I guess I have been a bit slack on the posting side of things in the past week. I have a number of entries in my journal, but no real posting to speak of to chronicle my journey. I should possibly blog about why that is but it really isn’t that important right now. After leaving Vancouver on Tuesday, I headed for the hills, literally. Through the Rocky Mountains I went. Just before hitting the most famous of ranges, I spent a day in salmon arm and went and did some great 4wding with Neal and explored the lovely town with Neal and his mother. Another overnight bus ride and it was into Banff. What I have discovered is that most tourist towns don’t start opening until at least 7 or 8 am, which is generally well after when the bus gets in. tells you how well traveled my path is!

After ducking through over night and seeing the beauty of the Rockies, I jumped off the bus in Banff. Now Banff is a tourist town and makes no apologies for it. They know why they exist and they seem pretty dammed proud of it too. The entire township was established because they found a mineral hot springs, and could get the Hoi Polloi off the train and squeeze some more money out of them before they continued on their way! But is a beautiful spot and would not mind returning there to play a round of golf on their course.

I then jumped on the bus, headed into Calgary and spent the evening hanging with a scouting friend. Was a good chance to catch up, but I really disliking cigarette smoke? Friday I jumped on a bus, headed to Edmonton, met up with Sam, and we drove down to her home town of Camrose, a small pokey place about an hour to the south ish of Edmonton. It happened to be the weekend of a community festival called jaywalkers, where a large number of community groups put on sales as do stores and the carnival comes to town. All in all it s a pretty big deal. Interestingly the prize games and rides were almost identical to the one that you get back in the good old Land of Oz!

Well after a fairly basic weekend, including a trip to the cinema to see Shrek 4, we returned to Edmonton, explored an area called white ave (I think) and then went our separate ways. I had decided to jump on a bus to Jasper, after debating between that and places called Fort McMurray & Prince George. Jasper is another little pictures rocky mountain town and Fort McMurray is the home of the tar sands. Don’t ask me what is in Prince George, I didn’t get that far down the decision making process before I struck it from the list. So after spending a few hours in jasper and watching the sun come up (arrived at 0330 departed 0630) I headed back to Edmonton. I have spent the day wandering the town and seeing what there is to be seen. Which to be honest isn’t a hell of a lot! The convention centre is pretty cool as it has been cut out of the hill and built underground and the tunnels linking buildings is pretty awesome, but that’s about it. If I headed out into the burbs I could go to the “west Edmonton mall” but I have been there once before and to be completely honest, it’s just a mall.

Well tonight its back onto the bus and it’s off to Saskatchewan & Saskatoon & Regina. Then I am going to try to make it as far as Thunder Bay and then back into Winnipeg for the weekend.

RANDOM DETOUR NOTE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! - going to Cow town tonight instead, and then to regina and winnapeg. i will figure out what next in the next few days!!!!