20070719 Waskesiu SK
140 miles

Cool, then warm, but not as bad as Saskatoon or Cypress Hills.

We headed out a little late. We went up SK-11 toward Prince Albert. Enroute, we took a small detour into Rosthern. My brother's father-in-law, Ed Strunk, lived here with his family when he was young until they moved to the USA. We took some pictures going through town.

On to Prince Albert and north to Waskesiu and Prince Albert National Park. The town is within the park, with some private property including cottages, hotels, post office and a bunch of shops. There's also a golf course.

We paid our three-day entry into the park, then proceded to the campground and paid them their three-day fee for the campsite. At the campsite, we had to park carefully, because the sewer hole is in the middle of the site. I finally got situated on level ground with the sewer hole behind the left rear wheel and under the coach about a foot. The hose reached it nicely.

We took a walk into town and had a small lunch at a cafe - hotdogs and fish-n-chips. I walked on to the hotel and purchased tickets to tomorrow night's fish-fry. Then we hiked backed, cutting across the green where the fish-fry will be held. Some sort of small bee got under Dolores's toes in her sandals and stung. She was very startled and walked tenderly back to the trailer. The hurt didn't last too long, but she's not going to wear sandals off the cement while here.

Back at the trailer, we did a few things and made a steak and baked-spud dinner. After that, we sat around and read books until bedtime.
 

20070720 

At Waskesiu SK (54*N, 106*W), the farthest-north point this trip. About 2,000 miles straight-line to Panama City Beach, but we've travelled 3,364 miles to get here, plus the miles we've spent running around in the truck.


Cool all morning under cloudy skies. Then I changed to jeans. Then the sun came out and it warmed up to near 80*F - still nice. I changed back to shorts.


Today was drive day. We went slowly out the north road along the lake. Right at the town limits, we found a young, but full-grown, elk with his small antler set in velvet. We stopped and took pictures. He didn't even take notice of us until I re-started the diesel. A few turns later & we saw a chipmunk. That was it for the morning. We stopped at all the turnouts & took pictures. Finally, at the end of the road is a small marina for people wanting to go farther up the chain of lakes.

A sign in the water warned against feeding wildlife. A family was busy feeding the ducks from a bag of bread crumbs. I guess ducks are not wild up here.

We took more pictures on the way back, then stopped at the little house to have a small lunch to tide us over until fish-fry time. After lunch, we drove out the south road along the lake. At the trailer park exit were two female elk eating the grass. We took pictures again, then went on. No more wildlife. Out the south road to the unimproved campground at the end and back. 

When we got back to town, we parked and looked through a few places. The bookstore has some nice stuff, so we'll go back there tomorrow. The three shops selling beach stuff haven't lowered their prices to end-of-season-get-rid-of-it prices yet, so the prices were *high*. We stopped in a different (from yesterday) small store to get bananas for Dolores. The cafe next door to the store advertises free wireless internet; maybe we'll do that.

Then back to the trailer to wait for fish-fry time.

After the fish-fry. It was quite good. There were some people there when we arrived and a lot more arrived while we ate. Bread, Salad, Wild Rice, Corn-on-Cob, and fish (walleye, lake trout, or jack). I took walleye and jack, D had lake trout and jack. Quite nice. Talked with some Canadians who took our seats as we stood up; she grew up in Prince Albert (the town) and wanted her husband and kids to come there to appreciate it. They live near Calgary, which has shot from 68,000 people to a million in ten years due to Alberta's oil boom. She says the construction is absolutely crazy.

We hiked back to the campground. Just as we got there, we spotted a small female deer among the cottages across from the campground. We walked up to the trailer. I got my camera and walked back. The deer had moved down a short block, so I walked toward it and got a couple of pictures as it crossed the street and walked through the campground to some trees.

Back into the trailer, then, to do these notes and relax from our relaxing.

 

20070721 

At Waskesiu SK (Prince Albert NP)


It stayed warm last night - never got below 70*F. At 2:30pm, it was 89*F. Normal high is around 79*F. There's even a bit of humidity to make us feel at home.

Up late. Took our ride down the east boundary to the south (prior to SK-2, the only road into the park). Saw a deer with fawn. D got pictures of the fawn. The only other wildlife around was a colony of Richardson's Ground Squirrels at the Sandy Lake beach.

We came back to lunch in the trailer. D wanted to stay in the cool, so I went into town to look around. I found a small book and a little wine, but nothing else caught my attention. Back to the trailer to take it easy until dinner (tonight at the Hawood Hotel).

Dinner was very nice, with an unconventional shrimp cocktail (with chopped fruit in the bowl rather than cocktail sauce - very nice). Very enjoyable all round.

We took an evening drive and still saw no animals. Back to the little house and preparations to move tomorrow.