On the Road Again...

Hi everyone. Well, we are on the road again and this posting is going to have a lot of pictures...I haven't posted for a while so things have sort of piled up a bit.

We left Castlegar in mid November and stayed a couple nights in Spokane then carried on to Boise/Star for US Thanksgiving. We parked our fifth wheel out at Alyssa's place and so got lots of good visiting time in with them and lots of cuddling time in with Wyatt. What a sweet boy!

After a really nice Thanksgiving Day, we left Oso with Matt and Alyssa and flew out to Mazatlan for two weeks. It was wonderful to sit in the sun and play on the beach. We collected sea shells on the beach, wandered around the old town, and went on a very nice tour of the town. One day I phoned a lady who was an artist living in the old town Mazatlan. She invited us over and she and I had a nice chat about the art of coloured pencils. She did some incredible work, especially portraits. The old town has a very European feel to it. The streets are very clean and narrow with colourful adobe buildings. The streetlamps were very ornate and quite beautiful. They have volunteer tourist guides there who are American or Canadian living in Mexico. We talked to one fellow and found that renting a 1200 sq. ft. apartment in the old town costs about $400 a month...yes...a month. Now there's another option for us next time. We had some incredible seafood meals...shrimp the size of a lobster tail....mmmmm. We found a restaurant called Cafe Bru-ha...(cafe witch) that was about a mile down the beach from us. The food was incredible...we'll definitely go back there if we go to Mazatlan again. There were a few Rv parks on the beach too which might be a possibility in the future. We didn't shop much this trip...just laid around the pool, drank our margaritas and watched beautiful sunsets from our hotel room. We were really lucky to get a penthouse room this time with an ocean view.

We stayed for another week at Matt and Alyssa's place when we got back from Mexico. There was plenty to keep us busy...everything from fixing water pipes in the RV that had frozen while we were gone, to building a playhouse for Wyatt. It was great fun. I helped Marc shop for some stuff for his new place, which is very cute, by the way. On the last Saturday we were there, we went on the Polar Express train ride all the way to the North Pole to see Santa. We sat in an open air railway car and so got a good view of the scenery and animals. Took some good pictures of eagles flying by. We really had a great time but Wyatt didn't really like Santa much this year...he was just too scary! Hopefully next year he'll understand a bit better that Santa is a good guy! Anyway, it was a lot of fun. Sunday we celebrated Marc's birthday and then we were on the road again.

We didn't get far the first day...only to Jackpot Nevada. We stayed in the Casino RV park and of course lost our shirts in the Casino. We were both up pretty good at one point, but darned if those machines didn't suck the cash right out of our pockets. Anyway, it was a fun evening. It was cold there with a tiny bit of snow here and there. The next morning we continued south and got as far as a little town called Alamo. There we stayed in a very small RV park on a shallow lake. I didn't know they had marshy areas like that in Nevada....and the birds...flocks of snow geese, merganzers, coots, mallards. At one point there must have been 500 snow geese land on the lake...it was awesome. Our site was right on the edge of the lake and we had a wonderful view of the birds. It would be a hunter's paradise, but sorry, Matt, it was called the Pahranagat Wildlife Refuge so no hunting allowed.

The next morning we continued our trip south and arrived in the Lake Havasu City area. We found a nice RV park and have now been here almost a week. We managed to get caught up on grocery shopping, laundry, and tour around the area. One day we went for a drive down to Parker and across the Parker Dam. There were signs all over about burros on the road...and there were. Seems they are like the deer on roads in Canada...Burros on road down here. In the 1970's, some fellow with far more money than brains decided he was going to buy the London Bridge and bring it to Lake Havasu. It really must have been an incredible undertaking. The bridge spans over part of the lake to an pretty little island where some very expensive homes are located. It's actually pretty nice. They've built up a little English Village around the base of the bridge and that's quite cute. We drove up to Bullhead City and Laughlin Nevada on Xmas day...again, I lost money at the casinos...Tom came out a few dollars ahead. Somebody, please...keep me out of those places...I'm just a big loser when it comes to gambling!

