Beach day today! As we had nothing scheduled until this evening we were able to get up whenever we wanted to and do whatever we wanted to. So we decided to find our way to the beach behind the condo, and then figure out the easiest path to take the wagon with beach chairs, etcetera, through the property down to the beach gate. Oddly, that took longer than it probably should have (I’m not sure if this property is actually that big or if we’re just confused). Additionally, it turns out the property changed the gate codes two days before we arrived, so the codes we got from the property manager in the welcome package were already wrong. Thankfully one of the neighbouring guests provided the correct code to us. At any rate, I think we’re finally getting the lay of the property’s land, and in the process I also found the fitness room! Now let’s see if I actually get down there before we leave…
We finally got settled on Keawakapu Beach at around 11:00 or so, relaxed in the chairs, sunk our toes in the sand, went for a swim twice (well, I went for a swim twice; Dan just got his feet wet), snacked on Maui Gold pineapple, Crunchmaster crackers, and Surfing Goat Dairy’s Ivory Coast cheese, read a chapter of Craig Alanson‘s fourth book in the Expeditionary Force series (Skippy is such an asshole), and watched some whales play (fight? carouse? court?) just off the beach.
After a couple of hours of all that, we returned to the condo, showered the salt and sunscreen off, chilled for a minute or two, and then took off to Lahaina again. On the way we realized we hadn’t actually had anything substantive to eat today, so we stopped in Olowalu for lunch at Leoda’s Kitchen and Pie Shop. We did not have the dessert pie, which looked amazing, but Dan did have the chicken pot pie while I had a BLT sandwhich on the softest and freshest bread I’ve had in a long time. Both were really tasty, and the restaurant was a nice little diner that was clearly very popular because by the time we had ordered there was a line-up out the door.
We intended to return to the Dragon Fruit Farm to purchase some preserves and leave the tip we didn’t get to when we were there, but they ended up not being open when we got there. So we just kept going to the Hyatt Resort for the Drums of the Pacific Lu’au. We received kukui nut leis (kukui trees are the state tree of Hawaii, by the way), a complimentary photo of us, and we sat at a table right in front of the stage. The servers were great, the show was great, the food was great, the company at our table was great… everything was great. The dances represented south pacific regions: Tuamotus, New Zealand, Tahiti, Tonga, Hawai’i, and Rarotonga. They included a Haka and a fire dance, which was pretty spectacular.
The highlight of the evening, though, was when Dan actually said he would want to come back to Maui again. I’m on it…
Two tours were on the agenda today, both of them out of Lahaina. Which meant we had to plan for an hour’s drive each way for what should have been 45-minute drives due to construction — and not trusting Lady Sat Nav after Monday’s experience. This time we used the Google Maps app on my phone, and it got us to our first stop more than half an hour early.
That first stop was a chocolate-lover’s dream. And I think most of you know that chocolate lover is me. We took the Maui Chocolate Cacao Farm Tour at the Maui Ku’ia Estate. As their advertising says, our Guide Brittany educated us on the building and development of the estate, the cacao trees themselves, the harvesting of the pods, the processing of the beans, and finally a tasting of nine different pieces of chocolate. The estate grows 20 acres of cacao plants that they harvest from, but their #2 guy travels the world visiting cacao farms and brings back beans to process alongside their own beans at their factory in Maui. All of the cacao is ethically and environmentally sourced. What’s really interesting is that the cacao from each country or region has it’s own underlying flavour, dependent on the soil and other environmental factors that the trees are grown in. The flavours that they add to some of their chocolate is concentrated directly from the fruit. So everything is as natural as can be. It’s also rather remarkable that they have only two experienced harvesters to pull the pods from the trees when they’re ready.
We also learned that the chocolate factory is entirely powered through an array of solar panels installed on top of their parking structure, which we though was really interesting. And it turns out that all of the company’s profits are donated directly back into several community non-profit organizations. The owner of the company is a billionaire who doesn’t really need the money and is doing this work simply out of his own interest in it — and to keep from being bored in his retirement years. This was another really great tour that we had fun with, and we would recommend taking the time to experience.
From there we made our way to the beach near Whalers Village shopping mall to check in with Gemini Charters for our catamaran whale watching tour. Because I just know you’re all wondering: yes, I did remember to take Gravol before hand; yes, I still got a little queasy anyway; and no, I did not upchuck this time. Lots of steady breathing, sitting on the deck in the fresh air and breeze, and focusing on the horizon helped. But honestly, that was not remotely the focus of this wonderful excursion, so let’s move on, shall we?
