Wednesday 29 July 2015

Week ending Jul 29, 2015 Longview still

We have decided to stay in Longview until after the long weekend, as it can be tough to find spots over the August long weekend.


Friday morning after a Skype visit with John's parent and George (his brother) we headed out to Sheep River Falls.

After a brief stop at the falls we headed out on a Indian Oil Trail. It was really a nice hike, lots of beautiful mountain flowers, the smell of pine trees.  In the distance we could see Bluerock Mountain, we think.  We got back to the trailer in time to watch the weekend campers pour into the campground.

Saturday afternoon we decided to go for a walk, of course we got no further than a block or two from the trailer that the heavens opened up. So back to the trailer.

Sunday after a short walk around town we watched the Nascar race. George, John's brother, arrived to spend a couple of days with us.

Monday George,  John and Joan went for a circle drive to Highwood Junction then south along the forestry trunk road to Livingstone Falls, again, for lunch.   George spotted some deer with nice antlers on a bank above the road.

We were checking the suitability of the Forestry Trunk Road south from Highwood for trailer hauling since we had come from the south end last week.  We then headed down highway 532 to Bear Pond. It was a steep but short hike up to the lake, The lake is well stocked and very pretty. If it wasn't such a steep trail in we could easy paddle on the lake in our little boat.


View across valley from Bear Pond

Tuesday we took George to Twin Cities Hotel for a late breakfast. After George headed back toward home, we drove to Cochrane to pick up our mail. New drivers licenses have arrived and the pin for John's US$ credit card.  Will have to return later for the card itself.



Wednesday morning went for a walk, deciding to go to the bridge over the Highwood River just south of town. There used to be a picnic site at that location, we think, but it appears to have washed away in the 2013 flood. After crawling through a barbed wire fence we walked to the river, enjoying the formations along the riverbank. Notably a 'face' cut in the river bank.


It is hard to believe that this little stream became a raging river that wiped out the town of High River. We stopped at the bar in the Twin Cities Hotel to get some pictures of the ceiling in the bar. A couple of years ago as a 4H calf fundraiser people had their pictures drawn on ceiling tiles by a local artist. We were told by Trevor, the bar keep, that this endevor raised considerable funds.

We also noticed some creative spelling on their lunch menu.

One of the saloons in town has 3 flags on its flag poles. A Canadian flag, a USA flag and Berber flag.  The owner of the saloon told us it represented the Amazigh people, which means 'free man'.   See Wikipedia - Berber Flag

Thursday 23 July 2015

Week ending Jul 23, 2015 Longview

Friday  was one of the rainiest days we've had this year. Not really a big deal because we went into Okotoks to get our Costco membership, pick up a bunch of supplies and to stop in to say hi to Sue at work.

 Saturday morning we had beautiful views of the mountains from the campground.


Then we went to watch the Little New York Daze parade.  North of town a few kilometers, a community was built which was called Little Chicago by the infant oil industry in Alberta.   Shortly after that a new community was established where Longview is now.  Because it was a bigger community, they called it Little New York.


We then headed into Calgary where we stopped at a used book store for some travel books to help with our plans for the winter.  Then met all Trev, Sue, Anthony, James Karen and Dominique at Big T's BBQ for dinner. It has been a long time since we had all the family together. The only person missing was Taylor who is spending the summer at Cadet camp in Vernon B.C.

Sunday Karen and Dominique joined us.  We spent most of the day just visiting. They got their new tent set up.  It was a sunny warm day so Joan cooked a roast in the slow cooker outside on the table. After dinner a storm blew in and the rain came down in buckets, but it only lasted for a short period of time. Karen's new tent proved to be water proof.  The rain produced a beautiful rainbow. We noticed that the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow must be at the stop sign just by the campground. 

Monday while Karen enjoyed a late sleep, Dominique walked with us down main street. Longview has an interesting little main street, lots of murals painted on walls.

