Week ending Jun 29, 2017 Edmonton to Rimbey

Friday  we did a walk along the river valley in Edmonton in Buena Vista Park.    

Bridge from Buena Vista to Hawrelak Parks

White Admiral Butterfly

After lunch, we visited with Fern and George, who are both looking well.  The we had supper at Joan and Alf's. 

On the way back to the trailer, at the road leading to the RV park, we had to go around a truck which had flipped on its side.  The back of the truck was right up against the traffic lights pole.

Oops!

Saturday after lunch we stopped in to visit with Mom and Dad for a while, Then we drove to Lamont for the Perogy Festival.   We were hoping we could buy a variety of perogies to take home.  However, from 1 to 4, you could buy a plate perogies for $10, and from 5 to 7 there would be a perogy supper.   There was an area in the arena that had arts and crafts vendors, and outside was a small amusement park.  We were a bit disappointed, although  the town's description of the event  didn't promise anything more. 

Sunday was golf day.   John enjoyed a day with Buncha, Kit and Alex.   We went for supper with Annie and Buncha and caught up with events since last May.

Monday we visited with Mom and Dad, then did some shopping.  

Wednesday morning we headed down highway 2 towards Rimbey.  We had decided to stop in Ponoka for a break before heading west on highway 53, but Joan forgot and took the turn west to Rimbey instead.   It would have been about halfway to Rimbey before there was a good place to turn around, so we stopped at the FasGas in Crestomere, where we got some cinnamon snacks and coffee.   When we arrived at the Nesting Place RV Park in Rimbey, we parked near the entrance to look around for a good site.  We encountered the couple who are volunteering here, and had a chat with them before choosing a site and getting settled in.  One thing we found out is that they have set up a system for there wi-fi to be able to monitor bandwidth usage for each site, since some of the workers staying here had been streaming movies.

On Thursday we did a walk around Rimbey.  We headed to the Visitor Information at Beatty House where we picked up some literature,

Beatty House

then walked up the main street toward Pas-ka-poo Historic Park.  Along the way, we saw a house with the name Leon and Betty.  John had roomed with the family to finish Grade 12 when his Dad got a job working up north.  He knew they had moved to Rimbey shortly after that.   We rang the door bell, and Leon answered.   We had a nice chat at the door.   Then we continued up to the park, which is a series of museums, including the Smithson International Truck Museum, which also has a visitor centre.   There was no one at the desk, so we picked up a couple more items.  There were people chatting inside the museum, but no one came to the door, so we left. 

Wood Sculptures at Pas-ka-poo Park

We walked back to main street, and walked the 3 blocks along one side, then back on the other.   Then we picked up some groceries at Co-op before returning to the RV park.

Week ending Jun 22, 2017 Camrose to Edmonton

Friday, we drove from Big Valley to Stettler where we stopped for groceries and a mid-morning snack.  Then we carried on to Camrose, and set up in the Camrose Regional Exhibition Campground.  It is quite a nice campground with good sized spaces and decent facilities. 

On Saturday, we went to the farmers market being help in one of the malls.  We didn't find anything we were looking for.   Then we went to the Visitor Information Centre on Mirror Lake in the middle of the city.  Surprisingly, it was closed on a Saturday morning.  It did have maps of the walking trails along Camrose Creek, formerly Stony Creek.  This is a nice walk, with interpretive signs describing the city's history, through a park setting until you get to 44 Ave.  South of that is  Stoney Creek Park, which still has a paved path, but is through a more natural area.  Branching off the paved path are cross-country ski trails.  We walked down as far as the trestle crossing the creek, before returning through the town above the valley. 

Trestle in Camrose Creek valley

On Sunday we did another walk in Camrose, this time along the top of the creek valley around the Valleyview subdivision.  We saw a train run through just below us.   We were surprised to see a little 'garden' growing at the front and back of a couple of hopper cars.  

Train along Camrose Creek

Garden on a hopper car

At the end of the trail, back up in the subdivision, we came to a man-made lake.   It had a goose family calming swimming across the lake until a red-winged blackbird got annoyed with them and dive-bombed the trailing goose.   It kept this up for a few minutes. 

goose being dive-bombed by red-winged blackbird

On Monday, we drove up highway 21 to Edmonton.  Just before we got to highway 14, we were stopped by a crew moving a couple of large loads, each with 22 axles and a tractor pulling and another pushing it.     Before the load got to the intersection, the crew rotated the traffic lights out of the way.  

22 axle load

We checked into Glowing Embers RV Park just west of the city.  As we were getting setup in the assigned site, a fellow in a trailer behind us asked if the office had told us the water wasn't working in that site. No!! It has been spraying water out of the side of the tap when it is turned on since last fall.  John headed back to the office to see if we could be moved to another site.  The found us one, so we moved over to it.

We spent the rest of the week with George moving all of thing remaining in Dad's storage unit into either his small storage area in the garage of the condo complex or to Ann's.  It took us 5 trips to move everything using our truck. 

Week ending Jun 15, 2017 Sceptre to Big Valley

Thursday night, we had a big thunderstorm, no hail, which blocked our satellite signal for a while, but washed most of the bugs off the front of the trailer.

