Elk Island National Park

Thursday, we moved 55 miles from the West side of Edmonton to the tiny community of Lamont on the East side of the city.  As I’ve mentioned before, Edmonton is a big city with lots of traffic.  It also has lots of road construction.  There are no interstates as we know them in the US.  The closest resemblance to an interstate are the TransCanada highways, of which the Yellowhead Highway (16) is one.  We got on 16 and almost immediately got into the construction zone.  Past the construction, as we made our way across town, we had traffic lights and turning traffic to contend with.  We survived it all, however, and came out unscathed on the other side.

We chose Lamont RV Park because of its location near Elk Island National Park.  Elk Island has a campground, but, like most national parks, without hookups.  Temperatures are warmer this week and we wanted electricity in case we needed air conditioning for The Peanut.  It’s just as well we decided to stay at Lamont RV.  We drove through the campground at Elk Island and would have been hard pressed to find a site long enough for us.

Elk Island National Park has been a disappointment.  It is a long, skinny park with one road running north/south through the middle.  Although the name is elk “ISLAND”, it’s not an island.  There are some islands scattered about within some of the many lakes and there are a lot of ponds, but the park is not surrounded by a body of water.

Although the name is “ELK” Island, it is probably more known for its bison herd than for elk.  In fact, I’m not sure there are any elk here.  We’ve made 4 trips through the park and haven’t seen one.  We were beginning to think there weren’t any bison either, but they finally appeared this morning.

The park has a population of both species of North American bison--the Plains bison which we are most familiar with especially at Yellowstone, and the Wood Bison.  It had been assumed the wood bison were extinct until a small herd was discovered in the late 1950s near the border of Alberta and Northwest Territories in what is now Wood Buffalo National Park.  In the 1960s a small number of those animals were moved to Elk Island.   Those few animals have grown into a substantial herd and are now the source herd for other parks in North America and Russia.

Astotin Lake

We found the herd this morning as we were driving to a trailhead for a hike.  They were several yards away, maybe a hundred, so I couldn’t get a very close photo.  The most disappointing thing, however, was the fence between us and them.  I don’t think I’ve ever seen a fence in a National Park.  It did keep them off Highway 16.  I guess that’s a good thing.

We started our hike, but I quickly lost interest.  Maybe I didn’t have much interest to start with.  Just kinda wanted to stay home today.  It was easy for me to turn around when we came to a wet spot over the trail that I absolutely wasn’t going to wade through.  We turned around and returned to the car.  I came home and Gene went back to hike one of the other trails near Astotin Lake.

On our drive out this morning, we again took the Bison Loop looking for plains bison.  We got very excited when we saw one around the bend, but when we got there we discovered he was behind a fence.  Gene did see one grazing along the road as he drove back for his hike.

I think the main attraction for the locals to this park is Astotin Lake with its grassy picnic area, sand beach, kayaking and canoeing.  Also at Astotin is a golf course and small cafe.

We stopped at the Visitor Center at the South entrance of the park, but there was nothing there except a very small gift shop and a stuffed baby bison.  The interpretative center and theater were up at Astotin.  Access to the interpretive center was not up to the standards of our Americans with Disabilities Act.  We parked in the lot near the beach and had to walk along a paved path about a quarter mile before reaching the building.

We got there only to learn that they don’t show the movie on sunny days.  Oh well, no rain in the forecast for our stay here.  The interpretive center consists of a few more stuff animals; although, I must admit the mountain lion was great.

As we were driving through the park yesterday, we stopped for a short hike to Beaver Pond.  Not only did we not see any beaver, we didn’t see the pond either.  It has dried up long enough ago to be completely grown over.

Also in the Astotin area is the Ukrainian Pioneer Home.  This replica was built in the early 1950s as a museum to honor the Ukrainian pioneers of this area, but it is closed now because it fails to meet modern codes.

We’re moving farther East tomorrow.  I’m not sure of our destination for tomorrow night, but it will probably be a Wal-Mart.  You know what that means--no WiFi.

That’s all for today.  Thanks for tagging along.