Tuesday we went for a drive down highway 22.  We stopped at the Maycroft Rec Area where we saw a few people fishing in the Oldman River.   As we headed up the river, we saw a doe with a couple of fawns.  We were lucky enough to get a few pictures as they paused at the edge of the trees. 

Our next  stop of interest was the gap, a beautiful canyon that the river has cut through the mountains. 
Then we stopped in at Livingstone Falls and had lunch overlooking the rapids.  The last time we were here, we thought that the first little falls were Livingstone Falls.


This time, Dominique and John went across the top of this slope and found what we expect are the actual Livingstone Falls.



After lunch, we left the forestry road on highway 532 toward the Indian Graves campground.  As we began our descent we encountered a herd of mountain goats.

From highway 22 on the way back to the trailer, we saw a sign that implied a bridge was being sold.

 After supper, we played a few games of Canasta. 

Wednesday Dominique treated us to brunch at the Twin Cities Hotel. They have a great menu, very fresh food, so now we know why their patio is always full, no matter what time of day it is. Around noon Karen and Dominique left for Regina. Shortly after they left we saw a tornado warning on the TV for the area just north of us.  Shortly after, the campground manager came by, as he let everyone in the campground know about the warning.   We could see the clouds behind the hills, but they didn't get this far south.    We spent the afternoon at the library planning for our fall travels. We found out that the tornado had touched down in the Tsu Tina reserve. Fortunately no major damage was done. About 4:00 we headed into High River to pick up Anthony's mail and bike that was at the home he had lived in during his school term. We dropped  Anthony's belonging off with him, discovered everyone at home, as the Anthony and Trev had been sent home from their jobs due to  tornado risk.

Thursday morning we enjoyed the nice weather and spent the day cleaning and vegging around the trailer.

Thursday 16 July 2015

Week ending Jul 16, 2015 Olds

Friday  Joan visited with our Texas neighbours while John again worked on the roof.  It really was a lazy day.

Saturday we left reasonably early, heading for Didsbury. We arrived in Didsbury around noon, got set up and headed into Cochrane to pick up our mail. All is well, we received the explanation of our seniors benefits. It really is good to be old in Alberta. It will take us another few weeks to weed through all the rest of the mail. We got back from Cochrane in time to watch the Saturday Nascar Race.

Sunday we moved to Olds, a long 17 km drive. We arrived before our site was vacated, so we parked in overflow and walked downtown. After a nice lunch/brunch we went back to OR Hedges campground, set up, got the satellite aligned and went for groceries.   Apparently our owl doesn't scare magpies.

We noticed, in our mail, that John's drivers license had expired this year. Ooops. Joan is doing a lot of driving now. Monday morning our first stop was the Alberta Registry.  We both renewed their drivers licenses and we extended the truck license for another year, so we are good until February 2017.

Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday we spent visiting John's parents and helping them with a little yard work. John's dad created a dowel stand for our owl, so that we can put it up and hopefully have it keep the birds off our roof, or maybe at least deter mice from coming into the trailer.   In the area, we noticed a highway sign with a double meaning ;).




 
Thursday we moved to Longview. A disappointing arrival as the mountains are covered in cloud. We are looking forward to doing some hiking in this area of Kananaskis.

Thursday 9 July 2015

Week ending Jul 9, 2015 Edmonton




Friday was shopping day. How nice to be able to actually get stuff we want. Our most important purchase was  new filters for John's air cleaner. We had been looking in numerous drug stores for the past couple of months with no luck. We are always able to get them at London Drugs.We found they are also available at Walmart, but the towns we were in were not even large enough for a Walmart.  We made a note to self, always have a couple of spares and then when spring hits John can use his air cleaner. After some shopping we did laundry, handy to have a laundromat at the campground.

Saturday Ann and Daniel and George joined us for dinner. We spent the evening visiting with them. Sunday we headed out to Sherwood Park to have a great dinner and visit with John's Aunt Joan and Uncle Alf. Thanks Auntie Joan for cooking one of John's favorites, ham and scallop potatoes.