Friday morning, we decided to go to Miry Creek Golf Course.  We drove past it on Thursday, and it looked like a pretty little golf course.   We had to put the truck in 4 wheel drive to get up the small grassy slope to the road beside the campground.  The storm had made it quite muddy.   On our way east, we stopped at Lancer to get a picture of the largest Chokecherry statue.

2 Seasons of Chokecherries

Then we stopped at a point of interest above Miry Creek.  This was a point on the trail that ran from Winnipeg to Red Deer Forks (the junction of the Red Deer and South Saskatchewan near Empress) and on to Edmonton, used by settlers heading west around 1900.
 

Miry Creek GC

We started along the top of the gravel drive down to Miry Creek to get to the golf course, and decided we didn't want to get stuck trying to get back up the hill.  We parked the truck off the road, and wheeled our carts and golf clubs down the hill.  We had to stop occasionally to get the mud off our shoes.  Fortunately there was a boot scraper at the golf course.  We found a hand scraper in the clubhouse that we used to get the last of the mud off the wheels on our carts.  On a Friday morning, we were the only people on the course.  It was about worth the $5 green fee.  We gave up looking for the fee box in and around the club house.  At the first tee, we found the fee box.   The fairways on the course are far from being a solid lawn.   We occasionally had trouble finding our balls in little depressions with no grass.  The greens were sand, and the first hole was sticking out a bit above the sand.  We decided that they would not do anything to improve our putting, so we skipped that part of the game.   The highlight of the game was an eight iron approach shot on the 9th hole that rolled just next to the hole.  

 By the time we walked back up the hill around noon, the wind and sun had dried it enough that we didn't get any mud on our shoes or carts on the way up. 

We had been unsuccessfully looking for the Wheat sculpture in Sceptre which Joan had read about.  After lunch, we found the address and headed over to get some pictures.   We had been through the intersection at Railway and Kingsway before, but hadn't looked far enough over our left shoulders to see the sculpture.

Saturday we drove south to the  sand hills.  On the way we saw one of the many antelopes we have seen in southern Saskatchewan.

We walked around the sandhills for about 2 hours.   

On the way back to Sceptre we drove around through Leader (about 20km west of Sceptre).  We stopped at the St. John School historic site south of Leader.

St Johns schoolroom

Monday, we headed for Big Valley.   There were 2  trailers from Saskatchewan in the campground.  They had some little kids that were quite curious about our dog and coyote.   After setting up, we went to the village office, and paid for 4 nights.  

Tuesday we drove to Okotoks to pick up our passports.  Then we stopped at Home Depot at Sue's lunch break to give her the pictures that we are giving to Trev.    We stopped in Trochu on the way back, as they have an all season's campground we might want to use some time.   When we got back to Big Valley, the two trailers had left, so we were alone in the (5 site) campground.

On Wednesday, after raining the evening before, it was still damp, with some drizzle.  In the afternoon we walked around the exhibits at the Big Valley railway site.  It was a divisional point, halfway between Vegreville Junction and Calgary on the Canadian Northern Railway, as there were a lot of underground coal mines in the area.  There are relics of a roundhouse, locomotive turntable, ash pit, coal dock, and water tank, and various other structures necessary for maintaining steam locomotives.

Roundhouse

Locomotive turntable

The Canadian Northern Railway grew too rapidly and collapsed in 1913.   The federal government acquired it in 1917, and then the Grand Trunk Railway in 1920,  forming Canadian National Railways.

We completed our exploration of the railway displays on Thursday, since the battery in the camera ran low on Wednesday.  The station building has been renovated, and is now used for the Alberta Prairie Railway Excursions .   Adjacent to it is a display highlighting communities and people in Canadian railroad history.

In the afternoon, we put our golf clubs on our carts, and climbed the hill to the golf course above town.  It is a challenging 9 hole course with lots of trees and swampy areas.  The fairways go up and down hills, and you frequently can't see where your ball lands as it disappears over the crest of a hill.   In a few places, the fairway slopes steeply sideways.    This course is a good hike.

Green through trees in a swamp

Week ending Jun 8, 2017 Regina to Sceptre

Friday, we went to Karen's and sorted our stuff stored there.  We took a bunch of boxes to the Salvation Army.    Saturday Joan finished up at Karen's.   

Sunday, we went to the Prairie Bee Meadery in Moose Jaw.  After tasting a variety of their products Karen bought raspberry mead and apple cider. 

Monday we went to Buffalo Pound Provincial Park to visit with Carol and Dave.  We got some pictures of the cedar waxwings in a nearby tree, but the goldfinches wouldn't pose for us.

Cedar Waxwing

Buffalo Pound Lake

Tuesday, we walked along the pathways north of  the university before picking up Dominique.  It was raining, just when we wanted to do an hours walk.  We did a short walk, taking a picture of the Four Directions (Bows) Sculpture.  The interpretive sign explained that the bow and arrow were fundamental to the survival of the Aboriginal people of the plains, and "The number four has sacred meanings that reflect the four winds, four seasons, four peoples of the world, four groups of living organisms and the four elements".    We headed into the University to get out of the rain and wait for Dominique.   In the evening, we took Karen and Dominique to Shannon's to celebrate Karen's birthday.

