Winnipeg, Manitoba

After a couple days of not riding in a moving vehicle, we were ready to get out and about today.  Winnipeg has several attractions to offer the tourists.  Perhaps the most popular tourist attraction is the area downtown at the confluence of the Assiniboine and Red Rivers which is simply called “The Forks”.  Since the city probably got its start there, we might as well begin our tour there.

Winnipeg is the provincial capital of Manitoba as well as its largest city with a population of about 650,000.  This is another big city with big city traffic.  Because these two rivers are running through downtown, a true grid arrangement of streets and avenues which we found helpful in Edmonton, does not exist here.  Somehow we found our way to the Forks and I think we parked in the first parking spot we saw just to get out of the traffic.

The confluence of the Assiniboine and Red Rivers, The Forks, has been a transportation and commercial center for centuries.  The First Nations peoples used the rivers as canoe routes long before the European fur traders arrived.  More recently, the railroads occupied this area along the river banks.  In the 1980s Winnipeg, along with the help of provincial and federal governments, began to redevelop this area.  Today, The Forks is a thriving tourist destination and gathering place for locals with shops, eateries, a venue for live entertainment, and a large green space in an urban setting.

From The Forks we walked across the Red River on the Esplanade Riel Pedestrian Bridge to St. Boniface--Winnipeg’s French Quarter.  It seemed like a likely place to find a French bakery for a midmorning treat.  We wanted something authentic and a place the locals would visit. The lady at the Information Kiosk sent us several blocks down Taché Ave to Le Croissant.  What a fantastic place.  We were hoping for a place to sit down with a pastry and cup of coffee, but they didn’t have tables.  So instead, we got a variety of treats to go and found a park bench to enjoy the flakey goodness that can only be found in a French bakery.

On our way back to the bridge from the bakery we stopped at Saint Boniface Cathedral.   The present cathedral is actually the sixth building built on the site.  The previous buildings were torn down for larger structures to be built or were destroyed by fire.  What we really wanted to see was the fifth church building constructed in 1905.  It was destroyed by fire in 1968, but the outside walls withstood the flames.  It’s undergoing a little restoration right now, but we were able to see most of the old walls.

Out in the front yard of the Cathedral is the St. Boniface Cemetery.  The “father of Manitoba” and former provincial president, Louis Riel, is buried here.

From the Riel Pedestrian Bridge we could see construction underway of the Canadian Museum of Human Rights scheduled to open next year.  That might be something to come back to visit.  Along the path in front of the museum is a life size bronze sculpture of Gandhi, a gift to the Friends of the Museum from the government of India.  What an honor and how appropriate.

We enjoyed our tour of The Forks and the French Quarter.  Tomorrow we’ll try something else in downtown Winnipeg.

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

A Few More Thoughts on Alaska

We’re still hanging out around the motor home.  It’s a sure sign we’re ready to get out and about again when we drag out the maps and tour guides.  Over breakfast we discussed all the things we want to do while in Winnipeg.  We’ll get started on that Friday. In the meantime here are a few more of our thoughts concerning the trip to Alaska.

When planning for the 2004 trip as well as this one, we noticed that most people included one or more what we call megabuck trips either on small planes or boats.  Often these excursions are remembered as the highlights of the Alaska trip. In 2004 we did a few of these trips and even though I might not say they were all the highlights of our trip they were all very good and we definitely recommend them.  Although this might not be considered a “megabuck” trip, we really liked the Riverboat Discovery cruise in Fairbanks.  In Seward we did a dinner cruise around Kenai Fjords which was excellent.  For the marine wildlife, I’d say this was the highlight of the 2004 trip.  This year we did the glacier dinner cruise out of Whitier.  The glacier was much more impressive, but it was lean on wildlife.  We were very lucky to have seen the humpback whale.

In 2004, we took the Alaska Marine Highway ferry from Haines to Skagway.  Not only did that save us many miles of driving around, but it also offered us the different perspective by being on the water.  We had looked forward to that, but as it turned out the ferry was many hours late and it was dark at the time of our crossing and we saw nothing at all.

