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20030824 Open new window with today’s pictures.
August 24, 2003
Sunday
Start: Sherk's RV Park, Valleyview AB
End: Glowing Embers Travel RV Park, Acheson AB
Miles: 204
Hi Temp: 71.1
Lo Temp: 41.4
Dolores got up at 1:30am this morning to look for Northern Lights (Aurora Borealis). A little later, she came back to the bed and asked if what she was seeing was aurora borealis or clouds. I got out and confirmed for her that it was, indeed, aurora borealis. The lights were the green of old computer terminals, but more faint; I've seen brighter lights on the farm in Wisconsin. But they were interesting to watch as they weaved their patterns in the sky.
I hopped back into bed while Dolores watched a little longer. She came in a little later.
We left the campground under a clear, sunny, sky. Then we stopped at the corner to fuel up, since we hadn't done that chore last night. Then onto AB-43 and onward toward Edmonton.
AB-43 is a good road, mostly four-lane, between Valleyview and the Transcanada (Hwy 16) west of Edmonton. We just kept running with the traffic and got here in good time. The campground is large (300 sites) and is conveniently located at an exit off highway 16A. All sites have full hookups (no cable).
We had a light lunch in the trailer and then took a hike around the place. Then we went to put diesel fuel in the truck and to fill a propane bottle that emptied yesterday. After that, we went to the local Safeway to get groceries. We returned and put the groceries away, then settled for a bit.
There's an "information center" room in the office building. Located there are all the brochures for Edmonton attractions and for campgrounds in other major cities, as well as the local phone books and the modem connection. I used the internet, and got the e-mail.
I also looked up places to get an oil change done on the truck (didn't settle on one) and where I could purchase the oil I prefer for the truck (the local Cummins outlet is not far from the Edmonton Mall, which we're going to take in tomorrow). We'll get the oil tomorrow on our way to the mall, then find a place Tuesday that will do what I want.
We read for a while, then I got out the grill and grilled steaks. They went well with the salad, potatoes, and Canadian wines.
Then we went out to church; the local parish has an 8:30pm mass. It's a new church in a field out in the country between two small towns. The mass was well attended.
Now, we've come back to the little house in the big campground on the prairie. Time to settle in.
20030825 Open new window with today’s pictures.
August 25, 2003
Monday
Start: Glowing Embers Travel RV Park, Acheson AB (outside Edmonton)
End: same
Miles: 0
Hi Temp: 67.5
Lo Temp: 48.9
It was a nice day today and we took advantage of it.
We hopped into the truck and drove to the Cummins diesel engine place here. There, we bought lube oil and filters that I prefer for our pickup.
Then we drove a short distance to the West Edmonton Mall, the world's largest shopping mall. What a place. We've been to the Mall of America in Minneapolis/St Paul and thought that was big until today. We walked the thing from end to end and back, first when Dolores was searching for ideas on a dress to wear to Susan's wedding and second, when we looked for the various features of the place.
The wave pool certainly qualifies as unique. It's cement-bottomed, but slopes up gradually from its deepest depth so that all sizes can be in water to whatever level they want. The wave sequence is disabled for some minutes so folks can just play with their kids, or teenagers can splash each other. But when the wave sequence starts, everyone has to pay attention to the waves. If you're in shallow water, obviously the wave effect is smaller. But if you were in up to your shoulders, that wave is going to move you.
The GalaxyLand is a place full of thrill rides, including a full-bore roller coaster that reaches about eight stories high. It has two other smaller roller coasters for smaller people. There are all sorts of things that pick you up and shake you.
The newest "phase" of construction of this place holds a water pool on the first floor. It holds a full-sized replica of Columbus's Santa Maria, and the submarine ride with four submarines. A dolphin show has its own adjacent pool; the dolphin swims in it when he's not performing.
There's an Imax theatre, of course. The food court goes on for what seems like a football field. One "restaurant" also has billiards, a theatre, a night club, and bowling.
There are stores of every description selling just about everything. We entered the mall through an Asian supermarket; I saw all sorts of soft-drinks on the shelves with asian-language writing; I have no idea what's in them. Rather than a rotissary (sp?) chicken stand, there is a rotissary (sp?) duck stand. Strange smells come from the in-store cafeteria. The mall side of the supermarket opens into an aisle they call "Chinatown" with stores for other Asian tastes.
We ate together in the food court, but bought our lunches at different stalls. Not bad, but crowded.
We only bought a few gifts for others. Perhaps we were just overwhelmed by the place, or perhaps we have what we need.