The people in the RV park got together and had a really nice pot-luck dinner on Xmas Eve. We met lots of folks from all round the US and Canada. Lots and lots of people from Alberta and Saskatchewan down here...guess I'd be down here too if I were from there. There is a state park down the road from Havasu that we just might stay in for a little while before we head toward Yuma. It's got all the services and hook-ups and is really quite a pretty place. We haven't really decided yet though, so who knows where we'll end up.

Oso is doing well and enjoying all the attention he gets from people here. Lots of people have little dogs they travel with, so he's found several buddies. He sure had fun at Matt and Alyssa's place playing with their dogs. He has that to look forward to on our way home as well.

Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and all the best to you in the new year!

Home and Away

Well, we were home for a short time and took care of business. I got the condo cleaned up and rented out so that's one thing taken care of. Oso enjoyed being home...he sniffed out everything, even my basket of velcro curlers! What a goof!

It was good to be home and see the town and our friends there again. I took a walk one frosty morning and took pictures...here's one of my favourites.

We took a few days and went to Abbotsford to see my mom and Lindsey. They are both doing well. Lindsey is deep into her studies and is working part time as well. She really seems dedicated to getting her degree which is a wonderful goal. My Mom is a movie star...who'd have thought that was going to happen. If anyone is interested in checking the film out, go to http://hallmarkretirement.ca/ and click on A Walk with Marg. It's really well done...maybe my Mom has a future in Hollywood!

We got back home and took care of a few other chores and we were off again. We stayed for a few days in Spokane and got to visit with Kevin, Brenda and Rachel. Rachel is growing like a weed and is at a really fun stage right now. I think the best thing about being a Gramma is reading stories to the grandkids! We went and watched her play soccer and then Brenda and I went shopping. It was fun to see the kids again.

We left Spokane a day before the snow came so the decision to leave Monday instead of Tuesday was a good one. The roads were good and we have a nice trip to Boise. We've been at Alyssa's now visiting with her, Matt and Wyatt and also with Marc for about a week now. In a few days we'll head off to Mexico. Oso will stay here in Boise.

I haven't taken any pictures of Wyatt yet, but will do that and post some. This is one I stole from Alyssa's facebook page. What an adorable little boy...he's so much fun! he loves giving kisses and being picked up...he's so gentle and sweet. The most fun of all is watching Matt play with him...he's a good Daddy and Alyssa is a wonderful Mommy....I think they should have MORE babies! They turn out darn cute!



Another fateful event took place in Boise...Oso got into some venison that Matt had been carving from the deer he got. That night he got sick and we had venison poop on the floor in the fifth wheel...the next day he got neutered! Bet he won't touch venison again if he thinks that's his punishment!!! He wouldn't stop licking at his incision so had to have a cone on his head...poor pitiful dog!

Well, I'll never cease to be amazed at what a wonderful life I have due in a big way to the man I'm married to...he just went out to the truck and brought in something he bought yesterday and gave it to me...it's a Nook, from Barnes and Noble (like the Kindle) and a target gift card....what a guy!

October 5

Our last week here….

It’s hard to believe that it’s already time for us to start thinking about heading home. Our time here has gone incredibly fast and it’s been a wonderful experience. If all goes well, we hope to come back next year and look after the campsite again.

(I'm in Canmore now after doing laundry this a.m. and realized I forgot to download new pictures from my camera....guess we'll have to settle for boring old animal pictures you might have seen before!!!)

This morning I was up early and went to see the moose for the last time. They are all paired up now with their mates. I first saw a cow at the mud wallow, then a cow and bull in the distance. I decided dto drive down the road further and ended up seeing a cow and bull quite close up. The only problem was the bull was lying in the grass and I couldn’t get a good shot of him. I did take a few more photos though and then headed back to Engadine. There was a cow and a bull quite close to the road. The bull was huge with a rack that was easily four feet across. He and the cow were wandering the meadow munching on grasses and when the sun came out, they both lay down in the long grass. People might start calling me the Moose Lady of Kananaskis, but I just can’t seem to get enough of them. They are so amazing.

