USA

Out of Canada into Washington state

Chrissy recommended 'Quick Shuttle' service over the Greyhound as it's quicker and there's less hounding when going through the border to the US, apparently they're more rigorous with Greyhound buses. Plus the Quick Shuttle left just down the road from the flat and had only 12 other people on the bus, the benefits were immediate, bus was sparse, no one smelt bad or was weird and the bus was clean and in good condition. The border had the nicest immigration officials I've ever come across. They only had to process 12 people in that instance so I suppose that helped (and none of those people smelt bad).

It was another 2-3 hours to get to Seattle from the border, and the bus driver dropped me off right by the hostel, he was the nicest bus driver, he even gave some smelly weird guy $2.25 for a coffee in Vancouver, and he sang to himself and was generally humorous, he reminded me of a goon which made me feel at home.
I had booked the Green Tortoise Hostel, also recommended by Chrissy, breakfasts included and free dinners 3 times a week plus a bunch of things organised throughout the week, as well as free computer and internet use*. Some enlightened being had had the idea to put curtains round each dorm bed, which made them more into wee bedrooms, each bed had its own light and fan and plugs. Plus the bathrooms were all individual rooms rather than communal areas, so each floor had a series of private bathrooms, all tiled and decorated in a manner befitting a rather nice hotel. And all this right opposite Pike Market Place, a fantastic, lively, messy working market place. I found Seattle ugly but very interesting, and the food is just wonderful. After wandering around the market place and eating some very filling pancakes, I walked to an area called 'Seattle Center' where there's a bunch of interesting places like IMAX cinema, science museum, sky tower, music and culture museum. I didn't have time to go to all so went to the EMP (Experience Music Project) as there was a bunch of exhibitions including an Avatar exhibition, a horror movie and sci-fi exhibitions. I was just about done and found an area full of instruments with mini booths around them, so you could play away on guitar, keyboard, drums, mixing desks. There were even completely sound proof booths which gave you 10 minutes slots to use. I spent about an hour playing drums and was pleased I could at least knock out a standard rock drum beat. I must have spent 5 hours in that place.

The next day I took a tour to look around the Boeing Factory just north of Seattle. It's the biggest building by volume in the world, the building is mindbogglingly big, imagine the planet construction building in Hitch Hikers Guide and your going in the right direction. You enter via a sort of portal...actually an underground tunnel, a network of which run underneath the building, and from one end - look infinite. The building is in sections, each section building a different class of boeing, there are massive horizontal cranes which move across the roof, and are as impressive as the constructions on the ground. We even saw the newest Boeing called the Dreamliner, flight is still evolving it seems, and the things they are doing are pretty amazing.

Notes:

*Hostels in Canada had charged for computer use, but WIFI is free.

Back to BC

It was a long and crowded bus journey back to Vancouver, 14 hours and the bus was full. Why 50 other people would want to get a bus overnight, I didn't invite them so I don't they were there.
Anyway, I had arranged to go climbing again in Squamish with a Meet Up group the next day, it was good to get another days climbing in and justify lugging the climbing stuff around all month. Plus having a base in Vancouver at Jim and Chrissy's place was very helpful as I could plan my departure from Canada and do some research into the America part of the trip.
I arrived not as tired as I expected and thankfully I had a seat that fully reclined and stayed there, although after 4 hours or so the seat had turned to concrete so I used my down jacket for extra padding. It was a 6.40pm departure and it turned out a girl from my dorm was travelling on the bus too, it was nice to have a friendly face to chat to for a bit before watching a film out the window called Grasslands. Fast forward umpteen hours and we're in Vancouver again.
Jim was working but Chrissy was around so we went over to an area called Jericho beach which was very nice, a lovely grassy park area next to a big long wide sandy beach. This called for an Oreo Cookie ice cream, nom nom.

The next day was rock climbing day back in Squamish, it was quite cold and everyone agreed May had been much better than June, and this June was the worst June for a while, typical isn't it, go to the other side of the planet and the weather's still poop. Still the climbing was good, even though it was a strange slab/ crack combo, it was great to be climbing again with a bunch of new people, shame I wasn't staying longer as I felt at home with this crowd. Still the USA beckons...

Calgary

I didn't like Calgary very much. Full of weirdos. It does have a free tram service for a length of downtown and the second biggest gym in North America, I guess I had scenes from Cool Runnings in my mind. Probably most interesting thing is the Stampede which happens in a few weeks time in late June.

Drumheller

From Edmonton I took the bus to Calgary, the only reason being was that was the closest I could get via bus to Drumheller, which was where I actually wanted to go.  There were no tours going to Drumheller from Calgary until Saturday and no buses so I hired a car to drive there.