West Edmonton Mall

Well, today was Gene’s big day--the day he’s been dreaming about since we left home in March.  This was the day we went to West Edmonton Mall--the largest mall on the continent.  This seems so funny to me because I never really think of Gene as a shopper.  He is, however, more of a shopper than I am.  I think he was mainly interested in seeing the attractions and not so much in shopping.

The statistics I read were pretty impressive. The size is mind boggling--over 6 million sq ft.  We wanted to see it all, so we just started walking in a counterclockwise direction from where we entered at Bed, Bath, and Beyond on the second level about 10 AM.  We stopped to make a few pictures and to look in a couple stores.  It was noon before we had made a complete lap.  After lunch, it took another couple hours to walk around the lower level.

In that space are some 800 businesses and 100 or so eateries.  The stores are those common to most malls and most are familiar to us in the United States.  The eateries consisted mainly of fast food places. There were 4 or 5 food courts.  I lost count.  All were fast food except for the real restaurants located in the Bourbon Street area.  We ate our lunch at The Old Spaghetti Factory.

Perhaps the main attraction, especially for kids, are the attractions--largest indoor wave pool in the world, largest indoor amusement park in the world, putt-putt golf, aquarium, ice skating rink, IMAX theater, and the list goes on and on.  They say there’s a bowling alley, but we didn’t see it in our circuit.  We did find the casino. The attractions are not free.  Of course, you wouldn’t expect a movie to be free, but neither are the other activities.  We didn’t pay for anything, but got a lot of enjoyment just watching from afar.

With all that stuff to do, food to eat, and goods to buy, the crowds are also pretty impressive.  There are over 20,000 people there trying to do their jobs of serving another 60,000 to 150,000 shoppers every day.  Surprisingly, parking was not a nightmare.  Parking decks provide space for 20,000 vehicles within a relatively short walking distance to the mall.

We wouldn’t come back to Edmonton just to go to the mall.  Then, again, we’re not shoppers.  Nevertheless, we had fun and enjoyed our day at the WEM.  Did we buy anything besides lunch?  Gene looked for tennis shoes, but was unable to find what he wanted at a price he was willing to pay.  I got a pair of house slippers on sale for $13.  I think we got out of there for less than $35 including lunch.  Not bad for a day at the mall.

That’s all for now.  Thanks for tagging along.

Alaska in Review

Well, I think we got the AC and furnace fixed.  It was a simple matter of a new thermostat.  However, it took the better portion of the day waiting to see if the AC would cycle on and off automatically.  This turned out to be the hottest day we’ve had, maybe even the hottest day of the summer in Edmonton, and it just kept getting warmer and warmer outside.  The AC was struggling to keep it cool and it took forever to finally cycle off.

While we were waiting for the AC to do its thing, we discovered our car battery wasn’t holding a charge.  After we got back to the RV park and set up again, Gene went to get a new battery for the Honda.  Can hardly get one thing fixed before something else needs to be repaired.

As is our custom, while our motor home was being worked on, we toured the RVs on the lot.  We didn’t find anything we liked better than what we have, but we did find a couple that deserve honorable mention.  One was a toy hauler with a beer tap.  I think that rig was built for a different age group from us.  The other was a heavy duty truck equipped with a conference room and a wall for a computer bank.  This rig was not made for travel or for living.  We learned from the service manager that it is destined to be the employment office at one of the First Nation casinos.

Because of the heat today and having to babysit the Peanut, we decided not to go to the Mall.  We’ll do that tomorrow.  So, with nothing else to report, I thought this might be a good time to throw out a few statistics on our Alaska trip.  Of course, this trip isn’t really over yet, so there’ll be more later.  But for now......

Miles traveled since we left Nashville 8,460.
Miles traveled since we crossed the Canadian border in May 5,778.
Miles traveled from Dawson Creek to Dawson Creek 4,183.

These are miles on the motor home.  We’ve put an additional 3817 miles on the Honda for sightseeing, 540 of which were on the Dempster Highway.

Average price for gasoline 4.95.  The lowest price was 3.35 in Joelton, TN and the highest price was 6.93 at Liard River, BC.
Average miles per gallon 7.59.  This number is somewhat skewed because of generator use.
Average miles driven in one day 126.  Lowest 6  Highest 308

Average campground fee $25.80.  Lowest was $7 at Gallitin National Forest, Canyon Campground in Montana. Highest was at Ocean View RV Park in Homer, AK at $47.
Total number of free nights 32.  The free nights are not included in the average campground fee.