We also took a cruise from Skagway to Juneau along with a bus tour of Juneau.  That was also a worthwhile trip.

While we’re discussing the coastal towns, I might as well throw in a few tidbits about the inside passage.  This is something we have not done and it remains on our list of things to do.  We know many people who have done the big cruise ship thing and they all, without exception, rave about the scenery along the inside passage.  A cheaper alternative to the cruise is to take the Alaska ferry system.  Many RVers do this either coming or going and drive the other way.  The ferry charges by the foot, so size does matter, after all.  Travelers are not allowed to stay in their RVs onboard ship, but pets can.  There are scheduled times when owners may go down and tend to pets.  You may stop for as long as you want at any port city and continue your journey when ready.  We probably will do this someday.  Since we’ve already been to Haines, Skagway, and Juneau, we would just visit the southern ports.

Our friends, Tony and Diana, came to mainland Alaska by way of the inside passage on the Ferry.  They were planning to drive home via the Cassiar Highway, but loved the voyage so much they are returning home by ferry.  I’m anxious for them to get back to Washington so I can find out if they preferred the scenery of early June or late August.  I’ll pass that information along.

When mentioning a trip to Alaska to those who’ve never been, almost without fail something is said about road conditions, flat tires, or the inability to find fuel.  This fear and trembling is unnecessary.  What used to be an issue is just no longer a problem. For the most part, the Alaska Highway is in good condition.  It’s a paved road like any in the lower 48.  I-40 through Oklahoma was worse.

On this trip we noticed a lot of the wayside businesses (those with campgrounds, rooms for rent, restaurants, and fuel) along the Alaska Highway were closed.  Still, we didn’t have any trouble finding fuel or campgrounds along the way.

The road has some rough spots; there’s no question about that.  The secret is to pay close attention for frost heaves and drive slowly.  Many times, a rough area is marked with a red or orange flag.  We did not encounter as many areas of construction as we did in 2004.  In construction zones, you may have to wait for the pilot car and your rig is probably gonna get dirty, but they usually don’t last for very many miles.  We have heard of a flat tire in a construction zone. Cool Judy and Luke had a flat on their toad as they were driving through the construction on Tok cut-off.

The dirt highways are a whole different matter, of course.  There are several around, but our experience is with the Dempster and Top of the World.  The Dempster Highway is the road that runs between Dawson City, Yukon and Inuvik, NWT.  It’s 400 miles of dirt and gravel.  Flat tires here are common and we had one.  They put stuff down to cut down on the dust.  That stuff makes your car filthy and it’s not good for the paint.  It is what it is and if you want to go down that road, that’s what you get.

Our opinion is this--The Dempster is not worth the difficulty and risks of the road unless you have a great desire to go to the Arctic Circle.  The first hundred miles are the most scenic.  If you go to Dawson City anyway, I would recommend driving the Dempster to Tombstone Territorial Park Interpretative Center.  The Center is nice, but the scenery is also beautiful around there.  If you have your heart set on going to the Arctic Circle, but don’t want to drive, there are bus tours from Fairbanks which go up the Dalton Highway.

The other dirt road, Top of the World Highway, from Dawson City to Chicken, Alaska then to reconnect with the Alaska Highway, is worse than the Dempster.  That statement probably needs some clarification.  Top of the World is not all dirt.  The Canadian side was once paved.  The pavement is now past its prime and literally falling apart.  Generally, there are flags to mark where pavement turns to gravel.  On the US side between the border and Chicken, the road is dirt.  We drove it in rain and it was a mess.  From Chicken to the Alaska Highway is paved, with a few rough spots, but a real sweet ride compared to the rest of the road.  A real hazard on Top of the World Highway are the shoulders.  They’re too soft to support an RV and we have heard numerous tales of drivers pulling too far onto the shoulder and toppling over.

