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Birds

 We haven’t been driving through especially birdy places, but we’ve been keeping an eye out.  Our most recent sightings have been: A trumpeter swan from a long way away.  A red-necked grebe from really close. And boreal chickadees.  No photo of the boreal chickadees; they wouldn’t hold still long enough.  Bit by bit, our bird count grows.  We’re at 421 for the year.   We’re at the Missoula KOA, along with many others. 2017 summer trip map We were lucky to get a spot.  They’re totally full. 
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Voltaren gel

 It’s prescription only.  It helps with joint pain, but it’s really expensive, so it’s like gold at our 55 and older park in the Valley.  Partially used tubes get passed around.  Judy uses it for the pain in her wrists. Our tube is running low on this trip though, so Judy asked a pharmacist at a drug store in Saskatchewan if there was anything non-prescription she could use until she got the prescription renewed back in the states.  She got an unexpected response.  Voltaren gel is over-the-counter in Canada; no prescription required.  After our insurance covers their share, it still costs us ninety dollars for a two-tube prescription 1% active ingredient.  Here in Canada Judy bought a tube of non-prescription 2.3% Voltaren gel for $18.  $18 Canadian!  (As best I can calculate, that’s about $2.47 U.S.  J) I know there can be business reasons for charging more for a drug than it takes to produce it.  There are research and development costs to cover.  There is our free-market economy that allows producers to charge what the market will bear.  But I have to wonder, why would the free-market be so different in Canada than in the U.S.? Back in the USSA.  We’re in Shelby Montana. 2017 summer trip map Another city park.  Lake Sheloole.  It feels like looking out across rolling grasslands of Dances with Wolves.  
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You can’t get there from here

 First, we meant to go through the Canadian Rockies at Jasper National Park, but Jasper is such a popular destination, we couldn’t get a reservation anywhere near it, so we re-routed.  We were taking a more northerly route up to Dawson Creek (the official start of the Alaskan Highway), then following Highway 97 down through Prince George to Vancouver. We were okay with reservations through Dawson Creek, but everything south of Prince George is on fire.  Our reservations at Prince George have been commandeered for wildfire evacuees, and Highway 97 is closed.  So plans change.  There isn’t another way through Canada to get to Vancouver from here without going through forest fires, so we’re doing an end-around, and heading south through Calgary and Lethbridge, back into the States, across Montana, Idaho, and Washington, and back up to Vancouver to rejoin our travel plans. 2017 summer trip map The weather has been cool and nice; a little rainy the last couple days, but today the wind drift brought the fire smoke over our way.  It’s very hazy.   We’re spending the night at RV There Yet Campground in Red Deer. Still stunned by the golden fields. Vancouver is much closer to the fires than we are now, but maybe being right on the water will keep the air a little fresher there.