Cloudy and cool, heavy rain in the evening starting seconds after our arrival behind the Nova Inn in Manning, Alberta, our boondocking spot for tonight.
This morning we pulled out of our campsite, dumped our waste holding tanks at the campground's sani-dump station, drove out onto the highway, turned south and ... entered Alberta. Goodbye, Northwest Territories !
We drove south all day on Alberta Hwy. 35. How do we know we're in Alberta ? Easy ! The road is flat, straight, and more straight ! Apparently they don't allow roads to curve in Alberta. HA HA HA ! We stopped for lunch at a roadside pullout. I napped after lunch. Around 5 PM we reached High Level. First stop was the municipal sani-dump station to refill our freshwater tank from ... HUH ? ... a coin operated water treatment plant. Okay ! Last time we encountered one of these was in Fort Liard, NWT, and we regretted not using it. And this one didn't seem as complicated to use as the one in Fort Liard. Second stop in High Level was the Visitor Information Centre to pick up some travel planning information. Last stop in High Level was the Independent Grocer's Fuel Bar to refill Lanoire with diesel. By the way ... she reached 333,000 km.
( 208,125 miles ) today ! What a great truck !
Around 8 PM we reached Manning. We drove around town looking for an acceptable place to boondock overnight. We finally settled on the large gravel parking lot behind the Nova Inn. While Joanne went into the camper to begin preparing our ( late ) supper I took Bo for a walk. When he was finished I put him into the camper, then took the little bag of dog waste over to the inn's nearby garbage dumpster. Before I could make it to the dumpster and back ... a violent electrical thunderstorm with really heavy rain began. In just a few seconds I was drenched with cold rain.
And no, no ... the wild Oyster Mushrooms did not kill us ! Or even make us ill !
Monday ; Manning to Peace River, Alberta
Sunny and warm. Overnight we had darkness for the first time in over two weeks.
It's too complicated to even try to explain, but ... Emma escaped from the camper during the night. I found her at 7 AM this morning, very scared, cowering underneath the truck, crying loudly. Poor baby Emma ! ! !
We got a late start to our day. Late this morning we left our boondocking spot behind the Nova Inn and drove to the municipal dump station in Manning where we dumped our waste holding tanks and refilled our freshwater tank before heading out of town, southbound on Hwy. 35 and then Hwy. 2 to Peace River, just a bit more than an hour away from Manning. First stop in Peace River was the No Frills Fuel Bar where
I refilled Lanoire with cheap diesel. WOO-HOO ... cheap fuel in Northern Alberta ! Next was Wal-Mart where we had lunch in the parking lot, and I confirmed that McDonald's free Wi-Fi reached the parking lot.
After lunch we got directions to a laundromat and drove into town to do laundry. We found the laundromat ... < sigh > ... closed on Mondays ! DARN ! We drove back to Wal-Mart and spent most of the day in their parking lot. I had a lot of computer work to do, most of it online. While I downloaded photos from the camera and processed them in the computer, and did a lot of online work Joanne went shopping in Wal-Mart and Freson Brothers, a local supermarket. I was still working online at 7 PM so Joanne decided to prepare supper. I finished my online work about 7:30 PM and by 8 PM we were finished eating supper.
Boondocking overnight at Wal-Mart was certainly an option, but Joanne wanted to see a free campground that wasn't very far away, so off we went. Just a few miles out of town we found the lovely Cecil Thompson County Park, adjacent to the Northern Sunrise County office building. Cecil Thompson Park has a large pond, stocked with trout for fishing, lots of green space with picnic tables and playground and exercise equipment, and about half a dozen unserviced campsites. No charge ! Courtesy of Northern Sunrise County. Well ... thank you !
We took Bo for a walk to the fishing pond. We took Emma for a walk to the fishing pond, but she's a little spooked today by her overnight outdoor adventure last night. Poor baby Emma. Joanne and I walked around the lovely park area, watching families with children fish and play on the playground equipment. We admired the large gazebo in the park which looked like a great place for wedding photos or family gatherings.