Rather, the focus was on going out to see the humpbacked whales. We did not see George and Gracie, which is good because if we had then we’d also have to wonder, what kind of time warp did we go through??? We did see many other whales, though, all of them competing for the favours of a few females. We got really lucky in that we saw at least three competitive pods and at least three males actually leaping out of the water fairly close to our catamaran. And then to close the evening off, on the way back to the beach we saw a mama whale with her calf. We got a pretty great show, well worth the expense, and the captain and crew were top notch. Our tour did include a catered meal, but given my queasiness we thought it best not to partake. Which is really too bad because the menu looked amazing.
It didn’t take long once back on land for my stomach to settle down this time and instead it told me I was hungry, so we decided to stop for a bite at the mall. We took a chance that a table might be available at the Monkeypod restaurant — which is actually a really popular place — and for the second time that day got lucky. They had a table available right away for us. A margherita pizza, black cherry Shirley Temple, burger and fries with aioli sauce, and iced tea later, and we made our way back to the condo, sorting our prizes from the day, writing stories, and generally relaxing.
Today’s adventures took us into the Upcountry area of Maui, about half way up Haleakala. Once you get past the landfill (that Lady Sat Nav chose to take us past), the drive was easy going. And then out of nowhere this beautiful farm bursts forth to take your breath away. Or at least it took mine away. It was clear that at some time in the past someone with some money lived on that road because now it has grown into this iconic Hawaiian approach to an estate. The road was well maintained and planned. It was lined with huge, evenly spaced, old-growth coconut trees, and had a view to die for. It’s the type of area that Dan noted seems like a character like Jonathan Higgins (Magnum P.I.) would caretake.
This approach led us to the Surfing Goat Dairy Farm, which is a 40-acre-plus property that does exactly what it sounds like: raises goats and processes their milk into various products. The farm itself is very well laid out and taken care of, with various pens for goats at different stages of their life, a mechanical milking shed, a barn, a dairy processing building, a future truffle making building, a gazebo and sheltered deck attached to the gift shop and kitchen.
The goats are freaking adorable. The tour guide introduced us to a new born goat before taking us around to meet their primary buck Hemingway and part of his harem. Apparently Hemingway really got into his job last year because they now have far more kidds on the way than they usually do.
The tour guide (and again, I apologize, but I’ve forgotten her name — I’m a terrible person that way) showed us how the milking machine works and the kitchen where the milk is pasturized and processed into cheese, where the cheesemaker gave us samples of plain cream cheese and a flavoured cream cheese that they named Canada — wootwoot! Both were fantastic. Canada was flavoured with cranberries, cinnamon, and honey. Oh, my God, I cannot even describe how tasty it was! So good.
At the end of the tour we sat down to a sampler cheese platter, where they gave us a bag of assorted crackers and six samples of their cheeses: I totally forget the names, but there was balls of cheese with garlic infused olive oil; feta; balls of cheese with another kind of oil that I can’t remember the seasonings; sundried tomato cream cheese; pepper cream cheese; and lilikoi cream cheese. All of them were delicious, but I think our favourite savoury were the pepper cream cheese and the sundried tomato cream cheese, but the lilikoi was soooo yummy in a dessert kind of way.
Needless to say we ended up purchasing way more from the gift shop here than we have anywhere else yet, including: three kinds of cream cheese, a box of truffles, lilikoi butter, a t-shirt, and a cooler because we needed to get the cream cheeses safely home and we weren’t even through half of our day. We expect to snack on the cheese and crackers throughout our stay, so don’t ask us to try any when we get home because we don’t expect to have any left.
Next on our itinerary, we made our way on another scenic drive to the town of Makawao. Our goal here was specifically to see the Hot Island Glass store, but we had trouble finding parking and ended up taking a rather pleasant walk down an old-timey type street of stores to get to the glass maker. If we’d had more time before our next stop we likely would have browsed some more. Unfortunately, glass was not actively being made when we got to the store, but their products were wonderful and we did take a couple of items away with us.
We booked our way down to what was supposed to be the highlight of the day, and despite being overshadowed by the Surfing Goat Dairy, it did hold up to expectations. We had a wonderful tour of the Maui Pineapple Farm, which grows sweet, sweet pineapples branded as Maui Gold. And oh, lord, are they ever gold! These pineapples are the BEST, and no we do not expect that either of the two pineapples we received as part of the tour will make it to the end of the week to bring home with us. The tour guide, Keilan, was a delight and showed us around the grounds and through the processing plant.
Did you know that not only are pineapples not grown in trees (they grow low to the ground in kind of bushes) but that they are also not citrus? That’s right, they are actually a bunch of berries. The berries coalesce at the crown of the fruiting stem. Each of the pointy nibs that encircle the pineapple is what’s left of the flowers that produce the berries. The pineapples that this farm produces are far sweeter than those that we get in North America because the ones we get are actually not yet ripe. The ones we get are shipped from various Asian and South American countries, so in order to lengthen their shelf life they are picked earlier than they should be. Pineapples do not keep ripening after they’ve been picked, the way bananas do, so those pineapples haven’t had time for the sugars to trade places with the acids. Because the Maui Gold pineapples are allowed to ripen before they’re harvested, they are a much sweeter fruit with a much smaller core that you can eat entirely and that doesn’t have as many of the enzymes that make your tongue tingle the way other pineapples do. Maui Gold pineapples are not sold anywhere in the world but in the Hawaiian Islands chain, so you’re just going to have to travel to Maui and take the tour. Although, they do take on-line orders and will ship the pineapples anywhere in North America, so I guess you could do that… and you can get a subscription to receive them as frequently as once per week.
