Welcome to Canmore

3059 miles after leaving Vermont, we have arrived in Canmore, our winter home for the next 6 months. 10 days driving in some fairly interesting winds is the hardest I've worked in years but at least the weather stayed dry and above zero - I really didn't want to drive badger on snowy frozen roads. We managed to take the northern route across North Dakota and I now know why they call Montana "Big Sky" country - there is nothing else to look at. Actually some of the badlands areas were quite interesting with good layers and colours, but not really enough to compensate for the prairies which are just dull dull dull

I was worried about the border crossing as we had a lot invested in this one - apartment rent, lift pass, Churchill trip and flights home - and the options for a plan B to get out of the US quickly from northern Montana were quite limited, plus bringing the vehicles over for more than 6 months was on my mind, but the Canadians were their usual friendly, welcoming selves and we didn't even have to turn the motor off before they had enough info and stamped us in. If only the US were as sensible and pragmatic.

Badger is now stored away for the winter and we'll see if the tarpaulins actually stay put this year - at least if they do blow off we can get back to him and redo them, although if they do get free we would probably never see them again as they sail off over the prairies,

The apartment is the largest and most modern we've had to date, but with wooden floors and shiny leather furniture. I think the best description is slippery - I keep sliding off the sofa whilst trying to watch TV. We brought  a second carload of stuff back up yesterday so once that is unpacked we should be able to start to get into some routine, get used to sleeping at 1400m altitude and I need to get out on my bike a bit to remind the legs of what they are for in the couple of weeks before the mountains open....