Glacier/Banff - Day 9

Day 9 - Banff to Helena - July 28, 2018

Today we start the long drive south to take us home. I was really nervous about the drive today because this is the one portion of the whole trip where there not any Tesla Superchargers for a too long stretch between southern Canada and Helena, Montana. 

Charging in Canmore (near Banff) before leaving. This was one of the first Model 3s that I recall seeing.  Now they're everywhere!

We stopped by the Calgary temple. 

Lyla loved her hairdo today. 

While charging in Calgary we visited a Bass Pro Shops and checked out the taxidermized critters. 

We knew we had to get poutine before leaving Canada. 

Oddly, there are superchargers in Fort Macleod, Alberta, which is not on a main highway or interstate.  We stopped there to charge and grabbed some lunch from the local Igloo restaurant. 

Fresca and ice cream. Good combo. 

Our route took us through Cardston, Alberta, Canada.  We stopped to see the temple.  

This next portion of the drive was the one that I was most worried about. It's a long distance between high-powered chargers, but I had mapped out a location with an RV plug-in pedestal.  Luckily, we were able to find it and I had the correct adapter.  Unluckily, charging at this rate is much slower, so we had a few hours to kill. 

I think we walked through the entire town of Conrad, and spent quite a while playing on the playground at the elementary school. 

Dinner was at another small diner. 

Finally when the sun was long down we were able to keep going with another short stop to charge at a hotel in Great Falls in order to get enough charge to make it to Helena. 

Interestingly, it would be a long time before this part of the drive was finally covered by superchargers.  A supercharger in Great Falls opened in the summer of 2020 and another one on I-15 to bridge the gap only opened about a month ago (Nov. 2022). I'm glad we didn't wait to make this trip!