Week ending May 24, 2012

We started packing up to get ready to move to the overflow area of the campground Friday morning. However, when we dropped into the office to arrange for paying for it, we found out they had called us the day before to let us know they had a cancellation, and we could stay in our site over the weekend. We were amazed that we could even stay in the same site, because in most parks, we would have had to move to the site that had been reserved by the people who cancelled.

We got some information on walks around town from the visitors' info center and then had lunch at Cora's. We had tried once before to get into Cora's in Okotoks, but the line-up was too long to wait. Plentiful food with lots of fresh fruit.

On Saturday, we drove toward Sylvan Lake to Sylvan Cheese Market, which had been advertised in an area guide. We picked up some garlic gouda, and some maple cheddar. They also carried some blueberry breakfast sausages from Big Bend Market in Red Deer, so we found out where it was (turned out it was in a shopping center on the corner within walking distance of the campground. It was a bit ironic that Big Bend also carried the Sylvan cheese, but did not have the flavours we picked out, so it wasn't a wasted trip to to the Cheese Market. After our shopping, we walked across the street from the campground to a walking trail that connects to the network of trails through the creek valleys leading into the Red Deer River valley. It was a pleasant walk, partially along a boulevard across from houses, but mostly through the trees along Piper Creek.

We drove to Mom and Dad's on Sunday morning. We went in their car to the Markerville Creamery, and looked at some of the signs in the neighbourhood, but the Creamery wasn't open until noon. 

We got a picture of the cows behind the creamery. 

 We carried on to Dickson and to the Danish Canadian National Museum and Gardens. After fighting off a cloud of mosquitoes in the parking lot, we had a nice lunch in the Dormitory Cafe. Then we wandered along the paths in the gardens.  There were a variety of sights including the boat below and a small church. 

On the way back to Bowden, we stopped at Glennifer Resort to find out if it was possible to overnight there. The lots are all sold, not rented. However, some of the owners rent their lots through a local realtor when not in use. We will check that option out the next time we are in the area. Then we checked out a mineral shop called Vitality Crystals and Fountains. They had a very wide selection of minerals from raw chunks of quartz to polished jewelry. One of the more interesting type of item was balls of a mineral set on a mineral base with water running under the ball making it roll on the base. 

Cleaning and supplies was the focus for Monday. We drained the tanks, vacuumed, shook things out, cleaned more duct tape off from our sealing over the winter, and picked up a variety of items, particularly twine and a crochet needle to repair a blind that had a string break.

As is too often the case, it was drizzling a bit when we started getting the trailer ready to hit the road. After getting the axles packed last week, we had stopped to torque them by Crossfield. John figured that they weren't tight enough so torqued them a bit more before leaving. However, one of the lug nuts got loose tightening it. We headed over to the Canadian Tire near the campground, and found out that the nut was stripped, and that John hadn't been using the torque wrench correctly. He was turning the nuts past the click on the torque wrench (which was happening right away, because they were still tight). There was also a spring that came off with the lug nut. CT didn't have a trailer lug nut (they were longer than any they had), so we headed over to Woody's RV. They did have the correct lug nut, and we checked with the service department to find out out about the spring. They told us that probably the stud had been stripped previously and a healy(?) spring put over the stud to give the nut more grip. We put the the new lug nut on, and it tightened up to the 100 ft lbs just fine, so we think when the axles were done, the lug nut stripped, so they added the spring instead of replacing the lug nut (which cost us all of $1.53). We checked the lug nut when we got to Glowing Embers in Acheson, just west of Edmonton, and it was fine. So it looks like, even though we were over-tightening the lug nuts, that the problem with the stripped one was preexisting. Since we were late leaving Red Deer, we stopped for a nice lunch of burgers and onion rings at Fay's Diner, on the highway west of Wetaskawin. 

We went into Edmonton on Wednesday to visit with friends Fern and George. We admired the tall spruce tree in the yard next to theirs, which we had planted in the mid 70's when we lived there. We spent a nice afternoon catching up on our families and then showed them our pictures from our trip across Canada last summer.

Thursday was spent doing domestic tasks like laundry and recaulking one edge of the shower.