Left Richmond Thursday June 25, 2015. Overnight at Salmon Arm at a beautiful Walmart parking lot.
Friday, June 26 & Saturday, June 27
Radio in the morning said temperature was going to be 40C. We decided to drive east as far as we could and spent 2 nights recuperating in a campground at Balzac, AB, just north of moms place in Calgary. Went to Cross Iron Mill mega mall ( Bass Pro ) and Century Casino across Hwy 2 from Whispering Spruce campground. Small gas station with cafe had great food - bread pudding, pies.
Sunday, June 28
Visited mom in morning. Showed her pictures of mall and told her about casino. Went to Cochrane (west of Calgary) for Laura's sons grad BBQ. Saw people I haven't seen in 25 years. Laura (my god daughter) parents, Fred and Joan, Fred's brother Bill and Shirley, son Freddy and family to name a few. Back at moms, slept on street behind Whitehorn residence.
Monday, June 29
Fred and Joan visited us at moms.
Took mom to Cross Iron Mill mall after. Both her and Ralph got scooters from guest services. What a hoot watching them, especially in the elevator at the Bass Pro store. Van wouldn't start again - 3 times now having to jump start it. Overnight at same place again.
Tuesday, June 30
Phoned and booked at Mountain View RV park just east of Calgary. Stopped there on the way to Strathmore with mom for auntie Irene's 92nd birthday party. Her new nursing home room is beautiful. Met people I haven't seen for over 50 years. From there we went with mom to the casino for dinner. Dropped her off home and decided we all needed a day off Wednesday. We overnight at Mt View RV park.
Wednesday, July 1st. Canada Day
Campground had $8.00 BBQ hamburger with beans, salad and drink at 5p.m. Music entertainment. Met couple from England that just arrived and were doing a month RV trip - Jasper, Whistler, flying home from Vancouver. Spent 2nd night at RV park. Needed to recupe, nice to have a day off. Gives mom a chance to organize herself and rest.
Thursday, July 2
Spent dad with mom. Met with TD Canada Trust rep for GICs due in July. Slept overnight on street again.
Friday, July 3
Took mom to eye appointment in NW Calgary. Discovered that they were affiliated with an FYeye store near moms in NE. So we went to Peters Drive-in for lunch and then to NE store to get new glasses. Frames were 50% off and Blue Cross covered some of the cost. Dropped mom off and we drove to a campground in Wetaskiwin, AB.
Saturday, July 4
Arrived at Todd and Jeans In Leduc, AB. Great visit and awesome dinner. Had lots of fun with Nathan and Ryan. Watched movie Django. Slept in van on street.
Sunday, July 5
Sightseeing in Edmonton. Dinner at Spagetti Factory. Slept on street again.
Monday, July 6
Saw Leduc Rec Ctr. Ended up in Edmonton again. Back at their place for yummy dinner. Early night on street again.
Tuesday, July 7 and Wednesday, July 8
Went to Alberta Reynolds museum in Wetaskiwin. Then Smittys for late lunch. Said goodbyes toTodd, Jean and the kids. They headed home and we headed south to Gull Lake. Stayed 2 nights to rest up. Great concession booth and yummy ice cream cones.
Thursday, July 9
Stopped in at moms. Took 3 quilts to coin laundry at McNight Square. Mailed pics to Chuck Duncan. Back at moms, few final chores. Left about 7 pm to drive a couple hours south.
Planned to overnight at Claresholm, AB. Just as we were exiting off hwy 2, the van started chugging and stopped. Eventually got it into residential area in town where we slept. Young guy named Adam living in house we were parked by turned out to be a mechanic for a tractor place. Told us best place to take it to in the morning was Kaz's service. Said we could use his cell phone in the morning to call BCAA for a tow.
Friday, July 10
Skyline Towing driver, John, called Kaz's - no chance to work on it until Monday. Got us into campground for weekend. Drove us a few blocks to downtown to give us the lay of the land. Had breakfast at Roy's Place. Went to tourist information and museum / exhibit hall. Checked out a number of stores on the walk back to the Claresholm Centennial Park campground.
Saturday, July 11
Walked to Douros restaurant - yummy, yum. Shopped more. Bargain store, dollar store, thrift store and more
Sunday, July 12
Back to Roy's Place and more yummy food just in time as they close at 3 pm Sunday's. Packed up so we were ready to be towed.
Monday, July 13 (13 is our favorite date - we got married on a Friday the 13th)
Confusion with tow. Phoned Kaz's (on Skype) and decided to drive it there. Got there, no problem. Took a couple hours for them to get to it. We sat in van reading and sleeping. Mechanic, Derrick, said he wanted to take it for a drive before lunch - Ralph went with him. We walked across field and hwy to a Dairy Queen. The heavens opened up and it poured and hailed while we were at DQ. Couple hours later when we headed back to Kaz's the ditches we had walked across were flowing streams of water so we had to detour down to the corner intersection to walk back. Turned out Derricks son works with Adam. Mechanic did what he could and suggested we stop at Larrys radiator shop in Lethbridge. Van drove beautifully to Lethbridge where we overnighted at a Holiday Trails RV park with pool.
Tuesday, July 14
Rick at radiator place, checked out van and said we should be okay driving it. Didn't see the need to take time and $$$ to pull rad out. He suggested we take the grill screen off. So we headed off and got to Kalispell, MT where we stayed at a lovely RV park on a river.