Joanne formulated a plan to probably stay here tomorrow night as well, spending tomorrow getting caught up on some errands in town, then having a nice barbecued steak dinner here tomorrow evening. Good idea ... I'm feeling cumulative fatigue from so many days of driving.
Tuesday ; Peace River, Alberta
Sunny and hot.
We slept very late this morning and got a slow start to our day. Once we finally got ourselves in gear we left Cecil Thompson County Park and drove back into the town of Peace River. We found our way ( with a bit of sniping at one another ) to the municipal sani-dump station where we dumped our waste holding tanks and refilled with freshwater. Then we drove to the laundromat. Joanne got the laundry started then we had lunch in the camper. After lunch while she worked on doing laundry I worked at a table in the laundromat using their free Wi-Fi to check e-mail, then I worked on reconciling our monthly Bank of America statement and our monthly Canadian dollar MasterCard billing.
From the laundromat we drove back out to Hwy. 2, to Wal-Mart ... again ... for a few items. Then across the highway to No Frills for soft drinks. Around 4 PM we left Peace River and drove 13 km. / 8 miles on Hwy. 684 / Shaftesbury Trail to Strong Creek Park, a municipally operated park with a small, free campground. Thank you to Joanne for finding free campgrounds two nights in a row. We got settled into a campsite, then spent a couple of hours just relaxing, enjoying the very nice weather and lovely park surroundings.
Around 6:30 PM I lit a campfire and cooked supper on it. Fresh beets wrapped in foil, potatoes wrapped in foil, and thick, juicy steak grilled over the open fire. Another great campfire cooked meal ! I spotted an unusual pair of birds in a tree behind our campsite. I was able to use our Sibley bird book to identify them as Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers. After supper we went for a long walk around the large park, enjoying the warm evening.
Wednesday ; Peace River to Athabasca, Alberta
Sunny and hot. Too hot for Emma ! Seems odd that a cat from the desert would suffer discomfort from summer heat in northern Alberta ! Oh, well ... she's old !
This morning we refilled our freshwater tank and dumped our grey waste tank before leaving Strong Creek Park campground a bit south of Peace River. We returned to and drove through the town of Peace River ... again ... then headed south on Hwy. 2. Near the town of High Prairie Hwy. 2 turned east. We stopped in High Prairie, parked at the Sports Palace ( town arena ) to have lunch. I napped briefly after lunch.
We continued driving east and southeast on Hwy. 2 for the rest of the day, through the town of Slave Lake and all the way to the town of Athabasca. Shortly before reaching Athabasca we refilled Lanoire with diesel at a cheap "rez gas" station at Island Lake. We stopped in Athabasca to have supper and boondock overnight in a lovely city park on the Athabasca River.
I’m becoming tired of Alberta where the worth of a man seems to be measured by how loud his diesel truck and/or motorcycle is. And to the fifteen year old “sk8tr boy” wearing the top hat as he plays on his skateboard in the skateboard park in this city park ... I have to say ... “Son ... face reality ! You’re in the Godforsaken town of Athabasca in northern Alberta. Lose the top hat ! You just look ridiculous”. Oh, well ... maybe in a year or two he can get himself a loud diesel pickup truck. HA HA HA ! And an unskilled labour job in nearby Fort McMurray making sixty-five bucks an hour ! HA HA HA HA HA !
Thursday ; Athabasca, Alberta to Pierceland, Saskatchewan
Sunny and hot. Some things did not go particularly well today.
This morning we left the parking lot of the city park in Athabasca and continued eastbound on Hwy. 55. We stopped in the city of Lac La Biche to run some errands, none of which got completed, thanks to the ineptitude of the young woman who assisted Joanne at the Visitor Information Centre. She sent us on "wild goose chases" and none of what she gave us directions to was where she sent us ! ! ! I returned a phone call to my cardiologist's office in Penticton, BC and made an appointment for a cardiac stress test in late August.