We kind of winged it after that. We thought we’d try and get a table at Mama’s Fish House, but, yeah, that didn’t work. then we drove down the coast a little bit and walked around Ho’okipa Beach Park and watched the surf — and some surfers — from the cliff before taking a rather slippery (not sure that’s the right word) walk on the beach down below. I say slippery because the sand grains were round and tended to roll as you sunk into it. Dan says the engineering term is uniformly graded, meaning the grains were all the same size. It was kind of weird, but fun to walk on. Or should I say try to walk on.
Anyway, we thought we’d try to go to Paia Fish Market, but when we passed it there was a line forming, it was on the other side of the road, and it was rush hour so we couldn’t find a way to turn around for the extremely long line of cars in the oncoming lane. So instead we returned to the condo, dropped off our stuff, and ended up by random chance at The Shops at Wailea where we went for supper at Tommy Bahamas. Their tables were full, but there was room at the bar, so we ate there. The bar servers were great! The bartender didn’t intend to, but he put on an amazing show for us as we watched him keeping up with the drink orders. He was really moving. The food was pretty good, too.
We had thought to go for a walk on the Wailea Beach Path, but that will have to wait for another time. We also thought to wander around the condo property to try and get to the public beach, but I forgot the code to get through the gate, so I guess that will have to wait for another time, too.
Now we’re back at the condo, munching on pineapple pieces and shortbread cookies.
After a brief chill on the lanai with a light breakfast our day began by going snorkelling at Makena Landing Park. To be more specific, we went snorkelling with sea scooters. Remember those scenes in James Bond films where he’s swimming under water pulled by a motor? Yeah, that! Our tour guides, Tristan and Seth with My Splash Maui, were fantastic! They were professional, considerate, enthusiastic, and knowledgeable. Basically a lot of fun. They got us kitted out and instructed us in how to use the equipment. Then they guided us all the way out to Turtle Town, showing and teaching us about the reefs, various sea creatures, the caves (we did not go in), the environment we were visiting, etcetera. We saw multiple varieties of fish, there was a white tipped reef shark in the caves, the guide let us handle two “fatty” starfish — one keiki (baby) and one adult, and we saw spiky sea urchins, an eel, a turtle, a puffer fish, and we heard whale song.
By the time we reached our furthest destination my body decided it was time to feed the fishes. Had I foreseen the likelihood of getting motion sick while snorkelling I would have taken Gravol before hand; alas, I did not. I mean, really, who knew sitting in the swells talking with other snorkellers between stretches of swimming would have the same effect as riding a boat in choppy waters? Clearly that was just me…
At any rate, we still had a great time and I would highly recommend taking this tour with Tristan and his team. The photos I’m attaching here from this experience were taken by Seth, who did a great job! He took loads of photos and videos, including one video that actually captured the whale song.
We returned to the condo to wash off and give my body a chance to regain its equilibrium before heading out to our next adventure. Before getting there, we stopped at Fred’s Mexican Cafe and Cantina for lunch. Why there? Why not? It was a choice we made on a whim from Googlemaps. Turned out the positive reviews on Google were absolutely correct. The place was fantastic, service was great, and the fish tacos and chicken quesadillas were perfect.
Oh, here’s Dan with the Dodge Charger I mentioned we ended up with:
Next stop was a 45-minute drive to Lahaina which turned into an hour because of construction on the highway and our Lady Sat Nav taking us to the wrong place. Googlemaps rescued us (again) and finally got us to the right place just in time for our first tour to start. As it happened Maui Dragon Fruit Farm didn’t have anyone else scheduled to join us for either of the two tours we booked, so we had the sole pleasure of our guides’ company.
The first tour was of the farm itself. Our guide (and I am so sorry, I do not remember the young lady’s name) was very pleasant and knowledgable about the farm, and provided us with a fully interactive tour. So many tropical fruits and plants are grown at this farm besides dragon fruit (which is not actually in season so we didn’t get to taste it). They have two or three different kinds of aloe plants, a curry plant, a watermelon plant, agave plants, wild bamboo, at least three different types of bananas, papaya, mango, pineapple, soursop, lilikoi, coconut… I could go on. We ended that tour with a sampling of in-season fruits: pineapple, soursop, papaya, mango, lilikoi, and two others that I can’t remember the names of.