Total number of days on this trip 140, beginning March 23rd.
Total number of days from Canadian border to Dawson Creek 10
Total number of days from Dawson Creek to Dawson Creek 74.
Total number of days in Alaska 46.
Remember, we were early and consequently spent a lot of days waiting for ice to melt out before we could go to the Arctic Circle.  We could have avoided those waits if we did that portion at the end of the trip.

This is just the facts.  I’ll offer up some opinions and reflections in a few days.  We’ll continue to keep data on milage, gasoline prices, and campground fees.  When we get back to Nashville, we’ll have a more complete statistical report.

That’s all for today.  Thanks for tagging along.

Alaska in Review

Well, I think we got the AC and furnace fixed.  It was a simple matter of a new thermostat.  However, it took the better portion of the day waiting to see if the AC would cycle on and off automatically.  This turned out to be the hottest day we’ve had, maybe even the hottest day of the summer in Edmonton, and it just kept getting warmer and warmer outside.  The AC was struggling to keep it cool and it took forever to finally cycle off.

While we were waiting for the AC to do its thing, we discovered our car battery wasn’t holding a charge.  After we got back to the RV park and set up again, Gene went to get a new battery for the Honda.  Can hardly get one thing fixed before something else needs to be repaired.

As is our custom, while our motor home was being worked on, we toured the RVs on the lot.  We didn’t find anything we liked better than what we have, but we did find a couple that deserve honorable mention.  One was a toy hauler with a beer tap.  I think that rig was built for a different age group from us.  The other was a heavy duty truck equipped with a conference room and a wall for a computer bank.  This rig was not made for travel or for living.  We learned from the service manager that it is destined to be the employment office at one of the First Nation casinos.

Because of the heat today and having to babysit the Peanut, we decided not to go to the Mall.  We’ll do that tomorrow.  So, with nothing else to report, I thought this might be a good time to throw out a few statistics on our Alaska trip.  Of course, this trip isn’t really over yet, so there’ll be more later.  But for now......

Miles traveled since we left Nashville 8,460.
Miles traveled since we crossed the Canadian border in May 5,778.
Miles traveled from Dawson Creek to Dawson Creek 4,183.

These are miles on the motor home.  We’ve put an additional 3817 miles on the Honda for sightseeing, 540 of which were on the Dempster Highway.

Average price for gasoline 4.95.  The lowest price was 3.35 in Joelton, TN and the highest price was 6.93 at Liard River, BC.
Average miles per gallon 7.59.  This number is somewhat skewed because of generator use.
Average miles driven in one day 126.  Lowest 6  Highest 308

Average campground fee $25.80.  Lowest was $7 at Gallitin National Forest, Canyon Campground in Montana. Highest was at Ocean View RV Park in Homer, AK at $47.
Total number of free nights 32.  The free nights are not included in the average campground fee.

Total number of days on this trip 140, beginning March 23rd.
Total number of days from Canadian border to Dawson Creek 10
Total number of days from Dawson Creek to Dawson Creek 74.
Total number of days in Alaska 46.
Remember, we were early and consequently spent a lot of days waiting for ice to melt out before we could go to the Arctic Circle.  We could have avoided those waits if we did that portion at the end of the trip.

This is just the facts.  I’ll offer up some opinions and reflections in a few days.  We’ll continue to keep data on milage, gasoline prices, and campground fees.  When we get back to Nashville, we’ll have a more complete statistical report.


That’s all for today.  Thanks for tagging along.

Royal Alberta Museum

As you know, since we went to the Legislative building yesterday, Edmonton is the capital of Alberta.  Surprisingly, it isn’t the largest city in Alberta; Calgary holds that distinction.  However, Edmonton has the distinction of being the northernmost city in North America to have a population of over a million.  It’s a big city and, as such, has various performing arts venues, museums, restaurants, and rush hour traffic.  Much of Edmonton’s population lives close to the city center so there are apartments, condos, and single family houses all the way to the downtown business district.