This is how we feel now about the Top of the World Highway.  Dawson City is worth a visit.  Considering the price of fuel, the distance involved (about 300 miles from Whitehorse), and the drive over Top of the World Highway, we wouldn’t do it.  Chicken is an easy day trip from Tok.  We’d just drive up there in the car, have lunch, and drive back to our rig in Tok, all on paved road.

This would, of course, only be possible if you had a car.  Well, should you take a car or not.  We researched this some before we left although it really didn’t matter much.  We were going to be gone so long we wanted our car.  The opinions we found were split.  Those who had their cars were glad; those who didn’t were glad.  Gene found on one of the caravan websites a question and answer thread.  The caravan director made this statement--”those who take their cars are glad and those who don’t wish they had.”  Only you know what’s best for you and your style of travel.

We were very glad to have our car in places like Banff National Park, Denali National Park, Whitehorse, Dawson City, Fairbanks, Wasilla, and Homer.  Basically, that’s any place where we stayed for several days.  Of course, there were times when we didn’t unhitch the car for several days in a row.  The fact that we’ve put over 3,000 miles on the car this trip obviously says we’ve used it.

Most of the towns are small enough that walking is an easy way to get around and nearly everywhere there are bike lanes.  It would be possible to get along just fine without a car.

Phone and internet.  Isn’t it amazing how dependent we are on these things that didn’t even exist just a few years ago.  We have Verizon for both our phone and air card (MiFi).  We extended our phone coverage to include Canada, but not the air card coverage.  It seems like it was easier to find campgrounds with WiFi along the Alaska highway than it has been along Highway 16 since we left Edmonton.  Of course, anytime we boondocked in Canada we were without internet.  Our phone coverage in Canada has been great except for the Yukon.  Only in Whitehorse were we able to get phone service there.  We didn’t have complete service in Alaska, but we did more than we didn’t.  The worst place was at Denali National Park.  We had service at Riley Campground, but just barely.  We didn’t have any coverage while in the backcountry or anywhere away from the main Visitor Center.  The rest of Alaska was pretty good, especially in all the little towns.

Well, this has gone on and on again, but I think that wraps it up.  We’re continuing to keep data on campground fees, fuel prices, and milage.  When we get back to Nashville, we’ll have a final accounting on those things.  These thoughts have been primarily about Alaska.  I do have a few thoughts about Canada.  I’ll get to those in a few days.  Boy, do I have a border crossing tale to tell that I heard this morning.  Although I try to make it sound like everything has run smoothly and according to plan, it hasn’t.  I’ll get to all those things that went wrong in the next few weeks.

When I read over this summary, I feel like I’m leaving a negative impression.  I don’t mean to do that.  We had a wonderful trip and, like I have mentioned previously our primary interest, not just in Alaska, but anywhere we travel is the area’s natural beauty and wildlife.  Few places in North America are as rich in wildlife and natural beauty as Alaska.

So, there you have it for today. Thanks for tagging along.

Edmonton to Winnipeg

We are now settled in Traveler’s RV Resort in Winnipeg, Manitoba.  After four long days on the road, you can imagine how happy I was to get parked with full hook-ups.  We stayed at four Wal-Marts (Lloydminster, Saskatoon, Yorkton, and Portage la Prairie) as we made our way from Elk Island National Park near Edmonton along Highway 16, Yellowhead Highway.   We had a short day today of only 70 miles, but the other four days were at or near 200 miles each day.  Too many days and too many miles.

The largest city we passed through was Saskatoon with a population of about 200,000.  Saskatoon is the largest city in Saskatchewan, even larger than the provincial capital of Regina.  Saskatoon has some First Nations and Pioneer Heritage stuff, but we’ve had about all that for one trip we can stand.  So we pulled into the Wal-Mart for the night and went on our merry way the next morning.