The second tour was a stargazing tour, which did not end up in any opportunity to actually stargaze because of cloud cover, but the guide, Yi, was really interesting and informative. He showed us the three types of telescopes he uses, and then went through the different types of celestial events and constellations. So much information! Yi was very thorough. Dan might be exploring another hobby, were it not for how cold it is at home when it’s dark enough to see the stars… We exchanged numbers with Yi and promised to watch the forecast to see if we could make it back another day to do some actual stargazing with him. It turns out Yi is not only a fellow Canadian but also a neurosurgeon, which explains why he kept making analogies between how our brains and the universe work. Or something to that effect. I’m tired as I write this late at night, so I might not be saying that quite correctly.
After a long day we drove home and ordered a pizza for a late supper. Sure enough, by the time we drove into the condo parking lot the sky was clear of clouds and the stars were visible everywhere. Typical.
Not that we were actually expecting to see wild poultry, but the title here is not exactly what Dan first came up with. “Roosters” is in quotation marks because what Dan suggested — while I laughed — I thought better of posting. I’d rather not get put in FaceBook jail, thank you very much. And yes, there are roosters and hens pretty much everywhere we went today.
We woke up at our leisure this morning to a beautifully sunny day at the Days Inn. They had a small continental breakfast spread, nothing fancy, but very good and just enough for our purposes.
Check in at the condo wasn’t until 4pm, so we had the day to kill pretty much. We started off by at least finding our way to the condo to get a lay of the land, so to speak. And then we just drove randomly at first. Somehow we still ended up back in Kahului (near the airport), where we did a little clothes shopping (the shorts I brought turned out to be too big???).
In the course of our wanderings we had passed by this place called Momona a few times. It wasn’t until the third time that we realized it was a bakery and cafe, so since it seemed to be beckoning us anyway we stopped for lunch. It’s a delightful place, bright and airy, and the building must have been a bank in its former life because they had converted the safe into a private dining area and kept the vault door and bars. Dan confirmed the windowless room was walled in concrete. They have a sign on the door telling people not to close it — I imagine they likely don’t have the key or combination to it, lol! The sandwiches were perfect, and even the hot chocolate I had was decent (you all know by now how picky I am about that). Five out of five stars, highly recommended! And yes, I will be posting a review on Google to that effect.
A little grocery shopping, WalMart gold in the clothing department (I know, WalMart?! Really?), and then we were able to access the condo. Our friends Mark and Linda have this place (which I believe they might be trying to sell, if anyone’s interested) at Wailea Ekahi. It’s actually pretty perfect for us. Well laid out, full kitchen, dining room, lanai, living room, huge bedroom, two bathrooms, all appliances. There’s a pool, pavilion, pickleball court, and fitness room (oh! That’s what I forgot to go look for today…). The vacation property managers (Coldwell Banker Island Vacations) have been really good with staying in touch with us by text and email from the get-go, and they have an online portal that’s pretty easy to navigate. Definite thumbs up so far.
After settling in and unpacking, and taking a little rest, we made our way back to the Kahului Shopping Centre to visit the Maui Sunday Market. We thought it was a FARMERS market because I found it by searching for “Maui Sunday Farmers Market”), so our thinking was to get fresh bread, preserves, and fruit there (rather than from Safeway where we were earlier). But it wasn’t a farmers market, it was a vendors market with what must have been a dozen food trucks and live music. It was actually pretty cool, although we didn’t buy anything except supper. It was not easy to choose between the food trucks, but we ended up going with Al’s BBQ Pit. They had an adobe rice with chicken dish and a teriyaki mahi dish that were both pretty awesome. We ate in the dark (for some reason they didn’t have lighting at the picnic tables), with what I’ll call “mood lighting” from my cell phone.
A good first day all around, I would say. Time to wind it down. Tomorrow we hit the water in the morning and stargazing in the evening.
I realize it’s been a long time since I’ve posted anything travel related, and I do have a previous trip to add in that occurred before this one that I just haven’t gotten around to. In case the title phrase isn’t enough of a hint, though, I’m saying good evening to you in Hawaiian because we arrived in Maui at 11:00 p.m. Hawaiian time. Yes, that’s right, Maui. Not our typical type of adventure, but it’s been 38 years since I was here as a teenager and Dan has never been here. I knew there were adventures to have that I wanted Dan to experience. When Dan ended up with an unexpected three weeks off in January I suggested we go to Hawaii. He wasn’t sold on it at first, saying he didn’t really want to go anywhere hot. I reminded him that Hawaii in January is not exactly hot. Certainly better than home! But not hot. It wasn’t until his brother John talked up Maui to him that he agreed to go. I grabbed onto that and refused to let go, so here we are!
