Friday 25 Sep

We started the day to cool weather and a beautiful sunrise. Last night we met a really nice couple at the hotel. They were from Alberta, Canada. We ate breakfast with them this morning and had an interesting visit. They own a ranch in Alberta and were visiting the US for about 10 days. (He had a heavy British accent and wore a cowboy hat!) Just seemed ironic. We decided to take the last road into the Glacier National park that is open from the East side of the park, Many Glacier road. Believe me this ride was significantly more beautiful than the Road to the Sun (at least the part of it we were allowed to travel yesterday.) The picture of James shows Salamander glacier in the background. This is one of three glaciers we were able to view from this road. While we were stopped to make this picture, we heard our first “ROLL TIDE” of the trip. The guy was from Birmingham but is managing one of the hotels in the area. The picture that has the lake in the foreground also shows the tip of the largest glacier that you can view from the main road. The round dome in the center is the tip of the glacier. We came upon a beautiful waterfall and I got a little risky. I climbed to the top of a huge rock in order to get a good view of the waterfall. Scary but really worth it. As we were leaving the park, I remarked to James that the only wildlife we had seen were cows in the middle of the road. Just as we drove out of the park there was a BEAR! He was right on the side of the road, eating the leaves from a tree. We tried to get a good picture but didn’t want to get too close. MADE MY DAY! After we left the park, we headed toward Canada. While still on the Blackfoot Reservation, we spotted a teepee which appeared to be occupied. Then as we left the reservation, we saw the Indian sign that marks the boundary. We entered Canada without any problem. We had brought our passports and the questions asked at the border were pretty standard. You can see from the picture that the speed limit in Canada is different than the US. First time I have driven 100 and been legal! It is KPH – not MPH. We had a great experience with Enterprise Rental car company in Calgary. The rental car we are driving needed an oil change and we could not find the places that Enterprise in Athens had told us to use. We also didn't get a return call from the Athens office. We found the Enterprise here and they took care of everything (including the manager driving to the oil change place and getting them to take our car immediately so we didn't have to wait.) They also had us pull the car into their washing bay and gave it a quick wash job (which it really needed) and even provided us with bottles of cold water. I don't know if it was the southern accent but they certainly treated us as very special people. Then when we got to the hotel, they gave us a complimentary upgrade to a suite! Sure do like Canada. We are staying in Calgary tonight and heading to Banff tomorrow. Another GREAT day.