We did have a short discussion about turning south in Saskatoon and going down to Regina.  It is a provincial capitol after all, but we’re about burnt out on capitol buildings for this trip too.  Can you tell we’re tired?  In the end, we decided to continue on Hwy 16 until it intersected with Trans Canada 1 at Portage La Prairie.

Speaking of the Yellowhead Highway, it started out pretty good.  We got on 16 in Edmonton where it is undergoing some construction in town.  As we got out of town and away from the construction zone, it was a very fine 4-lane, limited access, divided highway.  The farther we got from Edmonton, the worse the road got.  Past Saskatoon, it is a 2-lane road all the way to Winnipeg.  Part of the reason we talked about going to Regina was to get on Trans Canada 1, hoping it would be a better road.

For the past 1,000 miles from Grand Prairie to Winnipeg, we have been driving through Canada’s breadbasket.  I feel like I’ve made about eight trips across Kansas.  It was pretty the first 300 miles or so, but I get it now.  I have never seen so much wheat in all my life.  I really liked seeing the yellow canola and the two fields of sunflower yesterday were a real treat after all that wheat.  We even saw corn today.

What I really wanted to see was lentils.  Canada is the largest producer of lentils in the world and Saskatchewan grows about 99% of Canada’s lentils.  You would think we would have seen lentils and perhaps we did, but you can’t prove it by me.  We were parked at a Wal-Mart next to a field of what I had decided was lentils, but when I walked out into the field to investigate, I don’t think I found lentils.  The plant was covered in pods which I expected, but inside the pod was a tiny, round, black thing about the size and shape of a poppy seed.  I don’t think even the Beluga Black lentils are that small and I don’t think they’re round.  However, the plant looks like the picture I found on the internet of a lentil plant.  I am so confused.

After four nights of dry camping in Wal-Mart parking lots, we are very happy to be in a campground tonight.  We arrived about noon today and have spent the afternoon doing much needed house keeping chores with long rest periods in between.

Traveler’s RV Resort is large with over 200 sites.  We have a pull-thru site with water, electric, and sewer for a weekly rate of $26/night. There is no cable, but we get several channels over the air.  They’re all Canadian channels, though, so no NBC news.  They do not have campground-wide WiFi.  There is a hotspot at the office where they provide a table for those wanting to use the internet.  They also have a table on the porch with an electrical plug for those wanting to sit outside.  They even have a public computer in the office for travelers without computers who want to use the internet.  I give them an “A” for trying to make it as convenient as possible.

There are several things on our list to do in Winnipeg.  All I want to do now is piddle around the house.  The last thing I want is to be in a moving vehicle, so we’ll get to the sightseeing tomorrow or the next day.

GAS REPORT:  All across Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba the gas prices have been pretty consistent ranging between $4.40-4.60 per gallon.  Edmonton and Lloydminster were about twenty cents cheaper.  Diesel has been a few cents cheaper per gallon than gasoline.  We’re real happy that our gas milage has been a littler better this week, probably due to the flat terrain.  Tuesday we had a tail wind all day which pushed the mpg all the way up to 9.5.  Gene has been very happy with the Co-Op gas stations.  They’re huge with lots of room to maneuver a motor home and their prices are about the cheapest around.

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

Thoughts, Opinions, and Reflections on Alaska

We are now in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan in yet another Wal-Mart.  We got an earlier start this morning, but stopped just 2 miles into our trip at the Saskatchewan Welcome Center.  While there, we learned they had free WiFi and were able to log on from inside our rig out in the parking lot.  I took the time to post the blog, but that’s all.

Since before we arrived in Edmonton the terrain has been pretty flat and the scenery huge fields of crops--wheat or canola or whatever.  We’ve seen the farmers out cutting, raking, and baling hay.  All across Alberta and Saskatchewan we’ve seen lots of small ponds.  It’s really quite pretty.  Except for the ponds, it reminds me of driving across Kansas.  I guess Alberta and Saskatchewan are Canada’s breadbasket.