We stopped to have lunch underneath a highway bridge over the Sand River. While Joanne went into the camper to prepare lunch I walked down to the river to take a look. Sand River was a muddy brown, very fast flowing, little river. I walked back to the camper door, turned around to look for Bo and .... there he was, about a hundred feet away, standing in the fast flowing river, taking a drink of muddy brown water. BO ... GET OVER HERE ! ! ! < gritting my teeth > And you wonder why he gets four day long bouts of diarrhea ? ! ?
Later in the afternoon we arrived in the town of Cold Lake. The Visitor Information Centre staff here were much more helpful. We dumped our waste holding tanks and refilled with freshwater at the Visitor Information Centre's sani-dump station. We refilled with diesel fuel at the No Frills Fuel Bar. We bought groceries at Sobey's. And Sobey's sent us to Canadian Tire to refill our five gallon drinking water jug. Why would Canadian Tire have a water refill machine but not the supermarket ? On the way out of town to the east we saw the weekly Farmer's Market had just started ( Thursdays 4 to 6:30 PM ). On impulse I slammed on the brakes and turned in.
WOW ! Good decision ! I should have known ! In keeping with the demographics of this northern Alberta area, the Farmer's Market was filled with old Ukrainian women selling home cooked food ! I bought a large tray of freshly home made holuptsi
( Ukrainian cabbage rolls ), speaking a few words of my almost forgotten Ukrainian language to the old "Baba" selling food. For reasons unknown to me, she pitied me because we were travelling, so she gave me a ( four dollar ) tray of her home made lemon sour cream sugar cookies because she felt sorry for me. HA HA HA ! Thank you ! Joanne bought a home made strawberry, rhubarb, and wild blueberry pie.
< salivating as I type > I bought a jar of "Bumbleberry" jam, made with Saskatoons, strawberries and raspberries.
We continued east on Hwy. 55 into Saskatchewan and at the tiny village of Pierceland we turned north onto Hwy. 21, a gravel road, and drove about 27 km. / 17 miles to Sandy Beach campground in Meadow Lake Provincial Park. There were only a few sites available, they were $30 serviced sites ( we wanted an unserviced site ), and there was a $10 park entry fee on top of that. Forty bucks to park overnight. No thanks ! We turned around and drove 27 km. of gravel back to Pierceland. In Pierceland the building identified as the Visitor Information Centre was ... < sigh > ... now the town bakery, despite the signage outside still indicating it was the Visitor Information Centre. With some assistance by the bakery owner we found our way to the abandoned RV park in town where we sneaked in to park overnight. And we were not the only ones there ! An elderly couple in a fifth wheel trailer, who had an even worse day than us, were parked there overnight as well.
Friday ; Pierceland to Blaine Lake, Saskatchewan
Sunny and hot. Drove too many miles today. Tired ! ! !
This morning we sneaked out of our overnight boondocking spot in the abandoned RV park ... gee, just like being in Mexico ... HA HA HA ... and drove to the sani-dump station at the Visitor Information Centre ... oops, I mean bakery ... where we refilled our freshwater tank and dumped our grey waste tank. We headed out of Pierceland eastbound on Hwy. 55.
We stopped at the Visitor Information Centre in Meadow Lake, because there was a Farmer's Market there and we were looking for some information on Prince Albert National Park. After the many, many, many Visitor Information Centres we have been to in Canada, United States, and Mexico, the one in Meadow Lake, Saskatchewan wins the award for the WORST staff ! A young < cough > Indigenous woman wearing a black hooded sweater pulled up over her head and down to her eyebrows, thumbs flying over her cell phone, refusing to look up and make eye contact with us. When we asked for some information on Prince Albert National Park she rudely grunted at us to check the brochure rack. Joanne bought some fresh produce at the Farmer's Market. There were many interesting home cooked products to buy, but we bought plenty just yesterday at the Cold Lake Farmer's Market. As a result of chatting with one of the vendors, Joanne will be sending pie recipes to her. HA HA HA !
We parked across the street from the Meadow Lake Visitor Information Centre in the Extra Foods parking lot to have lunch. I napped briefly, then refilled Lanoire ( reached 335,000 km. today ) with diesel at the Extra Foods Fuel Bar. While I was napping Joanne was reviewing some new travel planning information and came up with a new plan.