We went back downtown this morning to visit the Royal Alberta Museum.  This is not an art museum although there are several works of art, primarily sculptures, inside and on the grounds of the museum.  The Royal Alberta Museum is a natural history and cultural heritage museum.  It consists of two floors with two exhibit halls on each floor separated by a large lounge area on the second floor and a gift shop, theater, and information desk on the first floor.

We started our tour in the Wild Alberta exhibit hall which has impressive displays of various natural regions with stuffed wildlife found in that environment.  From there we went to the Aboriginal Culture exhibit.  We’ve seen a lot of First Nation and Native American heritage exhibits and this may be the best one we’ve ever seen.  Our last stop was in the Natural History gallery which had a small room dedicated to prehistoric animals, another area featuring quarts, crystals, and gemstones, and the Bug Room with live insects from around the world.  Thanks, but no thanks.  As it is, I’m probably going to have nightmares about those tropical cockroaches I got a glimpse of accidentally.

One exhibit hall is reserved for traveling “feature” exhibits.  The current feature exhibit is creatures of the abyss.  We skipped that, as well.

Nowhere in any of our guidebooks or internet research was there any mention of this being a “children’s” museum.  Many of the exhibits and displays had interactive parts which was very nice for children.  And children definitely use the museum--there must have been 200 of them there today.  Thankfully, their favorite place seemed to be the Bug Room and I didn’t want to go in there.

Edmonton Skyline

Today, we didn’t want to miss out on any of the museum features just because we didn’t walk around outside.  After touring inside we strolled around the grounds.  Directly across the driveway from the museum entrance is the Government House.  This “house” was the residence of the Territorial Governor back in the days before Alberta became a province.  Today, it is used for meetings and special events.  It’s open for tours on Sundays.   Alberta has a sister city in Korea and there is a beautiful Korean Pavilion in one corner of the lawn.  Also at the edge of the lawn is a nice viewpoint of the downtown skyline.

Government House

The admission to the Royal Alberta Museum was $11 each; not so bad for a nice museum.  We felt it was worth the price and are glad we went.

Tomorrow, we have a service appointment for the motor home.  I don’t remember if I mentioned a problem with our air conditioner or not.  Anyway, way back last winter when we were still in Florida, we discovered a problem with the control panel for the air conditioner and furnace.  The furnace worked fine and the air conditioner worked also, but just not on auto setting.  Since we didn’t feel like we’d need the AC this summer and, if we did, we could always turn it on and off manually, we didn’t take the time to have is repaired then.

Korean Pavilion

Well, a couple weeks ago, the furnace fan decided it wasn’t going to come on.  It is operated by the same control panel.  So, tomorrow, hopefully, they’ll be able to figure out what the problem is and, hopefully, it won’t take too much time or too much money to get if fixed.

That’s it for today.  Thanks for tagging along.

Legislative Building of Alberta

This morning we were anxious to move from the Walmart parking lot to our campsite at Glowing Embers RV Park.  Check in is at noon, but we were able to get to our site when we came in about 11 AM.

Glowing Embers is a large RV park with nearly 300 sites.  The interior roads are gravel and the sites are gravel with large grassy areas between each site.  We have a full hook-up site with 30 amp electricity and free WiFi for $38/night less the Good Sam discount.  I’ve already been to the laundry and it is adequate for the number of sites.  There are 15 washers and 15 dryers and the price is very reasonable at $3/load ($2 for wash and $1 for dry).

We got ourselves settled in and had a quick lunch.  We took turns babysitting the laundry and taking showers.  With ourselves all clean and our clothes all clean we were ready to head downtown to the “capitol” of Alberta.

We got there in time for the 3 PM guided tour.  I’m not sure they have self-guided tours.  We didn’t see anyone roaming around on their own.  Our guide was very knowledgeable and, since there were several in the group from the US, took the time to explain some of the differences in the elected officials and terms of office between Canada and the US.  The tour was free and lasted about 45 minutes.  Very worthwhile.

Alberta Coat of Arms

We spent a few minutes touring the grounds before we left.  The day was overcast and cool with threatening dark clouds.  We didn’t spend too much time outside.  In fact, when we got home we realized the public entrance may have been the back door and we never even walked around the building to see the other side.  We’re pathetic!

