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| Storm clouds and choppy water on Waterton Lake |
Trouble in Pincher Creek
Headed north to the big town of Pincher Creek, population just over 3,000. It's the biggest town around and has a Walmart. This, you have to understand, is important because Walmart offers free wifi, among other amenities, like MacDonald's.
Since crossing into Canada, I've put my phone in airplane mode: no calls, no texts either sent or received. While I'm in Canada, everything will be over wifi. This is taking some adjustment, but I'm figuring it out.
I also had to get Canadian cash. Unfortunately, both of my Ally debit cards were declined at the Walmart ATM, which led to some consternation and a bit of momentary panic. Without a phone, there was no way to contact Ally about this. I was able to get cash with my credit card, but using the credit card incurs fees upon fees every time, so I'm going to try to do this as little as possible.
There is always something.
(Aside: Since this happened, I've been able to contact Ally, and the cards SHOULD work: when I tried to withdraw from my savings account, I should have used the "checking account" choice, go figure that one... They're not sure why the withdrawal from the checking account didn't work, so I'm going to have to try that one again, but this time from an "AllPoint" location that doesn't charge any fees.)
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| After the storm: prairie rainbow |
Shopping
While the rain poured outside, I did pick up some fresh food, so figured I was set for about a week of exploration.
This was my first time shopping in Canada, and it was interesting to see prices. Fortunately for this US resident, the current exchange rate is $1 CND = $0.79 USD, so even though prices seem high, they're not.
Some things are less expensive:
- Whole cloves: $5 CND (in the US, it's about $7 USD)
- Maple leaf cookies (I couldn't resist; others are about the same): $3 CND
- Donuts: 4/$1.00 CND is a steal (which I didn't buy).
Some things are about the same:
- Block ice: $2.50 CND is really $1.96: exactly what I've been paying in the US
- Bread ranges from $3.99 CND to $1.00 CND.
- Milk: $2.59/2 liters
Some things are more expensive:
- Gas: $1.09 CND/liter = $3.25 USD/gal (actually not as expensive as I'd feared)
I also sat in the car and posted to FB while it rained, and decided what to do the rest of the day.
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| Out on the prairie, looking back to stormclouds over the Rockies |
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| Lake Beauvais at sunset |
Lake Beauvais PP
I decided to head out to nearby Lake Beauvais Provincial Park and see if I could get a campsite, since I now had cash to use. It was a pretty drive, and the GPS route took me through some interesting backroads. Many of the backroads are well-maintained gravel.
The lake itself is pretty, and if the weather had been better, I would have been tempted to stay here and put the kayak in the water. Canada geese were swimming in the water.
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| What a great idea: lifejacket loaner station! |
Alas, however, even on a weeknight, all the campsites at this late hour were taken: either by people in tents/RVs, or there was a "R" for "reserved" on what appeared to be available sites. I've heard that this is one of the problems with the Canadian campsite reservation system: people will reserve for a full week (in order to get a site for a weekend), but not actually be there for the whole time. So those people coming in and wanting a last-minute site cannot get sites, even though they are vacant.
I can understand that this is working for the government because on the books their campgrounds are full, but it's aggravating for people like me coming through who can't use those empty sites.
I'm a little uneasy that I won't be able to find sites as the summer progresses and families are traveling, but that's the way it goes.
ALL of the walk-in tent sites were available, but the weather was cold, the wind was blowing hard, and everything was wet from the rain. It just was not an attractive prospect to pay $23 CDN for an uncomfortable site.
Sleeping in the car has spoiled me!
I drove back to Pincher Creek and stealth camped in a parking lot. Lots to do tomorrow!
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