Week ending Jun 26, 2014 Oyen, Outlook, Regina

Friday morning we hunted for the internet kiosk advertised in the campground guide as one of the features of this park.   After walking around the park, then through town we determined no such kiosk existed. The clerk at city hall told us there was open wifi at town hall and at the library.  Of course the library is closed Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Who closes a library on Saturday? We eventually found out where the farmers market was being held, addresses aren't a high priority on signs in here.  We went to the farmers market and picked up some nice fresh produce and baking. Walking around town we spotted several 'mini-motels'. It looks like someone had purchased a lot of little old houses around town and is renting them out by the night. An interesting use of  old houses.

Friday night there was a tremendous storm, it poured with rain and the wind really blew. The only problem (if it could be called that) was our lawn chair blew over. We are really pleased with the satellite stand we purchased in the states, as our dish held up beautifully.  With the tripod, a wind like that would have blown the dish over.  

On Saturday  we thought we might carry on on Sunday, so we should get diesel since most small towns don't have gas stations open on Sundays.  We drove around to the fuel locations listed on the GPS.   A lucky little drive because we found a B.C. fruit truck parked on main street. After filling up at the UFA station,  which isn't on the GPS list, and is closed on Sunday, we went back to the fruit truck, got beautiful tomatoes, blue berries and a small box of cherries. The first batch of cherries always taste great. The rest of the day we spent enjoying the warm weather.

Sunday dawned warm and sunny. The kind of day we hate to waste traveling, so we decided to stay one more day. As the RV park is on the outskirts of town we decided to walk on the country roads out of town. After our walk we headed back to the trailer to watch the Nascar race.

Monday was moving day and was a clear sunny morning. We packed up and headed for Outlook, on the South Saskatchewan River. We knew sunny weather was too good to last, so all along the way we drove through showers. We arrived at Outlook and District Regional Park, and got settled in a site.  Who designs these campsites? We had to park at the very front of a nice long site in order to be close enough to the utility stand to plug in.  However, the water tap was so far away we could not hook up to water. In over 3 years we have only once needed a 30 amp extension cord, and never a extra drinking water hose. The good news is we are only here for 2 nights and have enough water in our holding tank to make do.  Otherwise, this is quite a nice little park.  Our site looks out over the South Saskatchewan River with a view of the longest walking bridge in the world. It was a CPR train bridge but the line is now defunk. The bridge's footings are in need of repair, so the bridge has been closed to foot traffic.

Tuesday we walked  through the park, where we saw a deer enjoying the fresh grass, 

over to the bridge and then took the Trans Canada Trail to downtown Outlook. 

They have a refreshingly unusual war memorial.  

There are a few family run businesses, but there are also 3 banks and 3 Chinese restaurants. What a difference it makes being in Saskatchewan rather than Alberta. Only 1 liquor store in town since all liquor stores in Saskatchewan are government run.  There must be some artists in town as numerous buildings have murals painted on them. We stopped at a bakery to pick up a loaf of bread and John's favourite cheese buns. We then stopped at the only Chinese restaurants with patrons visible in it. The food was great and had enough left for supper as well. We got back to the trailer in time to watch some more FIFA world cup. 
 

Wednesday was moving day, to Regina.  It was a nice hot sunny day, a shame to waste moving, but we had a reservation. We arrived at our site to find that the campground was suffering from the rainy spring Regina has been experiencing. Who knew we could fish from our back window if we only had a fishing pole. The robins are enjoying the wet weather because the worms are fat and obviously easy to catch.  By the time we got set up, Karen and Dominique came over and we visited for awhile. Karen headed out to a retirement party and Dominique stayed for supper.

Thursday after a quick grocery trip to Wal-mart we picked up Karen and Dominique to go shopping for Dominique's graduation gift.  We found the perfect necklace, but after standing in Peoples' Jewellers for ages we asked twice for help, but only one of the three people behind the counter was able to take our money.   We stopped at Marokena Crepe Cafe for dinner and then headed back to the trailer to post the blog and play cards with Karen and Dominique.                                                   

Week ending Jun 19, 2014 - Arm Lake

Friday John was still having allergy problems so golf was off. The day was spent watching 2 FIFA  games. We are hoping for a better day tomorrow.

