore you can’t sleep with the windows open therefore you need the air which needs the generator to work. Yaddaa yadda yadda…you get my point.. hmmm lets see what else is not working….The batteries wont stay charged, the windshield wiper (on the drivers side of course) is not working (which made the last rain storm exciting) oh and we ran out of gas a couple of days ago on the Freeway…. Evidently you are out of gas before it gets to ‘E’. Oh one more thing Jimmy’s phone was turned off because we owed $950….WHAT????? That has to be impossible…no, it was correct, evidently the lady who signed us up for the Canadian plan misinformed us about our internet usage which we were told was unlimited….It was not. So until we get out of Canada we will be using the computer much less…. It looks like they are going to credit it to our account but we will probably be charged from now on… fun fun fun [I will be starting a new anti-Sprint blog, look for it soon –J]. Who said this was going to be easy….. I'm sure it will smooth out once we get through the learning curve.

Lets end this one on a happy note....Beautiful scenery and great company....Awesome experience!!!! God has kept us safe ....What more could we ask for.

'The' Chief

and.....Dixie

'The Little Princess'

Anyway, hope all is well with you and your family. We love hearing from you so let us know how you are doing. We miss you all and look forward to seeing you when we return or when you come visit us on the road. The MOOSE is big and loves company [You can sleep with Chief - J]. Hopefully by the time you get here we will have fixed all the kinks.

Love u long time,
Jimmy , Roilyn, Chief and Dixie