11 Jan 2025 – Travel Day
Our Westjet flight was scheduled to leave Yellowknife at 7:00 this morning (it of course didn’t leave until well after that, what with de-icing and such), which is an ugly time given we had to be at the airport two hours early. But we napped on the flight, and other than meeting three separate sets of friends (two with completely different destinations and one with exactly the same destination), the flight was uneventful. Even, dare I say, peaceful?
We had about a three-hour layover in Calgary where I took advantage of the time to get more than half of my steps in and do a round of stretching at the so-called yoga room. I say so-called because for what’s supposed to be a relaxing exercise space it’s full of an awful lot of chairs and assorted seating and not a lot of space to actually exercise. Regardless, I claimed a rectangular area and just went ahead and did what I wanted.
The next leg was an hour and 45 minute flight to Vancouver, followed by a 3.5 hour layover plus another 0.5 hours, and then a 5.5 hour flight to Kahului Airport. This entire period was incredibly uneventful, although the in-flight meal I purchased was absolutely wonderful! Mushroom risotto with steamed peas, greek salad, a warmed bun, and berry cheesecake. And served with real cutlery, too! Wow, right?
Our flight landed at about 10: 30 p.m. or so, our luggage took almost half an hour to reach the carousel, and then we took the lovely tram from the terminal to the rental car building. It must have been about 11:15 or so by the time we got there. We waited in line to get our car. They tried to give us a Chevy Malibu, but when I couldn’t get my knees under the steering wheel I ask for something else. Ended up getting a Dodge Charger. Yes, that’s what I said, a Dodge Charger. And it’s even red! It was nearly Midnight by then and the lot staff had to nudge us to get out of the lot so they could go home.
It was nearly 1:00 a.m. local time by the time we got to our hotel, the Days Inn by Wyndham Maui Oceanfront. It really was a lovely hotel, super clean, and very friendly staff, but as with pretty much everything in Maui it was way more expensive than you would think it should be for a Days Inn. At any rate, we had a really good sleep.
These last few days have been closer to what I hope to do for our future trips, both pre- and post-retirement.
My 52nd birthday on Wednesday started with doing laundry and cleaning at a leisurely pace, followed by a visit at TNT Gun Works. We did not find the rifles we were looking for. The one Dan had seen on their website had already been sold and they didn’t have the one I was interested in. An old guy tried to sell me on one he had, but then Management gave him shit for doing that in the store and kicked him out. I guess he’s a repeat offender in that regard.
It turned out The Nut Man was located right next door, and who were we not to take advantage of that opportunity? Spontaneous purchases of nuts and candies we did not need ensued. So far we’ve been relatively successful at holding out on eating them until our drive home tomorrow.
The afternoon was spent at the Royal Saskatchewan Museum. It’s not huge, but it’s really well done. It focuses on the history of the land now known as Saskatchewan from the time of the dinosaurs to present. If you’re anything like my son, you can do this tour in less than 20 minutes, but if you’re anything like me and you like to actually read then it can take up to 2 hours. We didn’t even get to the exhibit side of the museum. I highly recommend the visit.
The evening was spent with Martin and Charlene at Agave Authentic Mexican Grill, which was an amazing experience all around. The food was fantastic and the company was delightful. Dan completed my birthday with the gift of Nathan W. Pyle’s comic strip cartoon books Strange Planet and Stranger Planet. I spent the rest of the evening giggling.
We left Kings Acres Thursday morning and made our way to Central Butte via Moose Jaw. It was really windy and later rainy, so Dan drove. We again passed by Rouleau on the way and while we didn’t stop I did manage to get a couple photos of the place where nothing except a sign proves Corner Gas was ever filmed there. It’s really a shame, because I think by not establishing an actual Ruby’s Café (if not also a Corner Gas station) Rouleau missed an opportunity to benefit the community.
We stopped in Moose Jaw to take the Chicago Connection tour of the Tunnels of Moose Jaw. That was a lot of fun and I wish we had time to take the other two tours as well. Given the strong Asian connection in Moose Jaw we thought it appropriate to have lunch at Nit’s Thai Food, which we really enjoyed. Based on the photographs on the wall, some impressive celebrities agreed with our experience: Adrienne Clarkson and Margaret Atwood. We had parked the vehicles on the other side of Crescent Park, so we had a lovely walk.
We arrived at my Aunt Janice and Uncle Dan’s place near Central Butte in a light rain and cool temperatures. We couldn’t remember if we had purchased a 30-amp to 110-volt converter to plug the trailer into a household receptacle and couldn’t find one, so we actually boondocked in the yard. This time we turned the fridge off over night and only used AAA battery powered lights when we weren’t sleeping, only turning the water pump on when we actually needed to use water. Turns out that was all we needed to do to ensure there was enough power available for the furnace to work without draining the battery faster than the solar panels could keep it charged. Now that we know that, we are much more comfortable with the idea of the occasional overnight stay without any services. Of course, in the morning Dan found the 30-110 converter in a corner of the pass-through storage. Turns out we did think to get it when we bought the trailer, but it’s a small attachment that clearly fell out of the swag bag we had put it in. That’ll teach us to keep the storage bags zipped shut when they’re put away (nasty habit that Dan can’t or doesn’t care to kick).
