June 13th – June 23rd

In looking at the date of my last update, I see that it has been a long time since I have posted anything. While I do have an excuse like no internet, that only accounts for part of the time. We were having fun the rest of the time. 

BA & I spent the next couple of days visiting with my brother Al. I am the smarter, better looking one!

We were very lucky that we were able to have breakfast with our niece Breanne too. She works at a Christian Summer Camp in Gull Lake so is not home very often. She works with young teems in grade 10, 11, & 12… about 150 kids of all ages attend camp.

On the Monday, BA & Al’s friend Vickie went to a local casino. Well BA won $19 but Vickie won $400 playing the slots, which normally doesn’t do but she didn’t have a choice, as the tables were not open in the morning. Between Arda and Vickie, neither of them knew the game they were playing; only that it paid off – go figure!

After getting our laundry done and a couple of other errands run, we packed up on the Wed. AM and headed to a campground just outside Rocky Mountain House, AB. This is a private RV campground, which is open year-round. The grounds are very neat and tidy with large campsites, a store, lounge, pool (heated), hot tub, and lots of things for kids. We were very lazy and normally did a little walking, a lot of eating and sitting around a campfire although my brother does have a unique way of starting fires… with the “fire tiger”.

On the Friday, we went to Edmonton to pick up our other niece Kelsey at her school. She was able to come to the camp for the weekend so it was really a surprise for us. We also stopped at the camp where Breanne is and took her to lunch. She was really surprised.

Well as all good things must, our time at the campground came to an end. On Sunday BA and I volunteered to take Kelsey back to school as we were heading that way anyway. So we drove to Edmonton, dropped Kelsey off and then headed to the nearest casino for BA. We stayed the night in the casino parking lot… it was very quiet as Arda did not do as well as she had earlier in the week.

On Monday morning, we headed out for Cold Lake AB, which is on the border of Saskatchewan north of Edmonton. We went and visited another niece Nicole (my sister’s youngest) and her better half Trevor. It was funny as we parked across the street from their house and since they have 3 cats (one of them the biggest cat I’ve ever seen!) we decided to have cocktails in the trailer… I am allergic to cats and BA just doesn’t like them. We had a nice visit with them and went to dinner… Nicole is a great cook!

After dinner, we went for a short drive to see the “sights”. We did see some nice areas such as the longest trestle bridge in AB, the harbor for Cold Lake and a couple of other areas. Cold Lake’s economy is driven by the Oil Patch and the Air Force. It is a nice town but housing is very expensive especially as BA says, “It is at the end of the world”.

On Tuesday, we headed back towards Alaska. We had a very leisurely drive to Slave Lake (not sure where the name comes from but I will Google it when we get internet again) where we are staying at the Bay Fish Campground. 

Until next time, keep your loops open.