DAY 6 - Sunday, September 22

Sometimes it's best to arrive at a hotel early. Last night in Valleyview is a case in point. When we arrived around 5PM it didn't look bad, not too busy. This was the scene this morning.

The restaurant was also a bar but when we entered for breakfast I was a little surprised to see this. A little early yet isn't it?

Finally, it appeared they have a little different take on social distancing.

Oh well, that's what makes life interesting yes?

We got away from Valleyview about 10AM and headed west a little off our planned course to visit Beaverlodge, home to the World's Largest Beaver. It worked on Corner Gas with the World's Biggest Hoe!

We totally missed the fall colour at home so this was a nice drive south today. It rained all morning and into the afternoon finally letting up about 2PM. Imagine how beautiful this would have been in sunshine with a bright blue sky.

We landed safely in Grande Cache quite aware we had left the prairies behind and were now heading into the mountains. Right across the hall from our room is this haven of peace and solitude. The view speaks for itself.

I'm convinced the room is there to compensate us and everyone else on our side of the hotel for the glorious scene greeting us out our own room's window.

I'm not sure what's on tap for tomorrow's weather - hopefully a little better than today. I was getting used to perfect sunny blue skies.  😅

 DAY 5 - Saturday, September 21

Sorry if this is getting to you a bit late. It's been a long travel day but a good one. A most interesting sunrise as the fog set in overnight.

We weren't exactly sure where we were going to go but decided to worry about it a little later. First a visit to the archery championships. Though not the greatest venue if you wanted to see what was going on it was fascinating. Teams from around the world were competing just like in the Olympics. By the way is archery an Olympic event? It should be. It's certainly a lot better that skateboarding and break dancing. The poor sight lines were addressed by a jumbo video screen. A worthy start to our day.

The weather cleared nicely and it was a beautiful 6 hour drive west. We were buzzed by a crop dusting helicopter just for fun. I guess the days of biplanes are gone eh?

At one point a fox ran across the highway in front of us just narrowly missing being destroyed by a group of four bikers. Whew! That would have been fricasseed fox for sure...and the bikers would not have fared too well either.

Nevertheless it was a pretty drive.

We had planned to stop for the night at High Prairie but it was high hopes and low everything else. Fearing we had another 200 kilometres to Grande Prairie we were pleased to find a respectable inn in Valleyview about 60 kilometres after leaving High Prairie.

Tomorrow will be another unscheduled adventure. Who knows what central Alberta has to offer.  😎

DAY 4 - Friday, September 20

Another sweet day. We just wrapped things up and the weather changed - hail and rain. I guess we were lucky it wasn't snow because it was pretty cool. We were decked out in touques, gloves and vests by the end of our day. 

We wanted to check out the archery championships (after all, they filled up out hotel so there must be something to this) but sadly it was not meant to be as they are still training and practising for the big show tomorrow and no spectators were allowed. As luck would have it, we're heading out in the morning tomorrow.

On to Sir Winston Churchill Provincial Park. An odd choice for a French/Metis area of Canada, nevertheless a hike in the park was quite lovely. The Boardwalk Loop Trail sounded innocent enough; a 1.2 kilometre (we wanted to start slowly) loop trail. A few problems with that. The boardwalk was a dilapidated 100 yard death trap of cracked and broken boards crossing a swampy bog. It never was a loop trail nor was it 1.2 kilometres. I measured it and it was 5 kilometres. Even if we did make our own adventure, no part of the trail is 1.2 kilometres. All was vindicated because it was a very pretty hike.

the drive in to the trail

boardwalk loop trail

We got to a point where we did not know for certain which of three options to take. I checked my phone and it did an admirable job of guiding us along the road. I must say I was confused and somewhat uneasy when it pointed out a point on the map and indicated "your car is parked here". I didn't know that so how is this possible?

The French community of Plamondon holds a hidden treasure in its Memory Lane Heritage Park. It was closed for the season (I wonder why I started saying this was a sweet day) but we managed to peer through the chainlink fence to get an idea of this accomplishment. Built entirely by local volunteers the miniature village is very impressive and well done. Just watch out for those giant wagons and vintage cars.

Our last stop for the day was the Lac La Biche Mission. We passed the sign on the highway and decided to check it out. While I took photos of the church Karen, of course, wandered the cemetery learning more about the area. The onsite museum was closed when we were there.

