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Last Updated 23 Jul 2023

2023 RV Trips

As usual we got out camping for Tess’ birthday, typically a week before the Victoria Day long weekend. We haven’t made any definitive plans yet for this season although I still hope to get out someplace close to the mountains.

Click on the photo of 7 to jump to each trip

Our first trip of the season is right on time – the week before the May long weekend which is most people’s first camping trip of the season. There is a fire ban in place already because of the unusual hot (31C) and dry conditions and all the out-of-control grass and forest fires. We can still use our propane firepit but no wood fires this trip.

I un-winterized Seven last week and checked out all the systems. And threw out a half dozen dead mouses caught in the traps. I am going to try again to find out how they are getting in. Everything on Seven works as designed except for the awning over the living room slideout which has slipped on its track. Not a big deal but still needs to be fixed.

We arrived after an uneventful drive. The only unusual thing was a small convoy of military vehicles heading up here to help with firefighting efforts. We saw what might have been a couple of moose and a couple of deer. In the campground the loons and other birds are very noisy staking out their territory or looking for mates. There is only one other rig here, in the next loop over, so when we get our fishing tomorrow it will be with day use people so it won’t be crowded.

The Oilers playoff run is continuing and they are playing against Las Vegas Golden Nights in the second round. The Oil were down 2-1 in the best of 7 series. We went to the casino to watch a very entertaining game. We won 5-1 and tied the series. Next game is this weekend in Vegas.

We got home before 11:00pm and settled into bed.

We woke up to a beautiful day – sunny, no wind, and no smoke. We were finally ready to face the day about 11:00am and we gathered up our fishing gear and headed to the seawall. Tess caught two fish on her first two casts! It took me a while longer but by 1:00 or so I had two as well. Tess caught another just as it started to rain lightly. By this time, I was ready for a nap so I headed back to camp. Tess stayed and kept catching. She landed about half the fish that took her bait and by the time she returned to camp she had 8 fish. I had my nap and did the dishes – Mr. Excitement.

The local radio station has been sharing lots of information for and about the evacuees, firefighters and so on. Weather is supposed to get up to 31C or higher over the next few days and now they are warning about funnel clouds! Good grief. We have a new neighbour across the street. A single fellow with a 5er up for a few days to do some fishing. In the evening another trailer showed up. It looks brand new so congrats to the happy owners.

Since I forgot the portable hard drive with all our movies, we are stuck talking to each other! We will do a run to Walmart, No Frills, Can Tire and the bank tomorrow. I’m sure we can find something to watch in Walmart’s bargain bin for $3.

I bbq’d one fish for Tess and a burger for me. As usual, it was all I could do to finish my burger (thanks Ozempic) but Tess really enjoyed her fresh rainbow trout. After, we settled into a Scrabble game which I won handily. And I swear I didn’t make up any words!

Happy 74th Birthday to Tess!

We were up at our usual time and ready to head to town about 11:00. Tess’ phone has been busy with birthday wishes from Mark and lots of her extended family and friends.

After our showers, we hit the road about 11:00 and headed for the town of Whitecourt. We made stops for supplies and plants at Walmart, No Frills, Can Tire and RBC where I took $500 out of my savings account for Tess’ birthday present. We returned home to unpack and for a nap then we returned to the casino for dinner.

We both had the steak and lobster special (I gave my lobster to Tess, of course). As it is her birthday, Tess got a $20 off coupon for dinner and a free desert!

After dinner we watched the hockey game (Oilers lost and now trail the series 3-2) and gambled a little. As usual, I lost and Tess won. She even found a $50 bill on the floor in the bathroom! We got back home about 11:00 and hit the sack.

Tess was happy with her birthday – fishing, camping, steak & lobster dinner, casino wins, and more.

The weather forecast is for sunny and warm over the next few days then getting very hot. No rain in sight. We woke up to another beautiful day. There are a couple of new rigs in our loop so it looks like it will be a busy fishing day. It warmed up nicely and winds were calm all day so conditions were perfect.

Since we ate some of the fish we caught earlier, we had room within our limit to catch more and so we did. They were biting steadily but without the urgency of the other day. Most of them got off long before getting them to shore although we each landed one.

A couple of local Filipino fishers donated a couple more large rainbows to us so we are back up to our limit. To say thank you for the fish, we invited Manuel and his wife over for coffee but they begged off. At least we offered.

We stayed in tonight as we will be back at the casino tomorrow night for the hockey game. When we were at Walmart yesterday, I picked up 3 DVD movies for $5 each and we watched one tonight.

Happy Mother’s Day! It’s another beautiful day. It is getting warmer with each passing day. We are happy that we have 30-amp power to run the air conditioners or we would be melting!

