Calgary to Banff

Odometer - 3400

We’re on our way from Lethbridge through Calgary to Banff - a little over 200 miles. Brrrrr - it’s only in the low 20’s here - centigrade that is. Translated, that’s the high 60’s, quite a difference from the boiling 90’s of Wyoming and Montana. Petrol, (aka gas) is only $1.34 a liter, but translated, that’s almost $5.00 a gallon!

The best sight this morning - and it brought a lump to my throat - was to see Old Glory flying above a shopping center in Lethbridge. It’s a powerful thing to see our flag flying in a foreign country.

The road to Calgary is filled with farms and fields of yellow flowers which are canola. This is later harvested and processed into canola oil. Along with temperatures being in centigrade and gas in liters, the mileage is kilometers. We’re getting good in converting - we just minus the km by a third. We also passed the ski jump from when the Olympics were in Calgary.

Our timing was just right - we were able to catch sight of about five solar cars speeding toward Calgary, including the University of Minnesota’s and University of Calgary’s entries. MIT had one, too, but we didn’t see it.

Now we’re on Route 1, the trans-Canada highway which makes its way through the Canadian Rockies. The views are truly incredible. The clouds cling to the mountains which stretch as far as we can see into the sky. We should be in Banff in about an hour.