September 4

September 1

This morning we debated whether to go directly to Edmonton and have a few days out of the camper exploring the city, or detour via Lesser Slave Lake and get to Edmonton tomorrow. We opted to do the latter and since it was a pretty nice day, we detoured up to Lesser Slave Lake Provincial Park. Stopped for a picnic lunch in the park - sat by the lake for a little enjoying the sun, then decided to spend the night at the Martin River Campground. A beautiful spot, and not too many people there, so easily found a spot away from everyone else. Lots of bugs though, so we had to find a spot near the water where it was breezy. We'd arrived early enough to go for a long walk on the narrow sandy beach. When we got back to our site, we hauled out the lawn chairs and parked them on the beach and got a little reading in- that was a first! At dinner time we built a great fire (tons of free firewood) and bbq`d prawns and baby potatoes. Entertainment provided by a couple of squirrels chasing each other through our campsite. Obviously used to people (and being fed!). Had power, surprisingly as it was a provincial campground. All in all a good day and it was really nice to see some sun and get in a good walk.

Sept. 2
Up at a decent hour and off to Edmonton, we arrived at the Reddington's house early afternoon. After unpacking some stuff we went for a short walk as their house is right by MacKinnon Park. It`s one of many parks along the North Saskatchwan River that are all connected making it the longest urban public park area of any city in North America. The main trails are wide and paved making it great for bicycling, roller-blading or walking. We walked to the nearest grocery store, about 8 blocks away to grab some groceries & wine, and discovered that they have WiFi at the in-store coffee shop. Very clever marketing!
The next morning we drove over to Safeway& got caught up on emails. Ran a few errands (CAA for maps for Kit's trip, Future Shop to look for roadtrip tunage etc) before ending up at the West Edmonton Mall – we were in Edmonton, what were we to do………? While we explored the mall & watched the sea lions it rained ( like we haven’t seen enough of that) but started clearing late afternoon. We went back to the house, washed the RV a little and enjoyed having a little more space. Had bought a really nice steak for dinner, so got to enjoy some famous Alberta beef. Should have bought another one to take home with us.
Thursday morning brought the sun and so we walked downtown, which took us a little over an hour and explored the centre core of the city. It`s a really nice city and we could certainly see why people love it. By 3 our feet were getting tired and it was time to hike back to the house, and get things organized for leaving first thing in the morning. As fantastic as the drive was, it was really great getting a few days off from sitting in the RV. Jo is flying back to Victoria early tomorrow and has to be at the airport by 7:30 a.m. The airport is in LeDuc which is about a half hour south of the city, so off to bed as we have to be up at 6.

AUG 31

August 31
The campground at Charlie Lake was really nice, large treed lots and very quiet (since it was late and rainy when we arrived). We drove into Ft. St. John for a quick look and for some fuel. Seems the town`s one and only claim to fame is that it is the southern end of the Alaska Highway, and they milk that fully, with a Mile 0 cairn, and an Alaska Highway Hotel etc. From there we backtracked a little & we headed off in the direction of Dawson Creek, detouring on a very scenic road that took us along the Peace River and gave us amazing vistas of fields with freshly mown and baled hay and the river in the background. We passed through the tiny, pretty town of Hudson`s Hope and on to Chetwynd. Every town here has its claim to fame, and Chetwynd has chainsaw statures, scattered all over town. We camped in Dawson Creek for the night, after a brief glimpse of a moose on the roadside.

Sunday a.m. we hit the road and had a pretty uneventful drive. We’ve left the mountains and are in Alberta, on the way to Edmonton, and things have flattened out. For the most part it was sunny with lots of clouds floating about and we did have a brief shower. We did manage to find the world’s largest beaver in Beaver Lodge, Alberta. We made camp early at a nice little RV park in Valleyview.