61 Day Alaska and Calgary Stampede Caravan: Day 4-7

July 15-18, 2016

Day 4

Today was a 175 mile travel day, we decided to travel with our new fulltime friends John and Theresa Neff. We left the park around 9:30 and headed to Nanton Alberta where we toured the Nanton Lancaster Society Bombadeer Museum, both John and Theresa are retired from the Air Force and with Dave's interest in these types of museums it was something we all could enjoy for a few hours.

 

We knew the parking at the museum wouldn't fit the rv's so we had stopped at a Flying J just down the road, it was easy enough for our friends to unhitch their toad and drive us all over. After the museum we had a great lunch at the restaurant (Humpty's) attached to the Flying J, great food and much better than expected. John and Theresa got their toad hitched back up and we were soon on our way to the Cochrane Alberta where we would be staying for 4 nights.

Bow Rivers Edge RV Park is a nice clean park, sites are adequate size and ours has 30 amp service with water and sewer. It's close to a Safeway, Walmart and Canadian Tire all great for stocking up on whatever you need.

A travel meeting outlining what is in store for the next 3 days at 5:30 then home and early to bed as we are once again leaving at 7:30 in the morning.

Day 5

Our 7:30 departure put us in to Rope Square in time to enjoy a bacon pancake breakfast. Seems during Stampede time a bunch of businesses get together and provide free bacon pancakes, one pancake a person at a time but you can get in line again and again at the same vendor or try a variety of vendors.

Dave and Theresa got hitched up to see how much they could pull, 222 pds was their best pull.

Dave getting "branded"

Interesting sculptures  that we later found out were wind breaks. 

Our next stop was the Glenbow Museum, their mission is to celebrate and share the history, creativity and beauty of western Canada.

My personal favorite rooms was a temporary exhibition, Kaleidoscopic Animala by Paul Hardy. It was an exhibition examining how animal imagery and symbolism influenced human creativity across time and cultures.

Our last stop of the day was the Calgary Stampede. We had tickets to the afternoon rodeo, an exciting afternoon filled with lots of action. It was cloudy and rainy, thankfully our seats were under cover. This was wildcard day, the final time cowboys had a chance to qualify in events for tomorrows finals.

By far the funniest event, the kids wild pony riding event.

Day 6


Today didn't start as early, we were going to see the finals and the finale extravaganza and it would be a really late day so the bus didn't leave until 11:45am. I put the morning to good use getting the last blog post up and getting caught up till today on this post.

We once again had tickets to the afternoon rodeo where all but the Chuckwagon Race finals were held. Each event had four people competing for a prize of $100,000. 

New friends Theresa and John who are also our traveling partners

 

A dinner buffet was at the Stampede Clubhouse after which it was time for the Chuckwagon Race finale, another $100,000 prize was on the line.

Then there were the fireworks to finish off Stampede week.

Day 7

Today our tour took us to Heritage Park Historical Village which is a living history museum. Exhibits span the early 1860s fur trade to the petroleum and automobile-dominated 1950s, their mission is to preserve Western Canada's history. The park first opened in 1964, the park now has a historical downtown, residences, First Nations encampment, a steam ship and railroad. Gasoline Alley Museum houses vintage cars and gasoline pumps. There is street theater in and around the town at various times, a great bakery and numerous shops. We had an enjoyable day exploring the town with our new friends John and Theresa.

We enjoyed our time in Calgary, it is a beautiful clean city that we would enjoy visiting again if we ever find ourselves in the area again.

Until next time...

61 Day Alaska and Calgary Stampede Caravan: Day 1-3

July 12-14, 2016

Thanks to Gail and Sherry for catching my mistake in the last blog, we didn't walk 8 miles in an hour it was over the course of 2 hours.  We walk fast but not that fast.

Day 1

Tuesday was the first official day of the caravan, the afternoon was taken up with an orientation meeting. We received our trip logs, Milepost books and lots of information.  Our trip logs have each days travel route in it, broken down in step by step turns with daily odometer readings, Included in the logs are fuel stops, scenic points of interest, steep grade alerts and much more.

A pizza dinner was supplied by the company, we've met lots of nice folks and look forward to exploring with them, some are even as crazy as Dave.

Earlier in the day we received our new canoe rack, on Sunday we decided to add a front receiver and T bracket so we could move the canoe forward on the truck. It didn't install quite as quick as advertised but a couple of hours and help from some of the guys in the group it was all set up. A quick test ride with the canoe, a few adjustments with the strapping holding it down and we're ready to hitch up in the morning.

