Retire to a condo in South Florida? No way! Sell our West Palm Beach home and live in an RV and travel. That was an easy choice for Karen and I. We have seen most of the favorite places in the west. In our view, nothing quite compares with Alberta, nature at her magnificent best. There is no better way to let the wonder seep into your very soul than in an RV. If you don/t own one, rent one when you visit Alberta, especially if you have children.

We found food prices slighter cheaper than in the U.S., fuel about the same cost, and the same for camping fees. But lodging -- get ready for higher prices in the desirable places, and, reservations are tough, all the more reason to travel by RV.

Plan on using your credit card. If you pay in cash in Canada, you will not likely get the best exchange rate. When you receive your credit card bill, the conversion will have been made.

We had no problem at the border. We were impressed by Canada/s neatness. Buildings were in good repair, no junk laying about. We didn/t see any fields of junked cars from the highway. No question about it, the Canadians appreciate what they have more than we do. If you are from the U.S., they consider you one of them. In some ways their camp grounds are better, in some ways not. We didn/t find any with laundry facilities. Otherwise, the Canadians put a lot of effort into making your site attractive and your experience great in their parks. We really appreciated that. We felt like most welcome guests.

Most of Canada/s camping parks have dumps and potable water. They are not crowded. By getting there at around 11 A.M., we usually found a site big enough to accommodate our large rig, and most of the time in one of the choice locations in the park, even though the directories say they don/t have sites big enough for our rig. You can/t always go by the camp directories. We leave from 6 a.m. to 9 a.m. and usually don/t drive more than a hundred miles at a time. This way you see for yourself what/s there, leaving you time move on and find a site if you don/t like what you see.

We bought a pass to all of Canada/s parks for $36 U.S. If you plan on remaining a week or longer, do that. You will find yourself going in and out of the National Parks, and paying every time you enter.

The town of Banff is interesting, but crowded. We didn/t spend much time there, but recommend taking the cable car ride to the top of Sulphur Mountain. That was exciting. Camping facilities were not a problem. There are three large campgrounds, but follow the rule that the earlybird gets the worm.

We headed north from Banff to Lake Louise and parked in Lake Louise Campground, and, in a site with electric hookups. There were free shuttle busses from our camp to both Lake Louise and Moraine Lake. Groceries were limited and sky high at Lake Louise, as was fuel. We didn/t particularly enjoy the frequent freight trains rumbling by.

We especially enjoyed Waterfowl Campground on the way from Banff to Jasper. We parked on the shore of the lake, awed by a backdrop of rugged snow capped peaks. What would a view like that cost you? Don/t ask. The mountains and glaciers were spectacular, especially the Columbia Icefield, the biggest south of the Arctic Circle. After a rather steep climb on foot, bucking and icy wind flowing down from the glacier, we actually walked on it.

We arrived at enormous Whistler Campground, just south of the town of Jasper, in Jasper National Park at noon in early August, in the peak of the season, and waited in line for 30 minutes for a site. We gladly took one without hookups, since that was all that was available, and drove by smaller sites, with hookups, including sites with campfires, smelling burning garbage, and finally arrived at our site with nothing between us and Whistler Mountain/s forest. We backed into a large wooded space, and saw elk and black bears to make things more exciting. Our site was missing a firebox as were all sites in our area, which left Karen convinced that roasting marshmallows was not all that important to our happiness. It/s nice to be self-contained. We did the right thing by buying a generator.

The town of Jasper, while taking us back in time, was crowded, but not as crowded as Banff. There was so much to do outside of Jasper, we spent little time in town. Imagine a supermarket with a dozen or so parking spaces. We had to park blocks away to shop for groceries and wash our clothes, the price for preserving the past. At least prices were reasonable. And, not including the above mentioned, we enjoyed every minute of our three weeks in Alberta, and will return again.