July 20- Welcome to Shoal Lake, Manitoba!

We had a great breakfast at the Howard Johnson in Yorkton, SK. Once we filled up the kids, we set off to fill the van and hit the highway. Yes, we do look for adventure and whatever comes our way!

Along the highway we saw a grain elevator that said "MacDonald's Farm" and it was in Saltcoats, Sk. I wondered if they were related to the Pepperjackets. We also went past a place called Skinto- that one made Paul chuckle.

We saw a van with a sticker that said they don't go more than 100 for safety reason... They zoomed past us going about 125! 

Once in Manitoba, there was a nice sign that stated all highways in Manitoba have a max speed limit of 90. And right after this sign, the sign stating the posted speed limit was 100! That was not confusing at all.

We arrived in Shoal Lake at lunchtime, so we got mom and dad checked into the Shoal Lake Motor Inn and grabbed a bit to eat. We didn't want to turn up at day's friends, right at lunch time. Paul, Kerri, Cassel and Hannah stayed with Jim and Eugene Kennedy. Jim and dad went to school together. 

The rest of the afternoon we spent up at Shoal Lake Cemetery finding the graves of Kerri's great grandparents, great uncles and aunts and even a great great grandmother! 

Jim gave us a tour of the new fire hall. It was a beautiful building with everything the fire department needs to service the area. They had white fire trucks- more like emergency vehicles- and I had never seen them in white before. 

Jim and Eugene created a great feast of a BBQ for our dinner. Cassel and Hannah enjoyed tormenting their cat Cuddles and their dog Walter with lots of attention and petting. 

Jim invited another of day's friends from school, Jim Menzies and his wife Sharon over after dinner. The night was filled with lots of laughter as the 3 of them caught up on their mischief making days.

We stayed in Jim and Eugene's duck house.

July 19- Hoodoos and onto Yorkton

It has been a crazy few days with no Internet or cell service, so we are a bit behind. 

We met up with My sister Kristine and family and my parents in the hotel breakfast area and enjoyed a crazy breakfast with about 20 others. You gotta love the free breakfasts at the hotels... But the trick is to get there before everyone else...

The drive to the Hoodoos from Drumheller took about 10 minutes. The kids enjoyed hiking up the strangely shaped rock formations. There are some nice paths you can follow so you don't damage the area. 

After about an hour, we said goodbye to my Kristine, Ron, Maya, Kyla, Jaxon and Ashlyn and went back into Drumheller to meet up with my parents at the Largest Dinosaur so we could head out East together. 

First stop was in the town of Hanna. We had lunch and got Hannah's picture with the town sign. It was fun walking to the sign just off the highway as the grasshoppers we jumping right out of our way! Did you know that the band Nickleback started off in Hanna, AB? The sign says so, so it must be true! We ate at a lovely place called Nick's cafe. Mom and Kerri went to the video slots with $5 each. After about 10 minutes, they came back to the table. Kerri had $16.10 and mom had $30! Dad was impressed! Lunch was great!

The drive through Saskatchewan was pretty steady. I have to be corny and say this, it was pretty flat! The fields of canola were beautiful and we all loved seeing the old homesteads as we drove to Yorkton. 

A couple of funny signs we saw near the construction, Zipper Merge and Squeeze Right. Never seen those before and it made me chuckle wondering what drivers have to squeeze on their right and is a zipper merge better than a snap merge? 

We drove through Saskatoon, and the construction on the roads and the lack of good signage made us drive right thought and not try to check out anything. It was frustrating. 

We stopped for gas in a place called Clavet and decided to stop for supper. Dinner was great and the Clavet Cafe was a nice place to stop. For 6 of us to eat, it was just under $60! And we had a lot to eat!

We went through the small community of Leslie, SK to see where Kerri's grandpa Snyder was born. There were no more than 10 buildings, and that is counting sheds! 

We pulled into Yorkton at 9pm. We hadn't booked a hotel so took a chance that we would get a room. The first hotel we went to was booked up, but the next hotel had room. It was the Howard Johnson and the cost? $104! And that included 2 free breakfasts!

Family vacation day in Drumheller

We packed up a suitcase as we are now starting our journey East. Our journey starts in Drumheller where we met up with my Kerri's parents, Kay and Bob and her sister Kristine and family Ron, Maya, Kyla, Jaxon and Ashlyn. 

