Wetaskiwin, Alberta

Tuesday, July 3 we left Donald Station and drove over the Rockies to the front range.  We were going to visit Brian & Elaine Coggles who live in Leduc, a suburb of Edmonton.  We made reservations in a town called Wetaskiwin about 30 minutes south of Leduc.

The drive over was quite an exciting trip!  Between Calgary and Edmonton the skies were totally gray and just after we got fuel on the north side of Calgary the weather got very bad, we had rain, sleet and hail sometimes all at once!  There were black clouds moving in a circular pattern above us, all we could think was tornado!!  The wind gusts were incredible, some had to be as much as 60-80mph.  I did my very best to make sure the "rubber side stayed down!"  This picture doesn't do the storm justice, it was much uglier than this!  (that's a dead bug on the windshield)

Once again we set up in a storm, poor Mikey!  He gets to do all the outside stuff while I take care of the inside stuff.  At least the park was nice although it was on the edge of the prairie and the winds didn't die down until the next day.  We left the satellite dish down and I brought the slide back in about 1:00 in the morning.  I was afraid the awning that covers it would blow off.  That night we called Elaine & Brian and told them we would see them tomorrow, tonight we were exhausted and didn't want to fight the weather any more.

Wednesday, July 4th!  Happy Independence Day!  We drove up to Leduc to see Brain and Elaine and after a nice visit at their coach they took us to Tim Hortons for lunch.  We had seen Tim Horton restaurants all over since we've been in Canada but wasn't sure what they were.  They are like a cross between Starbucks and Krispy Kreme with soup and sandwiches.  Lunch was very good and after another we got back to their coach we left to go check on Jenny at the motor home.  The weather was starting to clear but Mike had given Jenny a doggy downer before we left just to be safe.  That evening we went back to their place for dinner.  Elaine is a wonderful chef and had prepared pulled pork and made a cole slaw which I really liked - it had chopped apples in it!  Yummy!

Thursday, July 5th, the sun came out and the wind turned to a gentle breeze!!  We were beginning to think the name of the RV Park should be changed from Prairie Breeze to Prairie Gusts!!  This is a picture of us in our "prairie schooner."

After yoga we drove up to Brian & Elaine's to go for a walk/hike on a trail that goes around their park and around the town of Leduc.  Jenny was ready for a walk and so were we. Here is a picture of one of the three rock gardens created by Elaine from leftover rocks when they cleared a section in their park.

As you can see, it was a beautiful day.  Alberta is also "big sky" country like Montana.  After our walk we headed back to the RV to chill for a while.  Later that day, E&B come down to Wetaskiwin to meet us for dinner at a local favorite restaurant called Huckleberry's Cafe.  I had one of the best steaks I've had in a long time.  Alas, it was time to say so long if only for a short time.  We are going to meet them next week in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan for a couple of days.  We're going to tour the tunnels under the town together.