Our feet started hurting, so we gave up on the place and drove back to the RV park. I left Dolores there and drove into Spruce Grove to find a lube joint. Econolube, behind the Wendy's, fit the bill. They drained the oil and replaced it with my stuff, replaced the lube oil filter with my new one, replaced the fuel oil filter with my new one, and replaced the air filter with my new one. They checked all sorts of things, and greased the ten points the Dodge has. It's not high-tech, but they did ok from what I could observe.
I stopped for wine and beer on the way back to the trailer. Dolores had come up with a new head of steam, so away we went again, this time to the University of Alberta Botannical Garden. We walked all over their grounds in a random sort of pattern. Dolores shot pictures of all the exhibited wildflowers she could reach and some of other plants. We visited the shop, of course, and she came away with a flower-themed tee-shirt. We staggered back to the truck and drove back to the trailer.
We'd asked the RV park staff for a recommendation for a dinner place that is not a chain and has some good wine. One they came up with was the Sawmill on 170th Street at 95th Avenue. The owner is local and has three of these restaurants here and two in Calgary. Dolores had PEI mussels as an appetizer, then steak-and-lobster; I did the salad bar (many, many goodies) and a stir-fried shrimp and chicken dish. With a Gerwurztraminer, dinner was very nice.
The waitress and Dolores were talking about where Dolores acquired a taste for mussels that led into a discussion of our vacation in eastern Canada last year, that led to the waitress telling us she is from Halifax, that led to our mentioning that we really liked one particular restaurant in the Dartmouth part of Halifax, that led to her telling us she'd worked at Alex McAskill's, the restaurant we were describing, before she moved here. Funny.
We waddled out of Sawmill and drove back to the little house in the big campground. I went off to get the e-mail, then we attended to all the photos.
Now it's late and time to go to bed.
20030826 Open new window with today’s pictures.
August 26, 2003
Tuesday
Start: Glowing Embers Travel RV Park, Acheson AB (nr Edmonton)
End: same
Miles: 0
Hi Temp: 74.8
Lo Temp: 50.7
Another active day. After breakfast, we mounted our trusty steed and drove to Fort Edmonton Park, a sort of living museum. It shows how Edmonton places might have looked in 1840 (the Hudson's Bay fort), and through three street scenes - 1885 Street, 1905 Street, and 1920 Street.
We entered an old train station, paid our fee, and waited on the platform for the train. It came along, loaded, and took us to the far end of the place where the reconstructed fort stands. There are interpreters in the main buildings who can tell you some of the facts of the place. The most impressive building in this fort was the proctor's residence, a massive log building that housed his family (five kids), seven servants, and any important guests.
Then we walked to the 1885 street, which has perhaps 15 buildings on each side to examine. Many are original and have been moved here intact, some have been taken apart and reconstructed here, and a few are constructed from various sources to resemble. Some of them perform services such as snack bars or ice cream parlors, where their original function was close enough that part of the building can exhibit old items while part of the building can serve customers. We walked up to a flock of turkeys (the winged variety) on this street and had fun watching them wander around. There were farm animals at the farm scene, including horses that also propelled a stage coach and various wagons for rides.
The 1905 Street came next, just by walking around the corner. Another set of buildings appeared, each with its own story. There were, perhaps, fewer of them. The Henderson farm was interesting to me. The big circular barn was taken apart and put back up here. The farm house reminded me of things I've haven't seen in a long time - icebox in the kitchen, wood-fired cooking stoves, water hand-pump over the sink, and many others. We had lunch in the main floor of the old Masonic Hall (the Masons met upstairs and rented the lower level), where hamburgers and other light lunch items are served. When we came out, we took the trolley car on a circular ride through 1905 Street and 1920 Street, and back to where we got on. Then we continued our journey.
Around the next corner, 1920 Street appeared. There are fewer buildings here; they just haven't done as much here. But a few things are spectacular, such as the Hotel Selkirk. It is now in operation - you can stay there - a three-story 30-room hotel and restaurant. There is a Ukranian book store, and an old mosque.
But the big thing here for me was the Mellon Farm, which was right here; the park occupies part of its original acreage. They had done a grain cutting and threshing re-enactment/demonstration here this past weekend. Some of the grain was still shocked today and the threshing machine was still set up; the straw pile was there as a result. The machine shed contained other machines like the steam engine, and other grain separators. In the yard was a grain binder. All of this certainly reminded me of harvesting oats on my uncle's farm in Dunn County, Wisconsin; we used tractors, a grain binder, wagons, threshing machine, and grain wagons. I well remember shocking oats; a miserable job.
We then walked down the street to the station where we had entered. Dolores bought a pin in the gift shop and then we went on to the Muttart Conservatory, east of downtown.