Saturday was a beautiful warm sunny day.  We decided there were other towns in the area we had not explored yet and riding in an air conditioned truck would be an allergy free environment. John planned a circle drive and our first stop was Hughenden, a town with at least one artistic painter.  If you expand the picture, you might see the Bridgestone Tire logo under the paint. 
 

We stopped to check out the general store, which does sell very tasty mango licorice. Our second stop was Amisk, with a golf course and rv park, that we will have to check out at a future date.  As we arrived in Hardisty we were impressed by the number and size of  the oil storage tanks as well as the number of Summerville workers. We had encountered them last summer in St. Paul as well. The town of St. Paul campground was expanding in order to accommodate all the sites that Summerville had reserved for their workers. Hardisty as a town seemed to have a very small commercial district, that we could see, given the size of the town as well as the amount of oil field activity in the area.

Since we found Hardisty to be a bit disappointing we carried on to Irma. Irma is the birthplace of Jean Pare of the Company's Coming Cookbook fame. 

We stopped at Long Branch Trading Company on main street for lunch. An interesting little shop which sells all sorts of nick knacks as well as offers a small but tasty menu. It reminded us of Serendipity that we used to frequent, on 9th street in Calgary. After lunch we headed back to Wainwright to pick up some groceries and a pack of masks, so that John will be able to golf again. We returned to the trailer to watch the England vs Italy FIFa game. 

 After Fathers' Day Sunday brunch at the golf club house we watched the Nascar race and finished the day off with soccer.

Monday morning although cloudy was good golfing weather so we headed to the golf course.  It appears that the allergy season is starting to abate as John was not sneezing nearly as badly as after our last Wednesday game. After lunch we turned on the Nigeria vs Iran soccer game and John headed up to the office to use their WI-fi to update our phone app's.  It has been notifying us that it has apps to update, most of the from Google since the phone has an Android operating system.

Tuesday was a great day weather wise, a perfect day to wash windows. After lunch we golfed another 9 holes.

Wednesday was a dull and showery day, although there were dry breaks which allowed us time to pack up some of our stuff in preparation for Thursday. 

Cloudy Wednesday was the precursor to Thursday which was  rainy moving day, but we managed to get all set up in Oyen's RCMP Centennial Campground.

Week ending Jun 12, 2014 Arm Lake, Wainwright

Friday morning we walked over to the campground office to check email and post the blog. We wanted to send a happy birthday text to Karen. We find it very inconvenient not having cell phone service or internet access at the trailer. We chatted with the campground manager, who is also the cook and discovered that there is a brunch Sunday morning.  After lunch we drove into Wainwright to the visitor information, fill up with diesel and picked up a few groceries. We can now figure out how to spend our time while we are here. In the evening we received a text from Karen. That seemed odd to us as our phone indicates we don't have service here at the trailer.

Saturday morning was cool and cloudy, a perfect day to do chores. While having breakfast Joan wondered that since we can receive texts on our phone will it act as a wi-fi hot spot?  John turned it on and sure enough we can use it as a hot spot. Great, no phone service, but at least we can use the internet in the trailer.  After lunch we walked through some of the campground and down to the lake. This is a large area and the walk took us over an hour.

How nice it is to have a restaurant on site with a Sunday brunch. We took advantage of that. After brunch we came back to the trailer watched the end of the French open men's final and then the Nascar race. After the car race we walked through the rest of the campground, and took a look at the golf course.

Monday morning was windy, drizzly and dull.  When we set up our steps, one of the nuts from it was laying on the ground.  John realized we needed some lock washers, as well as larger bolts for the back legs,  and a larger outdoor mat for the bottom of our stairs.  This seemed like a good day to go for a drive. Our first stop was the railway trestle over the Battle River near Fabyan. It is the second largest trestle bridge in Alberta (the largest is at Lethbridge) and one of the first with concrete footings. 