Four Directions

Wednesday, Joan did a load of laundry at Karen's and got some rhubarb from her garden, while John cleaned the bugs off the trailer.

On Thursday, we headed west again, stopping in Herbert.  The restaurant we checked on-line looked closed, so we went to the second one listed.  The address was listed as a coffee shop, but it is now a Tandori type restaurant.  Since it was well before lunch, we had a simple breakfast.  Then we drove to Sceptre on highway 32, northwest of Swift Current.  They have a small 'trailer court' with 15Amp plugs for each of its 4 sites.  There were a couple of killdeer running around in the area.  We wondered if they had a nest close by, but couldn't see one.  Apparently they nest on the rocks, so it might have been difficult to see the eggs.

Once we got setup, and paid for our site for the weekend, we went to the Great Sandhills Museum and Interpretive Centre.  It is a nicely done museum, covering the human and natural history of the area, with lots of nice displays.  We picked up a route map that will guide us to the Great Sandhills parking lot on the weekend.

Week ending June 1, 2017 Vulcan to Regina

Friday, we went to Okotoks for Taylor's grade 12 graduation ceremony.  There were about 400 grads in the combined Foothills Composite High School and Alberta High School of Fine Arts. 

While we were there, Joan talked to Trever about his utility trailer that we had licensed for him while we were still living in Canmore (over 15 years ago).   He told us we should divest ourselves of the trailer, as he had left it at the shop of a company he worked for quite a while ago, and that he had recently found out that the property was being repossessed by the bank, and that he couldn't find out what happened with the trailer, which still had the plates on it.


Monday, we were scheduled to take the trailer to Vulcan Autoplex to get the bearings repacked.   When the technician arrived, he informed us that we would have to leave the trailer for the week.  When we explained that we lived in the trailer, he said he couldn't do the service today because he is the only person on-site on Monday, and had to handle sales as well.   He said that we should have checked with him, not the person on the parts and services desk when we arranged the appointment.  We asked him how we were supposed to know that.  We were not happy that they couldn't have figured this out when we made the appointment.  We went to Fountain Tire to see if they could do the service by Wednesday.  They said they could do it Wednesday morning, but would phone us by noon if they had a cancellation today.

While we were waiting, Joan went to the Vulcan Registry, and reported the trailer as 'lost', so no tickets on it will come back to us.  We have never had a ticket reported on it over the years, but it is good to know we don't have to be concerned about it.

About 11, Fountain Tire called to let us know they were ready to do the bearings.  They cleared a tent trailer off the pad behind the shop where they do large vehicles.   We were planning to go to Canmore to pick up our inflatable from Elizabeth's crawl space, so we checked what time they close for the day (5pm).  We arranged for them to call us after the work was done, and we would give them a credit card number, and pick up the trailer when we got back from Canmore.   We headed off, stopping in Okotoks to find out our passports had not arrived yet.   Fountain Tire called, checking to see if we knew the hubs were greasable.  We said we had greased them ourselves for the last couple of years, but wanted them checked out.  They said they would do one hub, and decide whether the rest needed repacking or just greasing.  A while later, they called again to say we needed to replace a couple of tires, which we agreed to have them do. It turned out to be a benefit getting the work done at a tire shop.  When we checked back with them about 4:30, the work was done, and our total price including 2 tires was under $500.   It actually turned out to be better that we couldn't get the work done at the Autoplex, as it probably would have cost us that much just to get the bearings done.

On our way from Okotoks towards Millarville, we saw a moose off in the distance. 

After putting our inflatable and its accessories in the truck, we enjoyed some tea and raisin oatmeal cookies with Elizabeth. 


On Tuesday, on our way back from a walk, we stopped at Fountain Tire let them know we got the trailer, and the receipt.  When Joan said that she was thinking about saying the trailer was gone when we got back to pick it up.  The lady at the desk told us that she knew we picked it up, because we parked it at the campground right behind where she was sitting to watch her kids play soccer.

Wednesday, we headed toward Regina.  We stopped at Medicine Hat for some groceries, diesel and treats at Tim Hortons, and donated to their Camp Day program.   We were planning at stopping at Eagle Valley Campground, but since we left at 7:30 we decided to go further.   Shortly after we left town, we called a call from Okotoks to let us know that our passports had arrived by registered mail, and that they would hold them until we got back.   We stopped for ice cream cones at #1 Scoop at Tompkins, one of our favourites.  After a short break, we carried on to Morse, which has a small town campground.   We picked the best of a group of sites, but it was still too narrow between the trees to put out the kitchen slide-out. Even then a branch was rubbing the wall.   We were told that they had 30 amp sites, which was technically correct. However, it is two 15 amp plug-ins.  We plugged in our main power with its 15 amp adapter, and ran an extension cord through the bedroom to run the air purifier. 


Thursday morning, we drove to Kings Acres Campground on the east side of Regina and got set up.