July 3rd - arrival in Calgary

Traveled today, had about 4 hours of driving ahead of us to get to Calgary, so we left the campground a little earlier, we were on the road by 9:00am, surprised even us!

Calgary is just about straight south of Edmonton, and we are now in the plains. Very much like Kansas or Nebraska, gentle rolling hills to the point of almost flat. Lots of cattle and horses, it’s called the Cowboy Valley (according to the map).

Weather is much better today, yesterday before the cold front came through we had a high of 87, today the high was 74. Suppose to be down in the 60’s over the week end with rain. Rodeo in the rain, sounds like fun uh?

We are ‘parked’ at McMahon Stadium, which is the football stadium for the college here in Calgary. So, we have electric and access to water, no sewer for a week and no WIFI. So, the only time I will be able to send updates is if we go to some sort of internet café. This is what I call camping rough!!

We caught up with Gail and Jim Cilioni and Randy and Terry Scott.  So good to see them again


Tonight we boarded school buses, that I think were meant for short legged pre-schoolers as there was absolutely NO leg room. We were taken to a place called the Winter Club where we were sworn in as Honorary Calgarians and then served a buffet dinner that was pretty good!

June 29 - July 2 - Relaxing in Edmonton

June 29 

We all decided that since we were going to be so busy in Calgary that we would just take care of business and mostly just sit around and relax.

July 1 
Today, the 1^st was Canada Day, but since everyone had to go to work tomorrow, the campground emptied out by noon. The campground was suppose to set off fireworks at 11:00pm (not dark until then), but we were playing cards and didn’t even hear them go off…if they did.


 July 2

…Strange things happening here, we are far to the north, in Edmonton, Alberta for heaven’s sake and we are under a Severe Thunderstorm and Tornado Watch!! The sky to the north and east of the campground was black, Edmonton really got hammered with heavy rains and hail! Can’t believe this kind of weather has come this far north!!

June 28 - Edmonton

One of the items on the “Must See” list of things to do is the West Edmonton Mall and WOW!! We have been to the Mall of America in Wisconsin, but this blew them out of the water!! You literally need a map to get around this place, and a scooter would be very handy!! If you don’t have a scooter, be prepared to be totally exhausted if you try to see everything, and we tried, we really did. It’s kind of like Disneyland, you just can’t see all of it in one day!

 This mall is totally enclosed, has three levels, covers 5,300,000 square feet, more than 800 shops and services, has parking for more than 20,000 vehicles and employs more than 23,000 people.

 But wait, there is more…included in this mall are several specialty areas:
 Galaxy Land Amusement Park-Features more than 24 exhilarating rides and play areas for all ages. Four distinctive roller coasters, kids play park, Turbo Ride Theater, carnival games, a rock climbing wall and more.

 Water Park-World’s largest indoor wave pool, located in a tropical oasis with an average temp of 29 C (84.2 F), has 17 unique water slides, including one that loops, a couple of hot tubs areas and a wading pool.

 Deep Sea Adventure-Worlds largest indoor lake features an exact replica of the Columbus flagship Santa Maria, water bumper cars and a Sea Lion/Seal show area.

 Two Miniature Golf Areas-One is a Glow in the Dark game and the other is a full 18 hole Mini Golf course.

Ice Palace-NHL sized Ice Rink, skating lessons, hockey lessons, open skating and hockey games.

 Ed’s Rec Room/300 Club Lounge-Cosmic Bowling, 14 projectors showing live music videos and sporting events. Arcade games and fully licensed bar and kitchen.

 Ropes Quest-Three story ropes course. While harnessed in, climb along a sea of beams and ropes all the way to the top to conquer this obstacle course.
 The ‘food court’ is amazing compared to what we are use to in most malls in the states! One area has full sit down restaurants with a variety of choices of types of food. The actual food court is an area about the size of a football field with every type of food vendor there is, and common seating in the middle. We splurged on handmade crapes with bananas, whipped cream and chocolate syrup…soooo good!!  

 This was an all day event for us and we didn’t even ‘do’ any of the special things, just walked through and looked! Oh, almost forgot, there are also two hotels, complete with conference rooms, a movie theater and a full service grocery store in the mall. You could live here, and never have to leave…unless you just felt the need for fresh air. If you are interested in more information you can check out the web page at: westedmontonmall.com.

