Day 15 - July 24, 2010 11:59 PM

July 24, 2010
11:59 PM

Arrived in Banff.

Well, the overfilled Revelstoke due to the highway closure began to empty out early in the morning about 6:00 AM. I could tell that by the continuous noises of clomping of people past our room, slamming card doors and engines racing. We roused ourselves at about 8:00. We shook off the cob webs and any other crawly things which may have attached themselves overnight. We decided to avoid the shower and continental breakfast offered by the hotel and repacked the car in a thankful mood that we had made it through the night.

P's suggestion of breakfast from McD's almost got him left in Revelstoke.

We picked up breakfast at Timmy's. We stopped at the bargain shop in attempt to buy J a couple of shirts so that he would stop wanting to do laundry. Unfortunately none of the name brand merchandise offered in Revelstoke suited his discerning taste. He didn't want Baby Gap or John Deer. We headed out onto the highway at 9:45 bound for Banff with B driving. I for one was glad to see Revelstoke in the rear view mirror and will probably avoid the place next time.

There was much construction between Golden and Banff and at one point we clocked about a 10 KM line of cars waiting to head west. We were somewhat delayed but overall made reasonable time arriving in Banff 2:00 PM or so.

Banff has the beauty of Jasper but with a lot more touristy shops and traffic. We checked into our pre-booked hotel, Red Carpet Inn, a major step up from the previous night, and finally decided to give into the requests for laundry. We took over 3 machines in the laundry area and did planning and swimming while the laundry went through. Overall, it wasn't too much of a waste of time.

We then went for supper and the Magpie And Stump, a Tex-Mex place.

After supper we strolled the main tourist area of Banff and noted the following points of interest: a drunken group of cross dressers possibly members of a wedding party, all streets in Banff are named after animals, Various touristy type items repeated many times in the various stores, a fully grown deer including antlers nibbling bushes on a busy street, large number of taxis for a town of this size, and of course the beauty of the surrounding mountains. Someone trying to park actually bumped into our car while a few of us were sitting in it. The bump was soft and no damage was evident.

Tomorrow we have a full day of activities planned before moving on to Calgary around Esuppertime. Looking forward to a less adventurous night.