Tess got another batch of texts and calls of course. As it is Mother’s Day, I finally spread my Mom’s ashes today. I put them in the lake at our favourite campground as she wanted. Lots of emotions for me as I still miss her every day.

It was a lazy day; Tess went to the seawall to fish but there were no empty benches and lots more people standing. It seems fishing is a popular Mother’s Day activity. She came back home and puttered with me. About 5:00pm our fishing buddies Manuel and Anna-Lee stopped by and gave us 10 more fish because they already had their limit. Well, so do we but it would be very rude to turn down their offer. We’ll give them away tomorrow.

After dinner we went back to the casino to watch game 6. The Oilers could not maintain an early lead and lost the game. They are now done for the season. Las Vegas is just too strong when it counts. Maybe next year, he said optimistically.

We got home about 11:00 and went straight to bed.

It is a hot one today! Tess was outside talking to her plants when she heard the distinctive sound of a hummingbird. Actually, two of them sipping from the purple flowers she bought the other day. Special.

Today was a pretty lazy day. We read, I went magnet fishing and caught the usual assortment of lures, hooks, and bells, and Tess went fish fishing for an hour but didn’t keep any which is a first for her. The smoke from the not-so-far-away wildfires turned the sun red than, as the wind shifted, blocked it out completely. It looked like an eclipse. Even the temperature dropped off.

There are more birds about now than when we first arrived. A squadron of White Pelicans, woodpeckers, crows, ducks, grebes, osprey, and more.

After a bbq dinner I went to chat with the neighbours across the street. They live in Fox Creek, about an hour north-west on Hwy 43. They have been evacuated and may lose their home. He is the safety lead for a gas processing company and is working hard to get his people away from danger and into temporary accommodations. He spent the day evaluating the fires near his gas plants and showed us some videos. It is a scary situation.

They are staying in their motorhome but because of the upcoming long weekend and the requirements for campground reservations, they will have to move several times over the next week or so including a few days at the local casino. They have a sweet little Shi-Tzu mix dog named Bella.

We return home tomorrow and are thinking about where and when we will go next.

Since none of us are morning people, we all got up about 9:30. After brekkie we got about the business of the day. For Nana that was peace and quiet alone with the squirrels and birds. For Isla and me it was off to the day use area with the metal detector.

I taught Isla how to use the detector and soon she was off on her own looking for treasure. As usual, several kids soon gathered around her to help dig in the sand and see what she could find.

She soon started to get alarms; she found a tent peg, an old rusty screw, an equally rusty chain link, and lot of little tin foil scraps. Eventually she even found a nickel.

I’m not sure she believed me when I told her that when I was a kid you could get a small paper bag full of candy for 5¢ since most candies were 5 for a penny.

There was a small Filipino boy maybe 4 or 5 years old who decided he wanted to help and he grabbed onto the detector and refused to let go.

He didn’t seem to understand no, even when I used a forceful voice. I think he was a non-verbal autistic and just didn’t understand. I picked him up by the shoulders and put him down behind me. When I did the turn in the soft sand holding a 40lb kid my right foot slipped into a divot in the sand. I felt a shooting pain in my right calf area. I plopped him down then I promptly fell over. He, of course, went straight back to the detector in Isla’s hands.

So there I am hobbling around holding the detector over my head so he can’t get at it and his mother finally comes over to rescue me. It must have looked pretty funny to everyone else. In the meantime, I can’t straighten my right leg nor put any weight on it. I had to use Isla’s head as a cane to hobble back to the car.

By now Mark had returned but without Megan since she had a very sore shoulder from paddleboarding against the wind yesterday. We had a nice visit with Mark, Isla, Penelope, and Betty for the afternoon. It cooled off and we all went inside and watched a funny but forgettable superhero movie. They left just before dinner.

Nana and I had a nice fire then she went to bed. I sat by the fire and read for another hour then went in too. This has been a great weekend. Next trip? Kananaskis, maybe.

Today was a busy day. We were up at the crack of 9am and after doing my journal and eating brekkie, Mark, Megan, and Isla arrived to spend the day. After visiting for a bit, we all went to the beach.

Because it is a hot, sunny Saturday, the place was wall to wall people. We found a nice shady spot under a large cottonwood tree and settled in. The kids went for a swim while us old farts stayed in the shade.

After their swim, Isla and Megan blew up their inflatable stand-up paddleboards.

Before they hit the lake, Mark and Isla’s friend Stephanie from Calgary arrived (with cold beer!) and set up her own stand-up paddleboard and they all hit the lake.

We packed it in about 5:00 and headed back to the parking lot. There, I found a bunch of people watching a guy unsuccessfully trying to jump start a dead Suzuki.

They seemed at a loss, so I offered to help. Turns out their jumper cable connection to the running truck wasn’t good.

I had him reconnect the jumper cables on the truck and it fired right up. Lots of thanks from the owner of the little car.