Uncle Paul was also there helping Uncle Dan build the foundation for a new double-car garage, and my cousin Jeff came over for supper as well. We had a really great visit with everyone, chatting and playing cards, and we’ve promised to come back again more often.
On Friday we made our way to Provost, intending to go by Gardiner Dam. But neither Zoe nor Google Maps recognized Gardiner Dam, so we just left Zoe to get us to Provost by whatever route she determined was safest and shortest, while avoiding highways and unpaved roads. I drove the entire day that day, and Zoe decided to challenge me by taking us on the back roads (which on most of the Saskatchewan side were wide enough but bumpy and in need of work – as usual) and across Diefenbaker Lake on the Riverhurst Ferry. That was fun. We haven’t been on a ferry since the Deh Cho Bridge was built. The ferry itself is smaller than the Merv Hardy in bulk, but crossed a stretch of the lake that appeared to be much wider than the Mackenzie River crossing site. It used a winch to pull itself across the lake on a set of three cables strung under the water, which is something I had never seen before.
We stayed the night at Home On The Range RV Campground just south of Provost, which is open year round with full-service sites and two laundry/bathroom/shower buildings. It was actually a very comfortable place, although some of the sites are fairly close together. The cows in the field behind the campground wandered quite close to the fence, the geese were typically noisy, and the sunset was spectacular. We had supper at a Chinese restaurant in town called Mr. Lin’s Family Restaurant. Honestly, I don’t know how we keep choosing these places, but it was another wonderful meal.
The intent on Saturday was to leave early enough to get to Trailblazer RV early enough that we could drop off the trailer and retrieve the retractable shower door from my Mom’s place before they closed at 5:00 p.m. I managed to sabotage that plan when I forgot to actually push the start button on the laundry machine. Everything else was ready to go and we had to just sit there waiting on the laundry. It was almost Noon before we left, and then just to add insult to injury the wind had been picking up all morning and was gusting up to 57 km/hour the whole way, mostly coming at us head on from the northwest. So that slowed us down AND cost us in gas milage, to boot. We did manage to get to Trailblazer half an hour before they closed, but that meant we had to drop the shower door off early Monday morning. Actually, to be more precise, Dan had to drop the shower door off early Monday morning.
We were supposed to stay at my Mom’s place until Tuesday morning, when the work on the trailer is to be complete, but my step-dad caught Covid so we’re staying at a hotel instead. He’s doing okay, but getting grumpy being isolated at home, lol! Since we haven’t been able to really visit with them as planned, we’ve had to otherwise entertain ourselves.
We’ve seen a couple of movies: See How They Run is a good whodunit, kind of like Knives Out but lower key; and Don’t Worry Darling was also a good flick kind of like Stepford Wives with a twist.
We visited the Muttart Conservatory, which we hadn’t been to in a couple of decades at least. That was interesting. I played Poison Plant Bingo, but didn’t find five or six of the 25 plants listed.
We stopped by Cabela’s, where Dan found the shoes he was looking for but otherwise we did not find the rifles we were looking for. However, we did find the rifle I was looking for at P & D Enterprises, so bonus! Getting there through all the downtown roadwork was an adventure in itself, but it turned out to be worth it.
Then we discovered Record Collector’s Paradise and spent more money than intended, but got some great albums out of it. And we took a leisurely walk around the Alberta Legislature building.
Tomorrow morning we’ll probably stop at JimBows Archery before picking up the trailer to put it in storage, and then head out to High Level and arrive home on Wednesday. We’ve had a really lovely trip and can’t wait to figure out when and where we’ll go next spring. I’m going to close my blog for this trip here as it seems like the most practical time to do so. I hope you enjoyed reading. See you on the flip side!
Argh. I already wrote this blog earlier today, but this is not the blog I wrote. The effing thing did not save when I told it to save, after I’d done all the writing and uploading of photographs. Sooo frustrating! I threw my hands in the air and we went shopping all afternoon instead. Now it’s 8:40 p.m. and I’m starting over. This time I’m writing the text in WordPerfect (yes, WordPerfect, not Word… don’t even get me started on the inadequacy of Word compared to WordPerfect) and then cutting and pasting it into WordPress. Why? Because I can save my WordPerfect document without being on line to do it, and WordPerfect does automatic backups to my laptop not the Cloud (or whatever), thereby reducing the likelihood of losing everything I’ve written. Onwards:
Our first night in the trailer and we looked at each other in peace acknowledging how comfortable we are in Northern Spirit. Honestly, she is perfect for us. We’re starting to put some personal touches to her, like a fruit hammock in the kitchen (go ahead, call it a banana hammock and have a good laugh; Dan and Jarod both did when I told them I was buying it…), a mesh magazine pouch for the bathroom, a motion sensing light near the door, a laundry rack attached to the rear bumper. Dan’s installed a remote tire sensor for the trailer tires, and he’s going to try connecting the Wheresafe GPS tracker trickle charger to the solar panels to see if it will keep it charged enough to last over the winter until we come back in the spring.
