HAPPY LABOR DAY! ENJOY YOUR HOLIDAY!
Day 329 – It was 50 degrees this morning when we got up. It had rained steadily throughout the night. Lots of campers left this morning – their holiday was over. We stayed at the RV during the morning, and went out in the afternoon.
We still had not gotten any updates on the fire, so after lunch we went out to see for ourselves. Things looked so much better! The rain and the cooler temperatures really seemed to make a difference over night. They still had lots of helicopters dropping water on the fire, but the smoke was less, we could not see any flames, and it had settled down somewhat at its original location. It was significantly lower where we could see it had spread east yesterday. But it had spread some in new areas to the west. All in all, it did look better and we felt good about it from what we saw.
We drove the Maligne Road to look at the scenery and look for wildlife since the smoke had been heading in a different direction and the sky was partially clear. At first. It did get cloudier and it did rain some, but we enjoyed our drive and our little walks around. The scenery was beautiful. The only wildlife we saw was a cute Marmot trying to get out of the street so it didn’t get hit. We didn’t get a picture of that.
Next we drove into Jasper to get gas for the Honda and propane in the small tank for the RV. Most of the traffic lights were not working in Jasper; they were working only at one street. Lots, if not most, places were closed. Tourists were milling about – nothing to do in town. We could not get gasoline nor propane. There were trucks from the electrical company in lots of places. It was pretty easy to conclude that the power was out.
Later this afternoon when we got back to the RV, Rob went online and checked various websites. Here’s what we came up with: last night the fire spread into the power lines and power went out in Jasper; officials are concerned that the fire is getting closer to a pipeline; the rain and cooler temperatures did help with the fire, but there are no predictions as to when it will end – anything can still happen (the media is SO negative!); the fire is now 8,000 hectares in size and 15 km from Jasper; they are discouraging people from coming to visit Jasper at this time and asking those that are here to think about leaving and come back another time; one campground is closing way early for the season, on Monday; our campground and one other are asking people not to come at this time. Net, net, now we don’t feel so encouraged.
It was in the mid-50’s for most of the day and it was fairly windy. During our drive, the temperatures dropped as low as 47 degrees and went as high as 65 degrees. Changeable weather! It’s supposed to be 34 degrees tonight. We added the sticker for Alberta to our Canadian map on the RV. Filling in the blanks slowly but surely.