King George V and Queen Mary

We’re planning to be here 4 nights.  Tomorrow is the day to visit the Royal Alberta Museum.  Tuesday morning we have an appointment to have some RV work done and while our rig is in the shop, we’ll be shopping at the West Edmonton Mall.  We don’t have a plan for Wednesday yet.  Thursday we’ll probably move to the East side of town to visit Elk Island National Park.  That will be more convenient if we want to spend a couple days there.  There is also the Ukrainian Cultural Heritage Village on the East side which sounds interesting.  Lots to do.  Gonna be a busy week.

Legislative Chamber

That’s it for today.  Thanks for tagging along.

Fort Nelson to Edmonton

Four travel days in a row and I’m really ready for a break.  Today wasn’t so bad--just 8.5 miles from Walmart to Glowing Embers RV Park, but it was big city driving.  A little goes a long, long way.

The drive from Fort Nelson to Fort St John was over some very rough road.  We passed through several construction zones.  To make the day just a little mores stressful, the traffic was very heavy.

The second day from Fort St John to Grande Prairie was another stressful day.  The road conditions improved, but we had other issues to deal with.  We had parked for the night at a rest area just before entering Fort St John.  It turned out to be a popular overnight spot for truckers.  When we got up Friday morning, we were blocked in.  We weren’t too concerned about that because we felt like the truckers would want to get back on the road quickly, but just for safety reasons we were uncomfortable being unable to get back on the road ourselves.  As soon as the truck in front of us moved out we pulled up into that front spot.

2nd longest railroad trestle in the world

By the time we were ready to leave, almost all the truckers were gone.  We pulled out on the road and got settled in for the short drive into Fort St John where we were going to get gasoline.  In our minds we were reviewing our checklists and Gene couldn’t remember if he had released the parking break on the car.  We pulled over at the first opportunity, but the breaks were already smoking.

We had rain for the last half of our drive on Friday.  We pulled into the Walmart in Grande Prairie just to get off the road for a few minutes.  While we were trying to relax a little bit, the skies opened up and it absolutely poured rain.

Since Grande Prairie is almost 300 miles from Edmonton, we wanted to get in a few more miles on Friday.  After the rain slacked off, we got underway once again.  We were feeling pretty good about the next 25 miles or so.  We’d had a good break and we were now on 4-lane divided highway.  Smooth sailing--not.  We had only driven about 3 miles when we got to road construction on Highway 43.  It was rush hour and apparently everybody in Grande Prairie uses this road to get home.  We crept along at about 5 mph for almost 30 minutes.  Right at the end we realized it wasn’t just the construction that was holding everybody up, but also a 4-car pile up.  The accident was on the other side of the road, but everyone in our lane had to slow down to get a good look.

We were very happy to get to the rest area Gene had selected for our overnight stay.  We took extra precautions and moved ourselves up close to the exit before settling in for the night.

Saturday’s drive was a delight.  The rain had passed, we had 4-lane divided highway all the way, and traffic was light.  We were cruising through the gently rolling hills and farmland of Alberta.  Quite different from the mountains of British Columbia, but beautiful nonetheless.

We stayed at a Walmart in Spruce Grove Saturday night.  It’s a small store with a small parking lot, but we found a spot.  After the store closed and the parking lot cleared out, it was very quiet.  Well, quiet except for the train that sounded like it was coming inside our rig.

GAS REPORT:  The farther east we’ve come, the less we’ve paid for gas.  In Fort Nelson we paid $5.54, in Fort St John it was $4.95, and in Valleyview, Alberta it was only $4.45.  The price for diesel is the same as regular gasoline except in Fort St. John where it was cheaper at $4.87.

CRITTER COUNT:  The wildlife has all but vanished.  Over these three long travel days, we only saw one moose and it was dead--been hit by a pickup truck and from the looks of things, the pickup was also dead.  Moose can do serious damage to a vehicle.  There was a deer grazing at the rest area on Friday night and a coyote grazing on a deer along the highway Saturday.  That’s it for wildlife.  Probably won’t see anything else until we get well past Edmonton.

We have a reservation at Glowing Embers RV Park for the next four nights.  I’m ready to do some sightseeing for a few days rather than travel.  The first thing on our agenda is the legislative building this afternoon.

That’s it for now.  Thanks for tagging along.