We left Tillabrook in the morning with the intention of visiting the Saamis Tepee in Medicine Hat, but it was raining so we nixed that idea and kept going. Dan and I are in disagreement about whether or not we’ve already visited the tepee. He seems to think we have, but I have no recollection whatsoever of doing so. Not the Saamis Tepee, anyway. We’ll just have to keep stewing on that and see if we can find any evidence one way or another when we get home.
We stopped in Maple Creek at The Rockin’ Horse Cookhouse and Bar for lunch. Cool little place with great service and good food. We continued on, and about half an hour out the weather was clear and the roads were dry, so we figured it was a good time for me to try my hand at driving with the trailer. Dan was right, it’s not a big deal, I had nothing to worry about. Of course, it helped that there wasn’t much (if any) wind and we were driving on the Trans-Canada, which is a divided four-lane highway. I was comfortable enough that I drove us all the way into our campsite at Trail Campground in Swift Current. Admittedly, the campsite was a pull-through, so it’s really hard to mess that up, but I did have to get off the divided highway and proceed a little ways on a normal two-way road and through the gravel campground. I’ll take whatever wins I can get.
The Rockin’ Horse Cookhouse and BarFirst Time Towing Northern Spirit
The campground was well laid out and full-service, although we were only staying the one night so we just used the power and water. The campground attendant was really friendly and accommodating. We ventured into downtown Swift Current for supper at Mei Mei Chinese Restaurant, which turned out to be a great choice. Clearly the community agreed because the place was crazy busy. We had noticed some buildings that were architecturally interesting, so we decided to go for a walk after supper. I really like seeing old stone/brick buildings continuing to be used. I’m hopeful we can come by some time during daytime hours to get a look inside, especially at the courthouse.
Central SchoolCourthouse (centre), Sheriff (right), Land Titles (left)
We left Trail Saturday morning with me driving the first shift to Moose Jaw. We stopped for lunch at Buds and Suds Carwash and Grill. Why? Why not? I was searching for a place to stop, they have good reviews, and I liked their name. It was another good choice. The food was good, the servers were friendly, and we’re pretty sure we recognized the guy who was working the outside bar from Yellowknife. Of course, we didn’t place him until after we left, so didn’t actually ask him, but he seemed familiar. Certainly someone from Yellowknife had an impact on the place because we noted the Ragged Ass Road sign over the back door. It also appeared to be a biker place, given half a dozen of them showed up for some kind of party while we were there. It was a good place to stop and I would recommend it.
Buds and Suds Carwash and Grill
Dan drove the rest of the way to Kings Acres Campground east of Regina. Zoe (remember our Garmin?) Took us off the Trans-Canada and directed us south around Regina. It was a nice little drive and probably much faster than going through Regina. The roads were pretty good, too, for Saskatchewan. We passed through Rouleau, but didn’t stop. We didn’t recognize the Corner Gas site until we had passed it, and decided we’d come back when we weren’t hauling the trailer with us.
Kings Acres Campground
We are really enjoying our time at Kings Acres Campground so far. It has full-service sites, large lots, plenty of trees, and laundry on site. It’s right on Victoria Street across from Costco, but honestly we haven’t been bothered by traffic noises. They provide portable firepits made out of washing machine barrels. They’re really cool and work really well.
My brother Martin and his GF Charlene came by that first evening for a visit, and then the next day they introduced us to Coney Island Poutine Café for lunch. Wow! So many choices… It’s worth the carb overload. We made up for that when they took us on a walking tour of Depot, and then Martin showed off his new-to-him Suzuki Marauder 800 before bringing us to his new place. He just moved to Regina in March and bought a perfect 2-storey condo in a local heritage building that used to be a warehouse. It’s a great place. We ended Sunday having a BBQ visit with Dan’s Kuppenbender cousins who live in Regina. It was a great visit with family we hadn’t seen in years. The whole day was great.
Monday was a chillaxin’ kind of day. We didn’t go see or do anything, we just stuck around the campsite, putzing around in the trailer installing various items we brought with us. We made the left over burgers for lunch and supper, and I made Sunny Boy Muffins. The pizza stone I bought to put in the propane oven did exactly what I read it would do: it evened out the heat beautifully resulting in perfect muffins. I’m still trying to master using the stove top burners, though. It’s such an intense heat, I’m finding it hard to regulate so that I don’t burn or overcook the food. I guess that’s just one more thing that practice makes perfect, so I’ll keep working at it.
