Rock Stars

If you've ever dreamt of being a rock star, then you'll know it involves not only an excited crowd, but a great show and heaps of travel. Today was one of those days.

Setting out from the 'big smoke' of Kelowna, we travelled along the Okanagan Valley towards Lake Louise and Banff. Although the wildfires (bushfires) around BC were still burning up the pine forests, the morning radio happily announced that the air quality index was 11 (down from 36) on a scale normally in the range of 1-10. We took that as a positive sign and beetled up the road past red barns and an Angus cattle farm to spot this gem at Grindrod:

Gordon's New and Used (the Angus farm should have been a give away)

Perhaps the desire to recycle goes with the name!

Further up the road we drove through Sicamous, self proclaimed  house boat capital of Canada. We have no reason to doubt this since there were at least 500 house boats on the lake there.

You'll be overjoyed to learn that Revelstoke, the home of one of Canada's newest and happiest grandmas, a neat pink and white Studebaker and any number of cafes nestled under the Big Hill, has also been hit by the Fidget spinner craze. We gave the Fidget spinners a miss at $8 and invested in a great sandwich for the same price at the Modern Bakeshop and Cafe where they also serve great coffee.

David soaking up some of the mountain atmosphere with the Revelstoke bears

The mountains came into focus a short while later as we ventured through the Glacier Mountain National Park. We spared a thought for the many railway workers who lost their lives trying to build the Trans Canadian Railway through Roger's Pass (thanks Science Centre Vancouver for the background scoop on this). We hope those taking the Rocky Mountaineer appreciate it too.

Every direction had breathtaking views, including at Lake Louise and Banff. It was around this time that the rock star scenario kicked in until it became apparent the crowds were here for the scenery, not for us and we realised we were part of the groupies and not in the band (sigh).

Chris at Lake Louise

Banff - even here it was hazy from the fires

Our favourite signs for the day were:

Beware of the (insert animal here) moose/mountain goat/big horn sheep/elk.

We finally made it to Alberta 'wild rose country' and would like to give a special commendation to the Road Maintenance and Construction Department teams across British Columbia whose work at various points on culverts, tunnels, avalanche protection, potholes, bridges, road widening, traffic light installation as well as verge management and mowing enabled us to enjoy the scenic splendour of the Canadian Rockies at the ideal viewing speed of 0-50km/hour!

BC's secret tourist support service slowing traffic to enjoy the view