The Lodge at Lake Louise is no dump either. Another memory - when I was a poor grad student driving to UBC for a conference, I went up to Banff and was at the Lake Louise area but alas, too poor to afford any lodging and basically car-camping. I drove up the service road that goes up the ski hill behind Lake Louise (this was mid-June or so) and found a nice place to park on the gravel service road looking down on Lake Louise. Thought that was a good place to car camp. AM radio reception was great at that altitude and with the ionosphere skip so I had something to listen to. The sky was bright at that latitude in mid-June so I could read until almost 11PM. Fell asleep without turning the ignition key from AUX to OFF and left the radio and dome light on. Woke up out on a gravel service road in summer (obviously no skiing going on) and the battery was DEAD. I had seen no traffic at all anywhere on this gravel road all the way up the ski hill - so I figure I have a long walk down to the Lake Louise lodge to try and hustle up somebody willing to drive up the service road and give me a jumpstart. Figure if I'm lucky I'll get out of here by noon - if I have to call a tow truck I'll be using my limited cash.
So I'm walking down the service road. I don't get more than maybe a quarter-mile and a pickup truck that services the ski hill comes rumbling up the gravel and sees me, stops, I tell him the problem - he says I shouldn't have been there in the first place, but he will give me a ride back to my car and a jumpstart. Everything falls into place - the car starts - I'm off the hill and back on the road by 8:30AM and no money out of pocket.
Canadians can be very friendly folks sometimes. I recall along the highways in B.C. they had "Drive Decent" signs - I think that should be the adverb "Decently", but why quibble. They are generally pretty decent people (Howe Street brokers and mining pennystock scammers excepted).
