Mostly musings, no real categorization
We’re back in Warren and our 2018 RV adventure is now in the rear view mirror.
It’s nice to be home and we’re really looking forward to settling in and seeing our local friends again. We have amazing, fond memories of this trip and we are definitely going to miss being on the road – already do… Hey, it’s almost ski season! Let it snow!
The robot voice of GoogleMaps announced ‘Welcome to the United States of America.’ The customs agent at the border joked about our cross-border declaration of three T-shirts from Yellowknife, and waved us through. With that, our 4-month tour of Canada was at an end. With the border still in sight in the rearview mirrors, we felt the first twinges of nostalgia. We LOVED our time in Canada – all of it!
Living in an RV 6 months at a time is different from taking a vacation in an RV. It’s not just that life goes on while we’re on the road, our life is on the road! Several times in a 6-month trip, we need to pull in for some major provisioning. Our RV needs maintenance, the pantry is bare, the fridge is empty, the freezer is getting thin and we need a few special items. One such recent stop for us was in Edmonton, AB.
We love Northwest Territories and have thoroughly enjoyed our travels here, and we hope that sentiment has come through in our 3 prior posts. In those, we’ve included observations and thoughts about diversity, friendly people, great music, interesting small towns, and a unique city. This post includes a few more of our thoughts about the Northwest Territories and a few noteworthy things that didn’t make it into any of the other three. We did a post kind of like a year ago in Utah that we called “the space between.” This is in that same spirit.
To start with, as it says on their license plate – the only one in the world shaped like a polar bear – Northwest Territories is spectacular!
Southeast Alberta is a flat to slightly rolling prairie dotted with large farms and ranches. About an hour east of Calgary we crossed the Red Deer River Valley, paused and wondered what happened to the prairie. Canadian Badlands? Really? Due to a unique mix of prehistoric sandstone formation, glaciers and floods that occurred millions of years ago, the Red Deer River carved a more-or-less diagonal slash through this part of Alberta creating deep colorful badlands approximately 2 km (1.2 mi) wide and 28 km (17 mi) long. Having spent time on our trip two years ago in the Dakotas, we found the spectacular geology of this area to be surprisingly familiar.
Ron, our jam buddy from Prince Albert, suggested we visit the Drumheller dinosaur museum. Larry, our jam buddy from Linden, and his wife Barb suggested we go to Drumheller to tour the Badlands. More than enough for us to set a course…
Continue reading “Drumheller, AB, part 1: Badlands and Dinosaurs”
We’ve shied away from visiting large cities in the past. However, when we noticed that the Wesley-Clover Park Campground was within the city limits of Ottawa (pop 1 million), receiving 5-star ratings and boasting of easy access to downtown via bike trails and public transportation, we decided to visit Ottawa, Canada’s capital city.
Ottawa is fun and overwhelming and already on our list of places to visit again!
Our departures for past trips have been relatively straightforward. Wait for snow to melt (or not). Pack. Leave.
This year was a little different.
For this year’s adventure, we’ve decide to go north. Here’s the concept… Head to Montreal. Take a left. Explore nooks and crannies of central Canada. Turn around when we hit the Canadian Rockies or we happen to notice on our phones that it’s October, whichever comes first. As with our past adventures, everything in between will be made up as we go along.
Why central Canada?
The end of Vermont Mud Season can only mean one thing… it’s time to get ready for the next trip!
We’ve been a bit distracted because the late-season skiing has been spectacular, and we’re still mulling over and refining our ideas for the next adventure. So let’s begin this blog season with a quick recap of the 2017 trip.
The power outage only lasted 36 hours. We savored our last night in our RV in our own driveway (which would get a 5-star review by our criteria – quiet, dark, level, nice view, close to hiking and other activities, free). It’ll take a couple of days to transition back to stationary mode – then the focus will shift to skiing, music and planning the next adventure.
The frequency of our posting will slow a bit now that we’re home, although we do plan a few updates. Otherwise, we’ll catch you when the next adventure begins. Thanks for joining us!