We left Crossfield and Paul's parents just after 10am and started the drive to Drumheller. The drive is only an hour, so it didn't take long and we arrived by a bit after 11am. Our first stop was at Gus' Corner Restaurant for a bit of fuel for the body. We all had a great meal.

Next stop, was at Reptile World. The kids enjoyed seeing all the snakes and reptiles. They were excited to hold Brittany the Boa Constrictor. Kerri attempted to hold her, but just before she took her she chickened out. She didn't chicken out really, she argued, she's as brave as Indiana Jones!

Kerri holding the snake she felt ok with.....

Once Kristine and family and Kay and Bob arrived, we met up at the Royal Tyrell Musuem. It was fun going through the museum again. The little kids all really enjoyed seeing the dinosaurs. The big kids did as well (and that includes the adults!)

After a nice dinner at DQ, we headed to the Homestead Museum. What a deal that is! $3 a head and there was so much to see! Everyone enjoyed seeing the neat antiques from kitchen gadgets, furniture, automobiles, farm equipment to even an Eaton's Catalogue House! 

Once we'd finished there, we drove 10 minutes to the west to see Horse Thief Canyon. It was beautiful and everyone enjoyed seeing the beautiful canyon and trying to catch the gophers (prairie dogs, ground hogs, whatever you call them). 

On the drive back we stopped at the Little Church. It is a small church that fits 6 people in the pews. It has provided services for thousands, 6 at a time over its lifetime.

Back at the hotel, we let the kids all swim for an hour and a half to tucker them out. We wanted to make sure they all had no problem sleeping. 

July 17- A day in Red Deer

We left Crossfield at 10am to start the drive into Red Deer where we were meeting up with many members of the Petch family. Kerri's parents and sister were in Red Deer too and met up with us. 

The first stop was at Bower Mall where we had fun going through the Toys R Us finding a few items for the kids and for our grandson, Jayden for his upcoming birthday. My parents met up with us there and we had fun looking at all the toys. Hannah found a pirate ship bed and excitedly told Paul that he should get that. And then he cold read his comics while laying on his pirate bed while wearing Star War pajamas. That girl is way to funny!

We left Bower Mall ad headed to Kerri's cousin Lorrie's house. Once there, we were able to visit with Lorrie and her 2 children, my Aunt Gwen and Uncle Tom, my Aunt Barb and my cousins, her children,  Crystal, Christopher and Conner, my cousin Darlla and her 4 children, Darlla's husband's parents, Eileen and Roy (more family), my sister and her family and my parents. It was a lovely visit with all. It was a loud and busy visit that was most enjoyable. It sure makes me wish I lived closer and could visit more often. I was really happy that my cousin Amy was able to come at the very end for a quick hello. Her daughter was with my aunt Gwen and was there for the visit, but she and her son were home as they weren't well. 

We got back to Crossfield by 430 and shortly after this, we had a great dinner with Paul's parents. After dinner we had a very competitive game of Dominos and another game of Telestrations. Telestrations was quite a funny game and we had many hardy laughing fits while playing it. This game is worth picking up, if you see it.

This was porcupine... But the original word was Armadillo

Fallen Timbers Meadery and Calgary

Today was a lovely lazy morning. We just spent the morning relaxing and then we left at noon to make our way to Fallen Timbers Meadery which is to the northwest of Crossfield. The kids went with Paul's parents in their car and Paul and I followed in the van. We would have travelled together but Paul, the kids and myself were heading into Calgary afterwards to have dinner with Paul's sister Nancy, her partner Jo and our niece Kira. Kira is over visiting from Germany for a year. 

After a minor issue where the road we were to take was closed and we had to find a new road to take, we made it to the Meadery. The Meadery makes mead from honey and makes it into wine. We were meeting up with part of Mary and Gerd's RV club; 10 very nice people who were really excited to meet us. 

We had a lovely tour with Nathan Ryan, one of the Ryan family who owns the Meadery. Some interesting things we found out- many beekeeper's children are allergic to bees (Nathan was one of them); honey never goes bad; queen bees live for 4 years and drone bees live for 3-4 months.