We then drove into Wainwright and got a picture of Alberta's largest Buffalo.  There are many references in business names, etc., in the area to 'buffalo' or 'bison.   We read the historic sign about Buffalo National Park.  We hadn't realized (or at least it was buried too far in our memories) it had been here.  It was created in 1908.   The first two trainloads were sent to Elk Island Park until Buffalo Park was ready for them, and some of the animals which couldn't be captured and shipped formed the basis of the herd that is still at Elk Island.  Over several years, they moved so many buffalo from Montana to the area that it was overgrazed, which resulted in disease so bad that the herd had to be killed off in 1939 and the park closed.   It now forms part of the Camp Wainwright, an armed forces training area.  There are still about 20 animals in a small area.

We then picked up some bits and pieces at Home Hardware. At Wal-mart we got a new outdoor mat as well as a few groceries. Lets hope we don't leave this mat behind when we move. On our way back to the trailer we stopped for a picnic lunch at Schuster Lake, just a few km from our campground.   The lake supposed to be good for fishing, so maybe it would be good for our little boat.  A bit of a disappointment, no beach area, no boat ramps and the road in narrowed down to one lane, with very little parking space at the end.  Fortunately,  we were the only traffic on the road.

Tuesday, our first scheduled golf day dawned windy, cloudy with the prediction of rain. As we are fair weather golfers we decided we needed something else to do. After lunch we drove east to Chauvin, to visit the largest softball in the World, and a group of  fans on a bleacher.

Then  we headed for Dillberry Provincial Park. The lake appears to be fairly high, with a bench sitting a few feet into the lake. The campground is fairly nice and there are numerous hiking trails in the park.  On the way back to the trailer we saw a hay bale on the side of the road - this is how farmers spend their spare time.

We stopped in Edgerton to pick up a lottery ticket and came across the Ribstone Creek Brewery.   There were some folks around, so we walked up to the front door only to find a sign saying tasting is on Saturdays between 11 and 3.  It is close to the campground, so we decided to come back on Saturday to check it out.  As we were sitting in the truck making notes, one of the owners came out and invited us in since they had just finished a tour for a seniors group. We got a private tasting. An interesting little brewery with quite tasty beer (a lager, pale ale and IPA).   The only way they sell the product in the brewery is in a growler, a jug that holds about 6 cans of beer.  When we found that the beer only stays good for about 24 hours after being opened, we decided that we wouldn't want to drink that much in a day.    They don't sell cans because that would compete with the local liquor store, so we went there to pick up some. One of their decorations was a buffalo head made from layers of cardboard, a craft that John's dad has enjoyed for many years.

We are enjoying the interesting little towns in this area of the province.  

Finally a warm sunny day that is perfect for golf.   We started at hole seven because it is closest to  the trailer, and we  stopped at hole one to pay our fees.   We rarely see people on these inexpensive courses, so they are pretty flexible.  Joan is getting a bit better and can actually hit the ball in the air some of the time now, but she has a long way to go. By the time we had completed our 9 holes we where reminded of why John was never happy in this part of Alberta in the spring.  His allergies kicked in.  Of course we had been warned that this was going to be a particularly bad allergy season, since spring was late.  Hopefully it will be the short season that has been predicted.

Thursday John is in recovery mode and Joan spent the day doing housework. Mind you John did find the golf ball he lost one hole one yesterday.   It was another bad slice, and went across the fairway of the 9th hole, and into the rough toward the flag for the 8th hole.  Joan never losses balls because she never hits them far enough to lose sight of them.

Week ending June 6, 2014 - Stettler and county

Saturday morning we drove to Donalda, a little town with the largest oil lamp in the world. 

As we parked we noticed one of the walking bridges to the lamp was demolished. While we were taking pictures and reading information signs we met a few of the town residents who were checking out the damage.  They told us that a drunk driver had driven into the bridge and she really had made a mess. This event had happened about 11:00 P.M. the night before. Their biggest concern was that her insurance may not cover the damage as she was drunk. We then did a short walk along an old rail line, it was supposed to take us to a view over the badlands.  The 'official' trail appeared to take us over a few fences through a wooded area with cattle grazing.  All we saw of interest was a deer on the trail.  What we saw of not so much interest was fluff from the polar trees, mosquitos and numerous other bugs. We returned to Stettler through Red Willow, a small village, of about 12 houses, some of which are for sale.  This town does not meet our criteria for retirement locations. No ice cream shops, no winery’s and no mountains within sight.  Our drive through the country showed us that this part of Alberta is in no danger of suffering a drought. It made us think back to our trip this winter and how dry Texas was and how they would be thrilled to have even half the amount of water we saw laying around the sloughs in East Central Alberta.  