Drumheller is all about Dinosaurs, you can't see the town until your very near, it's in a valley that looks like a miniature grand canyon called The Badlands. For all the dull pancake flat land that surrounds it, Drumheller is a very interesting area and if you're not expecting it would be quite a surprise and a welcome change.
I first went to the visitors centre distinguished by the huge dinosaur by the entrance, you can go inside the dinosaur and looks out from it's mouth. After which I had brunch at a nice cafe called Cafe Ole! The Tyrrell Dinosaur museum I had primarily come to see was open till late so I went on the dinosaur driving trail first to see the Hoodoos - strange sand stone sculptures that have weathered into columns protected by harder stone caps, Horseshoe canyon, various lookouts and an old mining area which had a compound knitting elevator*. At the north and of the trail is a tiny ferry, which is more like a moving bit of road that crosses the river, it's free and you need to ring the bell for the operator.
It made for a long day but having wheels again, albeit just for the day, was great.

Notes:

• A good map of the self guided tour can be found here.
• *!

Edmonton

I only reason I went to Edmonton is because I was talking to a couple in Banff who were on holiday from Vancouver and they told me about this weird mall that was the biggest mall in North America. I don't really like shopping malls so can't explain my reasons other than it sounded interestingly bizarre: It has a full sized ice skating rink, roller coasters in a theme park, a Typhoon Lagoon fake beach and wave machine and slides, a mock pirate ship with water dodgems and a seal show, a themed eating ally way, and of course lots of shops.

I watched a future Olympian training with his coach on the public rink, he must of been only about 6, I'm not sure what language the coach was speaking, or I should say shouting but the body language was obvious. I thought the little lad was amazing, he started of skating forward in a circle with his arms outstretched, he then switched to skating backwards while keeping his head facing the same way, then drew a figure of 8 with one leg held straight behind and then swept the leg forward to propel himself into a spin with his hands stretched towards towards the front and a then a tighter spin by drawing the legs and arms in before finishing into a backward skate balancing on one leg with arms outstretched again. It was beautiful and graceful but the coach didn't seem to think so, he huffed and puffed, raised his arms and eyes heavenward, shook his head and kept exiting the rink to put his head in his hands. The little boy just continued on practicing, at various points the coach would come out and push and pull the boy into the correct poses, and at one point to boy started to cry, I'm not surprised but I guess that's how athletes are made. I must have watched them for an hour mesmerized. Previously 2 older ladies who must have been figure skaters had been gently skating and spinning with the most incredible grace. It was wonderful to watch.

Average tourist RV

Jasper

I arrived in Jasper at 5pm, the hostel was 7km out of town so I was hoping there was some kind of bus there. It was only 5pm. The grumpy lady in the information center said the last one was at 5.50pm, I repeated it back to her so make sure I'd heard her right. I then phoned the hostel to make sure they had room and went out to get the bus, then back into the info center to ask exactly where the stop was, I spoke to a different lady this time who said the last bus was at 5.15pm. Ah great, another informative information center, if you're used to visitor centers in New Zealand, prepare for disappointment with these places. They are hit and miss. So I had to fork out $50 that night to stay in a little B&B style place without the second B, but it wasn't so bad in fact, I haggled $10 of the original price of $60 and I had to whole lower floor to myself plus had a TV in my room and could watch a film in a proper bed, luxury.

Lake Louise

Bitter bitter disappointment awaited me upon arrival to Lake Louise because all the tea houses were still closed or had closed down. Apparently there's a nice lake but I only really cared about the cream teas.
After almost leaving immediately, I decided to at least go to the hostel in the hope of more information and dry place to put my pack down. The hostel lifted my spirits and the reception staff let me store my bag in the locker room until check in and have use of the kitchen, where upon I ate my breakfast of a grapefruit. I'd found the cheapest breakfast is a grapefruit costing $1, I don't eat much in the mornings so for me it was perfect.

The situation wasn't as bleak as first feared, although there was no chance of a cream tea I could at least get a free bus to the gondola and get the 'ride and dine' ticket which includes a buffet lunch plus I had a $3 off voucher the hostel had given me. The closet thing to cream were the half and half pots for putting in your coffee or tea, up the top of gondola there was a wildlife info center about big bitey creatures like bears, cougars, wolverines, whilst in the center it started to snow.
Later I took the shuttle to Lake Louise and walked around it's edge to the end of the lake to a big rock wall. The lake was still thawing out and looked beautiful, it had long slithers of snow and ice that were gently melting away, the waters a turquoise colour and looks so pure, although it would be far too cold for swimming anytime of the year. Next to the lake and visible from the gondola is another massive Fairmount hotel, this ones actually quite ugly in my view, just a massive uninspiring concrete mansion, inside it's much better, except they charge silly prices for a cream tea.

I booked a tour to see the Columbia ice fields and combined this with a way of getting to Jasper, Greyhound doesn't run the ice field parkway as it's called between Lake Louise and Japser but Brewster's did.

