Day 7- So much to see, so little time!

First item on our agenda for today was doing some laundry. We headed back to the laundromat - this time we were successful! It cost 3 loonies per wash ( we did 3 loads) and .25 for 4 minutes of drying time! As you can imagine, we went threw a LOT of quarters!! From there we headed out for one last Banff experience before leaving the area. We took a ride on the Banff Gondola. You go from 5,194 ft. to 7,484 ft.- a climb of 2,290 ft. in 8 minutes. At the summit there is an observation building that allows you a spectacular panoramic view of the area. We took in the view, met a couple on "holiday" from Ireland, and had a bite to eat, before taking the ride back to the bottom. We headed out of Banff around 4PM - we barely scratched the surface of what is available to do and see in this area. (Original Tea House in Banff) To really appreciate Banff/Lake Louise, allow yourself a good week! It would have been awesome to take in the Banff Hot Springs, Columbia Ice Fields, and Jasper. We needed to get as far down the road to Vancouver as we could. We settled on Kamloop - a 397 mile drive from Banff. Once again, we were treated to beautiful scenery, lots of lakes, crossed the Continental Divide, and saw some areas that reminded us of the Oregon High Desert. The Trans-Canada highway for this leg of our trip, was mainly just 2 lanes - so the going was a little slower. We rolled into Knutsford RV campground around 9:15PM (we also crossed into the Pacific Time Zone, so we got an extra hour!). The campground office was closed, but someone must have seen us pull in because a guy showed up within minutes to check us in. Cute campground, but upon entering the restrooms after setting up, oops!, I mean plugging in our van, we noticed a signed taped to the restroom mirrors that said, "The county health inspector has determined that this water should be boiled or treated with bleach before drinking." GREAT!!! - so we decided at that point we could wait until we got to Vancouver to take a shower!

P.S. Thanks for the emails and blog comments - it's great to hear from you and we look forward to being back in touch with all of you shortly!