Wednesday, July 15
The drive west through MT just gets better and better. Stopped at Libby, MT at the most magnificent museum we have ever seen. Then at Henry's Choice restaurant for lunch- super Yum Yum!!! Then another thrift store stop. Just drove around Sandpoint, ID, down by the waterfront. Holy cow things have changed since we were last here. Stopped for an ice cream cone - triple Holy Cow!!! We should have taken a picture of it. Picture this, a mountain of ice cream piled 11 inches high on a regular normal cone, then a large styrofoam cup put over the ice cream and the whole thing flipped upside down, putting the cup on the counter to serve it to you. I had a Huckleberry Lemonade. Heading west again, an hour to go to get to the Little Diamond Thousand Trails. Had a swim in the pool. Checked out the Family Lodge and the lake. Toured around area as we were driving in.
Thursday, July 16
Decided to leave early and head for Crescent Bar Leisure Time TT. beautiful drive along I-90. Noticed lots of beautiful rest stops. At Quincy we found a 'house' thrift store and ate at grocery store deli. Followed Gps to Crescent Bar TT on Columbia River. I walked around and explored. Lots of shops and restaurants and another campground and golf course with restaurants. Talked to lady that showed me a before picture of area before the dam was built. Boat, skidoo, golf cart rentals. Condo rentals. Weather in 90's everyday.
Friday, July 17
Went to Tower Pizza for lunch. Spent lots of time in Wifi Centre building with 2 TV's and air conditioning.
Saturday! July 18
Resort had free hotdogs and lemonade at 1:00. Spent lots of time in air conditioned building. Lots of Skip-Bo playing and on mini's. Resorts new manager started this week. Fireworks in town.
Sunday, July 19
Went for a swim in the pool. Cool and refreshing. (no change room - have to go down to the washrooms by spa -spa was closed for repair). Then we went to golf club for lunch. Another yummy beef dip. And then an ice cream.
Monday, July 20
Said goodbye to the cooing pigeons at Crescent Bar TT and headed for Wenatchee. Road follows the Columbia River along the north side past a dam. Lots of museums and state parks and rest areas ( ie Pinnacle state park). Thrift electronic store in Sultan was closed ( sun & Mon). Stopped at Quil Ceda casino in Marysville for a bit. Carried on and ate at Royal Star Buffet. Reminiscing about meeting brothers Dave and Lorrie and John and Roberta in Sedro Wooley for a camping trip. Now here we are at Grandy Creek TT resort near Concrete, WA.
Tuesday, July 21 Ryan's birthday.
Trudy sent out a Ryan alert. We made a FaceTime call. Pool still closed today.
Wednesday, July 22
We drove into Concrete to eat and explore. Part of the high school is built over the road like an overpass. Found an antique small plane museum / airport and walked around. Ate at B5 bakery Cafe. Back at campsite wifi center- phoned and talked to uncle David. He said he had been to Bellingham and Sedro Wooley that day.
Thursday, July 23
Started day doing 3 loads of laundry. Pool open this morning, just perfect timing for my game plan. Having a wonderful time in pool and hot tub spa. Then along came a staff lady to tell us all to go and pack up - there is a fire 1/4 mile away. We might need to be evacuated. Now Ralph and I had been talking about leaving a day early. And turns out that both of us had been thinking we were ready to move on. Fire was contained and no evacuation- but seeing as were all packed up and ready to drive, we did just that (left 2 days early). Headed for Nooksack Northwood casino. Ended up stopping for Thursday $4.99 buffet at Nooksack River casino. Then motored on to Nooksack Northwood near Lynden where we slept overnight. They have RV spots with electric hook-up.
Friday, July 24
Drove to Silver Reef casino for seafood buffet. Won some and had fun. Had beautiful tomtom drive through Ferndale to get there. Another great GPS drive to Birch Bay TT Resort through the side highways past more corn fields. Success, wahoo - Ralph has fixed the TV antenna and we are getting 10 channels. Went to adult lodge at 7 pm to check out "chili cook off". Ate 3 kinds (2 entries and 1 store bought TT Staff supplied). Then someone suggested mixing all 3, so we did. LOL. Met Katlyn Hearst, from Global TV - there with her US boyfriend and his parents.
Saturday, July 25
Left Birch Bay TT. Drove along shore to Semiamhoo resort and looked around. Continued on to Blaine. Stopped at a couple garage sales and a farmers market. Ate at Pizza Factory on Main Street - homemade noodles in the chicken noodle soup. Tasty pizza. Sitting at truck border crossing. Home doing a Big Brother marathon catchup of recordings.
Sunday, July 26
Went to Unity, then Risty's restaurant. Home for more Big Brother and Americas Got Talent and The Closer.
Monday, July 27
Headed to Mt Vernon TT after lunch at IHOP. Paid assessment by check at Dorset realty.
Tuesday - Thursday, July 28 - 30
Swimming, casino, playing SkipBo in Mt Vernon TT.
Thursday, July 30
Move down to Friday Creek site after shopping and eating at casino. Peaceful, quiet, beautiful. Lots of units here already for the annual Quilceda wood carving campout.
Friday, July 31 (blue moon tonight)
A.M. and p.m. classes. Potluck dinner was great. Had 1/2 the raffle drawings. Ralph won 2.
Saturday, August 1
Yummy $4 breakfast. Tonight is $4 dinner and the rest of the raffle drawing and entertainment. Morning and afternoon classes today.
