The Canadian Rockies Tour with Fantasy - Canmore/Banff

Day 1, Friday July 11:  Ted and I drove from Calgary to Canmore, BC to start our Rockies tour.  We arrived mid-day and got set up.  The campground was older so had small spaces and only 30 amps of power.  We had a neighbor also in the tour that was in a Class B RV which is a smaller RV like a van but tricked out with a kitchen, bath and bedroom area.  We were trying to figure out where we could park the car when they suggested we use their space since they didn't have a tow car and were planning to try to ride share to the events.  So we met Jackie and Peggy and became fast friends!  It was a pleasure to have them with us when we didn't have transportation provided by Fantasy.

The road to Canmore:

Our campsite view:

We had our orientation meeting at the Iron Goat Pub that afternoon.  Our wagon masters, Bill and Tanna Flomer were also staff in our Calgary tour, as were the tail gunners Vern and Chris Beadle.  We had 26 rigs on the Rockies tour with 55 people.  Everyone took a turn introducing themselves and the team let us know what was going to be happening the next 15 days.

Tanna, our wagon master (Bill and Chris in the background):

That evening we went to a local playhouse to see the "Oh Canada Eh" dinner show.  There were 10 people per table and we got to know a few more people.  We had a good dinner and the show was really fun.  The waiters/waitresses were the performers and they all had good voices, it was a good start to the trip!

A couple of cast members in the show...our waiter was the cute young man on the left!

Day 2, Saturday, July 12:  This morning we had a driving tour of the Banff area.  Tanna narrated the drive for about 8 cars full of people.  About 15 minutes into our tour, we ran into these two (not literally of course)!  They stayed right there while we all passed by stopping and taking their picture!

We had a beautiful drive up Tunnel Mountain and from the view point were able to see the Banff Springs hotel!

From there we traveled down the mountain toward the hotel and to the Bow waterfall.  The Bow river runs down into Calgary and through town!

The group tour ended and our next stop was the Fairmont Banff Springs Hotel.  Our neighbors, Jackie and Peggy were riding with us and were also interested in lunch at the hotel!  It is a beautiful hotel and we only saw a small part of it but did have the brunch in the main dining room!

We drove through the town of Banff and headed home to relax before having our
"travel briefing" for the next day's drive.  We were headed to Lake Louise on Day 3!

 Smoky fire sunset:

Loving Banff..."Ain't Life Grand!"