A Lot Can Happen in 32 Hours (Part 1)

Summer flies by so quickly. I work every other weekend, which cuts the summer weekends down to 2 a month. June had a wedding and a funeral. July had a very important birthday and a family reunion.  Add in the garden, yard work and stormy weather and Boom! It's August. 

Thursday morning I realized that Rob and I had one day off, in common, on Saturday. So I suggested a day trip to Jasper.  We could leave right after I got off work on Friday.  Pack a picnic supper. Come home late on Saturday.  I could cross 2 National Parks off my Adventure List in one day! (You drive through Banff National Park to get to Jasper)

I got right onto all the hotel apps, and was feeling very smug that I found a room in Jasper, on the long weekend, for $200. With a lake view! Feeling smug...my first mistake!

Things were all falling into place. I made up some egg salad for sandwiches. Had everything packed up before I went to work. I stocked up on drinks and car snacks. My last client even canceled, so we got on the road 2 hours earlier than expected.  We had a beautiful day to drive and a great playlist. I should have known...I was smug...

We get to Jasper at 7:00. I pull up the booking, to get directions to the hotel. GPS says to do a U-turn, we passed our turn. No problem, we turn around, take the next right. Then GPS says to stay on this road for 100 km! What!!!

I go to the hotel's website.  The Jasper Way Inn is in Clearwater, British Columbia! So I call the hotel to explain what happened, apparently it happens a lot! I ask the very nice man how far they are from Jasper, thinking we might just have a different mountain adventure. 3 1/2 hours!  If it was the middle of the afternoon, I might have done it.

Instead, we pulled over, did some rapid searching and found a room in Hinton. Keep in mind, it's Friday night, of a long weekend. We were very grateful to find a place. 
Fortunately, Hinton is only 40 minutes from Jasper. Our room was fine. It was clean, it had an air conditioner unit. Our promised lake view from the Jasper Way Inn was now the gravel topped roof of the bar. There was also a feature I have never seen in a Canadian hotel. The bathroom was down the hall, like a dorm.
It's all part of the adventure. We turned on the AC and went for wings and wine! We found nice steakhouse and our waitress
was delighted to meet Leif and Saga.


Lesson learned,  never be smug when you think you got a great deal! Stay tuned for Part 2!

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