Last Sunday we met up with Jamie in Calgary and headed over to see my cousin’s daughter, Candice and all who were gathered there. My cousins Pat and Cathy were there along with Cathy’s husband Bob and several other cousins and great cousins (if that’s what you call them??) Kim and Kristine and her family arrived shortly afterwards and we had a really nice visit with all of them. Pat’s husband was off hunting moose with some of his boys up at Slave Lake, so we didn’t get to see them, but had a nice time after all. When I walked in the door, Cathy, Pat and Candice all commented on how much I look like my Mom…I’ll take that as a compliment! It’s been probably 25 years since I’ve seen Pat and Cathy and it was good to reconnect. Some of them are going to Puerto Vallarta in February about the time we usually go…who knows…maybe we’ll meet up there with them.

It was supposed to rain today but it turned out to be really nice. Tom has gone to Boulton Creek to hand in our registrations for the week and fill up the gas and propane. I’m doing laundry and getting groceries so we’ll get all our stuff done in one day away. We’ve got quite a bit of clean-up work to do this week as Monday is our last day. I had hoped to get together with my Aunt Esther this week, but it just doesn’t seem like it will work out. Closing up the campground means a fair amount of heavy work moving picnic tables and loading up supplies that we can’t leave over the winter. They get so much snow here that when they come to clean up the sites in the spring, they usually can’t see where the fire pits are so we need to move the picnic tables over top of them so they don’t run into them with the plows. Good exercise, eh!

We need to stop in at Boulton on Tuesday and then we’ll head home from there. With luck the weather will hold and we won’t have to worry about snow on the roads. Right now the scenery is fabulous with all of the trees at their autumn best. The experience here has been tremendous, but it will be good to be home for a little while.

Late September

September 26, 2011

Well, Tom was going through football withdrawals so I took him out to dinner tonight at the Wood, a nice restaurant/bar in Canmore where they have both internet and Monday night football….we’re both happy! He can watch and I can catch up on e-mails and stuff.

We had a pretty quiet week and over the weekend we were only about half full. We only have 15 more days here and if they are as slow as last week, we’ll have lots of time to do other stuff. We did go to Banff the other day…it was fun to shop the main street. We went out for lunch at the Rose and Crown and had some really good fish and chips. This horse and carriage was kind of cool...it was downtown Banff as were the names of some of the restaurants. Didn’t see any wildlife, but had a good time checking out the town. I’m sure if we went out onto some of the mountain roads we’d run into all sorts of wildlife. We’ll have to do that one day before we leave. I’d still like to get pictures of Elk and black bear. We’ve seen both, but either didn’t have the camera or it was too dark outside for pictures.

The other night we were coming back from a run through the campground and Oso was hanging out the window as is his favourite spot to be. He started going nuts when we got close to home and just wouldn’t stop barking. Even when we got home and out of the truck and there was nothing around, he barked his brains out.

We went in the trailer and tried to calm him but he wouldn’t have it. It wasn’t long and a huge bull moose walked right in front of our site. He had antlers at least four feet across…no wonder Oso was barking. He’s struck on bears as well…those Keralian Bear Dogs have nothing on him!

Actually, when we did have trouble with grizzlies in the campsite, Alberta Parks sent a fellow out who had Keralian Bear Dogs and sniffed them out. When the dogs started barking, he knew they had struck on a bear…same as Oso.

The weather this past weekend was beautiful…warm, clear and a little windy. It was just a gorgeous day on Saturday and then Sunday it got a bit more windy. Last night it rained a bit and this morning we had snow on the mountains across the lake. The leaves are really turning colour quickly…most of them just turn a bright yellow, but occasionally we see an orange bush or redish tree…it’s very pretty here right now.

I’ve been taking more moose pictures…I think I’m addicted. They are so amazing.

September 18

Well, it’s a good thing I took pictures of Autumn yesterday because it’s Winter today. The forecast is good though with the sun coming out and temperatures in the 70’s by Saturday…guess Summer will be back by then……when is Spring???

Yes, we had about 2 inches of snow last night. It started with rain late last night and sometime overnight it magically turned to snow. This morning when I woke up I could only describe it as “pouring” snow. Large beautiful wet flakes. Oso has experienced frozen snow last June when we arrived here, but never this white stuff that is covering the ground and everything else. He went out this morning and sniffed and licked and played for quite a while in it. Tom took the broom and shoved the snow off the pop-up screen tent that we have…guess we’ll have to take it down put that away when summer comes again this weekend.