Tomorrow should prove interesting; other than heading west we don't know where we will settle. Nothing is booked until Tuesday so we'll roll the dice and hope for the best. Stay with us, it'll be fun.    😎

 DAY 3 - Thursday, September 19, 2024

Today was a really nice day for weather and for our trip north to Lac La Biche. The start of the day is usually a good omen and did not let us down today.

This is the way we love to travel and the process makes a road trip so enjoyable. On the advice of Steve yesterday we took the roads less travelled once we were out of Edmonton. During the entire drive (once out of the city) I doubt we saw a hundred cars for the whole trip. There are lots of little towns and villages, none of them having any resemblance to what our classic view of Alberta is.

First stop was Mundare, commemorating a century of sausage-making. Over 100 years ago immigrants from Eastern Europe (with a heavy percentage from Ukraine) arrived in Canada and chose to settle the Canadian West. Who could resist this tacky photo-op?!

In this neck of the woods it is not unusual at all to see numerous Ukrainian Orthodox Churches.

A short distance up the road the village of Andrew lays claim to the World's Largest Mallard Duck. Right about now I was laughing recalling a fabulous episode of Corner Gas.

Nearby village of Willingdon was a real eye-opener. It's not really a ghost town, people still live there but there's certainly not much left. I can't even imagine how it ever supported a hotel, four grocery stores and two liquor stores all within a hundred yards of one another. A pretty little town, sadly not even Jonny Harris and his Still Standing show could save Willingdon.

We arrived in Lac La Biche mid-afternoon and were relieved that we had pre-booked. This sort of thing happens to us with alarming frequency, especially when we do not book ahead. Our hotel is full. Why...a World Archery Field Championships of course.

Stay with us - we're not sure what tomorrow may bring in Lac La Biche. Biche, by the way, means doe.

😎

 DAY 2 - Wednesday, September 18

An easy day but not without some trials. We picked our car up, a new Ford Escape. There's no GPS so I use Apple Car Play syncing my phone via Bluetooth. That's not perfect but it will have to do - as long as it stays connected that is.

Once we found the place Canadian Tire was the next disappointment. Their Halloween display at the entrance (and throughout the store) was truly magnificent. What was disappointing was they had no styrofoam coolers. I guess all the summer stock is put away - after all you have to make room for Halloween and Christmas decorations.

We did have a wonderful lunch with high school friend Steve. He's doing well and it was a great visit. The photo points out one very annoying trait of my iphone. The photos are by default a very wide angle and the only way to reduce that angle is by zooming in. That reduces the quality to totally unacceptable at full zoom - add my unsteady hand and things get messy in a hurry. Trust me, Steve's foot is not that flat and big...he didn't even go to clown college...wait, recalling my high school, maybe he did.

We're heading north tomorrow...come with us.  😎

 DAY 1 - September 17, 2024

Getting there is never half the fun when you fly!

We were picked up by our favourite limo company at 8:30AM. 

Traffic on the 401 was insane which is perfectly normal every day. The first thing I do is remove my hearing aids - you can wear them with a mask or glasses with a mask but not both. It didn't take long for my ears to hurt. Does this compromise the benefits of wearing a mask?

We took off on time, right at noon. It was a good flight until we flew over Saskatchewan. These two shots are somewhere over Saskatchewan.

It was a very turbulent flight over our main prairie province. The seat belt sign was on and the captain had instructed to refrain from visiting the washroom. HOWEVER, some rules are made to be broken and that turned into a real Marx Brothers/Woody Allen affair. 

We landed in Edmonton on time, 2PM their time then spent a half hour walking the absolute longest trek to baggage claim I have ever experienced in any airport. It was easily a kilometre.

Tomorrow we'll pick up our car and really get this party started!  😎

 ALBERTA BOUND  -  Day 0

On Tuesday we're off to Alberta for 4 weeks. Westjet hopefully will get us there without interruption. Once there, all we need to worry about is smoke and wildfires. Our vacations are rarely normal. 

The last time we were in Alberta was 2002. It was an awesome Holiday on Horseback. That won't be happening this time.

Hopefully we'll get to places we have not been before. That rules out Jasper, Lake Louise and Banff. I will email you blog links as they are posted, starting with today, Day 0. Stay tuned - you know what to expect.