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.
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