Mid afternoon we walked over to the recreation centre which houses the swimming pool, library and numerous arenas for lacrosse and/or hockey and has a strong wi-fi signal for public use so we could post last week's blog.

The lady at visitor informtion recommended a number of small towns in the area, and provided us with a guide to Stettler County, so we decided Sunday was a good day to go exploring. Our first stop was Botha, home of the first manned flying machine ever built and flown in Canada. In 1907 the Underwood brothers built and flew the machine. It stayed aloft for 15 minutes and in the interest of safety it was tethered to  a fence post during its flight, so it acted like a kite.  Our next stop was Gadsby, Alberta's smallest official village. 

 By that time we decided a piece of pie would hit the spot. We headed on to Endiang  where Ruthie's Roost has a reputation for serving great pies.  As we pulled up in front of Ruthie's we saw a for sale sign along with a closed sign.   Maybe the next owner will continue the 'great' pie tradition, but we will never know.    We wandered around Endiang, reading a bunch of historical signs which had been installed for Endiang's centennial in 2010. 

 

Our next stop was Byemoor, a small town that has a charming general store, according to the information guide. Another for sale sign. A hotel with a restaurant also for sale and closed. Does anyone see a trend here? By this time we were getting downright grumpy.  Time to find a place with somewhere to eat. A look at the map told us we were only a few kms from Big Valley. Success! Big Valley has an old hotel  with a restaurant and the typical small town hotel bar, where we had a nice lunch washed down with a beer.  After lunch we wandered around main street, visited Jimmy Jock Boardwalk, the town jail and St. Edmund's blue church on the hill at the end of main street. We drove by the golf course to check it out for the next day. We got back to the trailer in time to watch the last 100 laps or so of the Nascar race.

 

On Monday morning we dusted off our golf clubs and headed back to Big Valley. We got our workout for the day as the course has numerous steep hills on it. Just in case anyone is interested yearly fees here are 75.00. If you check on the internet it says 5.00 a round, which we happily paid, even though the visitor info lady in Stettler thought it was free.  After our game and our picnic lunch we stopped at the general store for a cold drink.

Tuesday we headed for Rochon Sands summer village, the second free golf course in the area. When we stopped at the parking lot the truck was immediately swarmed by mosquitoes. The course, which  is along the shore of Buffalo Lake, had not been mowed yet this season. We found out why; it was a swamp.  No golfing here until it dries out.  We consulted our local map and found that Big Knife provincial park was reasonably close.  We checked the campground, a basic Alberta Provincial campground.  The park has some hikes along the Battle River. We completed one of the hikes and then headed back to Stettler.

Wednesday was Tim Hortons camp day. After doing laundry and having lunch we went for a walk, leaving the trailer about 15 to 2, following a walking path that eventually took us to main street. Main street is essentially beauty shops, liquor stores, health clinics and banks.  It appears that the local shops have suffered from the arrival of the big box stores like Wal-Mart, Canadian Tire and No Frills.  We tripped across a local bakery, where we picked up some fresh bread and buns and then headed to Tim Hortons for coffee and to make a donation to their 'camp day'. Finally we arrived back at the trailer by 4:00.

Thursday morning was windy and cloudy. Although it had rained all night, the rain stayed away while we packed up ready for our move to Arm Lake near Wainwright.  After picking up some coffee and packaged pork subs at Buffalo Trail Service in Czar we arrived at Arm Lake about 1:30.   This is a very well maintained campground with large sites, an inexpensive golf course, and a small lake.  There is internet access at the office, good thing as we don't even have cell phone service at our site.  The sun finally started to shine late in the afternoon.   We  are hoping the two weeks we stay here will be sunny.