This is our third time out with our new toy. As usual, the first two days getting from Yellowknife to Edmonton were uneventful to the point of being boring, although that’s not really a bad thing. The weather was perfect, the roads were as good as could be expected, and although the wildlife was not plentiful we did see some. Specifically: about a dozen bison before Fort Providence, a hawk parked in a tree after High Level, and a fox crossing the highway somewhere between Valleyview and Whitecourt. I’m good about writing down how many of what I see, but I’m going to have to start writing down where I see them… getting old, memory not very good anymore.
We arrived in Edmonton yesterday and took my Mom and Step-Dad out for supper to Tony Roma’s. It was really good, but leftovers were brought home. We spent a quiet evening visiting before retiring. Today we managed to by-pass The Donut Mill (say what?!) and instead stopped at the Starlite Diner Car in Bowden for lunch. Very cool, retro, old-school sci-fi loving place. Definitely worth checking out if you’re in the area.
A stop at Calgary Cycle City so Dan could ogle an electric motorcycle preceding picking up Northern Spirit at OutPost RV Storage in Okotoks. They took very good care of her and we will definitely use their services again next time we need to leave her in the area. Although I still didn’t drive towing Northern Spirit, I did back up the truck correctly to hook her up, and Dan showed me how to connect the stabilizing arms to the hitch. It turns out that’s not remotely as difficult as I originally thought it would be.
We made our way to Brooks on the Trans Canada, which we were a little leery about. Turns out our concerns were for naught, at least on this section of the divided highway. Traffic wasn’t bad, nobody seemed to get pissed at having to pass us (we kept it at 90 kph at first and slowly built up to 95, then 100), and the roads were actually in good shape.
We arrived at Tillebrook Provincial Park Campground just after 6:00 p.m. Our campsite has power, but no water or sewer (which I knew when I booked it). Honestly, as long as we have power for these one-nighters that’s all we really need at this time of year so that the furnace will work if it gets too cool at night. Set up went really smoothly, so nothing interesting to report there. I’m not sure where all the flies are coming from though. We’ve killed about eight of them so far. They may very well have come in from outside while we were unloading and loading the trailer when we got here, but we might have to investigate further tomorrow to be sure that’s all it is.
We drove in to Brooks for supper at Nikko Sushi. There are lots of franchises in the community, but we wanted to try something that was local. I know what you’re thinking: since when is Japanese food local in Alberta? Fair enough, but at least it was locally owned and wasn’t a franchise. And the food and service were fantastic! So for us it was a win-win in all categories that counted.
I think that’s enough for today. It’s time to wind down. Unfortunately we can’t relax by the fire due to a fire ban, but that’s okay. Dan’s already sleeping…
Adelle
Guigon Travels 