We don’t have much hope of seeing any more bear of moose, but we have been on the lookout for deer and antelope.  So far we haven’t had any luck sighting either of those critters.  Too many fences, I guess.

Today was truly a travel day and there isn’t much else to report.  This seems like as good a time as any to impart a few thoughts about our Alaska Trip.  It was our topic of discussion over many miles both yesterday and today.

Our first thought when thinking of this trip is how long it is.  Tomorrow morning we’ll be rolling over the 9,000 mile mark.  Unless you’re starting from somewhere in the Northwest, you’ve gotta be prepared for a long drive.  Perhaps it seems longer for us because we started out so early.  We left Nashville in March headed west and it seems like forever ago.

I guess there are a couple options for a trip like this.  We started early and did short mile days and a non-travel day about every third or fourth day.  Some might prefer to start later and do big mile days and travel many days in a row.  I think for us, we did what suits our travel style best.  We all get too grumpy (Peanut included) when we’ve spent too many hours of the day driving.  Nor do we like to travel too many days in a row.

We also had a very long list of things we wanted to see and do as we “passed by”.  We visited several National Parks, state capitols, and high points before we ever crossed the border into Canada.  For our return trip we wanted to take the time and opportunity to drive across Canada.  We’re glad we made those choices, but it has made the trip to Alaska much longer than necessary.

When we went to Alaska in 2004, we were in awe of the grandeur, vastness, wildness, and magnificent beauty of both Western Canada and Alaska.  It was our first time to see a grizzly bear, to see a glacier calve, to see whales, to see Mt McKinley.  We’ve dreamed of seeing all those things again and when we did they were great, but you can only have the “first time” once.  We were thrilled with seeing these things again, but they just weren’t as special as that first time.

Our favorite parts of Alaska--Denali National Park and Resurrection Bay in Seward.  We really enjoyed Homer and being parked on the Spit, but the beauty of the high mountains on Resurrection Bay and the feeling of being enveloped in this magnificent place was more pronounced in Seward.  Homer was the place for fishing, drinking beer, and browsing through the shops admiring the fine workmanship of the local artists.  The wildlife of Denali is its appeal for us.  Even though we saw bear, even grizzlies, and moose more often in other places, at Denali we felt like we were visiting their space rather than the other way around.  We are also very fond of Talkeetna.  I’m not really sure why.  Talkeetna is a stop for the tour buses and trains, but somehow, if the tourists weren’t there, this village seems to fit my vision of what Alaska is like in the off season with its dirt roads and wooden sidewalks.  I also have a vague connection to the climbing mentality.  We may have to return to these places some day.  Basically, the best of Alaska for us is its abundant wildlife and natural beauty.

Much of the interior of Alaska--Anchorage, Fairbanks, Tok--we don’t care to ever go back to.  There are some nice things to see and some fun stuff to do, but to make a trip to Alaska for these cities is not for us.  There are many cities in the lower 48 that have more appeal than these.

A trip like this has a price tag, of course.  We knew it would be expensive, especially the gasoline.  We’ve tried hard to stay within the budget and have succeeded in some areas, but not all.  We won’t have the final budget figures until the end of the month, so will wait until then to discuss specifics.  For now, I’ll just say that we found everything more expensive in British Columbia than anywhere else.  We tried to camp for free as often as possible and we’ve discovered we rather like boondocking although Wal-Mart parking lots are not my favorite places.  When planning the trip, we chose a couple “megabuck” items to include.  One was the trip to the Inuvik and the other was a trip to Katmai National Park.  As it turned out, we drove ourselves to the Arctic Circle instead of taking the tour.  It was a little more stressful, well, a whole lot more stressful, and we didn’t get all the way to Inuvik, but we saved hundreds of bucks and Peanut didn’t have to stay in a kennel.  And what an adventure it was.  We ditched the Katmai thing because it turned out to be way more expensive than we thought and picked up the glacier dinner cruise out of Whitier instead which was a wonderful experience. We chose to eat in rather than out to save a few extra dollars, but we generally do that anyway.  It was very expensive to get to Alaska, it was expensive to be there, and it is expensive to get home.  But over all, I think we both feel it was worth the cost.