We left Meadow Lake heading south on Hwy. 4. At Hwy. 3 we turned east. We stopped for a brief rest at Spiritwood. I realized the Wi-Fi signal inside the Spiritwood Visitor Information Centre ( now closed for the day ) reached the parking lot, so we stayed long enough for me to get online and check e-mail. We continued east on
Hwy. 3 to Hwy. 12, then south on Hwy. 12 to the town of Blaine Lake. We continued south then east about a half an hour beyond Blaine Lake to the Doukhobor Dugout House ( a.k.a. Doukhobor Caves ) National Historic Site, which Joanne decided while
I napped that she wants to visit. It is open only five days per year, only on Saturdays in July, so ... she saw this as opportunity knocking. We arrived there hoping to boondock overnight, but that was not possible.
We returned to the highway, drove south about another half hour looking for a rest area marked on our map but apparently no longer in existence ( YUP ... travelling in Saskatchewan is just like travelling in Mexico ), then reluctantly drove all the way back to the town of Blaine Lake to boondock overnight.
Saturday ; Blaine Lake to Tisdale, Saskatchewan
Sunny and hot.
This morning we left the town of Blaine Lake and drove 8 km. / 5 miles south on paved Hwy. 12 and 10 km. / 6 miles east on a gravel road to the Doukhobor Dugout House Historic Site, arriving just in time for the 11 AM guided tour. A costumed interpreter guided us around the archaeological / historic site, showing and telling the story of the three hundred Doukhobors who fled religious persecution in Russia in 1899, living here for five years from 1899 to 1904 in "dugout" houses on the banks of the Saskatchewan River. And it fills in a piece of the puzzle for us, explaining how in 1904 about one hundred of those folks moved to BC, near Castlegar. We have visited the Doukhobor Museum near Castlegar, BC a couple of times.
After the tour ended, about 1 PM, we drove back to Hwy. 12, and back to Blaine Lake where we refilled our freshwater tank at a service station / ice cream / pizza shop. We phoned Prince Albert National Park to inquire about campsite availability. Getting discouraging news we decided to skip going to the national park. < sigh >
From Blaine Lake we headed northeast on Hwy. 40, then east on Hwy. 3 to the city of Prince Albert. We crossed over the North Saskatchewan River on the Diefenbaker Bridge into the city. We stopped and shopped at North West Company Fur Marketing where I bought a pair of beaded, fur trimmed, sheepskin lined moccasins. Very nice ! Much cheaper than similar products in the Northwest Territories where the price was $300 to $350.
We took Bo for a walk alongside the North Saskatchewan River, then had a late lunch in the camper. We had lunch quite late because we had eaten a thick slice of clay oven baked Doukhobor bread slathered with butter and jam at the Doukhobor historic site. After lunch we drove through Prince Albert, refilling the truck with diesel fuel and refilling an empty propane tank at Lake Country Co-op.
We headed out of Prince Albert eastbound on Hwy. 3. We drove to, and stopped for the night at the town of Tisdale, home of Brent Butt, Canadian comedy icon. We got a campsite at the Lions campground, adjacent to and administered by the Tisdale Riverside Golf Club. Nice campground. I think we might stay here two nights, resting and getting caught up on some chores tomorrow.
After we got settled into a campsite we took Bo for a long, leisurely walk around the nearby sports field and playgrounds, doing some "Bo-gility" on the playground equipment. HA HA HA ... he still enjoys going down children's playground slides. What a silly thing for a little dog to like !
When we returned to our campsite I prepared a campfire for cooking supper. Bo and Emma were both outside on tie-outs while I was preparing a campfire. < blink blink > Emma squatted and peed on the grass ? ! ? Well, that was odd ! Didn't know she was an "au naturel" kind of kitty. The last time she was outside and had to pee she went to the door of the camper and asked to be let back inside to use the litter box.
For supper tonight we had a "wiener roast" with bratwurst type sausages.
DSK
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