Day 12, July 23...Hanna, Alberta to Canmore, Alberta

I left Hanna bright and early this morning to cloudy skies and brisk temperatures.  I was riding on Alberta Hwy 9 to about 20 miles short of Calgary, where it merged with Hwy 1, the Trans-Canada Highway.  Most of Hwy 9 is two lanes and it's straight as an arrow with long stretches that look like this:

As you might have guessed, this is pretty much what western Ontario, all of Manitoba, all of Saskatchewan, and most of Alberta look like...pretty much like our midwest.  Anyway, I arrived in Calgary, which seems to be very busy, nice city with over 1.2 million residents.  I didn't have much trouble navigating around the city, and it seems to be pretty prosperous.

My first stop of the day was The Military Museum, which houses the largest collections of Canadian Army, Navy, and Air Force artifacts.  The focus this year is on World War I, in which Canada lost a relatively (for the country's size) large number of troops.  There were a lot of interesting artifacts (letters, books, good-luck charms, etc.) collected from those who had fought in the war, along with the history of some of the individual regiments that served.

Outside the Museum were two monuments that I thought were appropriate:

And this from the World Trade Center:

The Naval display had a sizeable number of ships guns and aircraft on display:

It was nice, informative, and the guides couldn't stop talking.

After visiting the Military Museums I headed north to the airport for the Hanger Flight Museum. It held a lot of artifacts detailing aviation in Canada, as well as a number of airplanes flown by Canadian pilots.  One plane you don't see much of is this one:

It's an AVRO Lancaster Heavy Bomber, the British equivalent of our B-17 and B-24 bombers.  I was told this is one of only 17 still existing world-wide.

Anyway, after that I headed west on Hwy 1 toward Canmore, about 20 miles south of Banff.  Almost immediately after leaving Calgary I could see the mountains in the distance:

I'm finally leaving the plains and headed into the mountains.  Tomorrow, I'll be heading north on Hwy 93, the Icefields Parkway, through Banff National Park and Jasper National Park.  I remember this being some of the most spectacular scenery that I witnessed the last time I was here.

Just as an aside, I took a couple shots just outside my hotel room this evening:

Miles today: 236
Total:          3,375