Weather can make or break a trip.  Alaska has a wet climate and we had a few days of rain, but for the most part our weather was very good.  We were ten days in Denali and had rain only the last couple days.  We were about ten days on the Homer Spit and I don’t think it rained much there.  We were in Seward for several days with beautiful blue skies every day.  Sure, we had some rainy days, sometimes several days in a row, but we really can’t complain about the little rain we had in a place that is known for its wet climate.

There are many other things I want to mention--the Dempster and Top of the World highways, whether to take a car or not, what went wrong, and where to find the best views, but this has gone on long enough for now.  We’ll get to those other things in a day or two.

WED AUG 17:  Posting this blog from our campground near Winnipeg.  We’ll be here for several days so I’ll have a chance to catch up.

Thanks for tagging along.

Ukrainian Cultural Heritage Village

Well, Saturday was certainly a different travel day.  We left our campground about 9:30.  We didn’t get an early start because we wanted to stop at the Ukrainian Cultural Heritage Village which was only a few miles from our campground and it didn’t open until 10 AM.  So we sipped coffee.  Not a bad way to start the morning.

Ukrainian pioneers began arriving in Central Alberta during the late 1800s.  They came as homesteaders seeking a better life.  This area was home to the largest settlement of Ukrainian pioneers in Canada.

The Village is a living history museum depicting life in a Ukrainian community during the 1920s.  Most of the buildings have been removed from their original setting and reconstructed and restored at the village.  Costumed interpreters are in the buildings and along the streets to explain what’s what and answer questions.  As with most living history museums, it almost seemed real with vegetables growing in the gardens, cows and pigs in the barnyards, and food cooking in the ovens.

We went on a guided tour lead by a young woman who was very knowledgeable.  Being on a guided tour, we got to go into a building that wasn’t open without a guide.

The admission to the Village was $9 each, but somehow Gene got a 10% CAA discount.  We’re not even AAA members in the US.  It may have had something to do with having a Parks Canada pass although this museum is not administered by Parks Canada.  Who knows, but we’ll take 10% whenever we can get it.  The Village was definitely worth the price of admission.

We spent far more time there than we anticipated and didn’t leave until almost 3 PM.

Our next stop, keeping with the Ukrainian theme, was in the town of Vegreville--the home of the largest Easter egg in the world.  We got to Vegreville without any trouble, but we didn’t know where the egg was. Since we didn’t know where the egg was, we decided to unhitch the car at Wal-Mart so we wouldn’t have to worry about getting into a spot too tight to turn around.  We unhitched the car and were off on the Easter egg hunt.

This giant Easter egg, or Pysanka, was created for the 100th birthday of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.  The powers that be came up with the design to represent the Ukrainian heritage of the region incorporated with the geometric design to represent progressive thinking in the modern age.  The egg is made of aluminum in three basic colors.  Bronze represents mother earth and fertility, white silver for pureness, and yellow for prosperity and happiness.

We’re not afraid to stop and ask direction and what better place to stop than Dairy Queen.  After a few quick photos of the egg, we headed back to Wal-Mart to hitch up.  We were soon on our way again with our GPS set for the Wal-Mart in Lloydminister.

This was another warm day in Alberta with temperatures in the 80s.  Not really so bad, but sitting in a Wal-Mart parking lot, the motor home heats up quickly.  It worked out well  doing most of our driving today during the heat of the afternoon when we could take advantage of the AC.  This seems to be a popular Wal-Mart for travelers; there are several rigs here with us tonight.

We’ve mapped out a plan and will probably scoot right on across Saskatchewan and be in Winnipeg in three more days.  There are a few things to see in Saskatchewan, but none so appealing that we want to spend much time.  We’d rather spend our time in Winnipeg which has lots of offer the tourist.

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

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.