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20050731 Edmonton AB 57/90 Mostly, then partly cloudy. Cool, warm east of the Rockies. Picture Link
We got up and ate. Dolores had found a church here, so I took her to church and dropped her there. Then I returned to the trailer, got it ready for the road, and returned to a lot near the church to wait for her.
When she joined me, we headed up BC route 5 to the Yellowhead and then eastward.
This was Saturday of a three-day weekend, and the traffic showed it. Lots of traffic on the Yellowhead, especially around Jasper. East of Jasper, one bozo kept doing 70kph in a 90kph zone and piled up about 50 cars, trucks, etc., behind him. With the oncoming traffic, it was hard to get around him. Finally, we did.
After Jasper, the day warmed up considerably. We came out from under the clouds to only partly cloudy and the temperature rose. By the time we got to the campground, it was around 85*. That's *hot* for people who haven't seen the high end of 70 for several weeks.
We saw a deer in the ditch going into Jasper (already inside the National Park), then we saw some Dall sheep on the road just east of Jasper that caused a mini traffic jam. A little later, we saw two huge elk between the road and a little lake just off the road. Beautiful animals.
After leaving the national park, the road turned to a nice four lane highway (well, there *were* a few uneven places).
We topped off the fuel in Edson, Alberta, for CDN$0.839/liter (US$2.65/gallon), a lot better than the price in the North. We're still getting around 12 mpg when towing.
We checked in at Glowing Embers around four pm (lost an hour, now on Mountain time), and got a site way in the back off the road. It's quiet, but it's a long walk to the office. I changed from jeans to shorts, then set up the trailer and hooked up to the utilities.
Then we browned and broiled a couple of hot italian sausages, made up a meat sauce and boiled the spaghetti. We put it all on the picnic table outside our door with salad and a couple of wines. Then we chatted and ate. A neighbor came along who said he is from Kalamazoo, on his way home after a year on the road.
Then the subject of groceries came up, so we went to the local Safeway and bought what we needed. We also topped off the fuel tank again, at CDN$0.799/liter (US$2.52/gallon). We returned to the little house and put things away.
I took the laptop to the modem line. I found out why our incoming email has been bouncing; I had put in a backup email address for Dolores under my account - it was full of spam, not allowing the main account to get any mail. I deleted the contents of that Dolores account, so now things will be fine. I'll check it periodically to delete spam (no one uses that address).
I returned and we went for a walk around the campground. The sun was setting, which seemed awful early until we recalled the time zone change. It's now 10:32pm and quite dark.
I guess we're getting back to normal conditions.
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20050801 Edmonton AB 59/86 Partly cloudy, thundershower later. Warm. Picture Link
Today was a strange sort of day. First, Dolores said she didn't feel completely with it, as though she were coming down with something. I told her to rest to fend off whatever it is.
Then I took off and bought a few things in Spruce Grove while looking for the place at which I had an oil change done here two years ago. I found it, but it was closed for the holiday.
Back at the little house, Dolores was still a little out of it. So she continued to rest while I did some laundry. I also got the e-mail (back to normal).
Later, Dolores said she felt not too bad, so we fulfilled her desire to go to the Canadian store named "Cotton Ginny", which has clothing she likes. The store here is in the West Edmonton Mall, the largest mall in the world. But we got there without incident and found the store on the second level. She shopped while I looked down onto a seal show in the marine world part of the first level.
She came out with CDN$100 worth of stuff (not too bad, really). Then we walked down one side of the second level, back up the other side of the second level, and out to the truck. Good exercise.
Then we drove back out 16A past the campground to Spruce Grove to Kelsey's for dinner. It had been recommended as a good casual-dress steak place. We ordered glasses of wine and waited quite a while for them before we got them. The appetizer came along at about the right time. After it, we asked for two more glasses of wine. It took forever to get them. Then we sat with them forever, wondering where the entree was. We stewed. We waited. We discussed leaving. The waitress seemed to be avoiding us. Finally, I jumped the waitress about it and she "went to check". Dolores urged me to pay the check and leave.
Then the manager came over and apologized for the "mistake". Our entree order had never been started. She offered to accelerate our salmon order and give it all to us free, but we were so sick of waiting and stewing that we just said "No, but thanks for your effort" and left. When we left, we'd been in the place over an hour and a half.
The storm clouds were gathering in the south and east, so we scurried back to the little house. Dolores relaxed with TV while I went to get the e-mail again. I came back and we nibbled snacks and ice cream. The storm passed without doing too much.
Then the sun got low in the west and showed up on the bottoms of the remaining storm clouds to the east as a real pink color. Then a rainbow came along from the bottom of those clouds to the ground; illuminated by the setting sun, the rainbow was all pinks. Strangest rainbow we've ever seen. Dolores hopped out and got a picture of it. We'll send the picture on when we next can send e-mail.
Now, we're doing these notes and getting ready for tomorrow's run to North Battleford, Saskatchewan. I'll go get the oil/filter changes done when they open (we're overdue), then come back to get Dolores and the trailer, then we'll go on.
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