We got to taste the wines available and 2 that were just created and not even for sale yet. They all had a slight taste of honey, with other flavours like cinnamon, oak, traditional, etc. We left with some honey and 2 bottles of wine. Here is their website: http://www.fallentimbermeadery.ca/

At about 230 we left and headed into Calgary. It was a gorgeous drive with a beautiful blue sky and lots of sun. We arrived at Nancy and Jo's about 4ish. We ordered some pizza and with perfect timing, Jo arrived home from work just as the pizza arrived. 

After dinner we walked over to a frozen yogurt place. It was delightful! You can fill your cup or cone with any of the 12 flavours of yogurt (like vanilla, chocolate, smurfberry, piña colada) and add toppings of your choice ( from about 30 that included, glossette raisins, macaroons, brownie, cheesecake, etc)

You pay by weight, not by size. It was lovely walk and we enjoyed sitting in the sun and eating our frozen treats. 

Once back at the house, we played a game called Cards Against Humanity. It was quite funny and if you get offended, don't play it. It is just for fun and should not be taken seriously. It was a game full of laughs as we played many hands. We headed back to Crossfield about 1030. The sky was a light with a gorgeous red and orange streak.

Crossfield and beyond!

After a lovely sleep and a delicious breakfast of homemade bread toasted with homemade jam, we headed into Airdrie to hit a few thrift, collectible and antique stores. 

Our first stop was at the Store Upstairs. The kids have always enjoyed going into this store that has a lot of neat items and toys. They have many different games you can't find anywhere - like Star Trek Scrabble- and other specialty toys. From there we walked to Brian's Card Shop, then to Drizzles candy store, the Salvation Army Thrift Shop and the Community Thrift shop. We found a few "treasures" and then headed to an Antique Mall called "Where did you find this?" It was here we bumped into Paul's parents as we wandered in. This antique shop is huge! It had so much that we never got a chance to look at it all. Cassel found a sword he bought. Hannah found an entire area of cowboy "stuff" that she wished we could take home.  Lastly we went to the Treasure Cove before we headed back for tea.

On our drive back, we were worried that the big trucks that were transporting these huge tanks would still be on the road. Normally, it doesn't matter about what is on the road, but these trucks were holding up traffic. These trucks were so large, that the power lines were needing to be removed to get past. This slowed traffic down. We were happy to see they had finished and were no longer on the road to Crossfield. 

Paul was really excited that we were able to find the giant robot tonight and we were able to take a picture. 

Tonight ended with a delightful dinner of lasagna and Paul taking the kids to Airdrie to swim and me relaxing with Mary and Gerd. 

Day two of driving and the arrival at our destination!

The day started with a belly full of waffles and bacon from the free breakfast at the Super 8 Hotel and sunshine as we left town. We grabbed our Timmies and were on the road by 7am. 

The drive was really good, with only a few bits do construction. One of the bits of construction really slowed us down. We could only travel 50kms through it and I am sure that added at least an hour to our journey. It did rain a bit along our drive, but not too much.

We did find the that there were some issues with the highways once we hit Alberta. The road was really bumpy, similar to what happens with frost heaves under the roads at home. The other issue was the really tiny signs that let you know which highway is in which direction. We missed the little sign for highway 22 and had to turn around and go back. This was a frustration all down the highway as we attempted to follow highway 22 to Crossfield. Paul calls the signs the whisper direction signs- and that Alberta doesn't really want you to find where you are going so it whispers you directions...ha!

We stopped in Drayton Valley at the Dairy Queen. We really went in just to use the toilets, but we were "forced" to get blizzards.

I like to make up words sometimes, and on this trip I made up a shortened form for kilometres- kahloms  - pronounced Kah loms. Same as spelt. Paul and the kids teased me about no one would understand it....but now that I have shared it with you all, it will be in popular and used all over by the time we are back in Whitehorse. 

We let Cassel drive from Sundrie to Crossfield. It was an interesting drive and we saw a truck towing a robot! Paul was so excited he just happen to have his camera out....too bad his thumb was in the way in the pictures.

We arrived about 7pm and after many hugs and greeting, we unloaded the van and enjoyed a grand meal. It was so nice to see Mary and Chico and we were up until midnight visiting and playing games.