I guess that’s really about it at this point, so I’ll bid you all a good night.
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.
The Shore of the Mackenzie River near Fort Providence
Dan on the Shore of the Mackenzie River
Starlight Diner Car in Bowden
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…
We killed the afternoon with an unsuccessful attempt to see Fort Calgary when we realized upon arrival at the Military Museums that we had already been there. Diverting to Fort Calgary, we didn’t realize it was closed until after I had paid for parking. Apparently it’s only open on the weekends. Really? That was a lot of driving for essentially nothing. We salvaged the rest of the evening with a Red Lobster dinner followed by a viewing of Top Gun: Maverick. I gotta admit that Tom Cruise does make an entertaining movie. I was a little worried about it because I liked Top Gun, but they did it justice and were very respectful of the original. It was a good flick, worth seeing.
We managed to shave about half an hour off our time for packing up the trailer to check out of Riverbend on Friday. We seem to be finding out groove on that and I’m optimistic we’ll be able to shave another half hour off the next time and actually check out of the campsite on time.
We spent the next two nights at the Wingate by Wyndham – Calgary South (always a pleasure, and close to Eddy and Marie’s place). We helped them get the house and food ready for Cassie’s grad party on Saturday night. Honestly, the prep work for these kind of events is half the fun, working and chatting with family while getting things done. The party itself was pretty great, too, with family from both sides of Cassie’s family in attendance, as well as some of her friends.
Bright and early Sunday morning I drove Dan to the airport to catch his flight back to Yellowknife. He had to catch his flight back to the mine site for work on Monday, so I drove the truck home alone. Remember the deal? Dan’s truck, Dan drives. So this kind of compromise is the best opportunity I’m going to get to drive the truck any significant distance.
I diverted back to DNA Gardens to pick up some Hascap bushes at Dan’s request. I ended up picking up five bushes — one of each variety. Now I have to build another retaining wall to plant them in. I carried them in the back seat, and dutifully kept them watered throughout the trip home.
The Donut Mill
Next stop was The Donut Mill in Red Deer. I asked for one Chocolate Venetian, but the clerk pleasantly gave me two, she said because they were kind of on the small side and she thought I deserved it. It was so sweet of her, but if only she knew how much I didn’t deserve two donuts, lol! Of course I still ate both of them, I mean, seriously.
The drive into Edmonton ended up stalling south of Leduc. An accident (I think involving at least one deer) blocked the highway, causing a traffic jamb slowing traffic to a crawl. Quite literally. Average speed maybe 15-20 km per hour, at least a 40 minute delay. I finally rolled into South Commons to meet Nina for a quick coffee at around 4:00 p.m.
Nina is a friend I’ve known since high school who recently started painting. She posted one of her pieces on FaceBook that I instantly fell in love with, and she agreed to sell it to me. She got it framed and we met so I could pick it up. We had a really nice little visit and reconnected a bit. She has some really positive things going on in her life right now and I wish her all the love, peace, and happiness because she totally deserves it. I really hope we can visit again next time I’m through Edmonton, maybe go do some vinyl shopping…
I stayed at my parents’ place and left the next morning after securing a storage site for September at Camp’n Class RV Park in Stony Plain. I stayed again at the Best Western Plus Mirage Hotel in High Level, and this time they comped me an upgrade to the jacuzzi suite! The only thing missing for that opportunity was Dan. I still took advantage of the jacuzzi all by my lonesome.
The Jacuzzi Suite
The drive home was uneventful, but pleasant. Despite the air conditioner in the truck still not working. I had to drive with four of the five windows open a crack to get air circulating and cool things down in the cab. That really didn’t bother me, I just turned the volume up on the radio. What did bother me between High Level and Yellowknife were the horseflies. What unnecessary, annoying, bothersome creatures that serve no purpose on this planet! None whatsoever, except to annoy and bother and try to painfully suck us dry of our life-giving blood! The plan to stop and stretch the legs every hour and a half was frustrated by the nasty creatures. I did not end up actually getting out of the truck until Fort Providence, and then it was only because I had to. The bathroom was calling, and the washer fluid needed replenishing.
The road home wasn’t bad, but the stretch between the Highways 1 and 3 junction and the Deh Cho Bridge is still being repaired so it’s loose gravel and the speed limit was down to I think 50 km per hour (maybe lower…). I did get a good chuckle while on that stretch though watching a traveller driving a motorcycle with a side car towing a tiny collapsible trailer slowly and carefully (good!) but being tailed by a rig. I wish I could have gotten a photo, but, you know, I was driving, so…
Anyway, I think that’s where I’ll conclude this trip. I wish you all a wonderful summer, and we’ll reconnect again in September for the Regina trip.
Guigon Travels 