Once back at camp, I fired up the bbq and got to work. We had burgers, dogs, kubi, smokies, potato and Caesar salads, and corn with popsicles for dessert. Then Nana lit one of her one-match fires to complete the day. After some discussion, Isla decided to sleep over with us. Mark and Megan will return tomorrow to pick her up. Isla has school on Monday and we won’t be returning home until Monday afternoon.

After a nice fire, Nana and Isla went in for a shower. After a busy day in the sun and lake, they both went to bed about 9:30. I stayed up reading by the fire for another hour or so then went in for my shower and a good night’s sleep.

Today was a great day.

This trip is unusual – we are out on a weekend! It is predicted to hit 32C this weekend and the house will be too hot, so here we are with 2 roof airs to keep the RV cool.

We left home about 2:30 and within the hour we were settled into our site. I carefully backed in, not hitting the big tree in the middle of our site. I put the blocks down under the rear jacks and pressed the buttons to get us nice and level.

Next, the slides go out. The main slide had trouble extending the last 6” but I just leaned on the button and it reluctantly went out. When I went around to connect the power I realized why the slide had troubles – it was pushing over the power pedestal. Oops.

There is some minor damage to the storage compartment door, of course. Not the first time I have managed to do this and no doubt not the last.

This is the first time we have been way out in the second to last loop which is closer to the town of Wabamun than it is to the Park’s beach. There is no fire ban in place so we can have a fire with the few sticks of wood we brought.

Once everything was set up, Tess realized she left her bag of meds at home on the kitchen table.

Away we went back home in Toad. Good thing we weren’t in Valleyview! Since we could have a fire, I stopped at the firewood dealer and bought a couple of bags of seasoned tamarack which burns nicely. We returned to the site and made dinner. Leftovers this time, not the usual bbq burgers.

After dinner Tess was tired and went to bed early and I went outside to sit by the fire with my glass of Sambuca and read. I went to bed about 10:30 and as always when we are camping, I slept like a log.

Since we couldn’t get the shopping centre or the casino to give us permission to overnight in their lots, we waited for the Monday of the Canada long weekend to hit the road. It was raining when we left but by Red Deer it had dried up even though the clouds remained. It was an uneventful drive; we refueled at Costco, north of Calgary then followed the NW ring road which is still under construction at the interchange with Hwy 1.

We arrived at Eau Claire campground around 3pm to find it almost empty. We picked the last site which is large, fairly level and near the Kananaskis River.

 Firewood is $10 per small bundle – good thing we brought our own! Mt Kidd looks over the campground which is nestled in the boreal forest.

There is no power so we will have to use the generator when needed. The interior road has been paved since we were last here so there’s no dust which makes Tess happy.

We decided to go explore the other first come, first serve campgrounds in the park system. We also stopped in at a reservation only campground and it look just like Eau Claire but with power.

The Interlakes campground is very nice, right on the shore of the lake. About 50 sites and completely full.

My guess is that it would have been already full when we arrived so we would have had to drive back to Eau Claire anyway so we saved 30 litres of gas.

While we were heading south on Hwy 40, before the turnoff to go into Peter Lougheed Prov Park where the other campgrounds are, we saw a pair of grizzley bear cubs foraging and playing beside the road.

No sign of momma bear. Like all bear cubs, they were adorable iin a rip your face off sort of way. The ranger chased us away for safety - the bears’, not ours.

Tess decided she wanted McDonalds for dinner and there is a route to Canmore so off we went. It turned out to be a gravel road which, of course, Tess hates. Fortunately, there were few other cars on it and the road itself was wide with no sharp curves. It was all washboard so I sped up to 100kph which smoothed things out considerably. The traction control light on the dash was blinking for most of the 30 minute run!

We eventually arrived at Canmore and got a nuggets meal. Then I had to find a car wash to get rid of the dust. On the way back we stopped at the Stony Nakota casino and found about 20 RVs in their parking lot, including a couple that looked like they had been there for a while. And they couldn’t be bothered to reply to my emails asking permission to stay one night! The casino itself reeks of cigarette smoke to we didn’t stay or play.

It was about 9pm when we got back to camp and we decided not to have a fire tonight. There are now 21 sites filled so the campground is less than half full! We read until bedtime, set the furnace and slept like logs.

Once we got up, had breakfast, and were ready to face the day it was about noon. So, pretty normal. We packed up our fishing gear and headed for the Mt Lorette Ponds about 15 minutes north on Hwy 40. On the way we stopped to check out the beautiful golf course and Kananaskis Village which is a collection of hotels. We didn’t go see Nakiska ski area.

The ponds are exactly as we remember them. Outhouses were clean, trails all paved, and lots of busy picnic sites complete with firepits. I saw a bald eagle and a bunch of cute little chipmunks like this guy.

