Insurance Plan

Insurance Plan in Jasper We have spent the night in our KOA campground in Jasper/Hinton – okay, it is 4 km from Hinton and 90 km. from Jasper. How deceiving is that to call it the Jasper/Hinton KOA campground! We are still ticked about the ad in Woodall’s campground book – I feel a Trip Advisor comment coming on and Jen is going to write it. We will be kind – it is a lovely spot BUT it is not near Jasper and there is no camp fire spot in the whole park. When I booked the campground the National Park had no availability for July 1st. So I booked the 2 nights at the KOA and decide it is like insurance – you buy it “just in case”. We come back into Jasper on July 1st wearing our Canada t-shirts and jackets and watch the raising of the flag and join in the singing of O Canada. It was enough to bring a little tear to your eye. I have to admit that there were not many people singing O Canada and I have to rationalize this as we Canadians are very polite and I am wondering if people were just listening to the soloist and letting her have the floor. I sure hope so as our singing was very pathetic. I can’t wait to see the pictures of our grand-daughter, Anouska, with her new Canada onesie! We have breakfast at an Earl’s restaurant in Jasper on the second floor balcony overlooking the town and the snow-capped mountains. It is breath-taking. It is great to travel with 4 people; at least one of us sees something the others do not see. Rip spotted this café balcony. Speaking of seeing – on our way back to Jasper, the 50 minutes ride from Hinton, we see an amazing elk by the side of the road with the biggest rack of antlers you can imagine. We pull over with the other 20 vehicles to get a photo. Then we see cars pulled over again – this time a group of mountain goats – pure white and scurrying up the slopes – amazing. Przem chats up a Parks Canada employee in Jasper and finds out the people in the campsites check out by 11 and we should go to the Whistler campground around 12 noon to see if we can get a campsite there, probably from a cancellation – a few minutes from Jasper. We follow instructions and the campground has lots of space – amazing. We find a campsite on a stream – beautiful with a Fire Pit – yeah! There is lots of room for our tent and van and a scenic picnic table – all for less than the price of our KOA. Alas, I have paid for our KOA for the 2 nights; and the 1 night I consider insurance. At least this time I am able to rationalize this as good insurance. It would cost us money and time and frustration to travel back and forth to Hinton – and the image of a campfire tonight is in all our heads. Some insurance plans are truly worth it!