Camping at Tunnel Mountain in Banff.. dinner with a long lost friend!

We left our family in St.Albert, Alberta on Friday morning, we had the most heart felt visit with them.  We next had a quick meeting in the Town of Olds.

I was very productive on the say to Banff, the high speed signal was "excellent". 

Then once in Banff.   I actually put my laptop without being asked to, it is SOOO beautiful, I was overwhelmed, once again, but the beauty of the mountains. 

We have a camping spot right on the mountain, with a mesmerizing view. 

Duke and I went for a walk, normal dogs aren't suppose to be off leash, as they might chase after animals or fall off a cliff. As Duke's so well behaved and smart and not one to chase after animals unless i say, "Yes, OK", i had him off leash when we were alone, he enjoyed all the strange smells in the woods.. I just loved the views and peaceful strength and  energy of the woods combined with mountains.

We had a wonderful reunion with a very good friend of mine from my Bell days, Beverly Gallagher.  It was SOOOO good seeing her, one of my favourite people.  As we weren't sure if we were going Jasper or Banff way, till the Olds meeting panned out, we hadn't connected until we where almost here, and she made herself free for dinner! God, what a good feeling to have friends like Bev, you can pick up where you left off years and years ago.  So much has happened to both of us in the last 9 years. Life is a journey!

Jerry lived here 30 years ago, so, he had his heart set on going to Bumpers, the best prime rib in town. So, we all indulged in Prime Rib.  It was excellent, indeed, still not as good as Jerry's, i have to say, he's still the best Prime Rib chief on this planet of ours, but, it was one of the best from a restaurant's point of view.  Bumpers we were told by the locals is one of the locals favorites up here, the staff was friendly, we enjoyed it there.

When we got back to our camp site, there where many four legged visitors, Duke didn't mind them at all.

Duke and I are going to go search for more wildlife right now.

NEXT we all head for larger hills to camp in tonight, towards Kamloops!

Warmest & Sunniest Part of the Trip so far.. St.Albert, Alberta!

We left the Town of Indian Head on Saturday.  It happens to be where they film Little Mosque on the Prairie. I've never seen the show, i will now, even if it's just to see if i can recognize where we were.  The town's name came from the Indian skeleton's found in the area. 

 Bell's Farm house on route, known as a large round barn.. we had to go take a quick peek.

 It was strange seeing all the old cold cars in the fields.. this one had around 40 of them lined up..

 So, we finally found open camp ground.  This time of year, we are one week too early! Little did we know that camp grounds don't open till the May 24th weekend! So, we found a camp ground on a golf course.  Duke & I never walked around golf course before, we did after they closed the gold course for the evening, he loved the ability to fly down the fairways. (Don't worry, he's a gentle runner, he didn't disturb the lawn!) That was just a quick stop, as our target was family in St.Albert, Alberta, we arrived here around noon on Monday.

We  had a wonderful time with family in St. Alberta Alberta. We mainly spent time with family. Quality time spent with everyone, went camping with our granddaughter & had a meeting for YLM, The Breken Group in Gibbons, Alberta (with with three local Towns & their local County).  We arrived to a very sunny and warm Monday afternoon, surprising, as its actually been the warmest spot so far, and it's the furthest north. Strange weather for sure.. We had just driven through destructive floods in Manitoba, to have arrived 2 hours south of equally destructive forest fires. 

It has been great seeing our family, Tyler, Renee, and our granddaughters Ryleigh & Teaghan.  We got to spend a day with the girls at the park, spend evenings with everyone over dinner, and spend a day and night with Ryleigh camping.  The camping was a test, or prelude to future trips, seeing if she, at 4 years old, was OK with camping, indeed she loved it! So, next time, we'd like it to be longer with more adventures.

 Teaghan loved Duke!

 How kids don't fall off swings is a mystery to me!

 Big scary slide!

 Grandpa & Ryleigh finding treasures in the sand!

 At the Park!

 Grandpa serving up lunch in the RV for the girls!

 Morning time camping..

  Morning time camping..

  Morning time camping..Breakfast!

 West Edmonton Mall.. what a great place!

Tomorrow we leave for a quick meeting in Olds, then on route to a night camping in Banff and then heading through the Rockies to Victoria, BC!

We loved our time with the family here, hate to leave.

Army Alert Floods in Manitoba.. made it through them..

So, we had this whole area of the campground to ourselves in Kenora, Ontario.  Duke & I walked around a little.. both our legs are better we think, we'll try going for our first run in a while tomorrow.   

   We came back from our walk to find Jerry fiddling with RV-Baloo's underside.  Thank goodness he knows what he's doing! Can you tell by looking at this what he's working on? If you can, you'll know why I stayed away, way away.. if you don't, I'm not letting you in on what it was.

  Duke tried helping too.

  Seemed only Jerry's hat survived!

 

  Everything was fine, we continued our trip this morning.. We saw this big Musky, he has a name, Huskey the Musky, as you leave Kenora. 

So, this would have been KOA Camping ground we would have likely tried to get to yesterday, if we hadn't stayed in Kenora the night, it's kinda closed and the office building is almost all under water. Santa's sled would be able to land, that's about it.

So, Jerry is like a moth to a flame.  He decides to drive through the floods so he can see them, vs around them.  So, our GPS kept telling us to turn into what looked like a Lake, then we realized there were traffic lights over the lake, so, it was actually our road.. with lots of sand bags to keep the water out. Now I where the term Sandbagged came from.. trying to keep someone from getting through.. but, it eventually leaks through.

We continued through Brandon, Manitoba, without any paddling required.  We're in Saskatchewan now, it's very flooded here to  We wanted to stop for the night at a camp ground, about 20mins ago, but, it was flooded, so, we continue to try to find dry ground.. (My high speed still works.. but, we're all getting tired of driving today.. it's excellent driving weather, so, that's good!)