roadquill1

Hello dear family, friends, and other followers!
As posted last time, our trip to Ft. McMurray was cancelled due to smoke and fire, but our granddaughter, Rebecca, made the trip down from the Fort to meet with us on Thursday, June 5, in Fort Saskatchewan. We walked with her on some of the Fort Saskatchewan hiking/ biking trails, and then she stayed with us for dinner on the first evening. Later she headed into Sherwood Park to stay with her friend Brittany.

On Friday, at Brittany’s suggestion, we met up with Rebecca at Fort Edmonton Park. When we arrived, I was a bit concerned since several thousand school-aged children were in attendance and loudly expressing their joys and excitement!

What an incredible development this park is! There is steam train that takes folks from the entrance to the other side of the park and then returns them. (A streetcar also runs from the more modern era displays to the entrance area. The park is divided into Edmonton’s “eras” with the earliest being the First Nations and Métis exhibits in a beautifully designed building. A recreation of the original “Fort Edmonton” has amazing displays of living quarters, tools, fur storage, a York Boat and even a bakery where two young men in period costumes turned out bannock bread and jam for the tourists. As you wander from the Fort, you walk through increasingly more modern eras, with store fronts, businesses, homes, etc. For the younger set there is an amusement park! We spent about 4 or 5 hours there and were all impressed!

For dinner we had Italian food in Sherwood Park where Brittany and her daughter Reilly joined us. We said our good-byes and headed back to Fort Saskatchewan to pack up for departure on Saturday.

As most of you are aware in western Canada, the summer weather came – early, and hot! All my thin-skinned whining about cold temps are passé. Temperatures are warming and are expected to hit in the 30’s early in the week. I can put my down jacket away.

On Saturday morning we got underway early for a 4 1/2 hr journey south to Fort Mcleod. Our campsite – “Rivers Edge RV” is a couple of kilometers outside of the Fort. A couple of issues about this drive. First of all, the “ring road” around Edmonton is not in good shape, and the truck and trailer were repeatedly being banged about by potholes and cracks, and pavement heaves. Secondly, as predicted by forecasts, the smoky haze grew thicker as we headed south past Leduc and Red Deer. (The road improved south of Edmonton.)

The rest of the trip south on Saturday was mostly uneventful, but I was glad to get past the Calgary traffic. The Rivers Edge RV is a lovely treed spot on the banks of the Oldman River. We did an exploratory walk around the park and along the river and then called it a day – retiring to anti-gravity chairs and books.

On Sunday we headed for the “Head-Smashed-in Buffalo Jump” – a World Heritage Site about 16 km away. We spent a number of hours there beginning with a long stair climb to the rim of the cliff. This climb is inside the exhibit building, and the option of elevators exists. At the top, on a beautiful sunny and warm (24º) day (albeit somewhat hazy from smoke) we strolled along the path at the top of the cliff admiring the views.

Back inside the exhibit building we worked our way gradually downstairs going through the displays on each floor. It is a fascinating history which goes back thousands of years, culminating in the almost eradication of the buffalo in the late 1800’s. Outside the building once again, we followed the foot path along the base of the cliff to where the actual jump occurred after the buffalo were ingeniously herded into a stampede over the edge by the indigenous people – mostly Blackfoot tribes. The tribes would then salvage meat, skins, and bones, for future food stocks.

On Monday, June 9, we began our westward trip through the Crowsnest Pass. We stopped at the Frank Slide information centre for Sandy to see and learn about the massive Frank Slide which wiped out the coal mining town of Frank early in the 20th century.

Our site for Monday was at Mt. Fernie Provincial Campground but first we stopped for a stroll around downtown Fernie. At the campground the various site loops were unmarked so we had to search a bit before we found our site – #33. Unfortunately, the placement of the table on the site, the angle of the entrance and my lack of developed skill on backing up made it impossible for me to get Truck House into the site. I finally gave up, and we found an unreserved site nearby.

On Tuesday, we had a much longer journey – again about 4 1/2 hr. to Rossland’s Lions Campground. That was quite a slog! We stopped for a stroll in Creston, but otherwise climbed, climbed and climbed some more before descending, descending and descending over the Creston-Salmo Pass, and then from Trail up to Rossland. (In Trail, the temperature showed 35º, so we had no urge to stop!) At the summit of the Rossland climb, by supper time, the temperature had dropped a full 8º and we enjoyed a wonderful dinner and evening with my niece Lea and her husband, Andrew – on their patio. The Lions Campground was beautiful and our site overlooked a lovely green meadow to the forest beyond.

This morning, as usual Sandy was up before the robins, and more reasonably, I arose at the more godly hour of 6:00. As we read and had coffee, I noticed a rather large brown bear foraging in the meadow about 30 m from our site. By the time I had my camera ready and door open, the bear had ambled off into the brush.

We were on our way by 7:45 with the intention of probably staying in Manning Park, or perhaps Hope. Once we had completed our first of several long mountain passes, I decided I was enjoying the driving and we should get as close to Chilliwack as we could – because we have a broken hatch catch that has to be repaired at the Escape factory tomorrow morning.

But first, we had to have a Fruit Stand stop near Osoyoos which was advertising “Cherries”. We were not surprised that they didn’t look as good as the summertime varieties, but in order to wash them for nibbling, I opened up the trailer and discovered that Humpty Dumpty and 10 of his buddies had indeed had a great fall, and almost a dozen extra large eggs were sloshing around on the floor of Truck House! I cautioned Sandy that she might not want to see inside, but that is like flashing a honey jar in front of a bear! However, not Sandy nor all the king’s men could put Humpty back together again, so the slimy mess is now occupying our grey water tank until our next dump out…in which time Humpty and cohort will find the Humpty Dumpster!

Thus, tonight we are at Cultus Lake where every site was marked “Reserved” but less that 20% actually have vehicles in them. The website did not co-operate with getting clear information! And…when we tried to book one “Available” site, the website froze up. When I tried a second time, the site was marked as “Unavailable”. I gave up! We are in a site. And…we have seen no park attendants!

Tomorrow we head for Escape Trailers, in Chilliwack, then to Langley to visit with our daughter, and then off to catch the 5:45pm Duke Pt. Ferry home. It has been a wonderful voyage. We love our Truck House Escape and the Escapades!

And much love and best wishes to all of you! (Until I write again!)

Tony, the Quill, and Sandy, the Quilter.