June 27 Freightliner

We were out of the campground by 7:15 and in the freightliner shop by 11:30.  By 2pm they had us in the shop.  To our relief, the breaks looked fine and are actually in very good condition.  The tech recommended that he grease the mechanisms, so we went along with his recommendation.  Twenty minutes and $137 later we were on the road to the campground.  

We got to the campground around 3pm and Phil and Nita were just setting up. 

June 26 Town of Jasper

We did not want to take a long drive, but did not want to stay in the campground all day,  so we took a drive into the town of Jasper.   Parked the car and walked around the square and strolled in and out of the shops. Although there was a good crowd, the numbers were not excessive yet. We could still get into the shops without fighting for our personal space.

Jasper is a quaint little town with a mountain atmosphere. The buildings are older, but well maintained, and yet the wooden floors still creek as you walk through the shops.


Everywhere you look there are flowers and the bright colors are so pretty! The town itself is being maintained by the “Friends of the Town of Jasper” and their work is supported by the gift shop they run and donations. Quite an undertaking! Nita said she was involved with the “Friends of the Library” when we lived in Heber Springs, and that was a job in and of itself! She can’t imagine taking on a whole town. 

It was a cute little town with a lot of shops and restaurants.  We enjoyed just ambling around the different shops and had a very nice lunch.  Then it was back to the campground and another round of hand and foot.  Oh no! the guys won again.  We only played one game as we intend to get up early for our trip into Edmonton so we can get to the freightliner shop as early as possible.  We will meet up with Nita and Phil later in the day at the campground.

June 25 arrival in Hinton

Took the day off from site-seeing and went into Hinton to do some shopping. Had lunch at a local pizza place, where the meat lover’s pizza consisted of hamburger and Canadian Bacon. Interesting, but had enough cheese on it to make it really good.

On the way back to the RV Park we saw two male Caribou’s grazing along side of the highway. These were much more mature than the one we saw yesterday, both of these guys had full racks. Early in the season yet, they were still ‘in velvet’. This was the first time I had ever seen a rack ‘in velvet’ and I can totally understand why this term was applied, as they really do look like velvet! Makes you want to go right up and touch them, just to see if they are as soft as they look! 

We played two games of hand and foot and the guys won both.  They are starting to catch up and may soon take the lead in games won.  :-(

The news out of Calgary is encouraging and it looks like the Stampede is going to be a go!

June 24 - Columbia Ice Fields

Once Nita and Phil meet us at the Ice Field Experience Lodge, we got on a bus to go across the highway and to the beginning of the Ice Field.  We were then transferred to a special bus called an Ice Explorer, which is a massive bus designed for glacial travel. Our driver is our guide and he has plenty of tidbits of information for us on glaciers, ice fields and their impact on our environment.

 Our destination is the Athabasca Glacier, which is reported to be as thick as the Eiffel Tower is tall. It is hard to imagine ice that thick! We were allowed to get out of the Explorer and walk on this glacier. 

Glacier ice is blue, and the runoff water is clear as glass. I guess some people tasted the water, but not me! Clear it may be, but not necessarily clean!

After leaving the ice field, we continued with our trip north towards Jasper National Park. We made several stops at view points, but my favorite was Athabasca Falls, which is along the Athabasca River. As with all of the rivers up here right now, this one is flowing fast and furious. As it flows down through a narrow rock gorge, it makes a spectacular falls and the roar of the water is so loud, it’s hard to carry on a conversation.

Today was our day to finally see some wildlife along the road. A young male Caribou was feeding on the grass right along the highway. We also came across some young Big Horn Sheep in the middle of the highway, they were totally engrossed in licking the tar line where it had been put down to seal some of the cracks in the road. Traffic had to go around them, as they would not move! These little guys were part of a bigger herd of Big Horns that were climbing all over the rocks just around the bend. These antics were being watched by the rest of the herd as they lounged on a small hill right next to the road. Right now, the Big Horns are shedding their winter coats and looking a little ragged in the process!

When we reached the town of Jasper, we hooked a right onto Highway 16, heading for Hinton, AB, where we had reservations at the Hinton/Jasper KOA for the next couple of nights.

 While driving through Jasper, some of the declines were quite steep, and we starting smelling something burning.  It turned out to be our front passenger tire.  That put a new stop on our agenda.  We searched for a freightliner oasis shop (they work on motor homes).  The closest one is in Edmonton, and that will be our first stop when we leave Hinton.