The Black Sheep Cafe

Jasper, Alberta

Saturday, August 23, 2008, 2:30 pm Mountain Time

Weather:  Perfect.  Warm, Sunny, and Dry.

As you can see, gentle reader, we have finally found an Internet connection, but loading pictures is still pretty slow on these satellite connections here in the boondocks.  Soooo, I loaded the one picture of Karen and Charley at Lake Louise, taken the other day, and will try to post some more when (and if) we get a faster connection.  The rest of the postings were written as indicated and saved.

Anyway, all is going well.  We are now in a beautiful campground in Jasper National Park (with cellphone service!), just south of Jasper the town.  We'll be here through Monday night, then it's off to the Peace River Country and a possible run up to Yellowknife, Northwest Territories.  We've never been there and it's the end of the road in this part of the continent, so we're thinking of giving it a go.  We plan to drive north to around Grande Prairie, Alberta, next Tuesday, and ask locally about the road, weather, etc., and then make a final decision.  There's a developed private RV park in Grande Prairie, with groceries, full hook-ups, and WiFi, so we'll check in (we hope) from there on Tuesday night.

The country around here is (still) absolutely gorgeous.  The rain we had the other day and night was snow at the higher elevations, so the mountain tops are glistening with fresh powder.  As for us, we awoke this morning at Rampart Creek primitive campground with the outside temp at 37F--brrrrrrr!  The temperature inside the camper wasn't much better--a cold 45F.  We argued over who was going to get out of the warm bed to turn on the heater and Karen won the honor (girls just can't hold it as long as guys!).  The heater worked fine and soon the camper was warm and cozy.  And as soon as the sun rose above the surrounding mountains, the temperature started to head for the 70'sF, where it is now.