The conservatory has an underground entry; visible aboveground are four pyramids of glass windows. You reach each of these from the underground central area that also contains the gift shop. Our admission fee was half-priced since there was substantial construction going on. We wandered through the three open pyramids (tropical, temperate, and arid) and saw the plants of each. The place is a little different in that it allows sculptures mingled among the plants; they're mostly quite unobtrusive.
When we finished the conservatory, it was nearly 4:00pm and our feet hurt. We took the truck north to the big east-west highway to go west to the campground. The traffic was heavy, but nothing like the Washington DC area.
We sat for a bit with an ale, then got the e-mail. After that, we went to dinner at a local Spruce Grove Italian restaurant. It wasn't great, but it was filling.
We returned to the little house in the big campground, and did the computer chores. We decided to stay another day here, so we'll have to take care of that in the morning. Now we're going to settle in.
20030827 Open new window with today’s pictures.
August 27, 2003
Start: Glowing Embers Travel RV Park, Acheson AB (near Edmonton)
End: same
Miles: 0
Hi Temp: 62.8
Lo Temp: 51.4
We left the campground bound for a day of Edmonton. It was cloudy and showers were anticipated, but it was over 60 so neither of us wore jackets.
We intended to go to a old-time streetcar run that crosses the river from the south toward downtown, then get on the light-rail subway system to go to the shopping center of town, Jasper Avenue.
We found the streetcar operation without problem, but the streetcar was running behind schedule due to a "media event". When it came along a little later, we saw both press and TV photographers plus talking heads of all kinds. One person in a suit was being interviewed on-camera, so we had to wait to start the ride. When that ended, all the media folks, and a bunch of kids from a day-care center, and us, made up quite a load for the old car.
The car strolled slowly along the tracks for 10-12 blocks, then entered a tunnel. As it came out of the tunnel, it started out across the Edmonton River on top of a very high bridge still used by automobiles on the bottom deck. We had plenty of time for pictures. At the downtown end, the car stopped at a temporary platform. There is a new bike trail being put in, and then the city will then re-install the tracks for the three blocks that are now torn out.
Everyone quickly walked down the ramp and got into their cars and disappeared, except for the guy in the suit. We asked him what was going on. It turned out he was a city coucilman, so he told us this was a part of the upgrade of that area and that the city hoped to do more of it. He asked where we were from and what we were doing, so we told him. Then he gave us directions on how to go to the light-rail transit (LRT) system and what stop to get off to go shopping. That was the first time I've ever had a coucilman as a tour guide.
We did what he suggested and found ourselves on an very clean and neat underground platform, waiting for the next train. No fare needed; travel is free between 9:00am and 3:00pm between the four stops in the downtown area. The train came along and we entered. It's something like a Washington DC Metro setup, but the cars are smaller. It scurried to the stop we wanted.
We exited and popped almost directly into the City Center East shopping mall food court. We went up a level and began looking around. We found the directory for the place, including City Center West, and Dolores spotted a couple of stores she wanted to look in. Dolores took quick looks, then we headed for "the Bay" (the Hudson's Bay Company, still in operation). She didn't find anything. I'd found a hooded top that looked as though it would be good for autumn, but the line was so long at the cashiers (lunch hour) that I gave up and put it back.
We discovered the "Ped-Way". This is Edmonton's system of interlocking walkways downtown. Some are underground, others are aboveground. Whichever, they afford the people here a way of getting around without going outside. I'll bet that's appreciated at 30-below. We took it into the next building and found a lunch place featuring soup-and-sandwich specials.
After lunch, we used the Ped-way to go to the shopping levels of two mainly-business buildings, and then popped underground and back into the LRT. It had rained as a front came through and it felt colder, but the rain had stopped again by the time we came up out of the LRT. Across the street is the provincial legislative building (like state capital building), but we didn't want to stay cold to take a tour of it.
We waited for the streetcar, which appeared on-schedule, and rode it back to the truck. Sure enough, two blocks short of the truck, the rain began again. We got a little wet as we ran for the truck.
Deciding that we've seen enough Edmonton, especially considering the weather, we drove back out into the western suburbs past our campground to the Safeway in Spruce Grove. We bought a few groceries and returned to the little house. By now it was raining with a vengance. We jumped into the trailer and put things away.
Later, I went to get the e-mail. We did some of the computer stuff, then broke for a light dinner. It's now about 8:30pm, and I'm finishing this, then I'll do some trip planning for the segment from here to Winnipeg. Dolores didn't like the idea of driving a bunch of miles one day going into Winnepeg, so I'm trying to re-structure it.
We're off tomorrow for Little Loon Regional Park, outside Glaslyn, Saskatchewan. I hope the rain doesn't just trail along with us.