I went to Mount Engadine again yesterday, this time in the afternoon. I didn’t expect to see any animals, but ended up spotting a sleepy coyote and a bull moose. The coyote was dozing in the sun all curled up in a little clearing. I got a few shots of him before he got nervous and left. I saw the bull-moose as I was walking back to the truck. I just caught a quick glimpse of “black” moving through the trees and really wasn’t sure if it was a bear or a moose. Turns out it was a big bull and I followed him down to the wallow below the Engadine Lodge. There is a mineral in the soil there that the moose really seem to like and he stayed there for a while letting me take pictures. He was knee deep in the muck and quite enjoying himself slurping up the liquid on top of the mud. After a while he started off across the open field and so I went back onto the road to take a few pictures from there. He was pretty awesome.

We’ve had a pretty quiet week with maybe a dozen or so campers each night this past weekend. That makes for less work and more free time. Today we’re going to go to Balzac, near Airdrie, and pick up the parts for our awning that we ordered a while ago. Luckily when our awning was lost in a windstorm, the vinyl wasn’t torn and only the struts were bent so they were easy enough to replace. Tom can put the whole thing back together and it will cost us less than $200. That’s a lot less than we thought we’d end up paying. It will be nice to have it back in place for our trip south. (Tom did put it together with much cursing and a few bruised fingers from winding the spring...he can fix anything!!!)

We really haven’t figured out what we want to do for the winter yet. We know we want to see all of the kids and my Mom, and then go south, but we’re not really sure where we’re going. Tom got a book about Texas and it sounds like there’s some interesting things to see there…we both love New Mexico so we’ll likely spend some time there…we’ve got friends staying in Apache Junction in Arizona. Guess we’ll figure it out once we get on the road. The big question for us is what to do with the house…not sure whether to rent it out or just leave it. I hate to see it empty over the winter, but maybehaving a friend take care of it for us will work out best. We’ll figure it out.

The lake is going down about six inches a day. It’s been well above its usual level for the summer because of the hydro plants here being down for most of the past few months and because of the work on the Canyon Dam. We drove down there yesterday to take a look and it was pretty interesting. Today, with inches of snow on the ground, they are pouring 16 yards of cement (five trucks cuz they can only put about 3 yards in each truck)…they need to lower the trucks down a road about 200 feet with a huge cat, then pull them back up when they are empty. The road is steep and there’s no way the trucks could get up and down by themselves because they are so heavy with the cement in them. It’s quite an operation. They expect to be done their work by the end of October. Tom insisted that I add the picture of the Pit Stop and ask Alyssa if she's branching out from Espresso Stands to porta-potties.........

Tom carved me a couple of beautiful walking sticks and I decorated them with do-dads that I found at the thrift shop…when I go walking I take both of them and hook Oso to my waist and get a good workout walking and pumping the sticks. Oso is pretty good, but sometimes we have to stop cuz he can’t resist a little chew on the sticks when he slows down enough to notice them.

Tom says it’s time to get going to Balzac so I’d better wrap this up. The snow has stopped now so it’s a good time to get going. Maybe we’ll even drive into Calgary and see Jamie…we’ll see how the roads are and what the weather looks like later today.

September 21

I didn’t get to post this yet so thought I’d add a bit more to it. I’ve been out moose hunting in the mornings and am awestruck by them. Yesterday I went down early in the morning and watched them till almost noon. When I first arrived two big bulls were eyeing each other to see who would end up with the cow that was hanging round. One bull was on the north side of the creek and the other was on the south side with the cow. The larger of the two huffed and puffed and thrashed his antlers through the brush and the younger bull just watched. In the end the larger bull stayed with the cow, but when he tried to give her all of his attention, she would have none of it and just walked away. The big bull followed her sniffing and rubbing on her but she simply didn’t want him. It was really cool to see. Later on the big moose was back all by himself and he noticed another bull about the same size across the field. He started toward them when the younger bull came out of the bushes and so there were three of them in the field. The younger bull held back and the two big bulls met in the middle of the meadow. The swayed their heads back and forth as they walked and tried to impress each other with their size and prowess. They never did have a physical conflict but must have sorted things out in a moosely manner without confrontation. Each went their separate ways and the young bull still watched from the edge of the meadow. Again…an awesome spectacle to watch.