Monday we did some more shopping, hard  to resist being close to good stores.  Then we went to Hawrelak Park to have lunch beside the pond. 


Then we walked around the pond, and a few kilometers on a path along the river.   We encountered a couple of ladies picking saskatoon berries, which were starting to ripen.  We also noticed gallon milk containers hanging from branches.  We were surprised to see that a squirrel had made itself at home in one of them.
 
Tuesday we went to Annie and Buncha's, they treated us to a wonderful Chinese dinner at "Amazing Wok".  They insisted we take home the leftovers, so no cooking for Joan on Wednesday.

Wednesday morning started very early. John was up by 6:00 A.M to met Buncha at JR Golf Course by 7:15. John and Buncha always try and get a golf game in when we are in the area. Joan hung around the trailer doing the usual chores. It is a warm day today, but cloudy, so the trailer stayed cool with the help of the breeze.

Thursday was another hot day. We headed out to do some shopping. We needed an owl to help keep the birds off the trailer roof. We went to numerous garden centres, thinking that would be the logical place to go. We did not have any luck. Finally an employee at Hole's Greenhouse suggested that we try Lee Valley. Sure enough we were able to get a garden scare owl.  It's head is balanced on a rod so that it moves with an air movement, making it more realistic.  Only the future will tell if it will keep birds off our roof.
 
Yesterday we used our air conditioning to cool the trailer down before we went to bed.  Today it is even warmer and we are using our air conditioning so that it is bearable to be in the trailer in the afternoon.  

Thursday 2 July 2015

Week ending Jul 2, 2015 Boyle

 Friday we moved to Millview campground in Boyle. As noted before town municipal campgrounds are good locations for long weekends. Of the 24 sites only three were occupied, so we had lots of choice. The mill of which we have a view is Millar Western Pulp and Paper, bringing back memories for Joan as they were one of her major customers when she worked at CIBC in Trade Finance. After we got all set up we went for a walk through town. Not a long walk as it is a town with a population of about 860.  There are at least three liquor stores, a great co-op grocery store and a couple motels.

Saturday we completed the Historic Boyle walking trail by a pond (slough), built last year commemorating Boyles 100th anniversary.  John saw a fox(maybe) crossing the trail, but was not able to get a picture.  We think the walking trail is still a work in progress, as it only went a short distance through the trees along the edge of the campground, and the only history we saw were a couple of old vehicles in the bush.



We wandered through some of the residential streets then back to the trailer to watch the FIFA games.  We are happy that there is a fire ban in effect here as we can keep the windows open and enjoy the breeze keeping the trailer cool.

Sunday was actually hot enough that we used our air-conditioner for the first time in a couple of years. We had a very quiet day, Nascar and Fifa, it was too hot to cook inside so we used the crock pot outside on the picnic table.

Monday we did a short walk around town and then stopped at the Co-op lumber store for a small piece of wood. They gave us a piece of the appropriate size and off we went so John could do a bit of ottoman repair.

Many years ago when our kids were elementary school age we camped out at Long Lake for 1 night. Only 1 night because it rained, and the new roof vent in the van leaked.  We forgot to seal it. Guess what when it rains and the roof vent isn't sealed the bed inside gets very wet. So back to Edmonton to do the job properly. Tuesday we went to Long Lake to see if it was anything like we remembered. There was no rain, an improvement. It really is a nice lake, we completed a walking trail along the lake and through the campground. The boat docks are very interesting. They look like lego blocks (filled with air of course ) made out of rubber.
 

We saw a duck with some babies on a log on the edge of the lake.


The rv sites look very nice and John figures there are some sites that we may be able to get satellite set up. Maybe another time we will head for Long Lake. On our way back to Boyle we stopped at The Boyle Fish Pond for lunch.

Canada day we spent doing a few more chores and enjoying the warm weather.

Thursday was moving day. We arrived early at Glowing Embers RV park, just outside of Edmonton. Our plan for the next week is to visit friends and relatives and do some shopping.