The next day in the kitchen before departing for my ice field trip I bumped into Mark again who'd given me a lift from Squamish to Whistler and who I'd camped with in Whistler, it turns out he'd sold the Jeep he bought in Squamish and sent all his camping stuff on to his finally destination in Canada and was now traveling light, he said buying the car was a mistake and he'd decided to make his trip much shorter. "It all has to be figured out eventually" he said. Very true. It was good to see a familiar face though.

Notes:

• The HI Lake Louise Alpine Center hostel is very nice, its also quite expensive, most the places in the Rockies are, but mostly it's really nice.
• Otherwise you can stay at the Fairmont Hotel on the lake's edge for $279 a night.

Banff

The hills are alive with the sound of music...

The greyhound bus to Banff takes 10 hours from Penticton, any traveling that takes less than a day seems fast to me, plus the scenery certainly makes for an enjoyable ride, even if I still ended up with a seat that refused to recline without easing back up a few seconds later. I concluded that most bus seats are rated for persons much heavier than myself and thus have the weight to keep the seat reclined, which I guess is most people, except for normal sized children.

The last few hours of the journey which should have been the most spectacular were spoilt but some chatterbox who either started his journey from that point or moved from another place in the bus to a man sitting the next row to the side of me. He then regaled the poor man with his life story and acted as tour guide for everything we went past.
"On the right you can see Spruce and Pine, Spruce and Pine and on the right there's Spruce and Pine...Some very good fishing on the right there, spent a long time fishing...We're about 40 minutes from banff now, it's 45 minutes from Banff to Lake Louise, so I guess we should be there in about 40 minutes...That mountain right there is about 5000 feet high, it's a long day hike, you can do it in a day, we started at 6am, at the top by noon, it took all day so it's a really long hike, it's a big mountain..." And so on until we got to Banff, by which time his continuous drivel had given me a headache, the man who had been the sounding board had been too polite to pretend to fall asleep, I hope he learnt his lesson.

As the bus pulled into Banff I saw Saven walked across the parking area towards the bus station, she had arrived at 5am that morning, walked up a hill and was about to get another bus to somewhere else. It was great to see a friendly face straight away and a really nice surprise, especially as she had hot food and shared it with me before I went of to find the HI hostel. Which she warned was up a hill and a bit out of town. Groan, I was too tired for lugging the pack far, I bid her farewell and went off to inquire about bus routes, as I was waiting for the bus a girl remarked on the remarked of the size of my pack and turned out she was going to the same hostel, she told I driver I was with her as she showed her free bus pass, it would appear HI Banff gives guest free bus passes for the duration of the stay.
Banff HI hostel is nice but filled with people on working holiday visas which made me feel 100 years old, the kitchen was also too small for the number of people, right next to the hostel is a massive Parks Canada campsite, yes for $27.40 you can lie on the cold ground for a night, and if you want to use a fire pit, that's an extra $8 per night excluding tax.

Despite the expense, Banff is very nice, I walked up Tunnel Mountain which was going to have a tunnel built through it but in the end didn't, and enjoyed the hot springs up Sulpher mountain which gives super views over the mountains. I walked back down the hill because I just fancied the walk and scared myself silly going through the forest on my own with no bear spray or bells. I had a look around the imposingly huge Fairmont hotel, which is terribly grand, I thought it was the building out of 'The Shining', but it wasn't, I'm sure it uses the same carpet in places though.

Notes:

• The hot springs can be accessed by bus from town, they cost $7.30. It's probably the cheapest activities in Banff, aside from walking up Tunnel Mountain.
• The cheapest room at the Fairmont Banff Springs hotel is $329 and goes up to over $1000 for the suites.

Penticton, Okanagan Valley

From Whistler, it was back to Vancouver and on the bus to Okanagan valley, a wine growing area. It reminded me of the south of France, with nice low rolling hills, the smell of pines and sandy dust, and nice cycle ways. Except south of France doesn't have cougars, bears and big bitey things like that, unless something strange has happened since I was last there.

It was warm in the valley, quite a change from the mountains, I hired a bike for a day to tour the 'Kettle Trail', a nice bicycle route that goes to the next town and maybe further, but I wasn't going very far, just as far as the winery's, which there were plenty.

I wanted to check out the Skaha Bluff area reknown for rock climbing, Canada dosn't do small local town to town buses like in the UK, its either Greyhound or just within the immediate town, so I walked there with a girl from the hostel called Saven. It was a long walk, but the bluffs where worth it. We didn't do any climbing but we scrambled to the top of the bluff to get some great views over the valley.

We had a bit of pressure on to get back to the Greyhound station before 5pm so Saven could get her next bus to Banff that afternoon and I could buy my ticket for Banff the next day before the office shut.

Okanagan, a nice place, but a bit awkward to get about without a car, like most places in Canada.

Notes:

• Bikes can be hired from Freedom Bikes for $25 for half a day, this was very good value and included lock, helmet and a decent mountain bike.
• It's warm.
• The HI Penticton hostel is only a few minutes walk from the Greyhound bus station.