Day 2

Travel day to Hill Spring AB and our first border crossing. We all carry walkie talkies and as we leave the campground we radio and inform the tail gunners we are pulling out. At our travel meeting the day before we are informed of when the wagon masters will be leaving and what time the tail gunners will be leaving, usually a few hours apart. Our trip today is about 221 miles and at about mile 118 we reach the Canadian border. After a 15-20 minute wait it was our turn, questions were asked and answered, we were a little over the allowed alcohol but it was a non issue, we were soon on our way into Alberta. Another 100 miles or so and we were radioing in to the wagon masters our arrival, soon thereafter we were pulling into the Great Canadian Barn Dance and Family Campground in Hill Spring AB. Sites are pull through with water and 30amp service, there is a dump station on site. With a little tweaking we are pleased with how the new canoe carrier rode, think this was a good investment.

Our travel meeting was cut short because of large thunderstorm that came through the area, most important info was tomorrow morning's early bus departure.

Day 3

Our early, 7:30am, bus departure had us arriving to a quiet Remington Carriage Museum in Cardston AB. The museum houses the largest collection of horse drawn vehicles in North America. Donald Remington was the inspiration behind the museum, all because he was asked one Christmas to find a sleigh for Santa to ride in. He then went on to collect many different horse drawn vehicles which he left to the province of Alberta with the stipulation they build a museum in Cardston AB.

This carriage carried passengers to the Mansfield hotel in Stowe VT, near where we've spent the last 3 summers.

The famous Seabiscuit's rider George Woolf,  a local hero, was from Carston Alberta.

Our next stop was World Heritage Site Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump, this is a First Nations park and explains how the area was used by the First Nations people. A well done movie portrays a reenactment of the historical buffalo hunts in the area. In the fall many clans of Blackfeet would come together and slowly (days) drive the buffalo towards the cliff where in one final stampede they would drive them over the cliff after which they would have enough meat for the coming winter. Nothing went to waste as the whole buffalo was used. The name Head-Smashed-In came about when one young child decided to watch the stampede from below the cliff overhang, unfortunately for him he was hit by the falling buffalo and fell to his death smashing his head.

Once back at the rv park our day was not over, a short travel meeting for the upcoming travel day tomorrow and then onto our Welcome To Canada dinner. The rv park holds a buffet dinner and musical show, a great way to end a busy day.

Tomorrow is a travel day as we head north to the Calgary area and experience our first rodeo.

Until next time...

The Last Week Before Our Alaskan Adventure Begins

July 6-11, 2016

Last Wednesday we moved to Goose Bay Marina and Campground near Helena MT on Canyon Ferry Lake. This is a new campground with a multitude of site types, set up in a typical fashion, either circles or long rows and most sites have plenty of spacing. We took site C7 which was electric only, seeing as we were only there for 3 nights we knew we didn't need full hookups. One of the big reasons we stopped here was it was only about 20 miles from the nearest Costco, we needed to get some provisions before heading north. 

Soon after arriving and getting set up we made the Costco Walmart run, then we never left the campground except on our power walks. Afternoons spent outside reading, campfires after dinner and Dave drowning worms. The last of our kicking back days.

Scenes from around the campground

Scenes from our 7.2 mile power walk 

On Saturday we made the drive up to Great Falls to the caravan rendezvous at Dick's RV Park. We were all asked to be in a few days early so rig inspections could take place. Since we've been here we've been getting stuff done for our international travels. Wifi and phones are set for traveling into Canada, credit card companies notified and insurance stuff done. The truck got it's oil and differential fluid changed and other fluids checked.


Sunday morning the rig passed inspection by the tail gunner and we're ready to go. A meeting with the tail gunner and wagon master's wives to go over a few things, a happy hour meetup with those already here and it looks like it should be a good group of people. 22 rigs including the wagon master and tail gunners, 4 5th wheels and 18 motorhomes of various sizes, 47 people in the group. There's even another Grand Design Solitude 5th wheel, same make as ours,  on our trip, haven't seen too many these past few months. In talking with Shari, one of the wagon masters, it appears we have some mutual friends as they are also owners at Gulf Waters Beachfront Resort in Port Aransas TX, another one of those small world moments.

Sunday afternoon we decided to get a power walk in since we wanted to go out for a Chinese dinner. Looking at the map provided by the rv park showed a bike path that led down to the Missouri River, once we got there we found the Rivewalk loop path, by the time we got back to the rv we had walked 8 miles in just over two hours.

When ever we see old rail yards and train stuff I think of my dad, this rail yard was near the bike path.






We did go out to Maple Garden for a Chinese dinner, what a great choice in restaurants we made, portions are large enough to share or for a second meal. Took care of our Chinese craving for awhile and if we are ever in the area we'll go back, alas no pictures too busy eating the great food.

Monday a few last things got taken care of and tomorrow is the official first day of the caravan. Wednesday we head into Canada.

Until next time...