Tom hasn’t yet come with me in the morning so hasn’t seen the moose there and I really thought he’d enjoy it so we went for a drive down to Engadine last night. As usual, the big bull was there trying his best to impress a pretty young cow who was in the mud wallow. He was sniffing and snorting and finally tried to mount her…nope, she still didn’t want him and shook him off as she walked away. Another cow and calf watched this happening and then walked away across the field after the first cow had rebuked the bull. The bull huffed and puffed and wandered off on his own clearly disappointed in his love life. These moose are the most awesome animals...so big and strong. The bulls are so incredibly immense and their shoulders just bulge with muscles. As close as I got to them (and it wasn’t all that close), it was plenty near enough for me.

Tom really enjoyed watching them and on the way home we happened across a heard of elk. There was a big male with a huge rack of antlers and his harem of about 10 females and calves. It was too dark by then to get a decent picture and the elk were shy and took off into the bush as soon as we got too close. They were the first elk we’ve seen since the day we got here when we saw two of them by the side of the road on the way to Boulton Creek.

I’m posting a couple pictures of our little Pika…(s)he has been busy gathering leaves and ground cover for its nest. I expect they hibernate over the winter, but don’t really know that much about them. I’ll have to read up and find out more. They sure are cute little rascals though

That’s it from the wild and wooly north for now. I’m in town doing laundry and as soon as that’s done will go to the library to post this. Hope all is well with everyone…will be so good to see you all when we get home.

Of Moose and Men

I got up early this morning and went for a drive down to Mt. Engadine. A fellow at the Thursday morning market told me that was a good place to see Moose. He had some awesome pictures and I wanted some too. We've seen several moose up here but they are a bit shy. The ones I found at Engadine, five of them, were not shy at all. They stood by the side of the road positioning themselves in various poses for my camera. I found a bull and cow up a little side road and they were very photo friendly. They are magnificent beasts, however have quite the unfortunate faces.

While on this little trek, I met a fellow from Calgary who makes wildlife movies. He was filming the moose too. He showed me his camera and gear...a $7000 camera with a $1500 lens....I think I'll stick with my sony for now.

We've had a bit more bear activity in the campground. The other morning I went outside and walked to the truck...I must have been half blind or still dozy or something cuz I missed seeing a bear right out in our front yard. Tom was quick on the uptake though and grabbed the camera. He took this picture from inside the fifth wheel...you can see the tops of my flowers out on our little patio. By this time Oso was barking and I'm sure would have taken after the bear if he wasn't leashed so the bear turned tail and ran. We've had campers reporting grizzlies in their sites but the bears are more interested in the nice ripe berries than in eating any campers.

There is a thrift shop in Canmore that is absolutely awesome. If you look through the clothes, you'll find name brand clothes and shoes, some still with the tags on. I have found a few things there that are great for camping....some jeans and hoodies mostly. Yesterday, however, I found three pair of shoes...some river walkers (Solomon), brand new running shoes (Reboks), and a pair of too small Mud Puppies (If I bought three pair, I got them all for half price so buying the mud puppies saved me $15...weird, eh!) Anyway, all three pair cost me $15...I love a bargain!

Today I came down to Canmore looking for leather shoe-laces to make grips for walking sticks. I happened into a shoe store that had an incredible sale on. I treated myself to a pretty pair of Clarks sandals for $30...they are super comfy and cute too...Regular price was $94. I love a bargain...oh, did I say that already!

We have a staff dinner on Sunday at the golf course in Kananaskis. It should be lots of fun. Many of the Campground Managers have already finished or are soon to finish as some of the campgrounds close right after Labour day. Looks like we'll be here till Thanksgiving (Canadian) if the weather is good. If it turns bad, we might close early. The weather has been beautiful lately.

The other day Tom and I went down to a shallow little lake near us where we got pictures of the loons and we sat and soaked up the sun...if I closed my eyes, it almost felt like Mexico. The air is fresh and clean...I love it up here!