There were lots of small rainbow trout in the stocked ponds although they were very small by Carson Lake standards. Because the water is so clear and quite shallow, we could see the fish attacking our bait. There would be up to 10 trout taking turns trying to swallow our PowerBait offerings.

Eventually, Tess hooked one which unfortunately took the hook too deep to remove. It was bleeding when it came out of the water so we kept it. Tess fried it up later and found it very tasty.

A thunderstorm rolled over the mountains and it was sprinkling when we left. That quickly turned into steady rain so again, no fire tonight.

We read and went to bed at our usual time

We woke up to sunshine and 12 degrees. At 10:00am! The furnace came on quite a few times overnight so I suspect it was down to single digits. We were toasty and warm, of course.

The Grey Eagle Casino in Calgary has their Pan-Asian smorg on today which serves lots of Tess’ favourite foods. A short distance from the campground we came upon a small herd of Rocky Mountain sheep in the middle of the road. There were a half dozen females and one male with another male not too far away. The dominant male was keeping his harem close, huddle around the centre line of the highway.

On the way to the smorg, we stopped in at the Elbow River Casino in downtown Calgary so I could get me $1 chip for my collection. I even won $50 at the table. Next it was off to the Grey Eagle where I had asked for permission to park the RV. It is a huge construction zone and there is no place for an RV to park.

And it turns out to be Calgary Stampede week too and when we came out after dinner, there was a stage set up with live performance by some band.

There was no parking left anywhere and lots of people wanted our spot. I left them to sort it out themselves.

After a stop at a Costco with only roundabout access routes for gas, we returned home. As soon as we hit Hwy 40 from the TCH, it started to rain.

That didn’t stop us from having a fire though. Eventually the showers stopped and we went into bed at the usual time.

While I was reading outside, I was watching a gopher (Richardson’s Ground Squirrel) explore around the campsite. He found a cherry pit and was gnawing away at it.

I wondered if he might like a cherry so I set up a plate with a few cherries on it.

I arranged a step stool and lawn chair so he could climb up to the side table with the plate of cherries.

It took him only about 5 minutes to figure it all out and he made several trips between his hiding place and the plate. Cute little guy.

Today we decided to do something about Tess’ cranky tablet charging – it isn’t recharging. A quick trip to Canadian Tire in Canmore to get a 12v power adapter. In the parking lot I tried it on my phone and it worked fine.

Tess’ tablet threw an error message so it looks like it is new tablet time. That means a trip to Calgary tomorrow. In the meantime, we can recharge the phones and my tablet without running the generator so that’s good.

We got home late afternoon and after relaxing for a bit, we ate like royalty. BBQ steak, crab legs, garlic toast, and baked beans. So good!

A squirrel yelled at us for a while – Tess walked up close to him in his tree before he ran away.

Tess had plugged her tablet in again and this time it started to recharge. Maybe we won’t need to replace it now after all.

After dinner we sat around the fire until bedtime.

Short entry today – we did nothing! Sat around camp, ate, and read our books. The gophers and squirrels were out and about but that’s it for excitement.

Today was bright and sunny and warmed up nicely. Once we were ready to go, we went back to Calgary. I dropped Tess off at the Grey Eagle and I went to Costco to check out prices on replacement tablets in case her dies completely. $189 which is not bad considering she uses it every day. Since I was there, I did a walkabout and decided I didn’t really need anything except lunch!

I hit the food court and bought myself a slice of surprisingly good pepperoni pizza, an ice cream sundae and a pop all for less than $6. The food court was crowded so I shared a table with other folks. I gassed up the car and went back to pick up Tess. Of course, she didn’t want to go yet so I went and had a beer.

We got home late – about 9pm and decided not to have a fire. A nice surprise was a couple of large pieces of firewood sitting by our firepit – apparently left as a gift for us by our next door neighbour who left while we were away.

When we got up this morning, Tess decided she misses her garden and wants to go home tomorrow. That means we will head to Longview today to buy beef jerky and to check out campgrounds down there.

We had a fire and enjoyed the sunshine for an hour before we left for Longview. Tess made a new furry friend. She had a gopher literally eating out of her hand. He was pretty brave and got rewarded with a couple of cherries and a strawberry. He was a happy gopher.

There were no interesting campgrounds on the drive to Longview. It is a busy little town and there were perhaps 50 motorcycles parked along the (only) street near the food trucks and ice cream place. It seems the tour of Calgary to Longview to Kananaskis to Calgary is a popular one as we saw hundreds of bikes during the trip. It was 30 in Longview and only 17 a half hour later when we climbed into the mountains where it was raining lightly.

We got home and cooked hot dogs over the fire for dinner. It started raining again and got chilly so we just went in and read until bedtime.

Back home tomorrow.