Week ending Oct 30, 2014 Fort Steele and Creston

Friday morning dawned sunny and reasonably clear. We saw that there was new snow on the top of the mountains.  We walked over to Fort Steele.  It has been years since we have been there. At this time of year it is admission by donation. The gift shop and restaurant is still open. We enjoyed the walk around the grounds, and preparations were being made for the Halloween Howl they hold Oct 25. After wandering around the park we stopped for a bowl of chili at the restaurant.

 Saturday we packed up and left for Pair-a-Dice RV Park in Creston. We arrived much earlier than anticipated because we had to change our clocks back an hour. Oh well. We eventually got set up and after some frustration found a satellite signal, so are good for the week. The evening brought a thunderstorm, quite an unusual occurrence, even for this part of the world. This park has  many  Albertans here for the winter. The owner is on vacation in Korea, so one of the other guests is running the park for her. She is from Lloydminster, the folks next to us are from Peace River and  they are looking after the grounds. Good things the Albertans are here.

Sunday was car race and curling.   

Monday we went searching for cups, as we had broken one the day before.  There seemed to be numerous artisans in the district.  John found one that advertised she was open “most” days.  We decided to head out to her studio to see if this was one of her open days. After following our GPS out into the country, finally following a dirt trail, we found the studio. Not only was the studio open, but she had a couple of ceramic cups that were perfect for our purposes. On our way back to the trailer we stopped at the hardware store for some bits and at the RV place to pick up a replacement lock for one of our outside cabinets. Joan had broken her key off in it when we were packing up in Fort Steele.

Back at the trailer we spent some time on the internet hunting for walking in the area. We discovered that the wildlife area has a labyrinth of paths, so Tuesday we set out to explore the area. We walked out to the bird viewing tower, for a better view of the ducks and few Canada geese on the waterways, the only birds around at this time of year, and then completed a one hour loop on the dikes through the marsh.   

 

 Wednesday we returned and completed a 2 hour walk. The walking is ok, but we had hoped to see something other than ducks and geese.   We did see a heron flying by, a small frog as it crossed our trail, and a few fuzzy caterpillars sunning on the boardwalk.

Thursday afternoon, we headed back to the wildlife area to do another trail.  Then we stopped at Tasty Pastries to pick up a couple of cinnamon buns.

Week ending Oct 23, 2014 Arrowwood, Fort Steele

Our last 2 months in Cochrane has come to a close. We have spent the last 2 months visiting doctors, family and enjoying the walking trails around Cochrane.  Joan had great news from her Oncologist.  This year was her final CT scan and next Sept will be her final visit with him.  We no longer have spring Dr. appointments, which leave us free to travel in April rather than doing our spring appointments.   We spent some days visiting Anthony (our oldest grandson) who is living on his own in High River to finish high school.  The days that were not occupied by various appointments we spent on the extensive walking trail system that Cochrane has developed.   The one tourist attraction we visited this September was the Glacier Skywalk close to the Columbia Ice fields. The trip up the parkway brought back so many memories, reminded us  that we really are mountain people and gave us all sorts of ideas for next summer.  

 

 

 

Thanksgiving Monday we headed out to High River, picked up Anthony and then went to Sue and Trev.’s for Thanksgiving turkey.  We had a great dinner and Joan particularly enjoyed it as she was a guest rather than the cook.

 

Friday we left Cochrane.  Our plan is to cross into the USA just south of  Creston B.C, and head through Washington and Oregon to the west coast through Portland Oregon.  

 

 

Our first stop was Arrowwood, Alberta, a very small town about 70 kms east of High River. We stopped there for a couple of reasons. Firstly it is a town that has suffered  tremendously from the flood of 2012 and they have a small campground, full service for 15.00 a night and as we have a brunch date with Anthony Saturday morning in High River, it is convenient. We had visited this town and the area over the August long weekend. At that time the bridge over the Bow River was still washed out. While watching Global news Friday morning before leaving Cochrane they announced that the bridge was now open and the natives where having a blessing ceremony today. We arrived in Arrowwood about 12:30, to find a big celebration going on on main street, and all the entrances to the RV sites where blocked with vehicles.  Fortunately they saw our predicament and came and moved the trucks so we could get onto a site.   As we were getting set up and a lady came over and invited us to the celebration as well as lunch, all being provided by Scotiabank. What a deal. We met several of the local people.  We put our name in for a draw and John won a vacuum flask. This really is a cool little place. We find it very interesting that a town too small to have a grocery store does have a co-op a hardware store, a library and a Scotiabank.

 

Saturday  we drove into High River, picked up Anthony and went to the Little New York Bistro in Longview for lunch. We took the scenic route back to High River getting Anthony back in time to go to work. 

 

Sunday we went a walk around Arrowwood. We walked down every street, and on walkways  through a wetland display. The walk took us about an hour. This is a very little town.  

 

On Monday after stopping at the Scotiabank to pick up some US cash we went for a walk on the grid roads just outside of town.  Later in the day the campground hostess came by to get us to look at some trees that she wanted the town to cut down, but they were giving her arguments.  We did agree that they made it difficult to maneuvor  through the sites.   We also found out that the population of Arrowwood is about 200 people.

 

Tuesday we took our recycling to the recycling centre, which is only open 2 days a week, then went to library, which is only open 1/2 days 3 times a week,  to update our computers.  As you can tell, we are struggling to find things to do.  Rather than cook we had dinner out at The Country Eatery, a very nice little restaurant and one of the few businesses in Arrowwood.

 

Wednesday morning we packed up and headed to Fort Steele. The drive was almost 5 hours, a long drive for us these days. We enjoyed the drive through snow valley particularly since there was no snow.

 

Thursday, it had rained a bit overnight, but was just overcast when we got up.   We checked for walking trails in the area, and headed to Wasa Lake Provincial Park, which promised an 8 km walk around the lake.   The lake was a combination of provincial park areas, and pathways through the town around the lake, which was developed by the local Lions club.