Aloha RVing fans! We left on our road trip on Monday morning from Claresholm.
Our first stop was to see Clay and Jenn at their horse facility: Clay Webster Performance Horses, east of Okotoks. Braxton was sleeping but we got to see his adorable twin sister Faythe and play with her a bit, then watched Clay in the ring. He's making the 3rd in a series of DVD instructional tapes so was being filmed/taped while we were there. Just him doing things on a horse and talking about the whats and whys. Very interesting. After that, we took off on two-lane highways east and north of Calgary, ending up in Carstairs for the night. I think we drove a total of 120 miles that day! Gruelling. We found a great spot in the community campground; quiet and dark all night. In the morning we rode our bikes all over town, checked out the cemetery (something we do in most small towns we visit) and then packed up the RV and drove north.
We don't have a plan this summer. We're going wherever we want, when we want and how fast we want. The next night we were in Stettler, about 100 miles from Carstairs. We camped in the fairgrounds campground - very nice, clean, quiet. And again, in the morning we biked all over the old downtown section, found the bakery that we visited in 2000 but it was closed for two weeks! Arrgghh - no cream puffs! After breakfast at Smitty's we biked to the community garden and talked with a lovely woman tending her plot. Wow. Her peas, beans, zucchini, cabbages - she planted on June 2 and had already harvested once with more ready to pick. She gave us a bunch of peas; I rode back to gift her one of my tote bags.
From Stettler we headed north to the itty bitty hamlet of Donalda, home of the world's largest oil lantern replica - 40 feet tall - overlooking a badlands valley. We went through the museum (900-plus oil lamps and lanterns) and then I found the antique store. Whooppee! What a blast. I walked out of there with about 500 buttons plus oodles of vintage and antique pins, embellishments and geegaws. We had lunch in the RV, then got on the road again up to Camrose and found the Whistle Stop Golf Club and Campground. A train goes by about every 4-5 hours and, yep, whistles at the two crossings. We love it, even the two that went through at 3 a.m. and 5 a.m.
I checked the weather radar after we got camped and saw a huge thunderstorm was heading our way. Sure enough, around 8:30 the lightning and thunder started, then the wind, the rain, a little hail. It went directly over us and for more than two hours it was constant lightning and rumbling, some of the strikes were straight down and looked close. It's a little unnerving to watch the show while sitting in a metal tube, hoping we're not rubbing up against a big ol' pine tree! By 10:30 the storm had moved off to the NE and we bunked down. This morning is sunny, blue sky, birds singing - another lovely Alberta day. Jim is going to play 9 holes this morning, then we're off to the casino for lunch and a little play of my own.
We decided last night to skip Edmonton, so will be going to Lamont (northeast of the city) to stay the night, then working our way northwest and will be in Slave Lake sometime this weekend. Or maybe not. Who knows? We could end up in Saskatchewan! It all depends on which road looks more interesting, what the weather is doing, who we meet along the way. All we know for sure is that this is the perfect way to RV: no schedules, no itinerary.
You stay in touch, please, and I'll send updates when the wifi is willing.
Faythe Webster, 17 months old. Joy's grand-niece.
Barn cat and her kittens.
Jim's morning coffee break at our secluded campsite at Carstairs.
That's my nephew! Clay Webster, horse trainer without equal.
Check out Clay Webster Performance Horses on Google for the full story.
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